https://tests.bitcoin.it/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Weex&feedformat=atomBitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T12:15:16ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=41851Litecoin2013-10-21T06:07:35Z<p>Weex: /* Memory bandwidth refutation */ Update attack cost</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In April 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $70 million and achieved a network strength above 12 gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of 12 terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in Bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will be working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $400 per megahashes per second and the October 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 30 gigahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $12M USD (or about 45,000 AMD HD 7950s).<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
*[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513661/bitcoin-isnt-the-only-cryptocurrency-in-town/ MIT Technology Review: Bitcoin Isn't the only Cryptocurrency in Town]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=37386Litecoin2013-04-28T19:59:59Z<p>Weex: /* External links */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In April 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $70 million and achieved a network strength above 12 gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of 12 terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will be working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
*[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513661/bitcoin-isnt-the-only-cryptocurrency-in-town/ MIT Technology Review: Bitcoin Isn't the only Cryptocurrency in Town]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=37385Litecoin2013-04-28T19:59:38Z<p>Weex: /* External links */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In April 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $70 million and achieved a network strength above 12 gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of 12 terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will be working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
*[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513661/bitcoin-isnt-the-only-cryptocurrency-in-town/ - MIT Technology Review: Bitcoin Isn't the only Cryptocurrency in Town]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=37384Litecoin2013-04-28T19:57:16Z<p>Weex: /* Faster Blocks */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In April 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $70 million and achieved a network strength above 12 gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of 12 terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will be working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=37383Litecoin2013-04-28T19:55:57Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In April 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $70 million and achieved a network strength above 12 gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of 12 terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=37382Litecoin2013-04-28T19:54:25Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. MtGox announced in April 2013 that they would add support for Litecoin trading, a plan that was delayed due to recent DDOS attacks.<br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and achieved a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
Scrypt has been less widely used and analyzed than the SHA2 hashing algorithm used in bitcoin, so there is some concern about possible weaknesses in its cryptographic scheme being discovered in the future.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
Some attempt to refute this by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
Additionally, people often complain that the Litecoin community misrepresents it in other ways, such as portraying "faster block times" as if it makes transactions faster, and scrypt as if it is resistant to ASIC or FPGA hardware, in order to pretend Litecoin has value and inflate its value.<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
*[http://www.crypto.st Crypto Street - Advanced Trading Exchange for Litecoins]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_cryptocurrencies&diff=36506Comparison of cryptocurrencies2013-03-31T06:26:34Z<p>Weex: /* Litecoin (LTC) */</p>
<hr />
<div>This article aims to list relevant cryptocurrencies, even those too minor to have their own wiki entry. See also [[:Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
<br />
It is based [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134179.0 on this thread].<br />
<br />
= Currencies =<br />
<br />
The order / grouping of these coins are still TBD.<br />
<br />
[[User:Ripper234|Ripper234]] proposes a grouping of Major, Minor and New by an arbitrary market cap limit. This can be done once the market caps of the alts are known.<br />
* Using market cap will make Tonal Bitcoin a "Major" despite de facto minor usage. Therefore, I suggest finding a different method of categorizing. --[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] ([[User talk:Luke-jr|talk]]) 05:06, 4 March 2013 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== Major ==<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin (BTC) ===<br />
* http://bitcoin.org/ <br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment* '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: $144,000,000 (Jan 5th, 2013)<br />
* Launch Date: January 3rd, 2009<br />
<br />
=== TestNet Bitcoins ===<br />
* http://bitcoin.org/ <br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment* '''2016 blocks''', or '''every 20 minutes'''[https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/686]<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: None, coins are free<br />
* Launch Date: February 2nd, 2011 (TestNet 3 genesis block)[http://blockexplorer.com/testnet/block/000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943]<br />
<br />
=== Namecoin (NMC) === <br />
* https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Namecoin<br />
* (merged mined with BTC) <br />
* https://github.com/vinced/namecoin <br />
* http://namecoin.info/<br />
* blocks every '''???'''<br />
* coin supply* '''????''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''????'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: ???? BTC<br />
* Launch Date: April 18, 2011 <br />
<br />
=== Litecoin (LTC) ===<br />
* http://litecoin.org/<br />
* blocks every '''2.5 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''84 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''scrypt '''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50''' coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: 150,000 BTC<br />
* Launch Date: October 2011<br />
<br />
== Minor ==<br />
=== Tonal Bitcoin (TBC) ===<br />
* [[Tonal Bitcoin]]<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* (blockchain shared with BTC)<br />
* (automatically converted to/from BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''7.8 tam''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d''' <br />
* Initial Reward '''1,2905.2''' coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: $144,000,000 (Jan 5th, 2013)<br />
* Launch Date: January 2rd, 2011<br />
<br />
=== IxCoin (IXC) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36701.0<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA1''' <br />
* Reward '''96 '''coins per block<br />
<br />
=== Devcoin (DEV) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.0<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''constant generation''' coins will be available (???)<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Reward '''50,000''' coins per block<br />
* '''EXTRA 90% block subsidy goes to foundation'''<br />
<br />
=== PPCoin (PPC) ===<br />
* http://ppcoin.org/<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=101820.0<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''non-deterministic ''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''each block'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* Reward '''varies on difficulty''' coins per block<br />
* EXTRA: Incorporates [[Proof Of Stake]] coin Generation, contains central checksums to kickstart the protocol<br />
* Market Cap: ???? BTC<br />
* Launch Date: approx August 19th, 2012 (date of its [http://ppcoin.org/static/ppcoin-paper.pdf whitepaper])<br />
** The public design phase of this coin was very brief.<br />
<br />
=== Freicoin (FRC) ===<br />
* http://freico.in/<br />
* http://www.freicoin.org/<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89843.0<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3816.0<br />
* blocks every '''10 minutes'''<br />
* coin supply* '''100 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* [http://www.freicoin.org/freicoin-generation-graph-t41-20.html#p532 Arithmetically decreasing] reward<br />
* EXTRA: <br />
-- 4.89% annual [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demurrage_currency demurrage]<br />
-- 80% block subsidy [http://www.freicoin.org/application-developer-best-practices-t87.html#p919 goes to foundation for the first 3 years] (about 500 coins for each of first 161280 blocks, total 80m)<br />
-- [u]In need of Dev work on daemon, client etc but network still running[/u]<br />
<br />
=== I0coin (I0C) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36425.0 ; https://github.com/kr105rlz/i0coin<br />
* Perhaps should be moved to Dead section?<br />
<br />
=== Terracoin (TRC) ===<br />
* http://terracoin.org/<br />
* blocks every '''2 minutes'''<br />
* coin supply* '''42 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''30 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* Reward '''20''' coins per block <br />
<br />
=== Liquidcoin (LQC) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60026.0 <br />
* blocks every '''10 minutes'''<br />
* '''no cap''' as block subsidy has a minimum of 1 coin<br />
* Constant difficulty of '''0.5'''<br />
* Coin reward drops over time<br />
<br />
== New ==<br />
New in on the scene.<br />
Please put here any coins whose concept are new. If a coin is discussed for 6 months and launched yesterday, it is not new.<br />
<br />
== dead / dying ==<br />
===Qubic===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=112676.0<br />
Qubic Forum: http://qubic.boards.net<br />
===TimeKoin===<br />
Still alive* http://timekoin.org/* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php topic=88467.0<br />
===BBQ BBQCoin===<br />
killed in a 51% attack https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93437.0<br />
===SC Solidcoin===<br />
scam?* https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/SolidCoin ; http://solidcoin.info/<br />
===GG Geist Geld===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=42417.0 ; https://github.com/Lolcust/GeistGeld<br />
===TBX Tenebrix===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45667.0 ; https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix<br />
===FBX Fairbrix===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46528.0 ; https://github.com/coblee/Fairbrix<br />
===CLC Coiledcoin===<br />
killed in 51% attack ; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56675.0<br />
===RUC Rucoin===<br />
https://www.rucoin.org/ ; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48582.0<br />
===MMM MMMcoin===<br />
dead<br />
===Weeds===<br />
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9493.0]<br />
===Beertoken===<br />
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9493.0]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_cryptocurrencies&diff=36505Comparison of cryptocurrencies2013-03-31T06:23:47Z<p>Weex: /* Litecoin (LTC) */</p>
<hr />
<div>This article aims to list relevant cryptocurrencies, even those too minor to have their own wiki entry. See also [[:Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
<br />
It is based [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=134179.0 on this thread].<br />
<br />
= Currencies =<br />
<br />
The order / grouping of these coins are still TBD.<br />
<br />
[[User:Ripper234|Ripper234]] proposes a grouping of Major, Minor and New by an arbitrary market cap limit. This can be done once the market caps of the alts are known.<br />
* Using market cap will make Tonal Bitcoin a "Major" despite de facto minor usage. Therefore, I suggest finding a different method of categorizing. --[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] ([[User talk:Luke-jr|talk]]) 05:06, 4 March 2013 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== Major ==<br />
<br />
=== Bitcoin (BTC) ===<br />
* http://bitcoin.org/ <br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment* '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: $144,000,000 (Jan 5th, 2013)<br />
* Launch Date: January 3rd, 2009<br />
<br />
=== TestNet Bitcoins ===<br />
* http://bitcoin.org/ <br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment* '''2016 blocks''', or '''every 20 minutes'''[https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/686]<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: None, coins are free<br />
* Launch Date: February 2nd, 2011 (TestNet 3 genesis block)[http://blockexplorer.com/testnet/block/000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943]<br />
<br />
=== Namecoin (NMC) === <br />
* https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Namecoin<br />
* (merged mined with BTC) <br />
* https://github.com/vinced/namecoin <br />
* http://namecoin.info/<br />
* blocks every '''???'''<br />
* coin supply* '''????''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''????'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50 '''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: ???? BTC<br />
* Launch Date: April 18, 2011 <br />
<br />
=== Litecoin (LTC) ===<br />
* http://litecoin.org/<br />
* blocks every '''2.5 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''84 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''scrypt '''<br />
* Initial Reward '''50'''coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: 150,000 BTC<br />
* Launch Date: October 2011<br />
<br />
== Minor ==<br />
=== Tonal Bitcoin (TBC) ===<br />
* [[Tonal Bitcoin]]<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* (blockchain shared with BTC)<br />
* (automatically converted to/from BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''7.8 tam''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d''' <br />
* Initial Reward '''1,2905.2''' coins per block<br />
* Market Cap: $144,000,000 (Jan 5th, 2013)<br />
* Launch Date: January 2rd, 2011<br />
<br />
=== IxCoin (IXC) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36701.0<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''21 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA1''' <br />
* Reward '''96 '''coins per block<br />
<br />
=== Devcoin (DEV) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.0<br />
* (merged mined with BTC)<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* coin supply* '''constant generation''' coins will be available (???)<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA256d'''<br />
* Reward '''50,000''' coins per block<br />
* '''EXTRA 90% block subsidy goes to foundation'''<br />
<br />
=== PPCoin (PPC) ===<br />
* http://ppcoin.org/<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=101820.0<br />
* blocks every '''10 min'''<br />
* Coin supply* '''non-deterministic ''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''each block'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* Reward '''varies on difficulty''' coins per block<br />
* EXTRA: Incorporates [[Proof Of Stake]] coin Generation, contains central checksums to kickstart the protocol<br />
* Market Cap: ???? BTC<br />
* Launch Date: approx August 19th, 2012 (date of its [http://ppcoin.org/static/ppcoin-paper.pdf whitepaper])<br />
** The public design phase of this coin was very brief.<br />
<br />
=== Freicoin (FRC) ===<br />
* http://freico.in/<br />
* http://www.freicoin.org/<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=89843.0<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3816.0<br />
* blocks every '''10 minutes'''<br />
* coin supply* '''100 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''2016 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* [http://www.freicoin.org/freicoin-generation-graph-t41-20.html#p532 Arithmetically decreasing] reward<br />
* EXTRA: <br />
-- 4.89% annual [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demurrage_currency demurrage]<br />
-- 80% block subsidy [http://www.freicoin.org/application-developer-best-practices-t87.html#p919 goes to foundation for the first 3 years] (about 500 coins for each of first 161280 blocks, total 80m)<br />
-- [u]In need of Dev work on daemon, client etc but network still running[/u]<br />
<br />
=== I0coin (I0C) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36425.0 ; https://github.com/kr105rlz/i0coin<br />
* Perhaps should be moved to Dead section?<br />
<br />
=== Terracoin (TRC) ===<br />
* http://terracoin.org/<br />
* blocks every '''2 minutes'''<br />
* coin supply* '''42 million''' coins will be available<br />
* difficulty adjustment '''30 blocks'''<br />
* hashing algorithm '''SHA-256'''<br />
* Reward '''20''' coins per block <br />
<br />
=== Liquidcoin (LQC) ===<br />
* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60026.0 <br />
* blocks every '''10 minutes'''<br />
* '''no cap''' as block subsidy has a minimum of 1 coin<br />
* Constant difficulty of '''0.5'''<br />
* Coin reward drops over time<br />
<br />
== New ==<br />
New in on the scene.<br />
