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Hero MemberActivity: 498Merit: 500 [SKY] Skycoin Launch Announcement December 22, 2013, 02:31:33 AM

Last edit: December 25, 2017, 07:15:31 AM by skycoin #1



-- Skycoin Project --

Has been in development since Bitcoin was launched to the public.

Revolutionary new consensus algorithm "Obelisk" (neither PoW/PoS, next generation, based on Web of Trust).

New Blockchain Tech (Skycoin uses UXTX, the next generation after UXTO, enables native coinjoin).

No mining. No 51% attack. No double spending.

Global transactions in seconds instead of hours.

Blockchain transactions finally faster than credit cards.

Building an entire Ecosystem/Platform. Massive work underway.



Github Organization: https://github.com/skycoin

Skycoin: https://github.com/skycoin

Skywire: https://github.com/skycoin/skywire

CX: https://github.com/skycoin/cx

CXO: https://github.com/skycoin/cxo

BBS: https://github.com/skycoin/bbs

Messenger: https://github.com/skycoin/net



Website: http://skycoin.net

Wallet Client: http://skycoin.net/downloads

Blog: https://blog.skycoin.net/



Telegram Group: https://t.me/Skycoin

Slack Channel Signup: http://skycoin.herokuapp.com/

Slack Channel: https://skycoin.slack.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/MTepVHE



Twitter: https://twitter.com/skycoinproject

Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/skycoinproject

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skycoinproject



Market Tracker: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/skycoin/



Exchanges:

- C2CX:

- Cryptopia:

- NEXT



Github Repos:



Skycoin Core:



CX:



CXO (object system):



CX Games:



Teller:



BBS:



Skywire (Meshnet):



Summary



Skycoin is a third generation cryptocurrency. The Skycoin project is a long term infrastructure project that began around the time Litecoin was launched. Skycoin is designed a successor to Bitcoin.



Skycoin is focused on implementing Satoshi's original vision for a cryptocurrency. Satoshi originally intended the Bitcoin network to be decentralized, over hundreds of thousands of computers. Today, the Bitcoin network is completely controlled by three mining pools. Bitcoin is no longer decentralized. Skycoin Project has developed a new consensus algorithm to achieve true decentralization.



In addition to fixing the outstanding technical issues with Bitcoin, the Skycoin Project is implementing a new next generation of foundational networking, storage and application primitives (a new internet). We believe that "blockchain" is just one of several new mathematical and algorithmic primitives, which will underly the foundation of the successor to the current internet.



- CX is the Skycoin Project's computation primitive (analogous to EVM, Solidity, Go, C/C++, Rust)

- CXO is the Skycoin Project's peer-to-peer immutable data storage and replication primitive (analogous to IPFS)

- Skywire is the Skycoin Project's communication primitive (analogous to MPLS, open-flow, TOX, mesh networking, darknet, i2p)

- "Skycoin" is the Skycoin Project's blockchain primitive, token and transaction infrastructure (analogous to Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc)



The Skycoin Project is not a simple blockchain project, but is designed as a platform and foundation infrastructure for supporting an ecosystem of applications.



=== Skycoin (SKY) ===



The Skycoin Project Coin (SKY) is focused on core features, security, usability and simplifying Bitcoin instead of adding features as a marketing gimmick.



There are still major outstanding problems with Bitcoin and those are the problems we are addressing.

- Elimination of the need for miners for network consensus through new algorithms, elimination of dependence on the human element in the network operation

- Duplicate coinbase outputs

- Signature malleability

- Reduction in complexity in implementation

- Dozens of security/crypto related improvements

- Elimination of external dependencies that create security concerns in Bitcoin

- 51% attack proof and strengthening against various attacks

- Simplified, more powerful data, transaction and wallet APIs

- Brainwallet, deterministic wallets as default

- Network security improvements

- Intrinsic support for gmaxwell's CoinJoin transaction privacy protocol

- New networking protocols to enable the verification of the mathematical prerequisites for consensus network convergence

- Separation of coin creation from the consensus network, to eliminate Bitcoin's tendencies towards mining centralization

- Directed bipartite TX/UTXO transaction graph structure which is more elegant and efficient than Bitcoin's multi-graph structure

- Provably upper bounded network, RAM and CPU resource usage for network operation

- Soft coded, adjustable blockchain size parameter to enable network transaction rate scaling

- Rolling unspent output state error correction coding in the block header for early detection of software/hardware non-determinism

- Blockchain/transaction/histrory storage database with constant time lookup, indexless operation for all major blockchain history queries

- Etc...



