Peercoin v0.12 Released!
We are proud to announce the release of Peercoin v0.12 (Codename Ladybug). This is a mandatory upgrade. Please upgrade by April 17th, 2023.
A hard fork will occur once the following conditions are met:
- April 17th, 2023, 12:00 UTC has passed.
- 90% of the last 1,000 blocks are from a v0.12 wallet.
You can keep track of the current adoption percentage here:
Changelog
- Rebase to bitcoin-core 0.23.
- RFC-0005 - Prunes zero value outputs from UTXO set.
- RFC-0020 - Reduces PoW difficulty on new PoS blocks if PoW block is overdue.
- Client caches coinstake input transactions to reduce disk access and improve responsiveness.
- QT wallet minting probability default is set to 30 days.
- Various bug fixes and improvements.
Summary
This release rebases on bitcoin-core 0.23 in order to adopt the latest developments in the bitcoin ecosystem, namely Schnorr signatures and Taproot.
Schnorr signatures offer several advantages over currently used ECDSA signatures in terms of computational efficiency, storage, and privacy. It makes transactions smaller, and verification quicker and easier.
Taproot will enable sending to and spending from Schnorr public keys. In order to achieve this, a new type of ScriptPubKey called Pay-to-Taproot (P2TR) has been defined.
Schnorr signatures will make Peercoin transactions far more flexible. If you want to learn more about Schnorr signatures and Taproot, materials are readily available on the internet.
RFC-0005 - Unspendable Zero Outputs
Peercoin requires outputs to have a value of at least 0.01 PPC. However, there is one exception to this rule, 0 PPC outputs are allowed. Such zero-value outputs can have some useful applications laid out below, but an unfortunate side-effect is that they take up memory in the node’s UTXO table forever, increasing its memory usage. This RFC proposes a solution that fixes this memory leak without changing the rules for output values.
RFC-0020 - PoW Difficulty on PoS Blocks
Peercoin shares a mining algorithm with Bitcoin, so it is assumed that the total potential hashpower in existence greatly exceeds the hashpower targeting the Peercoin chain. As a result, miners will turn to Peercoin when profit is high, drive up the PoW difficulty, then move on to other chains. This causes a difficulty bomb in which the difficulty remains high until the next PoW block is found. Once that next block is found at the high difficulty, the difficulty immediately drops and the next several PoW blocks are easily found until the difficulty is driven up again. This boom-and-bust behavior causes long strings of PoW blocks that have low chainweight and can be orphaned by a single PoS block. By adjusting the PoW difficulty on PoS blocks found during these long periods, the difficulty bomb is diffused and PoW blocks can be found at more regular intervals.
What Comes Next?
Now that Peercoin is caught up with upstream Bitcoin, we will begin to focus on supporting technologies that will make it easier for Peercoiners to interact with layer 2 networks.
We’re delighted to have recently recruited a qualified developer to port btcd. Btcd is an alternative implementation of a full node written in Go (golang). It is a required prerequisite for a number of technologies like Coinbase Rosetta and LND (lightning network daemon).
Work on the btcd port started this week. Work will be done in 3 phases. The first milestone is the ability to sync, without validation. The second is PoS validation, and the final milestone is everything the reference node can do, except minting. Minting functionality is not necessary for the port.
A previous Peercoin update made viable multisig minting, whereby an address with multiple signatures can participate in the minting process. The Foundation has made use of this new feature by generating blocks and rewards from its multisig donation address. Continued research into ease of use will make such features accessible to all Peercoin users and may usher in a new age of advanced multisig minting paradigms to address diverse user needs.
Upgrading
You only need to upgrade if you’re using the core reference wallet. This is the one listed at the top of the wallets page.
If your peercoins are being used with any of the following apps, services, or devices, then there is nothing you need to do. These services will carry out the upgrade for you.
- Android Mobile Wallet (Flutter)
- iOS Mobile Wallet (Flutter)
- Web Wallet (Flutter)
- Hardware Wallet (Ledger)
- Exchange (Centralized)
- Bridge.peercoin.net (Wrapped Peercoin)
Before installation, make sure to backup your wallet from the main menu.
For users of the core reference wallet, v0.12 is a standard upgrade. However, if you don’t upgrade before the blockchain forks on or after April 17th, you will be required to resync the blockchain, so it is best not to delay.
The v0.12 wallet can be downloaded from the wallets page. Instructions for upgrading are provided below the download links. More download options can be found on GitHub. If you need help with installation, leave a comment below.
Contributors
Big thanks to volunteers who have made this release possible:
- @backpacker69 - Core Development
- @peerchemist - Project Management
- @Buckkets - Splash Screen
- ihavenoface - automated builds
- @sandakersmann - various fixes and polish
- lateminer - code cleanup and fixes
Donate
Remember that these developments are sponsored by the Peercoin Foundation, which in turn is sponsored by generous community donations. PPC, BTC, and Fiat donations can be made at peercoin.net/foundation.
Support
To stay informed, you can follow the latest Peercoin news on our forum, our Twitter, or Reddit. If you want to come chat or need help, come say hi to our team and community on Telegram/Discord.