Please put here any coins whose concept are new. If a coin is discussed for 6 months and launched yesterday, it is not new.<br />
<br />
== dead / dying ==<br />
===Qubic===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=112676.0<br />
Qubic Forum: http://qubic.boards.net<br />
===TimeKoin===<br />
Still alive* http://timekoin.org/* https://bitcointalk.org/index.php topic=88467.0<br />
===BBQ BBQCoin===<br />
killed in a 51% attack https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93437.0<br />
===SC Solidcoin===<br />
scam?* https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/SolidCoin ; http://solidcoin.info/<br />
===GG Geist Geld===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=42417.0 ; https://github.com/Lolcust/GeistGeld<br />
===TBX Tenebrix===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45667.0 ; https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix<br />
===FBX Fairbrix===<br />
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46528.0 ; https://github.com/coblee/Fairbrix<br />
===CLC Coiledcoin===<br />
killed in 51% attack ; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56675.0<br />
===RUC Rucoin===<br />
https://www.rucoin.org/ ; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48582.0<br />
===MMM MMMcoin===<br />
dead<br />
===Weeds===<br />
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9493.0]<br />
===Beertoken===<br />
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=9493.0]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36504Litecoin2013-03-31T06:05:40Z<p>Weex: /* Scrypt Proof of Work */ note hashrate increase mid-last year</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. CPU-based mining has been challenged by the appearance of more energy-efficient GPU-based mining around July/August of 2012 bringing a roughly ten-fold increase in network hashing strength. GPUs are currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
This may be refuted by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36503Litecoin2013-03-31T05:57:36Z<p>Weex: updated to better network graphs source</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt was claimed to be resistant to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins.<br />
One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Blocks ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept transactions only 1 block deep get that confirmation quicker.<br />
However, it should be noted that more blocks are required to achieve the same amount of confirmation strength as Bitcoin (6 blocks of litecoin are not equivalent to 6 blocks of bitcoin).<br />
Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the network is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this lack of innovation, some believe Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Some argue that Litecoin cannot make sense as "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
===== Memory bandwidth refutation =====<br />
This may be refuted by arguing that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient, but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth.<br />
Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips.<br />
If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second.<br />
The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s).<br />
There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs.<br />
While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pump and Dump Scheme ====<br />
According to some, one or more of the aforementioned reasons imply that Litecoin has no future potential, and therefore effectively functions as a [http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp "pump and dump" scheme], rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
<br />
It's important to note, generally these critics do not think that Litecoin/Blockchain currencies are pump and dump schemes "per se"; but rather that the existing network effect of Bitcoin, combined with the lack of meaningful differentiation between Litecoin and Bitcoin and Litecoin's adoption of a "designed to fail" proof-of-work algorithm; that Litecoin is bound to fail in the end. Bitcoin does not suffer from these "flaws" and therefore does not fall under the "pump and dump" scheme, according to this argument.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinscout.com/static/ Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36119Litecoin2013-03-14T08:15:58Z<p>Weex: /* External links */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base. It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
There is however an argument that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth. Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips. If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second. The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s). There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs. While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoinpool.com/charts Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36118Litecoin2013-03-14T08:15:01Z<p>Weex: /* Vulnerability to mining monopoly */ reflect disagreement on efficiency vs memory bandwidth dependence</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base. It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, this argument posits that Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs) meaning that a malicious entity need only produce a small batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
There is however an argument that scrypt is not designed to be inefficient but is instead designed to be highly dependent on memory bandwidth. Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, no sizeable improvement could then be made by creating custom chips. If we accept this argument we then estimate the cost of attack utilizing GPUs that are avilable today. <br />
<br />
To do so we start with an estimated cost of hardware at $600 per megahashes per second and the March 14, 2013 Litecoin network hashrate of 2,500 megahashes per second. The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s). There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are in the process of being made unprofitable for mining on the Bitcoin network ASICs. While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36117Litecoin2013-03-14T08:00:27Z<p>Weex: /* Redundancy */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base. It remains to be seen if the use of a different mining algorithm and faster block times add sufficient value for Litecoin's long-term survival.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
To estimate the cost of attack, we start with an estimate of $600 per megahashes per second in hardware. As-of March 14, 2013 the Litecoin network hashrate was 2,500 megahashes per second. The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s). There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are being made unprofitable by ASICs for mining on the Bitcoin network. While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36116Litecoin2013-03-14T07:57:59Z<p>Weex: /* Vulnerability to mining monopoly */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by an entity that can match or exceed the hashrate of the network. Such a "51% attack" becomes more difficult to launch and maintain as the hash rate of the network grows. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single batch of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
To estimate the cost of attack, we start with an estimate of $600 per megahashes per second in hardware. As-of March 14, 2013 the Litecoin network hashrate was 2,500 megahashes per second. The total amount of equipment necessary to match and takeover the Litecoin network via 51% attack is then an estimated $1.5M USD (or about 5,000 AMD HD 5970s). There are tens of thousands of GPUs that are being made unprofitable by ASICs for mining on the Bitcoin network. While these GPUs may be redeployed for Litecoin, a proportional and sustained rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would be required to support this additional GPU mining activity.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=36115Litecoin2013-03-14T07:44:29Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. It differs from Bitcoin in that it targets a faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and uses scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining. <br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
In March 2013, Litecoin reached a market cap of $10 million and acheived a network strength above two gigahashes/second. This compares roughly to a network strength for Bitcoin of two terahashes/second.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
A rough estimate is that there is about $600 of hardware to produce 1 Khash/s on the Litecoin network. So as-of March 10, 2013 the Litecoin network hashrate was 1,500 Khash/s, and the total equipment necessary to 51% Litecoin then is roughly $900K USD (or about 2,000 AMD HD 5970s). There are tens of thousands of GPUs that will be no longer adequate for mining on the Bitcoin network which could switch to Litecoin though a rise of the Litecoin exchange rate would need to occur to keep an incentive for new GPU hashing capacity to be added.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35802Litecoin2013-02-27T22:07:22Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[https://www.litecoinglobal.com Litecoin Global Exchange (virtual stock exchange)]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35780Litecoin2013-02-26T16:59:43Z<p>Weex: /* External links */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[http://forum.litecoin.net Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.litecoin.net/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://www.ltc-charts.com/ Charts]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35779Litecoin2013-02-26T16:55:44Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aim will again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid Scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35774Litecoin2013-02-26T09:39:58Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for the primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, GPUs are currently the most efficient hardware with which to mine Litecoins. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, this aimwill again be satisfied as Litecoin becomes the primary use for GPUs in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35773Litecoin2013-02-26T09:37:46Z<p>Weex: /* Pyramid scheme */ from discussion page, concensus is to remove this section</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35772Litecoin2013-02-26T09:37:09Z<p>Weex: /* Vulnerability to mining monopoly */ fix heading size</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
<!-- NOTE: scrypt is not a feature, since it is a flaw --><br />
Besides a faster first confirmation, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments).<br />
Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network.<br />
However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
=== Pyramid scheme ===<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35711Litecoin2013-02-23T05:30:27Z<p>Weex: /* Differences from Bitcoin */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== Different Addresses ====<br />
<br />
Litecoin addresses start with L due to their version number. Otherwise, they are generated identically to Bitcoin addresses.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Besides a faster first confirmation and the scrypt-based mining algorithm, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35710Litecoin2013-02-23T05:29:01Z<p>Weex: /* Vulnerability to mining monopoly */ GPU mining makes this criticism obsolete</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Besides a faster first confirmation and the scrypt-based mining algorithm, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35709Litecoin2013-02-23T05:23:58Z<p>Weex: /* Pyramid scheme */ removing section since discussion page seems to show concensus on this point</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Besides a faster first confirmation and the scrypt-based mining algorithm, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35708Litecoin2013-02-23T05:20:59Z<p>Weex: /* Redundancy */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Besides a faster first confirmation and the scrypt-based mining algorithm, Litecoin does not provide any other features over what Bitcoin provides.<br />
Because of this and Litecoin's later start, detractors claim Litecoin is unlikely to match or surpass Bitcoin's value or user-base.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35707Litecoin2013-02-23T05:16:17Z<p>Weex: /* Total Coinage */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== 84 Million Litecoins ====<br />
Litecoin started with miners generating 50 coins per block as with Bitcoin, but to maintain Bitcoin's inflation rate chage schedule, the block reward gets halved every 840,000 blocks. As a result, the newtork is scheduled to produce a total of 84 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35706Litecoin2013-02-23T05:11:39Z<p>Weex: /* Faster Confirmations */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generates blocks every 2.5 minutes on average (four times Bitcoin's rate).<br />
This means that merchants who accept 1-confirmation transactions get that first confirmation more quickly. Unfortunately, this increases the number of hashes that are wasted in mining since miners will working from the non-best block more of the time.<br />
<br />
==== Total Coinage ====<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35705Litecoin2013-02-23T05:08:23Z<p>Weex: /* Faster, Smaller Block Chain */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster Confirmations ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generate them four times as fast with one block targeted to be produced every 2.5 minutes.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get a faster first confirmation, but increases wasted hashing since miners will working from the non-best block more often due to propogation lag.<br />
<br />
==== Total Coinage ====<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35704Litecoin2013-02-23T05:08:04Z<p>Weex: /* Faster, Smaller Block Chain */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generate them four times as fast with one block targeted to be produced every 2.5 minutes.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get a faster first confirmation, but increases wasted hashing since miners will working from the non-best block more often due to propogation lag.<br />
<br />
==== Total Coinage ====<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35703Litecoin2013-02-23T05:07:07Z<p>Weex: /* Faster, Smaller Block Chain */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from Bitcoin in that it generate them four times as fast with one block targeted to be produced every 2.5 minutes.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get a faster first confirmation , but increases network overhead since miners will working from the non-best block a greater portion of the time due to propogation lag.<br />
<br />
==== Total Coinage ====<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35702Litecoin2013-02-23T05:03:25Z<p>Weex: correct subtitle sizes</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
==== Scrypt Proof of Work ====<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
==== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ====<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from its Bitcoin counterpart in that it tries to have smaller blocks, and generate them four times as fast as the Bitcoin network allows.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get faster confirmations for their online products, but increases the network overhead.<br />
<br />
==== Total Coinage ====<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==== (Slight) Premining ====<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
==== Redundancy ====<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
==== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ====<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
==== Pyramid scheme ====<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35701Litecoin2013-02-23T05:00:44Z<p>Weex: /* Scrypt Proof of Work */ removed mention of criticism since it's already below</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
=== (Slight) Premining ===<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
=== Scrypt Proof of Work ===<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to Litecoin primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later CPU-based mining was largely replaced by more energy-efficient GPU-based mining, currently the dominant Litecoin mining technology.<br />
<br />
=== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ===<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from its Bitcoin counterpart in that it tries to have smaller blocks, and generate them four times as fast as the Bitcoin network allows.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get faster confirmations for their online products, but increases the network overhead.<br />
<br />
=== Total Coinage ===<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
=== Redundancy ===<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
=== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ===<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
=== Pyramid scheme ===<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35700Litecoin2013-02-23T04:40:28Z<p>Weex: /* Scrypt Proof of Work */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
