Over the past few days, I’ve been listening to a few old cryptocurrency podcasts. While some of the information in them is outdated in 2024, I believe they still serve as a fascinating snapshot of a completely different time and a lot of information in them is still surprisingly relevant even today.

One of the hidden gems I’ve found recently is The Monero Monitor Podcast:

“The Monero Monitor Podcast is a biweekly show centered on news and services related to Bitcoin, Monero, and other key cryptocurrencies. Our show primarily takes on an interview style, but also hosts special panel discussions and facilitates relevant technological and ideological debates.”

As the name suggests, this podcast was mainly focused on Monero (XMR) – a privacy-centric cryptocurrency that emphasizes anonymity, fungibility, and non-traceability. Monero (originally BitMonero) emerged out of the cryptocurrency bear market in 2014 and was forked from an earlier cryptocurrency called Bytecoin that while being technologically innovative, was mired in controversy over the way its earliest coins were mined and distributed.

Mike “bigreddmachine” was the host of The Monero Monitor Podcast which he ran from March 2017 to December 2017 during one of cryptocurrency’s greatest bull runs. He was a doctoral student studying aerospace engineering with an internship at NASA and had originally been introduced to cryptocurrencies during the tail end of the 2013 bull market. In each episode, Mike interviews a character in the cryptocurrency space. Despite only publishing 16 episodes, the podcast managed to attract a surprisingly diverse cast of interviewees ranging from ShapeShift founder and CEO Erik Voorhees to Dutch computer scientist John Tromp and even a brief chat with the late eccentric multi-millionaire John McAffee.

One of the more intriguing episodes is the seventh episode where Mike brings in his friend Roy who is a complete Bitcoin newbie and together they engage in a deep dive of Satoshi’s original Bitcoin white paper. At 2 hours and 44 minutes, it’s also the longest episode in the series. More episodes similar to it were planned but unfortunately these never materialized.

Even if you aren’t a fan of Monero, it can still be worth listening to The Monero Monitor Podcast since a lot of the episodes don’t limit their scope entirely to Monero but instead cover the wider cryptocurrency space in general. Examples include interviews with the founders of a Bitcoin lending platform called SALT Lending, a Bitcoin casino called LuckyBit, the cryptocurrency exchanges ShapeShift and Changelly, a nonprofit cryptocurrency research and advocacy organization called Coin Center, as well as the developers of the cryptographic protocols Cuckoo Cycle and Mimblewimble.

And of course, if you are a fan of Monero then there’s plenty of interesting and informative interviews and discussions about that here too.

Mike has an engaging style and clear presentation that makes it hard to believe that this is his first podcast. My only minor nitpick is that the episodes tend to vary wildly in length from 20 minutes to almost 3 hours. Unlike the shorter episodes, the longer episodes tend to come off as bit more meandering and less structured although some might prefer the more spontaneous and conversational style.

It’s a shame that the series ended so early but Mike reveals his reasons for doing so in the final two episodes – his PhD was taking up too much time so the podcast had to take a back seat. It’s a familiar story and I suspect the 2018 bear market also played a role in his decision to retire the series. A quick search shows that Mike’s social media accounts went dormant a few months after The Monero Monitor Podcast ended, came back to life during the cryptocurrency bull run in 2021, before returning to inactivity again in recent years.

You can download and listen to all 16 episodes below:

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-01-A-random-walk-with-Riccardo-fluffyponyza-Spagni.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-02-Saving-NASA-OpenLDAP-LMDB-Monero-Direct-and-why-Monero-is-the-only-true-cryptocurrency.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-03-Betting-on-Bitcoin-and-Monero-with-the-co-founder-of-LuckyBit-and-XMR.to_.-The-binary-fate-of-a-cryptocurrency-entrepreneur.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-04-Cryptocurrencies-and-capitalism-a-shape-shifting-landscape-with-Erik-Voorhees.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-05-Blockchain-Backed-Loans-with-SALT-Lending.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-06-A-fireside-chat-with-Justin-SamsungGalaxyPlayer-Ehrenhofer.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-07-Required-Reading-Deep-dive-of-the-Satoshi-White-Paper-for-newcomers-and-veterans-alike.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-08-Monero-Uncensored-with-guest-Chris-DeRose.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-09-What-is-Changelly-An-interview-with-CEO-Konstantin-Gladych.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-10-Defending-Privacy-Coin-Centers-Advocacy-to-US-Regulators-and-Lawmakers.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-11-Reflecting-back-and-looking-forward.-Where-do-we-go-from-here.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-12-Bithumb-LocalMonero-Globee-RuffCT-IRS-Coin-Tracking-T-Swift-US-Debt-Ceiling-and-more.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-13-Over-the-counter-Monero-trading-with-LocalMonero.co_.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-14-John-Tromp-on-Cuckoo-Cycle-PoW-John-McAfee-on-Monero.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-15-GloBee-with-Ric-Spagni-Ray-Prince-and-Pat-Spitalieri.mp3

