Killing bitcoin at the next block reward halving?

Hi,

I guess most of you agree that the next bitcoin block reward halving will cause some trouble and that this is the chance for altcoins (and particularly proof-of-stake) to take over. Peercoin is one of the more plausible candidates, which is why I have signed up today.

However I did some research and got a bit disappointed. Looks like there is still a long way to go, not sure if we can get there in time:

First of all, not a single PoS coin got its software included into major distributions like debian! (bitcoin, litecoin and dodgecoin are there)
So how about peercoin in particular: Is there any issue that blocks peercoin software from entering major distributions? Has it been considered to setup a bounty to help with that? The amount of review and consideration software gets before being included in debian is a mark of quality and probably would help adoption a lot.

Secondly since PoS is quite ressource friendly it should be possible to run full nodes on embedded devices like routers, that are up 24-7 anyway. PoS networks could even rely 100% on cheap HW that is pluged in anyway and would be much more secure. Yet there are not packages for OpenWRT. Actually there are at least three independent issues to solve for this to happen:
a) A network of home routers will be more difficult to keep up to date. There should be a way for nodes to decide that they need updateing and do something about it. Of course security must be considered.
b) Actually packaging peercoin software for OpenWRT. (This is something where I could help. Actually I’m inclined to prepare packages for OpenWRT for any PoS coin, that manages to offer the native equivalent of 0.1BTC as bounty, and try to get them included if that’s agreed to be a good thing. But let’s discuss this first …)
c) To make this easier to use for non-technical people, some webinterface should be provided.

So that’s my main two concerns as of now. Do you think of anything else that needs to be done to make proof-of-stake coins a feasable alternative when bitcoin gets into trouble?

i was thinking about this, and it will cause trouble if it makes mining unprofitable, so the miner manufacturers will probably lower their prices, what they are paying for production is basically just a fraction of what they ask for, so they can just keep on doing this and reduce the price according to market

I don’t think HW prices are of much relevance. If they just continue mining with the existing hardware this would be fine. The problem is how they are going to pay the electricity bills …

First of all, not a single PoS coin got its software included into major distributions like debian! (bitcoin, litecoin and dodgecoin are there)

Yes would be cool. I do think when peercoins marketcap reaches 20M+, thats when peercoin hits the dollar parity, it attracts more and more people willing to make stuff like that happen. Price dictates everything after all. And it’s not very far away imho…

[quote=“thehuntergames, post:4, topic:3724”]

First of all, not a single PoS coin got its software included into major distributions like debian! (bitcoin, litecoin and dodgecoin are there)

Yes would be cool. I do think when peercoins marketcap reaches 20M+, thats when peercoin hits the dollar parity, it attracts more and more people willing to make stuff like that happen. Price dictates everything after all. And it’s not very far away imho…[/quote]

It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. In this case I think it’s easier to create the software so it attrackts users than creating users so they start working on software… Oddly enough most projects listed (funded) on peer4commit don’t look to me like they are high priority to make peercoin a viable option once bitcoin has some trouble.

So I looked into this debian package thing: Actually there is some debian stuff in the git repository - but it dates back to before the fork from bitcoin. Also I note that NeuCoin at least is providing there own packages for debian/ubuntu (still not the review you get when uploaded to the debian archive, but it’s a start). Since NeuCoin on the technical side is just a rebranded Peercoin, maybe this would be a good starting point. So among these two things it shouldn’t be too difficult to start supporting debian and ubuntu.

My node runs on Raspberry Pi that runs on Raspbian which is debian based. I only compiled the headless client so I don’t know how difficult to compile the qt wallet.

While this didn’t get much feedback at least it also got no opposition, so I went ahead and created a project on peer4commit: http://peer4commit.com/projects/164

If things work out well, I might setup a second project targeted at supporting embedded devices like routers. But I’d also be happy if somebody else took that one.

Thanks for posting the project, lambda.