=== (Slight) Premining ===<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
=== Scrypt Proof of Work ===<br />
Litecoin uses scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of the kind of parallelization that GPUs offered in early Bitcoin mining. This led to it primarily being mined with CPUs at the beginning. Later, GPU-based mining was developed and is now the dominant mining technology for Litecoin.<br />
This is good in the short term, but is almost certainly harmful if Litecoin were to gain widescale adoption ([[#Vulnerability to mining monopoly|see criticism]])<br />
<br />
=== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ===<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from its Bitcoin counterpart in that it tries to have smaller blocks, and generate them four times as fast as the Bitcoin network allows.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get faster confirmations for their online products, but increases the network overhead.<br />
<br />
=== Total Coinage ===<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
=== Redundancy ===<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
=== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ===<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
=== Pyramid scheme ===<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Litecoin&diff=35699Litecoin2013-02-23T04:33:06Z<p>Weex: /* What is Litecoin? */</p>
<hr />
<div>== What is Litecoin? ==<br />
Litecoin is an alternative cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin. While some think of it as silver to Bitcoin's gold ([[#Not Silver to Gold|see criticism]]), it is more accurately defined by its faster block rate (2.5 minutes) and its use of scrypt for primary hashing done in mining.<br />
<br />
While scrypt provided resistance to GPU-based mining early on, Litecoin has since been most efficiently mined with GPUs. One of the aims of Litecoin was to provide a mining algorithm that did not compete with Bitcoin and with the rise of ASIC mining for Bitcoin, Litecoin will increasingly be the primary use for GPU's in cryptocurrency mining.<br />
<br />
== Differences from Bitcoin ==<br />
<br />
=== (Slight) Premining ===<br />
Litecoin had two blocks premined, one more than the minimum single genesis block needed to start a block chain.<br />
<br />
=== Scrypt Proof of Work ===<br />
Litecoin uses Scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme.<br />
Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of GPUs down to the level of CPUs.<br />
This is good in the short term, but is almost certainly harmful if Litecoin were to gain widescale adoption ([[#Vulnerability to mining monopoly|see criticism]])<br />
<br />
=== Faster, Smaller Block Chain ===<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from its Bitcoin counterpart in that it tries to have smaller blocks, and generate them four times as fast as the Bitcoin network allows.<br />
This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get faster confirmations for their online products, but increases the network overhead.<br />
<br />
=== Total Coinage ===<br />
Miners generate 50 coins per block, like Bitcoin.<br />
In light of faster blocks, to properly mimic Bitcoin's generation trajectory, the amount of coins generated gets halved every 840,000 blocks.<br />
As a result, Litecoin is scheduled to produce roughly 4 times as many coins as Bitcoin, about 82 million litecoins.<br />
<br />
==Criticism==<br />
=== Redundancy ===<br />
Litecoin does not provide anything significant that Bitcoin does not already provide.<br />
Because of this, and Bitcoins much greater size, it is unlikely to gain any significant momentum.<br />
<br />
==== Not Silver to Gold ====<br />
Litecoin cannot be "silver to bitcoin's gold", because Bitcoin itself is both gold and silver:<br />
While in the long-run, the BTC unit may be too valuable for everyday trade ("gold"), there are other, much smaller [[units]] that can just as well serve the purpose of "silver" while being naturally/automatically "converted" to/from BTC.<br />
<br />
=== Vulnerability to mining monopoly ===<br />
Similarly to Bitcoin, Litecoin can be attacked by a rich entity (on the scale of big corporations and governments). Also similarly to Bitcoin, this attack becomes more difficult to orchestrate the higher the hash rate of the network. However, because Litecoin is designed to be inefficient on all common computer components (both CPUs and GPUs), a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined.<br />
<br />
=== Pyramid scheme ===<br />
Since the aforementioned reasons mean Litecoin has no future potential, it effectively functions as a pyramid scheme, rewarding those who get in sooner at the expense of those who adopt it just before it finally fails (and are left with nothing).<br />
This is not the case for Bitcoin, since it has significant potential to become a long-term currency and continually be beneficial to adopters no matter when they begin using it.<br />
<br />
==External links==<br />
*[http://litecoin.org/ Litecoin website]<br />
*[https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki Litecoin wiki]<br />
*[http://liteco.in/ Litecoin forum]<br />
*[http://explorer.liteco.in/ Litecoin block explorer]<br />
*[http://litecoin.kicks-ass.org/graphs/graphs.html Litecoin network graphs]<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
[[Cryptocoin]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Alternative cryptocurrencies]]<br />
[[Category:Digital currencies]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Talk:Litecoin&diff=35675Talk:Litecoin2013-02-21T18:00:50Z<p>Weex: /* Edit request */</p>
<hr />
<div><br />
There is nothing on this discussion page about this article at the moment. Use it. Reasonable informed edits will be allowed through until a consensus is reached and the page unlocked. That is comments that are neither pro or anti litecoin, but are ''neutral'' and objective. [[User:Genjix|Genjix]] 10:01, 28 November 2011 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== Objectivity please, missing citation ==<br />
<br />
There are two criticisms in the article, that I believe are not objective:<br />
<br />
* Mining Monopoly - while I heard claims that Litecoin is volnurable to botnets, I never heard anything about a single monopoloy, or anyone possibly building a "single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined". Can we have a citation for this, or remove it if no citation is found?<br />
* Pyramid Scheme - The article states, as if it is a fact, that "Litecoin effectively functions as a pyramid scheme". This is hardly objective. Litecoin could possibly become say 1% of the total Bitcoin market, and could indeed function as "silver". The same arguments in [[FAQ#Is Bitcoin a Ponzi_scheme]] apply here.<br />
<br />
Can we fix this?<br />
<br />
[[User:Ripper234|Ripper234]] 13:43, 13 January 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
* Mining Monopoly - This isn't Wikipedia. Independent research is acceptable. Litecoin's scrypt is not (and cannot be, by definition) resistant to custom mining hardware. It is, however, resistant to all commodity hardware. This leaves a huge gap in mining capabilities between commodity hardware and custom hardware, which enables even a single person designing custom hardware to easily gain a 51% attack over all other miners. Bitcoin's double-SHA256 performs well on commodity GPUs, which serve as a "tier" between CPUs and custom hardware.<br />
* Pyramid Scheme - If you can make this more objective without being wrong, feel free. However, the fact is that Litecoin functions as a pyramid scheme because it has no long-term viability like Bitcoin does. It cannot function as "silver" or any other kind of currency because it cannot survive. Therefore, late comers do NOT benefit from it. Bitcoin is only exempt from the 'pyramid scheme' claim because of its long-term function as a currency.<br />
<br />
[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] 17:12, 16 January 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
: I believe the way to make the "pyramid scheme" section more objective is to remove it altogether. Meaningful criticism does not begin by assuming as a premise that all obstacles are insurmountable and that the currency is an inevitable failure. (Also, for clarification: did you delete my previous comments on this page because they were considered to not be objective?)<br />
<br />
[[User:Angus|Angus]] 23:35, 17 January 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
* Redundancy - Simply stating personal axioms is not helpful. There are several assumptions that are neither explained, supported by an argument or citation. The phrase, "...and Bitcoins much greater size..." has no context. What is meant by Bitcoin's size? Does this refer to the its userbase?<br />
<br />
* Vulnerability to mining monopoly - "a malicious entity needs only produce a single piece of specialized/custom hardware to overtake all the commodity mining systems combined." There needs to be citation to back this up or a solid "homegrown" argument. What are the economics of this type of attack?<br />
<br />
* Pyramid scheme - Without further context, the choice of the words, "Pyramid scheme", is simply not applicable, as there are no promises being made, investments being soliciated, etc. Regardless of the the ultimate fate of Litecoin, the term "pyramid scheme" is simply not applicable. As for the fate of Litecoin, the case of its inevitable demise has simply not been made within the confines of the article.<br />
<br />
[[User:Dooley|Dooley]] 09:05, 9 February 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
The "Mining monopoly" section is actually totally and utterly false. scrypt is not in fact designed to be inefficient on commodity hardware; if you read the original scrypt paper it's actually designed from the ground up for efficient implement on standard CPUs. One of the main design goals of scrypt was actually to limit the benefits an attacker using custom hardware could gain over people using off-the-shelf hardware. The designers of scrypt did this by cleverly making its performance dependant on memory bandwidth rather than processing power. Since the high-speed cache RAM on modern processors already takes up most of the die space, you won't be able to get much of an improvement over them by creating custom chips. In theory the best attack would be to find off-the-shelf processors whose balance of computational resources and cache fit scrypt-as-used-in-Litecoin perfectly, but that probably still wouldn't gain you a huge amount, especially as Intel has a big process advantage over the competition. - [[User:Makomk|Makomk]] ([[User talk:Makomk|talk]]) 16:32, 4 July 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== redundancy ==<br />
<br />
It would be useful if a counter-argument to this criticism were mentioned. It does add something bitcoin doesn't have - it uses CPUs rather than GPUs to mine. --[[User:Rebroad|Rebroad]] 17:59, 21 February 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
: Redundancy isn't a bad thing, imo. Cf: Nassim Taleb's comments about redundancy and fragility, or simply check the wiki page [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundancy_(engineering) Redundancy_(engineering)]: "In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components or functions of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe." I think that the complementary nature of Litecoin should be embraced and used exactly as a complementary currency. As it stands the current page on Litecoin is entirely subjective and missing all the key points, I realise a lot of it is on the talk forums but it would be worth having it here. --[[User:Esoteric|Esoteric]] ([[User talk:Esoteric|talk]]) 23:10, 15 October 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== "Pyramid Scheme" ==<br />
I concur that the "3.3 Pyramid Scheme section is highly subjective and not worthy to be here. Also why is this page protected? [[User:Barbarousrelic|Barbarousrelic]] ([[User talk:Barbarousrelic|talk]]) 19:48, 26 July 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== Litecoin has Android miner which Bitcoin doesn't ==<br />
<br />
Litecoin has Android miner which Bitcoin doesn't https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93276.0<br />
This should be good for people without a decent computer or GPUs but have android phone. If I use my old CPU to pool mine bitcoin I can get nothing as all my work stale share but for Litecoin I ill get a little. So I'd like an alternative arithmetic doesn't only consider GPUs or ASIC but also fit for the old hareware to have a litte share.<br />
Also I want to edit the page but I can't find the edit button. Is there permission requirements? How to edit that page? <br />
[[User:Merrykid|Merrykid]] ([[User talk:Merrykid|talk]]) 04:01, 3 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
I completely agree. We should also point out that Litecoin is much better suited for mining in a web browser.<br />
The article is locked, I don't see why. Can an admin give a good explanation for why the article is locked?<br />
--[[User:Chawlindel|Chawlindel]] ([[User talk:Chawlindel|talk]]) 23:59, 15 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
Android miner is not relevant, and is likely to destroy the phone anyway.<br />
It certainly doesn't make Litecoin any better.<br />
The article is locked due to repeated vandalism by pro-Litecoin trolls - it's been a while, so maybe it's time to try unlocking it?<br />
--[[User:Luke-jr|Luke-jr]] ([[User talk:Luke-jr|talk]]) 23:08, 16 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
Judging from the editing history, you (Luke-jr) is the one that has been a Litecoin-hater troll. Since you apparently can't discuss which is the better instead of just deleting every post which is pro-litecoin, I think we should compromise. Have one pro-litecoin section and one against-litecoin section. Then discuss all subjective bullshit on the discussion page. You (Luke-jr) behave like a 3-year old baby with admin rights. Can you stop doing that? Otherwise, this page needs to follow some kind of Wikipedia-policy.<br />
--[[User:Chawlindel|Chawlindel]] ([[User talk:Chawlindel|talk]]) 08:09, 18 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== Edit request ==<br />
<br />
Please unlock this article. There are enough errors that it's worth the small risk of a new edit war. [[User:Weex|Weex]] ([[User talk:Weex|talk]])<br />
<br />
Bitcoin no longer offers 50 coins per block. [[User:Dree12|Dree12]] ([[User talk:Dree12|talk]]) 02:32, 10 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
It's kind of absurd that this article is locked. I think it's very non-objective and we should let readers see Litecoin's opinion.<br />
We should add the [http://wiki.litecoin.net Litecoin Wiki] to external links. We should also give readers a direct link to the [http://wiki.litecoin.net/index.php/Comparison_between_Bitcoin_and_Litecoin Comparison between Bitcoin and Litecoin] article on Litecoin Wiki.<br />
--[[User:Chawlindel|Chawlindel]] ([[User talk:Chawlindel|talk]]) 23:51, 15 December 2012 (GMT)<br />
<br />
== change request ==<br />
<br />
"They wanted to make a cryptocoin that is considered silver to Bitcoin's gold"<br />
<br />
Remove the above (speculation & a personal opinion) & replace with:<br />
<br />
"Litecoin was designed to be for smaller, faster transactions - balancing the risk/reward equation in a way that allows for a faster block discovery time.<br />
It was designed to be a stand alone currency - rather than the "Silver to bitcoin's gold" as many critques suggest.<br />
In many ways this mirrors times past when people would carry silver in their purses rather than gold - to reduce the risk with a "lower value" coinage - this might be where the reference originates."<br />
<br />
Pyramid Scheme<br />
<br />
"Litecoin is no more a pyramid scheme than any cryptocoin is where mining pools are the most common form of mining. As such this section is irrelevant to the litecoin specific pages and might better be suited for the wiki page about cryptocoins."<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* (Slight) Premining<br />
<br />
should be changed to <br />
<br />
* Premining<br />
<br />
Litecoin uses Scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt adds memory-intensive algorithms to reduce the efficiency of GPUs down to the level of CPUs. This is good in the short term, but is almost certainly harmful if Litecoin were to gain widescale adoption<br />
<br />
Should be changed to: <br />
<br />
Litecoin uses Scrypt as a proof-of-work scheme. Scrypt was selected due to the way it was designed - which balances the memory/rate at which it can be used to "brute force" hashes. The default implementation of Scrypt is memory-intensive but at a higher rate of hashing. This can be adjusted to reduce the memory used at the expense of the rate of hashing. Due to the way that Scrypt brings memory into the equation wrt hardware - it makes it difficult to implement on FPGA's & ASIC type hardware. As the litecoin blockchain becomes more widely adopted - we expect the efficiencies gained through properly designed hardware to encourage FPGA & ASIC manufacturers to develop suitable hardware that can be used with the Scrypt algo used by litecoin. This broadly follows what we've seen with other blockchains such as bitcoin.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* Faster, Smaller Block Chain<br />
The Litecoin blockchain differs from its Bitcoin counterpart in that it tries to have smaller blocks, and generate them four times as fast as the Bitcoin network allows. This means that 1-confirmation (low value) merchants get faster confirmations for their online products, but increases the network overhead.<br />
