Topic: [ANN] Vcoin sha256 pow - page 15. (Read 55034 times)

I forgot to preface my post with “A short progress report”.

In the 0.9/10/11 series, nearly all of the network-related coin- and chain-specific parameters such as pchMessageStart, pszTimeStamp, rpcport, etc. have been migrated out of the codebase and into a separate file: “chainparams.cpp”. This approach was introduced late in the 0.8 series and one side-effect of this rationalisation is that it allows the coin to be (comparatively) cleanly migrated across upgrades. In VCoin's case, the elderly codebase of the OP meant that this marshalling task had to be done from scratch, hence the preliminary port to 0.9 as a means of establishing --- and, importantly, testing --- the VCoin-specific content of the chainparams file.

The net result of this is that the process of creating a parameter-variant clone of Bitcoin Core 0.11 is made vastly more controllable. As this is a p2p project, m’peers may appreciate a walk-through.

1. Clone the code: git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin
2. Create a “vcoin” branch and check it out as the working space
3. Change each implicated instance of the string “Bitcoin” to “VCoin”, observing both case and word boundary conditions and not changing every single instance of CBitcoinAddressString into, e.g. CCrapcoinAddressString throughout the codebase (okay, it technically won’t/shouldn’t affect the execution but even so, yuk).
4. Copy chainparams.cpp from VCoin 0.9, adjust to reflect the upstream re-factorisation that was done between 0.9 and 0.11.
5. Compile
6. Run tests, commit the re-branding and the re-parameterisation, job done.

It’s not quite as straightforward as that, there are a few scattered parameters/variables also to be changed but it’s a closely-defined task and hence relatively trivial to perform programmatically.

Now that I have all the required values, I shall repeat the walkthrough and replace the vcoincore repos with the cleaned-up version which tracks the upstream release schedule, i.e. offering a vcoincore-0.11 release as well as a vcoincore-master.

In this instance, a hardfork would manifest itself as the blockchain splitting into a vcoincore blockchain mined only by 0.11 nodes and a vcoin blockchain mined only by 0.8 nodes.

It is up to the community to prefer one codebase over another. It would be collegial to canvass Bleutrade’s perception and publish it here. I'm given to understand that certain recent developments in the Bitcoin codebase are quite significant in terms of developing new services.

In essence, the only notable differences between Bitcoin Core 0.11 and VCoin Core 0.11 are that VCoin offers 1bn coins vs Bitcoin’s 21m, a block reward of 50 VCN vs 1000 BTC and a block time of 30s vs Bitcoin’s 600s. That's about it, not even the halving schedule differs.

Keeping it this tight opens up the possibility of a later rebase to BitcoinX (assuming no significant regression involved).

There is just one small piece of legacy Zetacoin code to be integrated but I've yet to properly understand its role in the model.


Cheers

Graham

VCoin upgrade to Bitcoin Core 0.11

A bit of a first, the upgrade to 0.11 (master) is pretty much complete (with the exception of a transcription error or two here'n'there, soon to be resolved).

https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoincore

w.r.t. branches: vcoin-core is basic vanilla (as near as makes no difference) and vcoin-core.features.prerelease is the bundle of vanilla + branch features for overall kicking-of-the-tyres).

See it run, click the buttons. As suggested, it's 99.99% rebranded Bitcoin Core 0.11 which, even if I say so myself, has been done with surgical precision in order to present the lowest possible impedance to merged upstream development.  

But clicking the buttons is all you can do atm, will not sync with anything other than another 0.11 vcoin-core node 'cos none of the 0.8/9 nodes can speak the new (improved blockheader) protocol.

I have successfully compiled it on both Ubuntu 14.04 and 13.10 with the following command-line sequence:


For running the node, my working practice atm is start VCoin 0.9 and wait till it syncs. Then shut it down and create a copy of the datadir to use with the 0.11 upgrade:


The 0.11 node will/should pick up the testnet and the Minkiz node will be showing up in the “Console->Peers” list plus a handful of other nodes. T'others will gradually get banned, leaving just the Minkiz node.

For extra thrills, omit the “-testnet” ... an 0.11 node will read a fresh mainnet blockchain (although it argues with the 0.8/9 clients over the indexing) and it’s safe enough if using a different datadir - obligatory promissory screenshot:



Minkiz' domain is (atm) hard-wired as a DNSSeed node (minkiz.co). If you have strenuous objections to this arrogant centralisation (I know I would/do) then I direct your attention to the fact that the crowdsourced campaign for a community-owned node has to date received the grand total of 0 USD. Contributions of additional IP addresses / hostnames of stable VCoin nodes as advertised DNSSeeds are welcome, especially so if they arrive as github PRs.


Cheers

Graham

Vcoin added to coinmarketcap http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/vcoin/

U Mine is following you, and a good job, we need more news and information on this project......