Skycoin is 51% attack proof and addresses many of the security issues in Bitcoin. Skycoin is designed to be a simpler, easier to use, more secure Bitcoin. Skycoin emphasizes simplicity, security and usability.



Skycoin is a major research undertaking and has taken several years. We are finishing up phase one of project implementation and then focusing on services and driving adaption.



Skycoin is being developed in collaboration between AKS, Myth and Syndicate under Darknet Plan and OP Redecentralize.



Infographics







































Skycoin Distribution



Skycoin distribution explained here:



https://blog.skycoin.net/statement/skycoin-distribution-plan/



You can also trade Skycoin on Cryptopia and C2CX.



Skywire Meshnet Whitepaper



https://blog.skycoin.net/overview/skywire---skycoin-meshnet-project/



---



Obelisk is what makes Skycoin "Bitcoin 2.0". Obelisk is a sustainable alternative to proof-of-work. Obelisk is a system that replaces proof of work for blockchain consensus and eliminates the possibility of a 51% attack.



Obelisk was inspired by academic research into adversarial distributed time-stamping and algorithms such as Ben-Or's, Paxos, and the Castro-Liskov PBFT algorithm. Obelisk is a new solution to the Byzantine Generals problem which offers strong mathematical security guarantees, even when the majority of nodes are hostile.



- Obelisk whitepaper:

- Obelisk "layman" explanation:

- Obelisk technical explanation:



---



Skycoin cannot be 51% attacked. No matter how much money or hashing power an adversary has, they cannot reverse transactions.



Skycoin Transactions are fast. Obelisk and specific design decisions may allow Skycoin to achieve transaction confirmation times as low as four seconds, without compromising security.



Skycoin does not waste electricity or consume exponentially growing, unsustainable amounts of electricity unlike Bitcoin.



Skycoin has no transaction fees. Users receive "coinhours" for holding coins, which are used for paying transaction fees. Transactions bid to enter a fixed sized block.



Skycoin transactions offer increased privacy. Skycoin is designed for advanced CoinJoin support.



---



Besides building a better, more robust, most secure, more usable Bitcoin, the Skycoin project is working towards several long term goals we believe are necessary.



Skycoin Darknet Project:

- Users receive Skycoin for contributing resources to network and expend skycoin for consuming resources

- Almost as secure as TOR/I2P, but with much high bandwidth throughput.

- Very difficult for ISPs to identify and throttle

- Inspired by cjdns



See:



Skycoin Meshnet Project:

- Uses Skycoin Darknet protocol over wifi mesh network

- Uses receive Skycoin for providing transit

- bridge the "last mile" between homes and fiber with a distributed wireless mesh networks and community ISPs.

- SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and the Comcast/Time Warner merger have made it clear that political solutions are no longer viable.



---



Development Process:



All Skycoin components are written in Go (Golang). There are multiple teams working on Skycoin and multiple independent software components required to achieve the long term vision of the project. This is an open source project.



Substantial coins are reserved and available for developers who want to contribute to the project.



---



Team:



https://blog.skycoin.net/statement/skycoin-team/



---



Design:



Skycoin tries to offer more security, greater privacy and better usability than Bitcoin.