<br />
should be tweaked:<br />
<br />
This means that 1-confirmation merchants get faster confirmations for their online products.<br />
There are 2 side effects to the network overheads and the number of "open" tx on the network:<br />
1) Due to the faster block discovery time there will be less outstanding tx on the blockchain compared to other blockchains like bitcion - assuming the avg block folds in 500 tx as assuming the number of outstanding tx is 1500 - it would take litecoin 7.5 mins to fold in an provide a single conf to the outstanding tx. On the bitcoin blockchain this would take 30 mins. Due to the variability of block discovery in any single retarget period - outstanding tx pile up and take a number of new blocks to clear any backlog. <br />
Recently on the bitcoin network 2500 outstanding tx has been fairly common (Dec 2012) - this means it takes bitcoin 50 mins (5 blocks) to clear the backlog. On the litecoin network this would take 12.5 mins.<br />
2) Due to the way nodes on the network calculate tx fees - the larger the number of outstanding tx - the greater the fees.<br />
Due to this - some cryptocoin blockchains have had to compromise their design & implement extra logic to allow "backdoor" tx - where a mining pool will accept lower fees for tx. Litecoin haven't yet had to consider such an approach due to its robust network design. It's the belief of the litecoin developers that implementing the backdoor logic for lower tx fees compromises the core ideas behind part of the network design - where block reward halves as the blockchain grows. Ideally the rewards from tx fees should cover any reward decrease.<br />
<br />
--[[User:laSeek|laSeek]] ([[User talk:laSeek|talk]])</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Help:FAQ&diff=29948Help:FAQ2012-08-21T07:57:37Z<p>Weex: /* Mining */ added Q&A about zero transaction blocks</p>
<hr />
<div>Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions.<br />
<br />
== General ==<br />
=== What are bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoins are the unit of currency of the Bitcoin system. A commonly used shorthand for this is “BTC” to refer to a price or amount (eg: “100 BTC”).<br />
There are such things as [[physical bitcoins]], but ultimately, a bitcoin is just a number associated with a [[Address|Bitcoin Address]]. A physical bitcoin is simply an object, such as a coin, with the number carefully embedded inside. See also an [[Introduction|easy intro]] to bitcoin.<br />
<br />
=== How can I get bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There are a variety of ways to acquire bitcoins:<br />
<br />
* Accept bitcoins as payment for goods or services.<br />
* There are several services where you can [[buying bitcoins|trade them]] for traditional currency.<br />
* Find someone to trade cash for bitcoins in-person through a [[Category:Directories|local directory]].<br />
* Participate in a [[Pooled mining|mining pool]].<br />
* If you have a lot of mining hardware, you can solo mine and attempt to create a new [[block]] (currently yields 50 bitcoins).<br />
<br />
===Does Bitcoin guarantee an influx of free money?===<br />
<br />
Since Bitcoin is a new technology, what it is and how it works may be initially unclear. Bitcoin is sometimes presented as being one of three things:<br />
<br />
'''A)''' Some sort of online 'get-rich-quick' scam.<br />
<br />
'''B)''' A loophole in the market economy, the installation of which guarantees a steady influx of cash.<br />
<br />
'''C)''' A sure investment that will almost certainly yield a profit.<br />
<br />
In fact, none of the above are true. Let's look at them independently.<br />
<br />
'''Is Bitcoin a 'get-rich-quick' scheme?'''<br />
<br />
If you've spent much time on the Internet, you've probably seen ads for many 'get-rich-quick' schemes. These ads usually promise huge profits for a small amounts of easy work. Such schemes are usually pyramid/matrix-style schemes that make money from their own employees and offer nothing of any real value. Most convince one to buy packages that will make them earn hundreds a day, which in fact have the buyer distribute more such ads, and make minute profits.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin is in no way similar to these schemes. Bitcoin doesn't promise windfall profits. There is no way for the developers to make money from your involvement or to take money from you. That bitcoins are nearly impossible to acquire without the owner's consent represents one of its greatest strengths. Bitcoin is an experimental, virtual currency that may succeed or may fail. None of its developers expect to get rich off of it. <br />
<br />
A more detailed answer to this question can be found [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7815.0 here].<br />
<br />
'''Will I make money by installing the client?'''<br />
<br />
Most people who use Bitcoin don't earn anything by doing so, and the default client has no built-in way to earn Bitcoins. A small minority of people with dedicated, high-performance hardware do earn some Bitcoins by mining with special software but joining Bitcoin shouldn't be construed as being the road to riches. Most Bitcoin users get involved because they find the project conceptually interesting and don't earn anything by doing so. This is also why you won't find much speculation about the political or economic repercussions of Bitcoin anywhere on this site: Bitcoin developers owe their dedication to the project's intellectual yieldings more than to those of a monetary nature. Bitcoin is still taking its first baby steps; it may go on to do great things but right now it only has something to offer those chasing conceptually interesting projects or bleeding edge technology.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''As an investment, is Bitcoin a sure thing?<br />
'''<br />
<br />
Bitcoin is a new and interesting electronic currency, the value of which is not backed by any single government or organization. Like other currencies it is worth something partly because people are willing to trade it for goods and services. Its exchange rate fluctuates continuously, and sometimes wildly. It lacks wide acceptance and is vulnerable to manipulation by parties with modest funding. Security incidents such as website and account compromise may trigger major sell-offs. Other fluctuations can build into positive feedback loops cause much larger exchange rate fluctuations. Anyone who puts money into Bitcoin should take measures to reduce their risk and consider it as a high-risk currency. Later, as Bitcoin becomes better known and more widely accepted, it should stabilize, but for the time being it is unpredictable. Any investment in Bitcoin should be done carefully and with a clear plan to manage risk.<br />
<br />
=== Can I buy bitcoins with Paypal? ===<br />
<br />
It is possible to buy [[physical bitcoins]] with PayPal but it is otherwise difficult and/or expensive to do so, because of significant risk to the seller. <br />
<br />
While it's possible to find an individual who wishes to sell Bitcoin to you via Paypal, (perhaps via [http://www.bitcoin-otc.com/ #bitcoin-otc] ) most exchanges do not allow funding through PayPal. This is due to repeated cases where someone pays for bitcoins with Paypal receives their bitcoins, and then fraudulently complains to Paypal that they never received their purchase. PayPal often sides with the fraudulent buyer in this case which means any seller would need to cover that risk with higher fees or refuse to accept PayPal altogether.<br />
<br />
Buying Bitcoins from individuals with this method is still possible, but requires the seller to have some trust that the buyer will not file a claim with PayPal to reverse the payment.<br />
<br />
=== Where can I find a forum to discuss Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Please visit the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums_on_various_platforms|Community Portal]] for links to Bitcoin-related forums.<br />
<br />
=== How are new bitcoins created? ===<br />
<br />
[[File:total_bitcoins_over_time_graph.png|thumb|Number of bitcoins over time, assuming a perfect 10-minute interval.]]<br />
New bitcoins are generated by the network through the process of mining. In a process that is similar to a continuous lottery, mining nodes on the network are awarded bitcoins each time they find the solution to a certain mathematical problem (and thereby create a new [[block]]). Creating a block is a [[proof of work]] with a difficulty that varies with the overall strength of the network. The reward for solving a block is [[Controlled Currency Supply|automatically adjusted]] so that in roughly the first four years of operation of the Bitcoin network, 10,500,000 BTC will be created. This amount is halved each four years, so it will be 5,250,000 over years 4-8, 2,625,000 over years 8-12 and so on. Thus the total number of bitcoins in existence will not exceed 21,000,000. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]].<br />
<br />
Blocks are [[Mining|mined]] every 10 minutes, on average and for the first four years (210,000 blocks) each block includes 50 new bitcoins. As the amount of processing power directed at mining changes, the difficulty of creating new bitcoins changes. This difficulty factor is calculated every 2016 blocks and is based upon the time taken to generate the previous 2016 blocks. See [[Mining]].<br />
<br />
=== What's the current total number of Bitcoins in existence? ===<br />
<br />
[http://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc Current count]. Also see [https://blockchain.info/charts/total-bitcoins Total Bitcoins in circulation chart]<br />
<br />
The number of blocks times the coin value of a block is the number of coins in existence. The coin value of a block is 50 BTC for each of the first 210,000 blocks, 25 BTC for the next 210,000 blocks, then 12.5 BTC, 6.25 BTC and so on.<br />
<br />
=== How divisible are Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
A bitcoin can be divided down to 8 decimal places. Therefore, 0.00000001 BTC is the smallest amount that can be handled in a transaction. If necessary, the protocol and related software can be modified to handle even smaller amounts.<br />
<br />
=== What do I call the various denominations of Bitcoins? ===<br />
<br />
There is a lot of discussion about the naming of these fractions of Bitcoins. The leading candidates are:<br />
<br />
* 1 BTC = 1 Bitcoin<br />
* 0.01 BTC = 1 cBTC = 1 Centi-Bitcoin (also referred to as Bitcent)<br />
* 0.001 BTC = 1 mBTC = 1 Milli-Bitcoin (also referred to as mbit (pronounced em-bit) or millibit or even bitmill)<br />
* 0.000 001 BTC = 1 μBTC = 1 Micro-Bitcoin (also referred to as ubit (pronounced yu-bit) or microbit)<br />
<br />
The above follows the accepted international SI prefixes for hundredths, thousandths, and millionths. There are many arguments against the special case of 0.01 BTC since it is unlikely to represent anything meaningful as the Bitcoin economy grows (it certainly won't be the equivalent of 0.01 USD, GBP or EUR). Equally, the inclusion of existing national currency denominations such as "cent", "nickel", "dime", "pence", "pound", "kopek" and so on are to be discouraged. This is a worldwide currency.<br />
<br />
One exception is the "satoshi" which is smallest denomination currently possible <br />
<br />
* 0.000 000 01 BTC = 1 Satoshi (pronounced sa-toh-shee)<br />
<br />
which is so named in honour of Satoshi Nakamoto the pseudonym of the inventor of Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
For an overview of all defined units of Bitcoin (including less common and niche units), see [[Units]].<br />
<br />
Further discussion on this topic can be found on the forums here:<br />
<br />
* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=14438.msg195287#msg195287 We need names]<br />
* [http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8282.0 What to call 0.001 BTC]<br />
<br />
=== How does the halving work when the number gets really small? ===<br />
<br />
Eventually the reward will go from 0.00000001 BTC to zero and no more bitcoins will be created. <br />
<br />
The block reward calculation is done as a right bitwise shift of a 64-bit signed integer, which means it is divided by two and rounded down. The integer is equal to the value in BTC * 100,000,000 since internally in the reference client software, all Bitcoin balances and values are stored as unsigned integers.<br />
<br />
With an initial block reward of 50 BTC, it will take many 4-year periods for the block reward to reach zero.<br />
<br />
=== How long will it take to generate all the coins? ===<br />
<br />
The last block that will generate coins will be block #6,929,999 which should be generated at or near the year 2140. The total number of coins in circulation will then remain static at 20,999,999.9769 BTC.<br />
<br />
Even if the allowed precision is expanded from the current 8 decimals, the total BTC in circulation will always be slightly below 21 million (assuming everything else stays the same). For example, with 16 decimals of precision, the end total would be 20,999,999.999999999496 BTC.<br />
<br />
=== If no more coins are going to be generated, will more blocks be created? ===<br />
<br />
Absolutely! Even before the creation of coins ends, the use of [[transaction fee|transaction fees]] will likely make creating new blocks more valuable from the fees than the new coins being created. When coin generation ends, these fees will sustain the ability to use bitcoins and the Bitcoin network. There is no practical limit on the number of blocks that will be mined in the future.<br />
<br />
=== But if no more coins are generated, what happens when Bitcoins are lost? Won't that be a problem? ===<br />
<br />
Because of the law of supply and demand, when fewer bitcoins are available the ones that are left will be in higher demand, and therefore will have a higher value. So, as Bitcoins are lost, the remaining bitcoins will eventually increase in value to compensate. As the value of a bitcoin increases, the number of bitcoins required to purchase an item '''de'''creases. This is a [[Deflationary spiral|deflationary economic model]]. As the average transaction size reduces, transactions will probably be denominated in sub-units of a bitcoin such as millibitcoins ("Millies") or microbitcoins ("Mikes").<br />
<br />
The Bitcoin protocol uses a base unit of one hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin ("a Satoshi"), but unused bits are available in the protocol fields that could be used to denote even smaller subdivisions.<br />
<br />
=== If every transaction is broadcast via the network, does Bitcoin scale? ===<br />
The Bitcoin protocol allows lightweight clients that can use Bitcoin without downloading the entire transaction history. As traffic grows and this becomes more critical, implementations of the concept will be developed. Full network nodes will at some point become a more specialized service.<br />
<br />
With some modifications to the software, full Bitcoin nodes could easily keep up with both VISA and MasterCard combined, using only fairly modest hardware (a couple of racks of machines using todays hardware). It's worth noting that the MasterCard network is structured somewhat like Bitcoin itself - as a peer to peer broadcast network.<br />
<br />
Learn more about [[Scalability]].<br />
<br />
==Economy==<br />
=== Where does the value of Bitcoin stem from? What backs up Bitcoin? ===<br />
Bitcoins have value because they are useful and because they are [[Controlled Currency Supply|scarce]]. As they are accepted by more merchants, their value will [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sticky_%28economics%29 stabilize]. See the [[Trade|list of Bitcoin-accepting sites]].<br />
<br />
When we say that a currency is backed up by gold, we mean that there's a promise in place that you can exchange the currency for gold. Bitcoins, like dollars and euros, are not backed up by anything except the variety of merchants that accept them.<br />
<br />
It's a common misconception that Bitcoins gain their value from the cost of electricity required to generate them. Cost doesn't equal value – hiring 1,000 men to shovel a big hole in the ground may be costly, but not valuable. Also, even though scarcity is a critical requirement for a useful currency, it alone doesn't make anything valuable. For example, your fingerprints are scarce, but that doesn't mean they have any exchange value.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a bubble? ===<br />
Yes, in the same way as the euro and dollar are. They only have value in exchange and have no inherent value. If everyone suddenly stopped accepting your dollars, euros or bitcoins, the "bubble" would burst and their value would drop to zero. But that is unlikely to happen: even in Somalia, where the government collapsed 20 years ago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_shilling Somali shillings] are still accepted as payment.<br />
<br />
=== Is Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme? ===<br />
In a Ponzi Scheme, the founders persuade investors that they’ll profit. Bitcoin does not make such a guarantee. There is no central entity, just individuals building an economy.<br />
<br />
A ponzi scheme is a zero sum game. Early adopters can only profit at the expense of late adopters. Bitcoin has possible win-win outcomes. Early adopters profit from the rise in value. Late adopters, and indeed, society as a whole, benefit from the usefulness of a stable, fast, inexpensive, and widely accepted p2p currency.<br />
<br />
The fact that early adopters benefit more doesn't alone make anything a Ponzi scheme. All good investments in successful companies have this quality.<br />