I have setup a twitter account follow vcoin https://twitter.com/vcoinx

An even shorter progress report ... feel free to play with VCoin 0.9.2.2 prerelease on testnet:

https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoin09

It’s not exactly “done” in that it's not yet up to release candidate standard but at least it gives people something to play with in the interim. The migration from 0.9.x to 10.x is quite taxing and a successful upgrade to 0.9 will be a useful staging-post, I feel.

The default clone is set to the prerelease, this is FOR TESTNET ONLY. It's a soft fork, so it does sync to mainnet BUT it's not been tested, so NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MAINNET.



There are remaining issues, the most important of which is:

THE EXCHANGE TRADING TAB HAS NOT BEEN TESTED

In order to have reliable and reproducible tests, I'll need to create mock responses to calls on Bleutrade's API. The upgrade will only get released for general use when all the API tests pass.

There are several feature branches in which the individual features were developed and later merged into the prerelease version. The graphic shows what's different (apart from the enhancements accruing from just the upgrade from 0.8.x to 0.9.x.

The master branch is pretty much the basic upgrade to 0.9.2 with “just” the addition of the in-tab block explorer and a misconceived installation of an implementation of the IRC tab that actually opens a separate window instead, an infelicity which is addressed in the prerelease version.)

There are indeed two different in-wallet block explorer implementations, feel free to choose/vote for the most useful/attractive, whatever floats the boat.

The content of the “News” tab simply indicates “available functionality”. Basically, the tab gets web content from a hard-coded URL. Obviously this is a point of centralisation at the moment but it doesn't have to be that way for ever.

An opportunity for all to consider: what user-oriented advantages might accrue from the addition of a News tab? Please spend a little while thinking on or around this subject, perhaps from your own perspective as a coin user ... but do feel free to allow your imagination to venture further abroad if that suits.

Please feel free to create issues for any problems (https://github.com/gjhiggins/vcoin09/issues), the discussions that happen in an active repos form a valuable technical comms channel for any altcoin and VCoin is no exception.

I will try to maintain a consistent IRC presence for a while as a temporary measure of support. My laptop has a habit of rebooting at random intervals (an issue somewhere in the 8Gb of RAM I guess) and I'll have to remember to reconnect, so some patience may be required.

As ever, comments, observations, questions, critiques, are all welcome.

Cheers

Graham

Please post here when you have pushed the new code.

Great stuff, and well done

Look forward to seeing further development

Excellent thanks.

A short progress report.

I have successfully upgraded VCoin as a fork of ZetaCoin 0.9.2. This basically involved re-re-branding Zetacoin as VCoin and transcribing the relevant parameter setting and variable bindings.

VCoin 0.9.2 is an upgrade, just download and use.

Testnet has been enabled.

The UI has been augmented slightly via the adaptation of existing code; an in-wallet block & tx explorer, an IRC chat window and a mining page (needs work). In development is a couple of BittrexBleutrade-specific tabs, a trading page and a market stats presentation, both driven by Bleutrade's almost-JSON API.

When I'm done, I'll push the code up to github.


Cheers

Graham

To op added updated source code. Updated wallets comming soon  however there is no problem to use the old source code + wallets

I have updated the bootstrap.dat file to block 38558. The bootstrap.dat file contains the blockchain up to a certain block and can be used to significantly speed up the blockchain sync of a new wallet install by importing the blocks from the file instead of other peers. Copy the bootstrap.dat file to the same folder where your wallet.dat is and open the client. The file works on both Linux and Windows.

Here are the links. Please verify the checksums first to make sure that the file downloaded ok.

Link to bootstrap.dat (native file) (16MB)
Link to bootstrap.dat (.tar.gz) (7MB)
Link to checksums.txt

Also I note http://vcoin.meisterpool.org/ is dead so perhaps remove from OP.

Wow Graham, I have to admit when I saw you had replied, and I noted the length of the post the first thing I did was pop out to the kitchen and make a cup of coffee.

I have to say that as un-intentional as I suspect it was on your part, that has to be one of the best "White Papers" of a sort, I have seen.

Not only is it welcoming to see a mature adult in these forums, but one that actually comes across as giving a damn, and well done you on that front.

As I said earlier I had a feeling about this coin, and it was down to the fact that the original post was so poor and not like the others graphically wise that it quite simply could not have been an attempt at a "Get Rich Quick Scam" because more effort would have been involved.

I shall be watching this coin and mining it, and please if I can help in anyway just let me know, I'm not a code wizard, but do have the Mining Pool, and the dice games etc, and access to several servers.

Thanks

Great post! I'm responding in some detail but I'm taking some time over it, so with luck it'll be less prolix.

Cheers

Graham

That's great news then and well done you.

Me and gjhiggins will do the best to forward vcoin : I will update the op soon..
Vcoin just start.!