Skycoin Philosophy:

- Complex systems cannot be secure

- Simplicity over complexity

- Decentralized but pragmatic

- Emphasis on usability



----



Partial feature list:



Security:

- Higher level of security for non-technical users with improved ease of use

- Deterministic ECDSA, enforced signature mutability

- Hardening against SHA256 pre-image attacks, hardening against side channel attacks

- Hardening against "offline" attacks on secp256k1

- Optional quantum computer resistant TwoStep protocol transactions

- Standardized remote signature HMAC API for hardware wallet devices



Privacy:

- Skycoin transactions have higher privacy than Bitcoin transactions ("wallet mixing", "money pot")

- Skycoin protects its users from identification for increased safety in hostile countries (ex. HTTPS/TLS tunneling)

- Stenographic wallets



Usability:

- Wallet supports Bitcoin and Skycoin

- 15 second transactions (point-of-sale)

- Simple 256-bit deterministic wallets

- Clients only need unspent output set instead of whole block chain ("Snapshot")

- Coins divisible to 6 places



Distributed Exchange:

- Off blockchain Transactions (through standardized API, "gateway")

- Powerful scripting language for contracts (non-turing complete statically typed LISP variant)

- Open Transactions type crypto-equities, bonds, options and other securities

- OTC gateway API (based upon FIX, SWIFT, FIXatdl)



The blockchain is for settlement between counterparties. Price data and bid/ask orderbook data is not in the blockchain, but supported through the gateway API. Fractional Skycoin transactions and micropayment are handled as off block chain transactions.



---



No Mining:



Satoshi has stated that mining is Bitcoin's only flaw. Miners are the greatest non-crpytographic threat to Bitcoin retaining value on geographic time scales. Mining introduce human factors and greed into the survivability of Bitcoin as a currency



- Dishonest miners may destroy Bitcoin

- We are close to a 51% attack

- gigahash.io has abused its hashing power to steal Bitcoin from gambling sites

- Services such as cex.io allow people to rent a 51% attack by the minute

- Mining pools will form cartels to orphan blocks mined by non-cartel members, to enhance their block rewards

- Mining cartels will rent capacity to orphan blocks from other pools, if the reward is greater than the cost

- Pools have begun capping block size to drive up transaction fees. Bitcoin transaction processing rate may be unable to keep up with growth in transactions from new users. Bitcoin is becoming unusable for micro-transactions.

- Every month more mining power is concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of people

- Mining ensures majority of new crypto-coins go to people with botnets, GPU farms and ASICs not available to the public.

- No one benefits from mining except miners and electricity companies

- Electricity used by mining is wasted. Money spent on mining is being thrown into a hole, burnt and the costs are passed on to every Bitcoin holder

- Mining will substantially increase transaction fees to unsustainable levels when block rewards decrease. Bitcoin transaction fees may reach a level higher than the banking system Bitcoin was created to replace.

- Miners selling newly created Bitcoins to pay equipment and electricity costs, drives down the price of Bitcoin.

- If Bitcoin reaches viability as the next global reserve currency, the incentives for nation states to monopolize and control mining will be too great to contain.



Skycoin was designed to eliminate mining completely and eliminate the problems it creates. Skycoin replaces reliance on honest miners with reliance on mathematics.



- Skycoin is more secure because it does not rely upon the good will of miners

- Skycoin transactions will be cheaper because there are no mining costs being passed on to users

- Skycoin transactions are not subject to 51% attacks by mining cartels

- Skycoin is environmentally friendly and sustainable. Skycoin does not require twelve coal power plants to power mining



Distribution will be as fair as possible.



---



These are some things we are working on.



Off Blockchain Transactions:



You can send and receive coins, instantly, with ~120 bytes of overhead, without cluttering the blockchain. Skycoin supports a secure, standardized interface for transmitting and receiving coins (and other assets) held by third parties.



You will be able to see, withdraw to the blockchain and transmit coins held by third parties, from within the Skycoin wallet. This protocol automates withdrawing and depositing assets into exchange accounts and enables bandwidth micro-transactions.



CoinJoin RFC:



- Skycoin naively supports a simplified CoinJoin protocol

- CoinJoin mixes transactions from multiple wallets to increase transaction privacy

- Skycoin is designed so that it is impossible to determine which transactions are CoinJoin transactions



Skycoin Coin Join Protocol:

- Three people send their inputs and outputs to a remote server

- Server creates a transaction containing the inputs/outputs from all three people

- The server sends each person the transaction.

- Each person verifies the transactions and sends the signatures for their inputs

- The server publishes the transactions.



This protocol is much simpler than zero coin while dramatically improving transaction privacy.