<br />
=== Doesn't Bitcoin unfairly benefit early adopters? ===<br />
Early adopters have a large number of bitcoins now because they took a risk and invested resources in an unproven technology. By so doing, they have helped Bitcoin become what it is now and what it will be in the future (hopefully, a ubiquitous decentralized digital currency). It is only fair they will reap the benefits of their successful investment.<br />
<br />
In any case, any bitcoin generated will probably change hands dozens of time as a medium of exchange, so the profit made from the initial distribution will be insignificant compared to the total commerce enabled by Bitcoin.<br />
<br />
Since the pricing of Bitcoins has fallen greatly from its June 2011 peak, prices today are much more similar to those enjoyed by many early adopters. Those who are buying Bitcoins today likely believe that Bitcoin will grow significantly in the future. Setting aside the brief opportunity to have sold Bitcoins at the June 2011 peak enjoyed by few, the early-adopter window is arguably still open.<br />
<br />
===Won't loss of wallets and the finite amount of Bitcoins create excessive deflation, destroying Bitcoin? ===<br />
Worries about Bitcoin being destroyed by deflation are not entirely unfounded. Unlike most currencies, which experience inflation as their founding institutions create more and more units, Bitcoin will likely experience gradual deflation with the passage of time. Bitcoin is unique in that only a small amount of units will ever be produced (twenty-one million to be exact), this number has been known since the project's inception, and the units are created at a predicable rate.<br />
<br />
Also, Bitcoin users are faced with a danger that doesn't threaten users of any other currency: if a Bitcoin user loses his wallet, his money is gone forever, unless he finds it again. And not just to him; it's gone completely out of circulation, rendered utterly inaccessible to anyone. As people will lose their wallets, the total number of Bitcoins will slowly decrease.<br />
<br />
Therefore, Bitcoin seems to be faced with a unique problem. Whereas most currencies inflate over time, Bitcoin will mostly likely do the just the opposite. Time will see the irretrievable loss of an ever-increasing number of Bitcoins. An already small number will be permanently whittled down further and further. And as there become fewer and fewer Bitcoins, the laws of supply and demand suggest that their value will probably continually rise.<br />
<br />
Thus Bitcoin is bound to once again stray into mysterious territory, because no one exactly knows what happens to a currency that grows continually more valuable. Economists generally agree that a low level of inflation is a good thing for a currency, but nobody is quite sure about what might happens to one that continually deflates. Although deflation could hardly be called a rare phenomenon, steady, constant deflation is unheard of. There may be a lot of speculation, no one has any hard data to back up their claims.<br />
<br />
That being said, there is a mechanism in place to combat the obvious consequences. Extreme deflation would render most currencies highly impractical: if a single Canadian dollar could suddenly buy the holder a car, how would one go about buying bread or candy? Even pennies would fetch more than a person could carry. Bitcoin, however, offers a simple and stylish solution: infinite divisibility. Bitcoins can be divided up and trade into as small of pieces as one wants, so no matter how valuable Bitcoins become, one can trade them in practical quantities. <br />
<br />
In fact, infinite divisibility should allow Bitcoins to function in cases of extreme wallet loss. Even if, in the far future, so many people have lost their wallets that only a single Bitcoin, or a fraction of one, remains, Bitcoin should continue to function just fine. No one can claim to be sure what is going to happen, but deflation may prove to present a smaller threat than many expect.<br />
<br />
For more information, see the [[Deflationary spiral]] page.<br />
<br />
=== What if someone bought up all the existing Bitcoins? ===<br />
Bitcoin markets are competitive -- meaning the price of a bitcoin will rise or fall depending on supply and demand at certain price levels. Only a fraction of bitcoins issued to date are found on the exchange markets for sale. So even though technically a buyer with lots of money could buy all the bitcoins offered for sale, unless those holding the rest of the bitcoins offer them for sale as well, even the wealthiest, most determined buyer can't get at them.<br />
<br />
Additionally, new currency continues to be issued daily and will continue to do so for decades though over time the rate at which they are issued declines to insignificant levels. Those who are mining aren't obligated to sell their bitcoins so not all bitcoins will make it to the markets even.<br />
<br />
This situation doesn't suggest, however, that the markets aren't vulnerable to price manipulation. It doesn't take significant amounts of money to move the market price up or down and thus Bitcoin remains a volatile asset.<br />
<br />
===What if someone creates a new block chain, or a new digital currency that renders Bitcoin obsolete?===<br />
<br />
That the block chain cannot be easily forked represents one of the central security mechanisms of Bitcoin. Given the choice between two block chains, a Bitcoin miner always chooses the longer one - that is to say, the one with the more complex hash. Thusly, it ensures that each user can only spend their bitcoins once, and that no user gets ripped off.<br />
<br />
As a consequence of the block chain structure, there may at any time be many different sub-branches, and the possibility always exists of a transaction being over-written by the longest branch, if it has been recorded in a shorter one. The older a transaction is though, the lower its chances of being over-written, and the higher of becoming permanent. Although the block chain prevents one from spending more Bitcoins than one has, it means that transactions can be accidentally nullified. <br />
<br />
A new block chain would leave the network vulnerable to [[double-spending|double-spend]] attacks. However, the creation of a viable new chain presents considerable difficulty, and the possibility does not present much of a risk.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will always choose the longer Block Chain and determines the relative length of two branches by the complexities of their hashes. Since the hash of each new block is made from that of the block preceding it, to create a block with a more complex hash, one must be prepared to do more computation than has been done by the entire Bitcoin network from the fork point up to the newest of the blocks one is trying to supersede. Needless to say, such an undertaking would require a very large amount of processing power and since Bitcoin is continually growing and expanding, it will likely only require more with the passage of time.<br />
<br />
A much more distinct and real threat to the Bitcoin use is the development of other, superior virtual currencies, which could supplant Bitcoin and render it obsolete and valueless.<br />
<br />
A great deal of careful thought and ingenuity has gone into the development of Bitcoin, but it is the first of its breed, a prototype, and vulnerable to more highly-evolved competitors. At present, any threatening rivals have yet to rear its head; Bitcoin remains the first and foremost private virtual currency, but we can offer no guarantees that it will retain that position. It would certainly be in keeping with internet history for similar system built from the same principles to supersede and cast Bitcoin into obsolescence, after time had revealed its major shortcomings. Friendster and Myspace suffered similar fates at the hand of Facebook, Napster was ousted by Limeware, Bearshare and torrent applications, and Skype has all but crushed the last few disciples of the Microsoft Messenger army. <br />
<br />
This may sound rather foreboding, so bear in mind that introduction of new and possibly better virtual currencies will not necessarily herald Bitcoin's demise. If Bitcoin establishes itself sufficiently firmly before the inception of the next generation of private, online currencies as to gain widespread acceptance and general stability, future currencies may pose little threat even if they can claim superior design.<br />
<br />
==Sending and Receiving Payments==<br />
<br />
=== Why do I have to wait 10 minutes before I can spend money I received? ===<br />
<br />
10 minutes is the average time taken to find a block. It can be significantly more or less time than that depending on luck; 10 minutes is simply the average case. <br />
<br />
You can see how long all other recent transactions have taken here: [http://bitcoinstats.org/ BitcoinStats.org]. <br />
<br />
[[Blocks]] (shown as "confirmations" in the GUI) are how the Bitcoin achieves consensus on who owns what. Once a block is found everyone agrees that you now own those coins, so you can spend them again. Until then it's possible that some network nodes believe otherwise, if somebody is attempting to defraud the system by reversing a transaction. The more confirmations a transaction has, the less risk there is of a reversal. Only 6 blocks or 1 hour is enough to make reversal computationally impractical. This is dramatically better than credit cards which can see chargebacks occur up to three months after the original transaction!<br />
<br />
Ten minutes was specifically chosen by [[Satoshi]] as a tradeoff between propagation time of new blocks in large networks and the amount of work wasted due to chain splits. For a more technical explanation, see Satoshi's [http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf original technical paper].<br />
<br />
[[File:TransactionConfirmationTimesExample.PNG]]<br />
<br />
=== Do you have to wait until my transactions are confirmed in order to buy or sell things with Bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
YES, you do, IF the transaction is non-recourse. The Bitcoin reference software does not display transactions as confirmed until six blocks have passed (confirmations). As transactions are burred in the chain they become increasingly non-reversible but are very reversible before the first confirmation. Two to six confirmations are recommended for non-recourse situations depending on the value of the transactions involved.<br />
<br />
When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications like supermarkets. This generally is a recourse situation: if somebody tries to double-spend on a face-to-face transaction it might work a few times, but probabalistically speaking eventually one of the double-spends will get noticed, and the penalty for shoplifting charges in most localities is calibrated to be several times worse than the proceeds of a single shoplifting event.<br />
<br />
Double-spends might be a concern for something like a snack machine in a low-traffic area with no nearby security cameras. Such a machine shouldn't honor 0-confirmation payments, and should instead use some other mechanism of clearing Bitcoin or validating transactions against reversal, see the wiki article [[Myths#Point_of_sale_with_bitcoins_isn.27t_possible_because_of_the_10_minute_wait_for_confirmation|here]] for alternatives.<br />
<br />
When people ask this question they are usually thinking about applications that require immediate payment processing, like supermarkets or snack machines. Here is one way to reverse an unconfirmed payment:<br />
<br />
A [[Double-spending#Finney_attack|Finney attack]], in which an attacker mines a block containing a movement of some coins back to themselves. Once they find a block solution, they quickly go to a merchant and make a purchase, then broadcast the block, thus taking back the coins. This attack is a risk primarily for goods that are dispatched immediately, like song downloads or currency trades. Because the attacker can't choose the time of the attack, it isn't a risk for merchants such as supermarkets where you can't choose exactly when to pay (due to queues, etc). The attack can fail if somebody else finds a block containing the purchasing transaction before you release your own block, therefore, merchants can reduce but not eliminate the risk by making purchasers wait some length of time that's less than a confirm.<br />
<br />
Because pulling off this attack is not trivial, merchants who need to sell things automatically and instantly are most likely to just price the cost of reversal fraud in, or use insurance.<br />
<br />
=== I was sent some bitcoins and they haven't arrived yet! Where are they? ===<br />
<br />
Don't panic! There are a number of reasons why your bitcoins might not show up yet, and a number of ways to diagnose them. <br />
<br />
The latest version of the Bitcoin-Qt client will tell you how far it has to go yet in downloading the blockchain. Hover over the icon in the bottom right corner of the client to learn your client's status.<br />
<br />
If it has not caught up then it's possible that your transaction hasn't been included in a block yet. <br />
<br />
You can check pending transactions in the network by going [http://blockchain.info here] and then searching for your address. If the transaction is listed here then it's a matter of waiting until it gets included in a block before it will show in your client. <br />
<br />
Bear in mind that if the transaction is based on a coin that was in a recent transaction then it could be considered a low priority transaction take longer to transfer if the transaction fee paid isn't high enough. Very low priority transactions with 0 fees might take hours or days to be included in a block.<br />
<br />
=== Why does my Bitcoin address keep changing? ===<br />
<br />
Whenever the address listed in "Your address" receives a transaction, Bitcoin replaces it with a new address. This is meant to encourage you to use a new address for every transaction, which enhances [[anonymity]]. All of your old addresses are still usable: you can see them in ''Settings -> Your Receiving Addresses''.<br />
<br />
===How much will the transaction fee be?===<br />
<br />
Some transactions might require a [[transaction fee]] for them to get confirmed in a timely manner. The transaction fee is processed by and received by the bitcoin miner. The most recent version of the Bitcoin client will estimate an appropriate fee when a fee might be required.<br />
<br />
The fee is added to the payment amount. For example, if you are sending a 1.234 BTC payment and the client requires a 0.0005 BTC fee, then 1.2345 BTC will be subtracted from the wallet balance for the entire transaction and the address for where the payment was sent will receive a payment of 1.234 BTC.<br />
<br />
In cases where a fee is required it is required because your transaction objectively looks like a denial of service attack to the bitcoin system, either due to it being burdensome to transmit or it recycles bitcoins you recently received. The wallet software attempts to avoid generating burdensome transactions, but it isn't always able if the funds in your wallet are new or are composed of many very tiny payments. <br />
<br />
Because the fee is related to the amount of data that makes up the transaction and not to the amount of bitcoins being sent, the fee may seem extremely low (0.0005 BTC for a 1,000 BTC transfer) or unfairly high (0.004 BTC for a 0.02 BTC payment, or about 20%). If you are receiving tiny amounts (e.g., as small payments from a mining pool) then fees when sending will be higher than if your activity follows a more normal consumer or business transaction pattern. As of bitcoin 0.5.3 the required fee it will ask for will not be higher than 0.05 BTC, though for most users there is usually no required fee at all and 0.0005 is the most common when one is required.<br />
<br />
=== What happens when someone sends me a bitcoin but my computer is powered off? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoins aren't actually "sent" to your wallet, the software only uses that term so that we can use the currency without having to learn new concepts. Your wallet is only needed when you wish to spend coins that you've received.<br />
<br />
The coins that were sent to you when the client was not running will later appear as if they were received in your wallet when you later launch the client. It will download blocks and catch up with any transactions it didn't already have.<br />
<br />
=== How long does "synchronizing" take when the bitcoin client is first installed? What is it doing? ===<br />
<br />
The popular bitcoin client software from bitcoin.org implements a "full" bitcoin node: It can carry out all the duties of the bitcoin P2P system, it isn't simply a "client". One of the principles behind the operation of full bitcoin nodes is that they don't trust that the other participants have followed the rules of the bitcoin system. During synchronization the software is processing historical bitcoin transactions and making sure for itself that all of the rules of the system have been correctly followed.<br />
<br />
In normal operation after synchronizing the software should use a hardly noticeable amount of IO, CPU, or network capacity.<br />
<br />
The initial validation is very disk IO intensive so the amount of time to synchronize depend on your disk speed and, to a lesser extent, your cpu speed. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or so. You can use the software while this process is going on, but you may not see recent payments to you until the synchronization has caught up to the point where those transactions happened.<br />
<br />
