Peercoin (PPC), can be stated as a straight rip-off of bitcoin but an intellectual discourse discussing the platform bit by bit, can eventually land us on the better side of the Peercoin platform. Peercoin, established on 12th of August 2012, operates on a similar principal as bitcoin does, bearing the same sort of hash function. The main feature PPC boasts is that the coin is designed to be minted using the Proof of Stake protocol (PoS) not the mining one that is titled, the Proof of Work (PoW).

Peercoin normally termed as PPCoin or PPC, was coined or more colloquially, authored by Scott Nadal and Sunny King. Though nothing is openly known about Nadal as to whether he stills works at the PPCoin as the core developer besides Sunny King, with some sources stating his partnership in the platform was terminated in 2013. Peercoin though accepts the inclusion of “Sigmike”, a self-made name, of course, as the protocol developer.

The Pseudonyms of the Crypto World

Why use a Pseudonym, though one can have a much cooler real name?

The crypto market has always been under the incumbent radar and has faced immense criticism as per their lesser privacy and security precautions to fight back scams. The entire concept of decentralization too is enough to produce an adversity for the governing authorities as they would not be able to track and control the entire organization either for safety purposes or for finance control. This coax many crypto personalities to go by their aliases rather than their original ones. Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin is theorized to be not even a single person but a group, by the crypto enthusiasts, which is a controversy we should better not get into. Such a prolonged preface set facts right for Sunny King, the person who founded the Peercoin. Sunny King is another sought-out pseudonym of the crypto world around which major hype circles have been formed. The king, as he is usually referred, has had some projects other than Peercoin, namely Primecoin, his very own antiquity after which he delved into constructing a whole new project with his newly instated thoughts incorporated in. Peercoin boasts not to have any corporate posts with heavy salaries besides bearing no advisors.

King envisions to minimize the computer strength involved in judging the distribution of a cryptocurrency coins or units, rather he has turned away from the original Proof of Work (PoW), a key feature of bitcoin and other similar blockchain cryptocurrencies. The result is the introduction of the less used protocol, the Proof of Stake (PoS) which expels the sometimes manipulative PoW protocol. King has an enormously decent reputation among other crypto peers of his as after his intentions with the cryptocurrency, Ehtereum also turned the disgruntled frown for PoW to quite a smile for King’s PoS.

A Deep Down Analysis of Peercoin

The Peercoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that operates under the principal of PoS rather than the original PoW protocol which ensure privacy and security. The idea to Peercoin is not very much dissimilar to that of bitcoin as King and Nadal have approved in the white paper they authored together. They stated to have incorporated, a hybrid version of PoS and PoW into their platform and promise to diminish the inflation level to the most minimum possible.

What in this goodly Eartrh are PoS and PoW used for?

Exhale all of your hyped up breath in order to take in all of the tech-ish discourse in the very first attempt. The PoW is the originally used protocol for the likes of bitcoin and ethereum which explains the “mining” procedure while the PoS, as described by King and Nadal, leans towards the lesser energy consumption along with increased security.

OK! Where do these fit in?

The mining and minting procedure describe the distribution of the coins or units of the cryptocurrency throughout the system to each node, as the blockchain technology favors. While these techniques perform the same sort of job i.e distributing the cryptocurrency, the basis on which they do so differs in its entirety. The mining fashion deals with distributing the cryptocurrency owing to the system processor of the machine at the node, at the time of mining. The other procedure, coin minting delves into the concept of capitalism a bit more seriously as the coin distribution takes place as the nodes with greater stack garner a greater amount of coin share. The protocols PoW and PoS explain the trends in a respective manner.

If PoS decides the distribution according to current holdings of the investors, how come they proceed before the first ever distribution?

Sadly, the PoS protocol does not provide assistance with this matter as initially no node possesses any sort of crypto coins or units of Peercoin, in our case. The initial coin distribution must be done employing the vintage protocol for the cryptocurrencies featured entirely in other cryptocurrencies as afore-mentioned. As the design of the platform is a mixture of both the PoS and PoW protocols, the company professionals have come up with two different blocks, each designated for one protocol.

The PoS operation is also termed as the coinstack transaction which for the very first time conducted, goes by the name of kernel. The kernel is for the very first time is set to reach the speculated and scheduled target within the coin age. The coin age if the time during which the coin distribution is set to occur, usually a day hence referred to as a coin day.

Well, they promised us lesser inflation, did that just vanish into thin air?

The newer PoS mechanism ensure the least inflation rate too as unlike the PoW protocol, the PoS offers minting as per the coinstack to drive through a designated coin age. The trick lies in the 1 cent minting per coin year that yields the low inflation rates. We also come across another protocol, the “Main Chain” protocol which strives to pick out the main chain that is the node out of the blockchain that has the transaction within a block engulfing a specific coin age. The block with the greatest coin age consumed, acquires the minted currency. The blockchain acts so as to determine the winner eventually who gets to gather the scattered prize.

There have been concerns the platform is more prone to attackers. Do these hold any waters?

The procedure is simply to garner enough coin age consumption to score a win which puts the entire system in quite a jeopardy. Though the bitcoin system is far more secure than peercoin one, it still has the retention of history of the transactions that we know by the term, “Checkpoints”. The peercoin has incorporated a similar system to ensure, as per their power, the attackers abide by the rules rather than dismantle the entire system.

So, is peercoin really a rip-off, then?

Lesser computation or processing power consumption, more security and a hybrid version of PoS (to achieve distributing consensus) and PoW (for distribution) protocols make up for quite an unbreakable mechanism that can stay intact for a prolonged period of time. As we witness upgrades and the similar stuff dangling over the basic bitcoin platform, regarding peercoin as bitcoin bootleg would be as inappropriate as calling robots outdated.