Wallet Shuffle RFC:



Shuffle provides a very easy way of moving coins between deterministic wallets. Shuffle is one of the ways Skycoin will improve wallet usability.



Wallet shuffle takes a seed for an existing deterministic wallet and seed for a new deterministic wallet and moves coins between the wallets using the Money Pot protocol. Every shuffle operation entails additional coin mixing and increased wallet privacy.



For instance,

Input wallet: 5a42c0643bdb465d90bf673b99c14f5fa02db71513249d904573d2b8b63d353d

Output wallet: 1d26c392b3c1b6c5c7947e07934d8256bdf084bcf89f58d82ebef3c986e4836c Successor to Bitcoin + A new Internet- C2CX: https://www.c2cx.com/trade_sky (Yuan/SKY, BTC/SKY)- Cryptopia: https://www.cryptopia.co.nz/Exchange/?market=SKY_BTC (BTC/SKY)- NEXTSkycoin Core: https://github.com/skycoin/skycoin CX: https://github.com/skycoin/cx CXO (object system): https://github.com/skycoin/cxo CX Games: https://github.com/skycoin/cx-games Teller: https://github.com/skycoin/teller BBS: https://github.com/skycoin/bbs Skywire (Meshnet): https://github.com/skycoin/skywire Skycoin is a third generation cryptocurrency. The Skycoin project is a long term infrastructure project that began around the time Litecoin was launched. Skycoin is designed a successor to Bitcoin.Skycoin is focused on implementing Satoshi's original vision for a cryptocurrency. Satoshi originally intended the Bitcoin network to be decentralized, over hundreds of thousands of computers. Today, the Bitcoin network is completely controlled by three mining pools. Bitcoin is no longer decentralized. Skycoin Project has developed a new consensus algorithm to achieve true decentralization.In addition to fixing the outstanding technical issues with Bitcoin, the Skycoin Project is implementing a new next generation of foundational networking, storage and application primitives (a new internet). We believe that "blockchain" is just one of several new mathematical and algorithmic primitives, which will underly the foundation of the successor to the current internet.- CX is the Skycoin Project's computation primitive (analogous to EVM, Solidity, Go, C/C++, Rust)- CXO is the Skycoin Project's peer-to-peer immutable data storage and replication primitive (analogous to IPFS)- Skywire is the Skycoin Project's communication primitive (analogous to MPLS, open-flow, TOX, mesh networking, darknet, i2p)- "Skycoin" is the Skycoin Project's blockchain primitive, token and transaction infrastructure (analogous to Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc)The Skycoin Project is not a simple blockchain project, but is designed as a platform and foundation infrastructure for supporting an ecosystem of applications.The Skycoin Project Coin (SKY) is focused on core features, security, usability and simplifying Bitcoin instead of adding features as a marketing gimmick.There are still major outstanding problems with Bitcoin and those are the problems we are addressing.- Elimination of the need for miners for network consensus through new algorithms, elimination of dependence on the human element in the network operation- Duplicate coinbase outputs- Signature malleability- Reduction in complexity in implementation- Dozens of security/crypto related improvements- Elimination of external dependencies that create security concerns in Bitcoin- 51% attack proof and strengthening against various attacks- Simplified, more powerful data, transaction and wallet APIs- Brainwallet, deterministic wallets as default- Network security improvements- Intrinsic support for gmaxwell's CoinJoin transaction privacy protocol- New networking protocols to enable the verification of the mathematical prerequisites for consensus network convergence- Separation of coin creation from the consensus network, to eliminate Bitcoin's tendencies towards mining centralization- Directed bipartite TX/UTXO transaction graph structure which is more elegant and efficient than Bitcoin's multi-graph structure- Provably upper bounded network, RAM and CPU resource usage for network operation- Soft coded, adjustable blockchain size parameter to enable network transaction rate scaling- Rolling unspent output state error correction coding in the block header for early detection of software/hardware non-determinism- Blockchain/transaction/histrory storage database with constant time lookup, indexless operation for all major blockchain history queries- Etc...Skycoin is 51% attack proof and addresses many of the security issues in Bitcoin. Skycoin is designed to be a simpler, easier to use, more secure Bitcoin. Skycoin emphasizes simplicity, security and usability.Skycoin is a major research undertaking and has taken several years. We are finishing up phase one of project implementation and then focusing on services and driving adaption.Skycoin is being developed in collaboration between AKS, Myth and Syndicate under Darknet Plan and OP Redecentralize.Skycoin distribution explained here:You can also trade Skycoin on Cryptopia and C2CX.