Ravencoin’s origin began in the imagination of Bruce Fenton, during the heart of the ICO boom of 2017. Bruce, having worked in the heavily regulated financial space for years, understood the dangers of the ICO craze better than most, and certainly better than I did.

For that reason, Ravencoin had a launch that didn’t “issue” any RVN to anyone. Everyone was given the opportunity to mine RVN themselves with the ability to mine built right into the code so that just running the software and helping the network would generate RVN. The goal was a fair launch that began on January 3rd of 2018, which was exactly nine years after the Bitcoin network began.

Ravencoin, like any truly decentralized proof-of-work crypto-currency, is just code that you run. You can run any code you’d like. But, for there to be a large and vibrant Ravencoin ecosystem, we all need to run code that works together. If you run different code, you’re on a network by yourself or with the few others that run that same code.

In the whitepaper for Ravencoin, in the section titled “Ravencoin Launch and Algorithm” it mentions that the goal is to create a platform … to prevent … future dominance by ASIC mining equipment. In furtherance of that goal, and to fix some other critical issues, a new version of Ravencoin 2.5.1 has been released with x16rV2. You can download it for free here: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin/releases or you can get the code and build it yourself from here: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin

This is a hard fork upgrade, so those that aren’t running 2.5.0, 2.5.1, or newer after Oct 1 at 16:00 UTC will be on a different network. What does that mean? It means that when you send RVN from an old wallet it will not show up in an upgraded wallet, or at any exchange or merchant that has upgraded the software. That probably sounds terrifying. Here’s the good news. If you didn’t find out about the upgrade and you sent with an old wallet, and “lost” your RVN, you can get it back by upgrading to a new wallet. How is that possible? It’s possible because the new network doesn’t recognize the old wallet RVN as being sent after Oct 1 2019 at 16:00 UTC because it is recorded on a different and incompatible blockchain, so you get a do-over with the new wallet.

Is this going to cause some confusion? It might. It depends on whether everyone upgrades. If everyone upgrades, then no worries. If a few individuals upgrade their wallets late, then no problem because they can upgrade later. Miners, mining pools, exchanges, and merchant tools should upgrade right away. It is free and quick to upgrade. Upgrade to the new version found here: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin/releases

Since this is a decentralized project, it isn’t easy to get everyone to upgrade. If you’re using a wallet with Ravencoin, check to make sure your wallet provider has upgraded. If you’re mining, make sure you know that after Oct 1, 2019 at 16:00 UTC, the algorithm is x16rV2.

Mining with x16rV2

A useful FAQ for algo switch to x16rV2: https://minermore.com/docs/help/ravencoin_fork/

Miner with new x16rV2 algo: https://github.com/trexminer/T-Rex/releases

Protect Yourself

Because there are some unknowns around the time of the fork (upgrade) at Oct 1 2019 at 16:00 UTC, I’d recommend the following:

Store your RVN on-chain in upgraded software. Get 2.5.1 from here: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin/releases and transfer your RVN to it. Any other upgraded (non-custodial) wallet will work also.

your RVN on-chain in upgraded software. Get 2.5.1 from here: https://github.com/RavenProject/Ravencoin/releases and transfer your RVN to it. Any other upgraded (non-custodial) wallet will work also. Remove RVN from custodial accounts by sending to an updated wallet, at least until this upgrade is complete and everyone is on the same page. Examples of custodial accounts: Binance, Bittrex, (other exchanges), Crypto.com, Spend.com.

RVN from custodial accounts by sending to an updated wallet, at least until this upgrade is complete and everyone is on the same page. Examples of custodial accounts: Binance, Bittrex, (other exchanges), Crypto.com, Spend.com. Do not transfer RVN until we have a good sense that everyone has upgraded. These are just recommendations, but it safer not to send RVN from Sept 30th until a few days after Oct 1, and we know who has upgraded and who hasn’t.

until we have a good sense that everyone has upgraded. These are just recommendations, but it safer not to send RVN from Sept 30th until a few days after Oct 1, and we know who has upgraded and who hasn’t. Don’t buy or sell any RVN to/from anyone, including exchanges that you don’t know have upgraded. Wait until the network has stabilized and everyone knows where everything stands.

If things go sideways on Oct 1, jump onto Discord in #thenest (https://discordapp.com/invite/jn6uhur) or Telegram (https://t.me/RavencoinDev) to get status updates and help from the amazing Ravencoin community. We’re all in this together.