If this is too long for you, you can download a pre-synchronized blockchain from [http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/ http://eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/]. Alternatively, you can try an alternative "lite" client such as Multibit or a super-light client like electrum though these clients have somewhat weaker security, are less mature, and don't contribute to the health of the P2P network.<br />
<br />
==Networking==<br />
=== Do I need to configure my firewall to run bitcoin? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin will connect to other nodes, usually on tcp port 8333. You will need to allow outgoing TCP connections to port 8333 if you want to allow your bitcoin client to connect to many nodes. [[Testnet]] uses tcp port 18333 instead of 8333.<br />
<br />
If you want to restrict your firewall rules to a few ips, you can find stable nodes in the [[Fallback Nodes|fallback nodes list]].<br />
<br />
=== How does the peer finding mechanism work? ===<br />
<br />
Bitcoin finds peers primarily by forwarding peer announcements within its own network and each node saves a database of peers that it's aware of for use in the future. In order to bootstrap this process Bitcoin needs a list of initial peers, these can be provided manually but normally it obtains them by querying a set of DNS domain names which have automatically updated lists, if that doesn't work it falls back to a build-in list which is updated from time to time in new versions of the software. There is also an IRC based mechanism but it is disabled by default.<br />
<br />
==Mining==<br />
===What is mining?===<br />
[[Mining]] is the process of spending computation power to secure Bitcoin transactions against reversal and introducing new Bitcoins to the system.<br />
<br />
Technically speaking, mining is the calculation of a [[hash]] of the a block header, which includes among other things a reference to the previous block, a hash of a set of transactions and a [[nonce]]. If the hash value is found to be less than the current [[target]] (which is inversely proportional to the [[difficulty]]), a new block is formed and the miner gets the newly generated Bitcoins (50 per block at current levels). If the hash is not less than the current target, a new nonce is tried, and a new hash is calculated. This is done millions of times per second by each miner.<br />
<br />
===Is mining used for some useful computation?===<br />
The computations done when mining are internal to Bitcoin and not related to any other distributed computing projects. They serve the purpose of securing the Bitcoin network, which is useful.<br />
<br />
===Is it not a waste of energy?===<br />
Spending energy on creating and securing a free monetary system is hardly a waste. Also, services necessary for the operation of currently widespread monetary systems, such as banks and credit card companies, also spend energy, arguably more than Bitcoin would.<br />
<br />
===Why don't we use calculations that are also useful for some other purpose?===<br />
To provide security for the Bitcoin network, the calculations involved need to have some very specific features. These features are incompatible with leveraging the computation for other purposes.<br />
<br />
===How can we stop miners from creating zero transaction blocks?===<br />
The incentive for miners to include transactions is in the fees that come along with them. If we were to implement some minimum number of transactions per block it would be trivial for a miner to create and include transactions merely to surpass that threshold. As the network matures, the block reward drops, and miners become more dependent on transactions fees to pay their costs, the problem of zero transaction blocks should diminish over time.<br />
<br />
===How does the proof-of-work system help secure Bitcoin?===<br />
To give a general idea of the mining process, imagine this setup:<br />
<br />
payload = <some data related to things happening on the Bitcoin network><br />
nonce = 1<br />
hash = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2]( payload + nonce ) )<br />
<br />
The work performed by a miner consists of repeatedly increasing "nonce" until<br />
the hash function yields a value, that has the rare property of being below a certain<br />
target threshold. (In other words: The hash "starts with a certain number of zeroes",<br />
if you display it in the fixed-length representation, that is typically used.)<br />
<br />
As can be seen, the mining process doesn't compute anything special. It merely<br />
tries to find a number (also referred to as nonce) which - in combination with the payload -<br />
results in a hash with special properties.<br />
<br />
The advantage of using such a mechanism consists of the fact, that it is very easy to check a result: Given<br />
the payload and a specific nonce, only a single call of the hashing function<br />
is needed to verify that the hash has the required properties. Since there is no<br />
known way to find these hashes other than brute force, this can be used as a "proof of work"<br />
that someone invested a lot of computing power to find the correct nonce for this payload.<br />
<br />
This feature is then used in the Bitcoin network to secure various aspects. An attacker<br />
that wants to introduce malicious payload data into the network, will need to do the<br />
required proof of work before it will be accepted. And as long as honest miners have more<br />
computing power, they can always outpace an attacker.<br />
<br />
Also see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA2 SHA2] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-work_system Proof-of-work system] on Wikipedia.<br />
<br />
===Why was the "Generate coin" option of the client software removed?===<br />
<br />
In the early days of Bitcoin, it was easy for anyone to find new blocks using standard CPUs. As more and more people started mining, the [[difficulty]] of finding new blocks has greatly increased to the point where the average time for a CPU to find a single block can be many years. The only cost-effective method of [[Mining|mining]] is using a high-end graphics card with special software (see also [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]) and/or joining a [[Bitcoin Pool|mining pool]]. Since solo CPU mining is essentially useless, it was removed from the GUI of the Bitcoin software.<br />
<br />
==Security==<br />
<br />
===Could miners collude to give themselves money or to fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?===<br />
<br />
There are two questions in here. Let's look at them separately.<br />
<br />
'''Could miners gang up and give themselves money?'''<br />
<br />
Mining itself is the process of creating new blocks in the block chain. Each block contains a list of all the transactions that have taken place across the entire Bitcoin network since the last block was created, as well as a hash of the previous block. New blocks are 'mined', or rather, generated, by Bitcoin clients correctly guessing sequences of characters in codes called 'hashes,' which are created using information from previous blocks. Bitcoin users may download specialized 'mining' software, which allows them to dedicate some amount of their processing power – however large or small – to guessing at strings within the hash of the previous block. Whoever makes the right guess first, thus creating a new block, receives a reward in Bitcoins.<br />
<br />
The block chain is one of the two structures that makes Bitcoin secure, the other being the public-key encryption system on which Bitcoin trade is based. The block chain assures that not only is every single transaction that ever takes place recorded, but that every single transaction is recorded on the computer of anyone who chooses to store the relevant information. Many, many users have complete records of every transaction in Bitcoins history readily available to them at any point, and anyone who wants in the information can obtain it with ease. These things make Bitcoin very hard to fool.<br />
<br />
The Bitcoin network takes considerable processing power to run, and since those with the most processing power can make the most guesses, those who put the most power toward to sustaining the network earn the most currency. Each correct guess yields, at present, fifty Bitcoins, and as Bitcoins are presently worth something (although the value still fluctuates) every miner who earns any number of Bitcoins makes money. Some miners pull in Bitcoins on their own; and some also join or form pools wherein all who contribute earn a share of the profits. <br />
<br />
Therefore, first answer is a vehement “yes” – no only can miners collude to get more money, Bitcoin is designed to encourage them to do so. Bitcoin pools are communal affairs, and there is nothing dishonest or underhanded about them.<br />
<br />
Of course, the real question is:<br />
<br />
'''Can they do so in ways not sanction by Bitcoin developers? Is there any way to rip off the network and make loads of money dishonestly?'''<br />
<br />
Bitcoin isn't infallible. It can be cheated. But doing so is extremely difficult. Bitcoin was designed to evade some of the central problems with modern currencies – namely, that their trustworthiness hinges upon that of people who might not have user's best interests in mind. Every currency in the world (other than Bitcoin) is controlled by large institutions who keep track of what's done with done with it, and who can manipulate it's value. And every other currency has value because people trust the institutions that control them.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin doesn't ask that it users trust any institution. Its security is based on the cryptography that is an integral part of its structure, and that is readily available for any and all to see. Instead of one entity keeping track of transactions, the entire network does, so Bitcoins are astoundingly difficult to steal, or double-spend. Bitcoins are created in a regular and predictable fashion, and by many different users, so no one can decide to make a whole lot more and lessen their value. In short, Bitcoin is designed to be inflation-proof, double-spend-proof and completely distributed.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, there are a few ways that one can acquire Bitcoins dishonestly. Firstly, one can steal private keys. Key theft isn't something that Bitcoin security has been designed to prevent: it's up to users to keep their's safe. But the cryptography is designed so that it is completely impossible to deduce someone's private from their public one. So long as you keep your private key to yourself, you don't have much to worry about. Furthermore, one could theoretically create a new block chain, but due to the way in which the block chain is constructed, this would be extremely difficult and require massive amounts of processing power. A full explanation of the difficulties involved can be found in the [[block chain]] article.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin can be ripped off – but doing so would be extremely hard and require considerable expertise and a staggering amount of processing power. And it's only going to get harder with the passage of time. Bitcoin is isn't impenetrable, but it's close enough to put any real worries in the peripherals.<br />
<br />
'''Could miners fundamentally change the nature of Bitcoin?'''<br />
<br />
Once again, almost certainly not.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin is a distributed network, so any changes implemented to the system must be accepted by all users. Someone trying to change the way Bitcoins are generated would have to convince every user to download and use their software – so the only changes that would go through are those that would be equally benefit all users. <br />
<br />
And thus, it is more or less impossible for any person to change the function of Bitcoin to their advantage. If users don't like the changes, they won't take, and if uses do like them, then they'll help everyone equally. Of course, one can conceive of a situation where someone manages to get a change pushed through that provides them with an advantage that no one notices, but given that Bitcoin is structurally relatively simple, it is unlikely that any major changes will go through without someone noticing first.<br />
<br />
The fact that such changes are so difficult to make testifies to the fully distributed nature of Bitcoin. Any centrally-controlled currency can be modified by its central agency without the consent of its adherents. Bitcoin has no central authority, so it changes only at the behest of the whole community. Bitcoins development represents a kind of collective evolution; the first of its kind among currencies. <br />
<br />
==Help==<br />
===I'd like to learn more. Where can I get help?===<br />
<br />
* Read the [[Introduction|introduction to bitcoin]] <br />
* See the videos, podcasts, and blog posts from the [[Press]]<br />
* Read and post on the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#Bitcoin_Community_Forums|forums]]<br />
* Chat on one of the [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Bitcoin IRC]] channels<br />
* Listen to [http://omegataupodcast.net/2011/03/59-bitcoin-a-digital-decentralized-currency/ this podcast], which goes into the details of how bitcoin works<br />
* Ask questions on the [http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com Bitcoin Stack Exchange]<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Man page]]<br />
* [[Introduction]]<br />
<br />
[[de:FAQ]]<br />
[[zh-cn:FAQ]]<br />
[[fr:FAQ]]<br />
[[ru:FAQ]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Technical]]<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Invoice_address&diff=29842Invoice address2012-08-18T10:12:19Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>A '''Bitcoin address''', or simply '''address''', is an identifier of approximately 34 alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3, that represents a possible destination for a Bitcoin payment.<br />
Addresses can be generated at no cost by any user of Bitcoin.<br />
For example, using [[Bitcoin-Qt]], one can click "Get Address" and be assigned an address.<br />
It is also possible to get a Bitcoin address using an account at an exchange or online wallet service.<br />
<br />
An example of a Bitcoin address is ''37muSN5ZrukVTvyVh3mT5Zc5ew9L9CBare''.<br />
<br />
==A Bitcoin address is like an e-mail address==<br />
Like e-mail, you can send bitcoins to a person by sending bitcoins to one of their addresses. A person can have many different Bitcoin addresses and, for increased privacy, it is recommended that you use a unique address for each transaction. Most Bitcoin software and websites will help with this by generating a brand new address each time you perform a transaction. Some services provide a facility to request a new Bitcoin address for use with their service when desired.<br />
<br />
When using a web site that accepts bitcoins or holds Bitcoin balances on your behalf, that website will assign a Bitcoin address to your account, so you can transfer funds into your account at the site. Very much unlike e-mail, this address may change every time funds come in so care should be taken when sending additional funds to a previously-used address. When you send Bitcoins to your account at a web site, they will usually be credited to your account at that web site after the transaction is [[confirmation|confirmed]].<br />
<br />
==Addresses can be created offline==<br />
Creating addresses can be done without an Internet connection and do not require any contact or registration with the Bitcoin network. The network only knows about an address when it is first used in a transaction. Because addresses can be created easily and at minimal cost, it is not uncommon to create temporary addresses that can be discarded if unused.<br />
<br />
It is also possible to create large batches of addresses offline using other software tools. Generating batches of addresses is useful in several scenarios, such as e-commerce websites where a unique pre-generated address is dispensed to each customer who chooses a "pay with Bitcoin" option.<br />
<br />
==Addresses are case sensitive and exact==<br />
Bitcoin addresses are case-sensitive. Bitcoin addresses should be copied and pasted using the computer's clipboard wherever possible.<br />
<br />
If you hand-key a Bitcoin address, and each character is not transcribed exactly - including capitalization - the incorrect address will most likely be rejected by the Bitcoin client. You will have to check your entry and try again.<br />
<br />
The probability that a mistyped address is accepted as being valid is 1 in 2<sup>32</sup> or approximately 1 in 4.29 billion.<br />
<br />
==Address validation==<br />
If you would like to validate a Bitcoin address in an application, it is advisable to use a method from [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1026.0 this thread] rather than to just check for string length, allowed characters, or that the address starts with a 1.<br />
<br />
<br />
==Most addresses have a "private key"==<br />
For most addresses, there is a corresponding secret number known as a [[private key]] that is required to spend funds previously sent to an address.<br />
<br />
When using a Bitcoin client, private keys are typically stored in the [[wallet file]]. The private key has a special purpose - it is mathematically needed to create valid transactions that spend the funds originally sent to the address. If the private key to an address is lost (for example, in a hard drive crash, fire or other natural disaster), any associated Bitcoins are effectively lost forever.<br />
<br />