---Obelisk is what makes Skycoin "Bitcoin 2.0". Obelisk is a sustainable alternative to proof-of-work. Obelisk is a system that replaces proof of work for blockchain consensus and eliminates the possibility of a 51% attack.Obelisk was inspired by academic research into adversarial distributed time-stamping and algorithms such as Ben-Or's, Paxos, and the Castro-Liskov PBFT algorithm. Obelisk is a new solution to the Byzantine Generals problem which offers strong mathematical security guarantees, even when the majority of nodes are hostile.- Obelisk whitepaper: http://downloads.skycoin.net/whitepapers/a-distributed-consensus-algorithm-for-cryptocurrency-networks.pdf - Obelisk "layman" explanation: https://blog.skycoin.net/statement/obelisk-the-skycoin-consensus-algorithm/ - Obelisk technical explanation: https://blog.skycoin.net/overview/obelisk-skycoin-consensus-algorithm-information-pages/ ---Skycoin cannot be 51% attacked. No matter how much money or hashing power an adversary has, they cannot reverse transactions.Skycoin Transactions are fast. Obelisk and specific design decisions may allow Skycoin to achieve transaction confirmation times as low as four seconds, without compromising security.Skycoin does not waste electricity or consume exponentially growing, unsustainable amounts of electricity unlike Bitcoin.Skycoin has no transaction fees. Users receive "coinhours" for holding coins, which are used for paying transaction fees. Transactions bid to enter a fixed sized block.Skycoin transactions offer increased privacy. Skycoin is designed for advanced CoinJoin support.---Besides building a better, more robust, most secure, more usable Bitcoin, the Skycoin project is working towards several long term goals we believe are necessary.Skycoin Darknet Project:- Users receive Skycoin for contributing resources to network and expend skycoin for consuming resources- Almost as secure as TOR/I2P, but with much high bandwidth throughput.- Very difficult for ISPs to identify and throttle- Inspired by cjdnsSee: https://github.com/skycoin/darknet Skycoin Meshnet Project:- Uses Skycoin Darknet protocol over wifi mesh network- Uses receive Skycoin for providing transit- bridge the "last mile" between homes and fiber with a distributed wireless mesh networks and community ISPs.- SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and the Comcast/Time Warner merger have made it clear that political solutions are no longer viable.---All Skycoin components are written in Go (Golang). There are multiple teams working on Skycoin and multiple independent software components required to achieve the long term vision of the project. This is an open source project.Substantial coins are reserved and available for developers who want to contribute to the project.------Skycoin tries to offer more security, greater privacy and better usability than Bitcoin.Skycoin Philosophy:- Complex systems cannot be secure- Simplicity over complexity- Decentralized but pragmatic- Emphasis on usability----Security:- Higher level of security for non-technical users with improved ease of use- Deterministic ECDSA, enforced signature mutability- Hardening against SHA256 pre-image attacks, hardening against side channel attacks- Hardening against "offline" attacks on secp256k1- Optional quantum computer resistant TwoStep protocol transactions- Standardized remote signature HMAC API for hardware wallet devicesPrivacy:- Skycoin transactions have higher privacy than Bitcoin transactions ("wallet mixing", "money pot")- Skycoin protects its users from identification for increased safety in hostile countries (ex. HTTPS/TLS tunneling)- Stenographic walletsUsability:- Wallet supports Bitcoin and Skycoin- 15 second transactions (point-of-sale)- Simple 256-bit deterministic wallets- Clients only need unspent output set instead of whole block chain ("Snapshot")- Coins divisible to 6 placesDistributed Exchange:- Off blockchain Transactions (through standardized API, "gateway")- Powerful scripting language for contracts (non-turing complete statically typed LISP variant)- Open Transactions type crypto-equities, bonds, options and other securities- OTC gateway API (based upon FIX, SWIFT, FIXatdl)The blockchain is for settlement between counterparties. Price data and bid/ask orderbook data is not in the blockchain, but supported through the gateway API. Fractional Skycoin transactions and micropayment are handled as off block chain transactions.