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Topic: Is it true that Vanillacoin uses the BTC code? - page 2. (Read 4547 times)

legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1000
I don't know if this coin is legit or not (probably not), but I always find it ironic when a bunch of "crypto anarchists" are constantly talking about things like copyrights when things like copyrights and patents can't exist without a police state to enforce them.  You have one foot in each ideology at the same time.  It makes zero sense to me.

I don't care if his code comments all say "fuck you I pirated all this shit" as long as it actually works.  Again, if it works is another subject entirely.
legendary
Activity: 826
Merit: 1002
amarha
Oh, he'll want to fix some of the inherited bugs

"built from scratch in it's entirety"

Scammer: confirmed.


Time for a 'Blowing the lid off Vanillacoin' thread? Cheesy

Also, I just re-read the OP and gmaxwell mentioned it being run through an auto-formatter rather than actually refactored by hand, which seems like even more deliberate deception to me. Not sure if that part is true though.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 1198
Oh, he'll want to fix some of the inherited bugs

"built from scratch in it's entirety"

Scammer: confirmed.
full member
Activity: 199
Merit: 110
Oh, he'll want to fix some of the inherited bugs:

https://github.com/john-connor/vanillacoin/blob/51c6960b2a14ffbf67af19aefac6291768e1ffbc/include/coin/address_manager.hpp#L120

corresponds to

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/0.9/src/addrman.cpp#L12

but not

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/0.10/src/addrman.cpp#L13

I presume for someone who is apparently smarter than the entire Bitcoin development team put together, understanding why and updating the code accordingly will be trivial.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 1198
Learn how to write a white paper properly so you don't waste our time. We will support that which is proven and fully described.

And while you are at it stop ripping off Bitcoin's code, removing attributions, and passing it off as your own work "built from scratch in it's entirety"

EDIT: ^ directed at j-c not TPTB
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 262
I only feel sorry for weak people. And mostly what I've come to find is that the weak people are the ones that are the haters.

john-conner makes a sockpuppet.

We are not hating. Learn how to write a white paper properly so you don't waste our time. We will support that which is proven and fully described.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 262
Gmaxwell reported these issues back in January apparently:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/vxc-vcash-was-vnl-vanillacoin-a-quiet-word-of-warning-920344

It should be obvious what comes next.  There *is* a need for a "zerotime" currency, but the issue remains: is this a valid implementation of it?  
  
So a code review needs to be done to see if this is even a workable solution to the problem.  Is the threat of double spend with john's code acceptable for a $3 latte?  If so, this code has merit.  If the threat of double spend isn't worth it, then we will keep looking for a true "zerotime" implementation.  

We should not have to reverse engineer code to check whether a design has merit. The white paper should contain sufficiently detailed descriptions and math to convince the technical readers. His white papers don't[1].

[1]https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12111463
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12111401
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12111694


I can't yet determine whether john-conner is an intentional scammer or just a person who believes his capabilities are greater than they really are:

Hal Finney was the first to point out the 0 confirmation double spend attack. And it's named the 'Finney Attack' in his honour.

I think it's safe to say with absolutely certainty that he is not Hal Finney.

And the fact that he would claim this was his own doing is extremely concerning and I'd advise people to be suspicious of someone making these sorts of claims that are both without evidence, and impossible anyway.

But it doesn't matter. Bottom line is stay away unless you enjoy losing your money.

He clearly has some technical knowledge.
sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
Copyright (c) 2009-2015 The Bitcoin Core developers

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


From Bitcoin^.
I'd call it copyright infringement.

It is copyright infringement.

It is also fraud to claim that you wrote all the code yourself when you did not.


Hi VNL community,

I did a tally of Smooth's attacks on his competitors today and notice him attacking VNL.

Attacking his competitors:

Dash thread: 26 posts (competing with the anon feature)
Vanilla threads: 20 posts (competing for Poloniex volume)
Bytecoin thread: 4 posts (competing "Anon coin")

Posting on his own threads:

AEON: 3 posts
Monero: 0 posts

Smooth's competitors attacking his coins on their threads:

Dash devs: 0 posts
Vanilla devs: 0 posts
Bytecoin devs: 0 posts

I made a thread to investigate Smooth after months of attacking his competitors and also attempting / succeeding to take over his competitors as developer,  please feel free to vote whether you think his actions are ethical / professional / not in conflict of interest.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/xmraeon-developer-smooth-investigation-1151565



The only competitors to Monero are Shadowcash and Boolberry.

This isn't an attack on a competitor, it's bringing bad behavior into the light.

While I agree that the number of legitimate anonymous projects are small in number it could be argued that there are more than the three you mentioned.

Unfortunately aside from technical limitations of some other projects fraud continues to runs rampant. I think bringing light to legitimate fraud claims is a good thing as it could save potential investors a lot of time and money so we agree on that point.
full member
Activity: 199
Merit: 110
Can you stop promoting monero in this thread? I have a feeling that you all bought it because of Ryan Pumper and then he made a buck on you.

Agreed; there's value in pointing out issues with claims made, but muddling it up with promotion of other coins basically undermines the whole message.
legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1090
=== NODE IS OK! ==
Can you stop promoting monero in this thread? I have a feeling that you all bought it because of Ryan Pumper and then he made a buck on you.
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 504
Well, it's not like we haven't seen this movie before smooth.  
  
Has he released the source, the real source?  
  
It should be obvious what comes next.  There *is* a need for a "zerotime" currency, but the issue remains: is this a valid implementation of it?  
  
So a code review needs to be done to see if this is even a workable solution to the problem.  Is the threat of double spend with john's code acceptable for a $3 latte?  If so, this code has merit.  If the threat of double spend isn't worth it, then we will keep looking for a true "zerotime" implementation.  
  