==What's in an address==<br />
Most Bitcoin addresses are 34 characters.<br />
They consist of random digits and uppercase and lowercase letters, with the exception that the uppercase letter "O", uppercase letter "I", lowercase letter "l", and the number "0" are never used to prevent visual ambiguity.<br />
<br />
Some Bitcoin addresses can be shorter than 34 characters and still be valid.<br />
A significant percentage of Bitcoin addresses are only 33 characters, and some older addresses may be even shorter.<br />
Every Bitcoin address stands for a number - somewhat like an account number. These shorter addresses are valid simply because they stand for numbers that happen to start with zeroes, and when the zeroes are omitted, the encoded address gets shorter.<br />
<br />
Several of the characters inside a Bitcoin address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be automatically found and rejected.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Technical background of Bitcoin addresses]]<br />
* [[List of address prefixes]]<br />
* [[Exit Address]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Invoice_address&diff=29841Invoice address2012-08-18T10:11:05Z<p>Weex: cleanup, add link to address validation thread</p>
<hr />
<div>A '''Bitcoin address''', or simply '''address''', is an identifier of approximately 34 alphanumeric characters, beginning with the number 1 or 3, that represents a possible destination for a Bitcoin payment.<br />
Addresses can be generated at no cost by any user of Bitcoin.<br />
For example, using [[Bitcoin-Qt]], one can click "Get Address" and be assigned an address.<br />
It is also possible to get a Bitcoin address using an account at an exchange or online wallet service.<br />
<br />
An example of a Bitcoin address is ''37muSN5ZrukVTvyVh3mT5Zc5ew9L9CBare''.<br />
<br />
==A Bitcoin address is like an e-mail address==<br />
Like e-mail, you can send bitcoins to a person by sending bitcoins to one of their addresses. A person can have many different Bitcoin addresses and, for increased privacy, it is recommended that you use a unique address for each transaction. Most Bitcoin software and websites will help with this by generating a brand new address each time you perform a transaction. Some services provide a facility to request a new Bitcoin address for use with their service when desired.<br />
<br />
When using a web site that accepts bitcoins or holds Bitcoin balances on your behalf, that website will assign a Bitcoin address to your account, so you can transfer funds into your account at the site. Very much unlike e-mail, this address may change every time funds come in so care should be taken when sending additional funds to a previously-used address. When you send Bitcoins to your account at a web site, they will usually be credited to your account at that web site after the transaction is [[confirmation|confirmed]].<br />
<br />
==Addresses can be created offline==<br />
Creating addresses can be done without an Internet connection and do not require any contact or registration with the Bitcoin network. The network only knows about an address when it is first used in a transaction. Because addresses can be created easily and at minimal cost, it is not uncommon to create temporary addresses that can be discarded if unused.<br />
<br />
It is also possible to create large batches of addresses offline using other software tools. Generating batches of addresses is useful in several scenarios, such as e-commerce websites where a unique pre-generated address is dispensed to each customer who chooses a "pay with Bitcoin" option.<br />
<br />
==Addresses are case sensitive and exact==<br />
Bitcoin addresses are case-sensitive. Bitcoin addresses should be copied and pasted using the computer's clipboard wherever possible.<br />
<br />
If you hand-key a Bitcoin address, and each character is not transcribed exactly - including capitalization - the incorrect address will most likely be rejected by the Bitcoin client. You will have to check your entry and try again.<br />
<br />
The probability that a mistyped address is accepted as being valid is 1 in 2<sup>32</sup> or approximately 1 in 4.29 billion.<br />
<br />
==Most addresses have a "private key"==<br />
For most addresses, there is a corresponding secret number known as a [[private key]] that is required to spend funds previously sent to an address.<br />
<br />
When using a Bitcoin client, private keys are typically stored in the [[wallet file]]. The private key has a special purpose - it is mathematically needed to create valid transactions that spend the funds originally sent to the address. If the private key to an address is lost (for example, in a hard drive crash, fire or other natural disaster), any associated Bitcoins are effectively lost forever.<br />
<br />
==What's in an address==<br />
Most Bitcoin addresses are 34 characters.<br />
They consist of random digits and uppercase and lowercase letters, with the exception that the uppercase letter "O", uppercase letter "I", lowercase letter "l", and the number "0" are never used to prevent visual ambiguity.<br />
<br />
Some Bitcoin addresses can be shorter than 34 characters and still be valid.<br />
A significant percentage of Bitcoin addresses are only 33 characters, and some older addresses may be even shorter.<br />
Every Bitcoin address stands for a number - somewhat like an account number. These shorter addresses are valid simply because they stand for numbers that happen to start with zeroes, and when the zeroes are omitted, the encoded address gets shorter.<br />
<br />
Several of the characters inside a Bitcoin address are used as a checksum so that typographical errors can be automatically found and rejected.<br />
<br />
If you would like to validate a Bitcoin address in an application, it is advisable to use a method from [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1026.0 this thread] rather than to just check for string length, allowed characters, or that the address starts with a 1.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Technical background of Bitcoin addresses]]<br />
* [[List of address prefixes]]<br />
* [[Exit Address]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Category:Mining&diff=29826Category:Mining2012-08-17T08:20:19Z<p>Weex: /* Guides */</p>
<hr />
<div>For the mining article, see [[Mining]].<br />
<br />
==Guides==<br />
<br />
* [http://www.weusecoins.com/mining-guide.php WeUseCoins - Mining Guide]<br />
* [https://www.coindl.com/page/item/201 Introduction to Bitcoin Mining eBook]<br />
* [http://ewoah.com/technology/a-very-good-guide-to-building-a-bitcoin-mining-rig-cluster-guide eWoah: How to build a Bitcoin Mining Rig Cluster]<br />
* [http://bitcointalk.org/?topic=7514.0 Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 Mining Guide / HOWTO]<br />
* [http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=17805.0 MineCo.in pool: Beginners guide to pooled bitcoin mining]<br />
* [http://bitclockers.com/forums/index.php?topic=3.0 BitClockers pool: Getting started mining]<br />
* [http://foreverrising.wordpress.com/ Foreverrising: Mining Guides and Overclocking w/ examples]<br />
<br />
[[zh-cn:Category:开采]]<br />
[[de:Kategorie:Mining]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Category:Economics&diff=29796Category:Economics2012-08-16T07:45:55Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>The '''Economics''' category encompass all economic thought relating to [[Bitcoin]].<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
<br />
* [[Credit]]<br />
* [[:Category:Investing|Investing]]<br />
* [http://www.quora.com/Who-has-thought-deeply-about-Bitcoin-as-a-currency Who has thought deeply about Bitcoin as a currency?] on Quora<br />
* [[Research]]<br />
<br />
[[Category:Main category]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Confirmation&diff=29788Confirmation2012-08-16T03:27:45Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>After a transaction is broadcast to the Bitcoin network, it may be included in a block that is published to the network. When that happens it is said that one confirmation has occurred for the transaction. With each subsequent block that is found, the number of confirmations is increased by one. To protect against [[double spending]], a transaction should not be considered as '''confirmed''' until a certain number of blocks confirm, or verify that transaction. <br />
<br />
The classic bitcoin client will show a transaction as "n/unconfirmed" until 6 blocks confirm the transaction. Merchants and exchanges who accept [[trade|bitcoins as payment]] can set their own threshold as to how many confirmations are required until funds can be considered valid. When potential loss due to double spending as nominal, as with very inexpensive or non-fungible items, payments can be considered confirmed as soon as it is seen on the network. Most [[:Category:Exchanges|exchanges]] and other merchants who bear the risk from double spending require 6 or more blocks. <br />
<br />
Coins generated aren't considered confirmed by the Bitcoin protocol for 100 blocks. It is advisable to wait some additional time for a better chance that the transaction will be propogated by all nodes. The classic bitcoin client won't show generated coins as confirmed until the 120th block.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
<br />
* [[Blocks]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Mining&diff=29787Mining2012-08-16T03:10:50Z<p>Weex: /* Introduction */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{stub}}<br />
[[File:Quick-and-dirty-4x5970-cooling.jpg|thumb|right|A quick and dirty mining rig]]<br />
== Introduction ==<br />
''''Mining''' or generating, is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions. This ledger of past transactions is called the [[block chain]] as it is a chain of [[block|blocks]]. The block chain serves to [[Confirmation|confirm]] those transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place. Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to respend coins that have already been spent elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and difficult. Individual [[blocks]] must contain [[proof of work|proof of work]] in the form of a brute-force hash to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes each time they receive a block. <br />
<br />
This process is called mining because it resembles gold mining in that it requires exertion and slowly makes new currency available. As the block reward drops over the next decades, the purpose of mining will shift more toward transaction processing rather than the seeding of the Bitcoin currency.<br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
Bitcoin's public journal was started on January 3rd, 2009 at 18:15 UTC presumably by [[Satoshi Nakamoto]]. This page (block) is known as the [[genesis block]]. The first transaction recorded on the first page (block) was a single transaction paying the reward of 50 new Bitcoins to its creator.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin mining is so called because the rate at which bitcoins are generated resembles the rate at which commodities like gold are mined from the ground. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]]. <br />
<br />
== Difficulty ==<br />
=== The Computationally-Difficult Problem ===<br />
Mining a block is difficult because the SHA-256 hash of a block's header must be lower than or equal to the [[Target|target]] in order for the block to be accepted by the network. This problem can be simplified for explanation purposes: The hash of a block must start with a certain number of zeros. The probability of calculating a hash that starts with many zeros is very low, therefore many attempts must be made. In order to generate a new hash each round, a [[Nonce|nonce]] is incremented. See [[Proof of work]] for more information.<br />
<br />
=== The Difficulty Metric ===<br />
The [[Difficulty|difficulty]] is the measure of how difficult it is to find a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. It is recalculated every 2016 blocks to a value such that the previous 2016 blocks would have been generated in exactly two weeks had everyone been mining at this difficulty. This will yield, on average, one block every ten minutes. As more miners join, the rate of block creation will go up. As the rate of block generation goes up, the difficulty rises to compensate which will push the rate of block creation back down. Any blocks released by malicious miners that do not meet the required difficulty [[Target|target]] will simply be rejected by everyone on the network and thus will be worthless. <br />
<br />
=== Reward ===<br />
When a block is discovered, the discoverer may award themselves a certain number of bitcoins, which is agreed-upon by everyone in the network. Currently this bounty is 50 bitcoins; this value will halve every 210,000 blocks. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]]. <br />
<br />
Additionally, the miner is awarded the fees paid by users sending transactions. The fee is an incentive for the miner to include the transaction in their block. In the future, as the number of new bitcoins miners are allowed to create in each block dwindles, the fees will make up a much more important percentage of mining income. <br />
==== Making a Profit ====<br />
== Hardware ==<br />
[[File:Usb-fpga module 1.15x-hs-800.jpg|thumb|right|FPGA Module]]<br />
Users have used various types of hardware over time to mine blocks. Hardware specifications and performance statistics are detailed on the [[Mining Hardware Comparison]] page.<br />
=== CPU Mining === <br />
Early Bitcoin client versions allowed users to use their CPUs to mine. The advent of GPU mining made CPU mining financially unwise. The option was therefore removed from the Bitcoin client. <br />
=== GPU Mining ===<br />
GPU Mining is drastically faster and more efficient than CPU mining. See the main article: [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]. A variety of popular [[Mining rig|mining rigs]] have been documented.<br />
=== FPGA Mining ===<br />
FPGA mining is a very efficient and fast way to mine, comparable to GPU mining and drastically outperforming CPU mining. FPGAs typically consume very small amounts of power with relatively high hash ratings, making them more viable and efficient than GPU mining. See [[Mining Hardware Comparison]] for FPGA hardware specifications and statistics.<br />
<br />
=== Mining in the Future ===<br />
In December 2012 the block reward is expected to reduce from 50 BTC per block to 25. This will cause miners to lose around 50% revenue in most scenarios. An upwards trend of [[difficulty]] is expected through 2012 towards December with the expected advent of ASICs and efficient FPGAs adding to overall network mining capacity. GPU mining is expected to reach a peak in growth and to slowly decline in the future.<br />
<br />
== Pools ==<br />
As mining a block became more and more difficult, individuals found that they were working for months without finding a block and receiving ''any'' reward for their mining efforts. Thus they started organizing themselves into [[Pooled mining|pools]] so that they could share rewards more evenly. See [[Pooled mining]] and [[Comparison of mining pools]].<br />
[[Category:Mining]][[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Mining&diff=29786Mining2012-08-16T03:10:13Z<p>Weex: /* Introduction */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{stub}}<br />
[[File:Quick-and-dirty-4x5970-cooling.jpg|thumb|right|A quick and dirty mining rig]]<br />
== Introduction ==<br />
''''Mining''' or generating, is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin's public ledger of past transactions. This ledger of past transactions is called the [[block chain]] as it is a chain of [[block|blocks]]. The block chain serves to [[confirmations|confirm]] those transactions to the rest of the network as having taken place. Bitcoin nodes use the block chain to distinguish legitimate Bitcoin transactions from attempts to respend coins that have already been spent elsewhere.<br />
<br />
Mining is intentionally designed to be resource-intensive and difficult. Individual [[blocks]] must contain [[proof of work|proof of work]] in the form of a brute-force hash to be considered valid. This proof of work is verified by other Bitcoin nodes each time they receive a block. <br />
<br />
This process is called mining because it resembles gold mining in that it requires exertion and slowly makes new currency available. As the block reward drops over the next decades, the purpose of mining will shift more toward transaction processing rather than the seeding of the Bitcoin currency.<br />
<br />
== History ==<br />
Bitcoin's public journal was started on January 3rd, 2009 at 18:15 UTC presumably by [[Satoshi Nakamoto]]. This page (block) is known as the [[genesis block]]. The first transaction recorded on the first page (block) was a single transaction paying the reward of 50 new Bitcoins to its creator.<br />
<br />
Bitcoin mining is so called because the rate at which bitcoins are generated resembles the rate at which commodities like gold are mined from the ground. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]]. <br />
<br />
== Difficulty ==<br />
=== The Computationally-Difficult Problem ===<br />
Mining a block is difficult because the SHA-256 hash of a block's header must be lower than or equal to the [[Target|target]] in order for the block to be accepted by the network. This problem can be simplified for explanation purposes: The hash of a block must start with a certain number of zeros. The probability of calculating a hash that starts with many zeros is very low, therefore many attempts must be made. In order to generate a new hash each round, a [[Nonce|nonce]] is incremented. See [[Proof of work]] for more information.<br />