---Satoshi has stated that mining is Bitcoin's only flaw. Miners are the greatest non-crpytographic threat to Bitcoin retaining value on geographic time scales. Mining introduce human factors and greed into the survivability of Bitcoin as a currency- Dishonest miners may destroy Bitcoin- We are close to a 51% attack- gigahash.io has abused its hashing power to steal Bitcoin from gambling sites- Services such as cex.io allow people to rent a 51% attack by the minute- Mining pools will form cartels to orphan blocks mined by non-cartel members, to enhance their block rewards- Mining cartels will rent capacity to orphan blocks from other pools, if the reward is greater than the cost- Pools have begun capping block size to drive up transaction fees. Bitcoin transaction processing rate may be unable to keep up with growth in transactions from new users. Bitcoin is becoming unusable for micro-transactions.- Every month more mining power is concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of people- Mining ensures majority of new crypto-coins go to people with botnets, GPU farms and ASICs not available to the public.- No one benefits from mining except miners and electricity companies- Electricity used by mining is wasted. Money spent on mining is being thrown into a hole, burnt and the costs are passed on to every Bitcoin holder- Mining will substantially increase transaction fees to unsustainable levels when block rewards decrease. Bitcoin transaction fees may reach a level higher than the banking system Bitcoin was created to replace.- Miners selling newly created Bitcoins to pay equipment and electricity costs, drives down the price of Bitcoin.- If Bitcoin reaches viability as the next global reserve currency, the incentives for nation states to monopolize and control mining will be too great to contain.Skycoin was designed to eliminate mining completely and eliminate the problems it creates. Skycoin replaces reliance on honest miners with reliance on mathematics.- Skycoin is more secure because it does not rely upon the good will of miners- Skycoin transactions will be cheaper because there are no mining costs being passed on to users- Skycoin transactions are not subject to 51% attacks by mining cartels- Skycoin is environmentally friendly and sustainable. Skycoin does not require twelve coal power plants to power miningDistribution will be as fair as possible.---These are some things we are working on.You can send and receive coins, instantly, with ~120 bytes of overhead, without cluttering the blockchain. Skycoin supports a secure, standardized interface for transmitting and receiving coins (and other assets) held by third parties.You will be able to see, withdraw to the blockchain and transmit coins held by third parties, from within the Skycoin wallet. This protocol automates withdrawing and depositing assets into exchange accounts and enables bandwidth micro-transactions.- Skycoin naively supports a simplified CoinJoin protocol- CoinJoin mixes transactions from multiple wallets to increase transaction privacy- Skycoin is designed so that it is impossible to determine which transactions are CoinJoin transactionsSkycoin Coin Join Protocol:- Three people send their inputs and outputs to a remote server- Server creates a transaction containing the inputs/outputs from all three people- The server sends each person the transaction.- Each person verifies the transactions and sends the signatures for their inputs- The server publishes the transactions.This protocol is much simpler than zero coin while dramatically improving transaction privacy.Shuffle provides a very easy way of moving coins between deterministic wallets. Shuffle is one of the ways Skycoin will improve wallet usability.Wallet shuffle takes a seed for an existing deterministic wallet and seed for a new deterministic wallet and moves coins between the wallets using the Money Pot protocol. Every shuffle operation entails additional coin mixing and increased wallet privacy.For instance,Input wallet: 5a42c0643bdb465d90bf673b99c14f5fa02db71513249d904573d2b8b63d353dOutput wallet: 1d26c392b3c1b6c5c7947e07934d8256bdf084bcf89f58d82ebef3c986e4836c

Telegram: Main site: http://skycoin.net Blog: https://blog.skycoin.net Telegram: https://t.me/Skycoin Github: https://github.com/skycoin