10 If CheckCode(Vanillacoin) = 1 then goto 30 else goto 20
20 end
30 Let Credits = Vanillacoin  
40 Develop(Credits)  
50 Promote (Credits)
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 1198
hero member
Activity: 606
Merit: 500
Copyright (c) 2009-2015 The Bitcoin Core developers

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


From Bitcoin^.
I'd call it copyright infringement.

It is copyright infringement.

It is also fraud to claim that you wrote all the code yourself when you did not.


Hi VNL community,

I did a tally of Smooth's attacks on his competitors today and notice him attacking VNL.

Attacking his competitors:

Dash thread: 26 posts (competing with the anon feature)
Vanilla threads: 20 posts (competing for Poloniex volume)
Bytecoin thread: 4 posts (competing "Anon coin")

Posting on his own threads:

AEON: 3 posts
Monero: 0 posts

Smooth's competitors attacking his coins on their threads:

Dash devs: 0 posts
Vanilla devs: 0 posts
Bytecoin devs: 0 posts

I made a thread to investigate Smooth after months of attacking his competitors and also attempting / succeeding to take over his competitors as developer,  please feel free to vote whether you think his actions are ethical / professional / not in conflict of interest.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/xmraeon-developer-smooth-investigation-1151565



The only competitors to Monero are Shadowcash and Boolberry.

This isn't an attack on a competitor, it's bringing bad behavior into the light.
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 504
Yes smooth,  stop your rampant cyber bullying on the "special" kids. 
 
 Wink Grin 
 
But seriously, a currency which pitches itself as a world changing currency better be ready for some seriously harsh criticism. 
 
If your best response to allegations of fraud and plagiarism is "stop picking on me" you're gonna have a bad time.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
Copyright (c) 2009-2015 The Bitcoin Core developers

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


From Bitcoin^.
I'd call it copyright infringement.

It is copyright infringement.

It is also fraud to claim that you wrote all the code yourself when you did not.


Hi VNL community,

I did a tally of Smooth's attacks on his competitors today and notice him attacking VNL.

Attacking his competitors:

Dash thread: 26 posts (competing with the anon feature)
Vanilla threads: 20 posts (competing for Poloniex volume)
Bytecoin thread: 4 posts (competing "Anon coin")

Posting on his own threads:

AEON: 3 posts
Monero: 0 posts

Smooth's competitors attacking his coins on their threads:

Dash devs: 0 posts
Vanilla devs: 0 posts
Bytecoin devs: 0 posts

I made a thread to investigate Smooth after months of attacking his competitors and also attempting / succeeding to take over his competitors as developer,  please feel free to vote whether you think his actions are ethical / professional / not in conflict of interest.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/xmraeon-developer-smooth-investigation-1151565

legendary
Activity: 2114
Merit: 1090
=== NODE IS OK! ==
Thank you, these are great and valuable inputs. I feel like in a court room  Grin
newbie
Activity: 17
Merit: 0
Comparing a sample piece of code it is clear that at least some of it is based on Bitcoin code:

From vanillacoin - https://github.com/john-connor/vanillacoin/blob/master/src/address_manager.cpp#L1315

Code:
     * Try to find an entry that can be erased.
     */
    for (auto it = bucket_new.begin(); it != bucket_new.end(); ++it)
    {
        assert(address_info_map_.count(*it));
       
        auto & info = address_info_map_[*it];
       
        if (info.is_terrible())
        {
            if (--info.reference_count == 0)
            {
                std::lock_guard l1(mutex_random_ids_);
               
                swap_random(
                    info.random_position,
                    static_cast (random_ids_.size() - 1)
                );
               
                random_ids_.pop_back();
                network_address_map_.erase(info.addr);
                address_info_map_.erase(*it);
                number_new_--;
            }
           
            bucket_new.erase(it);
           
            return;

From Bitcoin 0.9.2 in addrman.cpp:

Code:
    // first look for deletable items
    for (std::set::iterator it = vNew.begin(); it != vNew.end(); it++)
    {
        assert(mapInfo.count(*it));
        CAddrInfo &info = mapInfo[*it];
        if (info.IsTerrible())
        {
            if (--info.nRefCount == 0)
            {
                SwapRandom(info.nRandomPos, vRandom.size()-1);
                vRandom.pop_back();
                mapAddr.erase(info);
                mapInfo.erase(*it);
                nNew--;
            }
            vNew.erase(it);
            return 0;
        }
    }

The above code from vanillacoin is based on bitcoin, albeit renamed, refactored, reformatted and re-commented at almost every possible occasion.

The algorithm is the same line by line and even the esoteric identifier name "IsTerrible"/"is_terrible" is used in both.

My guess is John started with a old bitcoin code base and refactored, renamed and recommented the code to a huge degree.

There has also been additions like the zerotime stuff which is not like anything in Bitcoin:

https://github.com/john-connor/vanillacoin/blob/master/src/zerotime.cpp

hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 504
Oh goodie.  The world of crypto was getting a little stale, despite the Ethereum launch.  
  
I need to start an online magazine, Electronic Currency Monthly.  This is too good.  
  
 
 
full member
Activity: 199
Merit: 110
Copyright (c) 2009-2015 The Bitcoin Core developers

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


From Bitcoin^.
I'd call it copyright infringement.

It is copyright infringement.

It is also fraud to claim that you wrote all the code yourself when you did not.


Yeah, claiming to have written all of it is clearly absurd, at least.
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 1198
Copyright (c) 2009-2015 The Bitcoin Core developers

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


From Bitcoin^.
I'd call it copyright infringement.

It is copyright infringement.

It is also fraud to claim that you wrote all the code yourself when you did not.
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