<br />
=== The Difficulty Metric ===<br />
The [[Difficulty|difficulty]] is the measure of how difficult it is to find a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. It is recalculated every 2016 blocks to a value such that the previous 2016 blocks would have been generated in exactly two weeks had everyone been mining at this difficulty. This will yield, on average, one block every ten minutes. As more miners join, the rate of block creation will go up. As the rate of block generation goes up, the difficulty rises to compensate which will push the rate of block creation back down. Any blocks released by malicious miners that do not meet the required difficulty [[Target|target]] will simply be rejected by everyone on the network and thus will be worthless. <br />
<br />
=== Reward ===<br />
When a block is discovered, the discoverer may award themselves a certain number of bitcoins, which is agreed-upon by everyone in the network. Currently this bounty is 50 bitcoins; this value will halve every 210,000 blocks. See [[Controlled Currency Supply]]. <br />
<br />
Additionally, the miner is awarded the fees paid by users sending transactions. The fee is an incentive for the miner to include the transaction in their block. In the future, as the number of new bitcoins miners are allowed to create in each block dwindles, the fees will make up a much more important percentage of mining income. <br />
==== Making a Profit ====<br />
== Hardware ==<br />
[[File:Usb-fpga module 1.15x-hs-800.jpg|thumb|right|FPGA Module]]<br />
Users have used various types of hardware over time to mine blocks. Hardware specifications and performance statistics are detailed on the [[Mining Hardware Comparison]] page.<br />
=== CPU Mining === <br />
Early Bitcoin client versions allowed users to use their CPUs to mine. The advent of GPU mining made CPU mining financially unwise. The option was therefore removed from the Bitcoin client. <br />
=== GPU Mining ===<br />
GPU Mining is drastically faster and more efficient than CPU mining. See the main article: [[Why a GPU mines faster than a CPU]]. A variety of popular [[Mining rig|mining rigs]] have been documented.<br />
=== FPGA Mining ===<br />
FPGA mining is a very efficient and fast way to mine, comparable to GPU mining and drastically outperforming CPU mining. FPGAs typically consume very small amounts of power with relatively high hash ratings, making them more viable and efficient than GPU mining. See [[Mining Hardware Comparison]] for FPGA hardware specifications and statistics.<br />
<br />
=== Mining in the Future ===<br />
In December 2012 the block reward is expected to reduce from 50 BTC per block to 25. This will cause miners to lose around 50% revenue in most scenarios. An upwards trend of [[difficulty]] is expected through 2012 towards December with the expected advent of ASICs and efficient FPGAs adding to overall network mining capacity. GPU mining is expected to reach a peak in growth and to slowly decline in the future.<br />
<br />
== Pools ==<br />
As mining a block became more and more difficult, individuals found that they were working for months without finding a block and receiving ''any'' reward for their mining efforts. Thus they started organizing themselves into [[Pooled mining|pools]] so that they could share rewards more evenly. See [[Pooled mining]] and [[Comparison of mining pools]].<br />
[[Category:Mining]][[Category:Vocabulary]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=Secure_Trading&diff=29779Secure Trading2012-08-15T05:27:22Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>''Secure Trading Online''<br />
<br />
Bitcoin users may want to trade bitcoin directly with each other in what is known as an over-the-counter market. This topic is a guide on how to set up your online identity and includes some best practices for trading with others in the Bitcoin community.<br />
<br />
==Introduction==<br />
Within the Bitcoin community, individuals should be careful with their security and identity, primarily for two reasons:<br />
# At this time, there is little in the way of law enforcement. No court has dealt directly with a significant theft of bitcoins or determined Bitcoin's legal status. Bitcoin users are for the most part, on their own.<br />
# In lieu of legal action and lack of community trust outside the Bitcoin system itself, one's reputation has become the focus for building trust relationships with others in the community. Traders will take very little risk with new users who have not proven themselves (as one user can easily commit continuous fraud using many different identities.<br />
<br />
The Bitcoin community uses a few tools to help protect privacy, and thus identity. The first and most important is a [[Securing Your Computer|secure computer]].<br /><br />
<br />
'''Before proceeding please make sure you have completed the [[Securing Your Computer]] guide; this guide assumes that your computer is secure both physically and in software.'''<br />
<br />
If you are trading within Canada you are encouraged to use Interac e-transfer and Clearcoin (now closed) as outlined on [[Secure Trading-CAD-interac|this page]].<br />
<br />
==Creating a secure identity==<br />
The first step is to create a cryptographically secure public-private key-pair. This will be used as the basis of keeping both your wallet (see [[Securing your wallet]]) and your identity secure.<br />
<br />
===Creating your first [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy PGP] key-pair===<br />
A PGP key-pair serves two very important functions:<br />
# To sign information with an unforgeable signature<br />
# To decrypt things that other people encrypt for you<br />
<br />
This allows you to both conduct business privately (encryption), and give out promises that you cannot deny making (signature).<br />
==== Installing GPG ====<br />
Virtually all GNU/Linux distributions include [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Privacy_Guard GPG] in their default configurations, but Microsoft Windows users will need to install additional software.<br />
<br />
===== Microsoft Windows:=====<br />
On Windows, the recommend package that contains GPG is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29 Git] package by the [http://code.google.com/p/msysgit msysgit project]. This package contains a collection of Unix tools that are very useful for any Windows installation.<br />
<br />
* Navigate to [[Git|msysgit]] https://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list<br />
* Select the latest ''Git'' package. (Git-1.7.4-preview20110204.exe)<br />
* When installing Git on the ''Adjusting your PATH environment'' screen, select: ''Run Git and included Unix tools from the Windows Command Prompt''<br /><br />
This option will install both Git and its supporting tools that include [[gpg]] into the Windows file PATH. This will enable any Windows application to access GPG.<br /><br />
It is possible that some other software on your system has installed GPG before. If you think this may be the case, it is advised to use the search tool or command prompt to find or run GPG respectively.<br />
* After installation, GPG can be used by entering 'gpg' into any Windows Command Prompt (cmd).<br />
<br />
==== Setting up OpenPGP email ====<br />
Once you have GPG installed on your system, it is recommended that you use Thunderbird that works on both Windows and Linux systems:<br />
<br />
===== All: =====<br />
# Install Thunderbird: https://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-GB/ <br />
# Setup your email account with Thunderbird.<br />
# Install the Enigmail plugin for Thunderbird: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/enigmail/<br /><br />
<br />
Upon loading Enigmail, Thunderbird will ask you to make a new ‘identity,’ follow this wizard and you will have created your identity.<br /><br />
You should backup your private key in a secure place.<br /><br />
Secondary, you should create a revocation certificate and store that in a different secure place (maybe print it out and store it in your fire safe).<br />
<br />
===Register with [#bitcoin-otc]===<br />
Follow the guide here: http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Using_bitcoin-otc<br />
<br />
===Register the same username at the popular places:===<br />
* [[Bitcoin Forum]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin.it_Wiki|Bitcoin Wiki]]<br />
* [[Bitcoin:Community_portal#IRC_Chat|Freenode IRC]]<br />
Use a strong and different password for each of these places, keeping your passwords in a secure place. This will allow other people in the community to track you across the different Bitcoin related sites. Also making identity theft online more challenging.<br />
<br />
==Best Practices with trading==<br />
===Use Bitcoin-OTC===<br />
The [[Bitcoin-otc|Bitcoin OTC]] acts as a secure 'Address Book' within the bitcoin community.<br />
* Always require the user to become registered with #bitcoin-otc.<br />
* Require a signed message from the fingerprint quoted at: http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewgpg.php<br />
* Follow additional [http://wiki.bitcoin-otc.com/wiki/Using_bitcoin-otc#Risk_of_fraud recommendations] for avoiding fraud.<br />
<br />
====Using the Web-Of-Trust====<br />
One of the key features of the Bitcoin OTC is the Web of Trust, this allows users to 'rate' each other. One can have more confidence trading with a user that has many good ratings.<br />
* http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.php<br />
<br />
===Make sure both parties agree to the terms of the trade with signed messages===<br />
* Get a PGP signed quote, and check the signature.<br />
* Send a PGP signed receipt.<br />
This allows either party to go public if the trade has become sour and stops your trading partner from claiming the details of the agreement were somehow different.<br /><br />
<br />
Search the Bitcoin Forum for the username of the person that you are trading with. Check if the user has provided constructive and useful advice to other parties. And, most importantly, check for any claims that the user has scammed.<br />
<br />
===Use an escrow===<br />
Trading might benefit from an [[:Category:Escrow_services|escrow service]] such that bitcoins are disbursed only after contract terms have been met.<br /><br />
<br />
Additionally, found in Bitcoin's community are trusted individuals willing to act as independent, third-party escrow brokers.<br />
<br />
[[de:Sicheres_Handeln]]<br />
[[zh-cn:交易安全]]</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29778How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:24:39Z<p>Weex: Seems pretty complete to me.</p>
<hr />
<div>If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind v0.6.0, you can import private keys using built-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before v0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there are a couple of techniques you can use to avoid this. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input your passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6.0 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29777How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:24:16Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Stub}}<br />
<br />
If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind v0.6.0, you can import private keys using built-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before v0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there are a couple of techniques you can use to avoid this. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input your passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6.0 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29776How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:23:32Z<p>Weex: /* Deleting Keys */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Stub}}<br />
<br />
If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin 0.6.0, you can import private keys using build-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before Bitcoin 0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there are a couple of techniques you can use to avoid this. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input your passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6.0 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29775How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:22:47Z<p>Weex: /* Unlock your wallet */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Stub}}<br />
<br />
If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin 0.6.0, you can import private keys using build-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before Bitcoin 0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there are a couple of techniques you can use to avoid this. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input your passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29774How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:21:57Z<p>Weex: /* Unlock your wallet */</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Stub}}<br />
<br />
If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin 0.6.0, you can import private keys using build-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before Bitcoin 0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there is a trick. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input your passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weexhttps://tests.bitcoin.it/w/index.php?title=How_to_import_private_keys&diff=29773How to import private keys2012-08-15T05:21:29Z<p>Weex: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Stub}}<br />
<br />
If you are using [[Cold storage]], a [[Paper wallet]] or generating [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=25804.0 vanity addresses] you may have a need to import a [[Private key]]. Since Bitcoin 0.6.0, you can import private keys using build-in RPC command [[importprivkey]]. Before Bitcoin 0.6.0, you needed to rely on third-party [[wallet.dat]] manipulation tool such as [[Pywallet]]. <br />
<br />
As of August 2012, possibly the easiest way to import a private key is using [[Blockchain.info]]'s My Wallet service. When successully imported through the "Import/Export" screen, the bitcoins assigned to a private key can be immediately sent to any Bitcoin address. The [[MtGox]] Bitcoin exchange will allow individual private keys to be redeemed but since they must sweep the address, the user must wait 6 confirmations for access to the funds. There is an API method to import an entire wallet.dat as well.<br />
<br />
This article describes how to import a private key through the RPC API of bitcoind, which is a topic for advanced users.<br />
<br />
== Start Bitcoin client ==<br />
Unlike third-party wallet.dat manipulation tools such as [[Pywallet]], you do not have to close the Bitcoin client before proceeding. Instead, you need to start the bitcoind server.<br />
* Close bitcoin-qt and start ''bitcoind -damon'' in Terminal Emulator. The version of bitcoind MUST be the same as bitcoin-qt!<br />
<br />
Bitcoin-QT does not enable its RPC interface by default. To enable it:<br />
* Close Bitcoin-QT and restart it with ''bitcoin-qt -server''.<br />
<br />
== Unlock your wallet ==<br />
If you have an encrypted wallet (recommended), you need to unlock it temporarily before importing private keys. The RPC command for unlocking an encrypted wallet is ''walletpassphrase <passphrase> <timeout>''. Typing this directly in a bash terminal will leave your wallet passphrase directly in the bash history but there is a trick. Simply add a space before the command:<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind walletpassphrase yourpassphrase 120<br />
<br />
Another alternative is to use a bash variable:<br />
<br />
read x<br />
(input you passphrase)<br />
bitcoind walletpassphrase "$x" 120 # Do not set the timeout too long or too short.<br />
<br />
== Import Private key(s) ==<br />
The last command unlocked your wallet temporarily for 120 seconds, during which time you must import your private keys. Since private keys can be as important as your passphrase, you may want to use the same techniques as above to prevent their being recorded in bash history (bash variable or space before the command):<br />
<br />
(space)bitcoind importprivkey "5yourveryveryveryverylongprivatekeystring" "my-new-key" # "my-new-key" is a label for the key/address pair and is optional<br />
<br />
The importing process is now started. Bitcoind will rescan the entire block data to ensure this key has not been used before. This process will take from one to two minutes, depending on your CPU performance. DO NOT abort it before finishing!<br />
<br />
If no errors occurs, the import is a success and Bitcoin-QT users will be able to see the new address in the GUI immediately. If you need to import more keys, just repeat the instructions above. There is currently no command to import a batch of private keys so you will need to wait a minute or two for each key to be imported.<br />
<br />
== Cleaning up ==<br />
<br />
bitcoind walletlock<br />
<br />
This will lock your wallet again (so you don't have to wait for timeout)<br />
<br />
unset x<br />
unset y<br />
<br />
These commands will clear the passphrase and private key from memory if you used the ''read'' technique. If you started bitcoind, you will need to stop it before Bitcoin-QT will start again:<br />
<br />
bitcoind stop<br />
<br />
===Deleting Keys===<br />
At some point, you may wish to delete private keys from a wallet.dat file but as of version v0.6 of Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind, there is no RPC method available for this purpose.</div>Weex