The-Monero-Monitor-Podcast-16-Mimblewimble-with-Andrew-Poelstra.mp3

The Monero Monitor Podcast is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

About a month ago, I wrote a positive review of Riecoin – a cryptocurrency that implements a proof-of-work system that helps to support mathematical research. Today I’m glad to announce that I’ve added Riecoin as a donation option for my blog. If you hold Riecoin and are interested in supporting my work then feel free to donate some to:

ric1p4l37aehzmpdmh8zqsml2rez2sghu4u4s6v9u6hc83f96utcah2vq4wxq2a

A regularly updated list of all donation methods accepted by this site can be found here.

Apparently this week the German government has just finished selling off their Bitcoin stash of nearly 50,000 BTC for almost $3 billion. This along with Trump’s surge in the polls after Biden’s disastrous debate performance, his failed assassination attempt, and VP pick is probably part of the reason why Bitcoin prices are starting to come back up again after being stuck at around $57,000 for days.

Now, a lot of Bitcoiners will agree with me that this was an incredibly short-sighted decision. By selling their bitcoins for fiat, governments are trading a scarce asset enforced by mathematics and cryptography that has the potential to be the future world’s reserve currency for a bunch of paper that they could print themselves at will. Only 21 million bitcoins can ever be created versus a potentially unlimited amount of dollars or euros or renminbi, which is why you often see charts like this (click to expand):

In fact, governments continue to hoard gold reserves decades after abandoning the gold standard but Bitcoin still seems to go over their heads. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising considering that the average age of a politician in the Western world is close to 60. Or perhaps they don’t care because the coins were “seized” (a.k.a. stolen) by government thugs rather than being earned with hard work like the rest of us and were thus obtained for free.

So far, the El Salvadorian government seems to be the only government that is acting in its own self-interest. They have been accumulating BTC at a steady rate since 2021, have weathered the storms, and are now completely in the green:

In the German Bundestag, only MP Joana Cotar seems to realize that might have been better for their government to hold onto its bitcoins. Cotar reflected, “I can only speculate as to why the government is selling right now. As we have massive budget shortfalls in Germany at the moment, that could be one of the reasons. The upcoming elections may also play a role.”

She added, “We need to diversify our treasury and finally see and hold bitcoin as a strategic reserve currency. It is really frustrating to have to watch politicians who have no idea about the matter squander a great opportunity.”

Not that I’m complaining though. Governments selling cryptocurrencies distributes wealth to the people – the good kind of wealth that can’t be inflated and confiscated at will.

In 2014, the US government sold 30,000 bitcoins for $19 million at a price of $630 per coin. Had they waited until now, that stash would be worth $1.8 billion. In 1999, the UK government sold half of its gold reserves for $3.5 billion. Today it would be worth over $30 billion. In 10 years, the German government will probably look back at its decision to sell its bitcoins and realize that it had made the same short-sighted mistake.

A few days ago, I began accepting Nxt donations for this site. Nxt is a feature-rich cryptocurrency written in Java and built entirely from the ground up that relies on pure proof-of-stake to secure its blockchain. One of its most popular features is the Nxt Marketplace (formerly called the Digital Goods Store). Think of it as a decentralized, censorship-resistant eBay built on top of the blockchain.

There are a lot of listings on the Nxt Marketplace ranging from fairly mundane stuff like domain names and video game keys to things that would probably get you instantly banned from eBay. I spent the afternoon going through the various listings on offer and collected some of the more interesting ones for this post.

