Primecoin

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Primecoin

Primecoin logo
Central bank None, the primecoin peer-to-peer network regulates and distributes through consensus in protocol.
Date of introduction 7 July 2013
User(s) International
Inflation Limited release, production rate before this limit re-evaluated with the production of every block (at a rate of approximately 1 block per minute) based on the difficulty with which primecoins are produced.
Subunit
 0.001 mXPM (millicoin)
 0.000001 μXPM (microcoin)
 0.00000001 Smallest unit
Symbol Ψ
Nickname XPM
Plural Primecoin, primecoins

Primecoin (sign: Ψ; code: XPM) is a peer-to-peer open source cryptocurrency that implements a scientific computing proof-of-work system.[1] Primecoin's proof-of-work system searches for chains of prime numbers.[1] Primecoin was created by software developer Sunny King (who also develops the cryptocurrency Peercoin) in July 2013.[1] Primecoin was inspired by Bitcoin, and it shares much of the source code and technical implementation of Bitcoin.[2] The Primecoin source code is distributed under a conditional MIT/X11 software license.[3]

Primecoin has been described as the main cause of spot shortages of dedicated servers due to the fact that the currency cannot be mined with GPUs.[4][5] For the same reason, Primecoin has been the target of malware writers.[6][7]

Differences from Bitcoin

  • Different proof-of-work system: Bitcoin's SHA-based proof-of-work system does work of no value beyond its own economy.[8] Primecoin does not use Hashcash as its proof-of-work system.[1] Instead, Primecoin uses the finding of long Cunningham chains for proof-of-work,[1] which can lead to useful byproducts.
  • Faster block generation time: In contrast, The Primecoin protocol's target rate is 1 new block per minute.[8]
  • Faster transaction confirmations: Since Primecoin blocks are generated 10 times as fast as Bitcoin blocks on average, Primecoin transactions are confirmed approximately 10 times as fast.[8]
  • Smoother difficulty adjustment: The Bitcoin protocol adjusts its difficulty every 2016 blocks (approximately 2 weeks) to achieve its the target rate of 1 block per 10 minutes.[8] In contrast, the Primecoin protocol adjusts its difficulty slightly every block.[8]
  • Self-adjusting block reward: The Primecoin protocol takes approach different from Bitcoin: the number of primecoins released per block is not fixed but is always equal to 999 divided by the square of the difficulty.[8]

Proof-of-work system

Primecoin's proof-of-work system is designed so that the work is efficiently verifiable by all nodes on the Primecoin network.[1] To meet this requirement, the size of the prime numbers in the system cannot be too large.[1] The Primecoin proof-of-work system has the following characteristics:

  • Primecoin's work takes the form of prime number chains.[1]
  • Finding the prime number chains becomes exponentially harder as the chain length is increased.[1]
  • Verification of the reasonably sized prime number chains can be performed efficiently by all network nodes.[1]
  • Mersenne primes are precluded due to their extremely large size.[1]
  • Three types of prime number chains are accepted as proof-of-work:[1]
  1. Cunningham chain of the first kind.
  2. Cunningham chain of the second kind.
  3. Bi-twin chain.

Cryptocurrency exchanges

Primecoin can be bought and sold on several cryptocurrency exchanges for Bitcoin, and for other cryptocurrencies.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 King, Sunny (2013-07-07). "Primecoin: Cryptocurrency with Prime Number Proof-of-Work". Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  2. ↑ King, Sunny (2013). "What is Primecoin?". Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  3. ↑ King, Sunny (2013-07-29). "Primecoin 0.1.2 beta". Retrieved 2013-11-07. 
  4. ↑ "Currency Miners Cause Spot Shortages of Dedicated Servers". Data Center Knowledge. 2013-12-17. Retrieved 2013-12-18. 
  5. ↑ "Virtual currency speculators shut down cloud". The Register. 2013-07-16. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  6. ↑ "Bitcoin's so over. We're mining Primeco... Oh SNAP, my box is a ZOMBIE!". The Register. 2014-01-17. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  7. ↑ "What a successful exploit of a Linux server looks like". Ars Technica. 2013-12-17. Retrieved 2014-02-02. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Buterin, Vitalik (8 July 2013). "Primecoin: the cryptocurrency whose mining is actually useful". Bitcoin Magazine (Coin Publishing Ltd.). 

External links

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