I’m optimistic that we will get Peercoin into official distribution repositories with this.
The debate on whether or not proof-of-work only crypto’s will stand the test of time is becoming exceedingly more present.
By reaching new users who do not otherwise know about proof-of-stake, we can attract individuals who are far-sighted in thought.
( Something Peercoin consistently seems to do. :wink: )

I’ll pass this along right away. Let’s get started as soon as possible.

I think the 1/2 ving not so much an issue for btc…

however, the backbone nature of peercoin ,is going to be the winner, also pos will take out perhaps the micro tx as well.

PPC is just in a different league/solution space to btc.

As far as I grok it The nay Sayers, nothing at stake etc/sake grinidng etc, jsut don’t get it. Thats just the same as merge-mining if even that. So your not on the Peercoin chain in the same way as IXC or IO are not on the BTC chain.

Peercoin will go to parity again and then $10 and the $100 and so on.

Cold minitng is the key in an essenital step in the official repo.

Why do you feel that it’s essential? I believe the current way to mint allows us to secure the network better. We need active nodes to secure the network and if anything maybe adjusting the POS reward from time to time would do the trick.

Why do you feel that it’s essential? I believe the current way to mint allows us to secure the network better. We need active nodes to secure the network and if anything maybe adjusting the POS reward from time to time would do the trick.[/quote]

I would imagine that large holders are hesitant to mint in significant quantities due to potential attack vectors. If I am not mistaken, ones wallet must be unlocked and connected to the network to stake coins. Cold minting could provide incentive to entities such as BTC-e to stake their coins while minimizing risk. Currently ~10% of coins are being minted. If we were to reduce the potential risk for staking coins, we could see a significant increase in network security.

If I have misunderstood or misinterpreted anything please correct me.

Why do you feel that it’s essential? I believe the current way to mint allows us to secure the network better. We need active nodes to secure the network and if anything maybe adjusting the POS reward from time to time would do the trick.[/quote]

I would imagine that large holders are hesitant to mint in significant quantities due to potential attack vectors. If I am not mistaken, ones wallet must be unlocked and connected to the network to stake coins. Cold minting could provide incentive to entities such as BTC-e to stake their coins while minimizing risk. Currently ~10% of coins are being minted. If we were to reduce the potential risk for staking coins, we could see a significant increase in network security.

If I have misunderstood or misinterpreted anything please correct me.[/quote]

What is the risk of staking coins?

Currently ones wallet must be connected to the network and unencrypted during minting.

We should keep this thread on topic. Perhaps we can make a thread to further discuss this. :wink:

Currently ones wallet must be connected to the network and unencrypted during minting.

We should keep this thread on topic. Perhaps we can make a thread to further discuss this. ;)[/quote]

Sure go ahead. And the wallet is unlocked for minting but still encrypted…

Isn’t locking a form of encryption?

If people think that cold minting is, what it takes to kill bitcoin, then this obviously is on-topic here.

However it seems there is already a cold minting pull request, so not sure discussing this here is going to get us any closer. :wink:

It will cause some financial troubles to the current Bitcoin miners.
But why would Bitcoin die or get hit in general?
Are 51% attacks expected?
Can someone elaborate?

[quote=“hrobeers, post:17, topic:3724”]But why would Bitcoin die or get hit in general?
Are 51% attacks expected?
Can someone elaborate?[/quote]

Try this:

A price drop is not different from a coinbase reward halving if the price doesn’t double…

There is still the big difference that the coinbase reward halving is predictable.

However, it might indeed result in miners jumping on Peercoin mining. Not sure what effect this will have.

If mine-and-sell is the dominant volume of non-random ppc trading, then the price of ppc (in btc) must equal how much hash needed to mine 1 ppc divided by how much needed to mine 1 btc. I don’t know the actual number. Assuming the relation is true, then halving btc reward will first half ppc mining reward rate because it’s more profitable to mine ppc untill diff goes out to cancel the effect. Then ppc price in btc will go up due to less mine-to-sell selling pressure. BTC price in USD will also increase due to less mine-to-sell selling pressure. ppc price in usd will go up even more.