For example, here is a listing for a four-year-old laptop that cost $1,999 when new which can be yours for $3,600 (each NXT was worth $0.06 when the ad was posted):

Product: MAC BOOK PRO
Date: 10/29/2018 4:42:40
Price: 60,000 NXT
Seller: NXT-G8QA-W46K-DVFB-9N9LW (View Store)
Quantity: 1

Model A1398 mid2014
Perfect condition

Or what about a Bitcoin-themed oil painting painted by the seller himself which can be yours for 25 BTC or 500,000 NXT (worth about $9,000 at the time)? It didn’t sell and the comments on the BitcoinTalk thread are hilarious:

Product: Masterpiece Bitcoin Oil Painting
Date: 11/21/2014 17:35:04
Price: 500,000 NXT
Seller: NXT-BCFU-753H-BKF3-AJJ82 (View Store)
Quantity: 1

Masterpiece Bitcoin Oil Painting by The Divine Ruler His Majesty The King Cuong V Truong.

This masterpiece oil painting was painted using an ancient hand writing style known as "The Chinese Calligraphy"

Asking price is 25 BTC.
At the time this ad is posted on 11/20/2014. That's around 500,000 NXT coins.

Details at:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=807265.0

Imaginary air guitar lessons (no delivery required, you just dream it):

Product: Imagenary Air guitar lessons
Date: 2/15/2015 2:23:56
Price: 6 NXT
Seller: NXT-N84U-FNHB-RSTT-BVF7S (View Store)
Quantity: 4

Just dream it

Love:

Product: Love
Date: 12/4/2014 12:32:36
Price: 2 NXT
Seller: NXT-3PAG-3ZSH-S4W7-CGBPU (View Store)
Quantity: 999,999,999

Buy love! I know money can't buy love but man atleast it's cheap lol why not spend 1 NXT to buy it?

Happiness:

Product: Happiness
Date: 12/4/2014 13:07:42
Price: 2 NXT
Seller: NXT-3PAG-3ZSH-S4W7-CGBPU (View Store)
Quantity: 999,999,999

Buy Happiness! I know that money can't buy happiness, but atleast try it, its cheap, what can you lose?

Nothing:

Product: Nothing
Date: 12/4/2014 13:07:42
Price: 2 NXT
Seller: NXT-3PAG-3ZSH-S4W7-CGBPU (View Store)
Quantity: 999,999,999

Yes, you read it correctly, it's nothing. You will get what you paid for, you will get Nothing!

Nothing but 50% off:

Product: Marketplace Buyer Experience
Date: 10/21/2014 6:24:28
Price: 1 NXT
Seller: NXT-9SDF-57KE-H8RU-9BHWY (View Store)
Quantity: 999,999,999

Buy the experience of having bought something on the Nxt marketplace for only 1 NXT.

A sip of beer (for the seller, not you):

Product: Sip of Beer
Date: 6/21/2020 21:57:33
Price: 5 NXT
Seller: NXT-ZY4T-YEXP-7PQC-GM6PB (View Store)
Quantity: 100

A sip of beer that I'll drink for your health tonight as a big thank you for your support ;)

Chicken nuggets:

Product: Chicken nuggets
Date: 8/29/2017 21:35:51
Price: 10 NXT
Seller: NXT-5JTH-SU4U-ZJJ3-9AC74 (View Store)
Quantity: 999,999,999

Chicken nuggets with real chicken inside !
Because we all love nuggets ...

An honest opinion on your looks:

Product: Want Me To Rate Your Looks (1-10)? Ask Me!
Date: 2/27/2015 6:48:40
Price: 10 NXT
Seller: NXT-3GNP-5JYB-3GNU-8AG7Y (View Store)
Quantity: 100

Title says it all, send a picture and I will give you my personal opinion!

The personal details of rich people:

Product: Contact Database of 2000 Family Offices
Date: 12/30/2017 11:48:52
Price: 2,500 NXT
Seller: NXT-Z8V9-LYM5-JZMG-A9JR2 (View Store)
Quantity: 1

This is a continuously updated contact database of high net worth families across the globe. There are 2,000 wealthy families in this database. The database, delivered in Excel format includes the investors' names, company names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, investment interests, and biographies.

A competing cryptocurrency project:

Product: Cryptocurrency TippingCoin
Date: 9/6/2018 21:28:36
Price: 3,000,000 NXT
Seller: NXT-RNNV-MPRH-ZULM-6TACV (View Store)
Quantity: 1

Cryptocurrency TippingCoin for sale, 999 Million Coins to buyer trasnfered direct to their Waves Wallet. 1 million are in circulation.
Sale includes all digital assets incuding website www.tippingcoin.org with lifetime hosting and instagram account @tippingcoin.
The TippingCoin Token was Built on the Waves Platform and listed On the Waves Dex Exchange.
The 999 million coins are valued at approx $20 million USD
All the above is listed at the heavily discounted price of just 1% of true value at $200,000 = 3 Million NXT

The seller’s favorite Christmas turkey recipe:

Product: Christmas turkey recipe
Date: 12/8/2014 4:22:18
Price: 4 NXT
Seller: NXT-U3C3-7Z5A-CT8C-E66EC (View Store)
Quantity: 30

This is my own favorite Christmas turkey recipe. I'll send you a dropbox link to claim your recipe

A very short story:

Product: Super Short Stories
Date: 10/18/2017 14:12:34
Price: 15 NXT
Seller: NXT-KK2H-VCUZ-HBLD-4T2VK (View Store)
Quantity: 1,000,000

Send me 15 NXT and recieve a Super Great, Super Short Story. Each uniquely handwritten, and very short.

And finally, whatever this is supposed to mean:

Product: The Feels Goodman Trust
Date: 9/9/2017 11:52:34
Price: 100 NXT
Seller: NXT-RL3B-B8XP-MQ98-EDXNJ (View Store)
Quantity: 1,000

The Feels Goodman Trust is a not-very-profitable non-charitable organization specializing in tackling existential dilema, usually with alcohol, drugs and hookers.

"What will I get from my contribution" I hear you ask?

You will get the satisfaction, the smug elitism even, of KNOWING you are better than everyone else, those plebian insects that don't care about anyone but themselves.

Why does Bill Gates do it? Because that shit feels good, man.

There’s a lot of talk right now in the Bitcoin community about the new Bitcoin ETFs. Some of the discussion has been negative in tone because let’s face it – the whole idea goes against the original value proposition of Bitcoin as “being your own bank” – i.e. a permissionless, decentralized, and censorship-resistant peer-to-peer currency that doesn’t rely on centralized institutions and trusted third parties.

That being said, I can also understand why some people might prefer to invest in a Bitcoin ETF instead of holding actual coins. Bitcoin ETFs do have a place even though they aren’t for someone like me. Older people for example who tend to know little about computers and technology but might be interested in this fancy new Bitcoin thing that everyone seems to be talking about could be well served by throwing some money into a Bitcoin ETF. Such people are likely to fall victim to hacks, scams, or otherwise accidentally lose their private keys if they attempted to buy and store bitcoins themselves so it can be safer to let other people who are (hopefully) more knowledgeable than them deal with the security issues involved – even if it comes with a 1.5% annual management fee in the case of BlackRock’s offering.

But if you have the technical skills and know-how to purchase bitcoins and safely store your own private keys then I would stay away from these ETFs. Bitcoin isn’t like gold where self-custody is a difficult and expensive ordeal. Bitcoins don’t require a pickup truck to haul or take up valuable space in your basement. You don’t need to worry about declaring your bitcoins to state authorities when crossing between national borders. As long as you can remember a 12-word passphrase, your coins will always be yours.

The Song dynasty in China was the first to issue paper money called jiaozi. These were valued at a certain exchange rate for gold, silver, or silk. Originally, the notes were meant be redeemed after three years, to be replaced by new notes for a 3% service charge. However, as more of them were printed without older notes being retired, inflation became rampant and all of the notes eventually became worthless. It’s stories like these that provide historical precedent as to why some people in the Bitcoin community dismiss these Bitcoin ETFs as “paper coins”.

In 1933, the US government enacted Executive Order 6102 which forbid its citizens from owning gold outside of small amounts of gold jewelry and coins. Bitcoin is unique among asset classes because it threatens the role of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. Could the state attempt to nationalize the bitcoin holdings of its citizens in a last-ditch attempt to save a collapsing dollar? If anti-cryptocurrency politicians like Elizabeth Warren manage to secure key positions of power then such a scenario could be more likely than you think.

In 1938, Nazi Germany enacted the Decree on the Registration of Jewish Property – a law that forced Jewish people to register their wealth with the government – paving the way for state-sanctioned theft on a massive scale. Those who were fortunate enough to leave Germany before the Holocaust were forced to relinquish up to 90% of their wealth. More recently, the government of Cyprus seized a portion of their citizens’ bank accounts in 2013 in order to make up for its own mismanagement of their economy. If the majority of people had their savings in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies which they held their own private keys to, then these governments would have been powerless to confiscate their citizens’ wealth.

Coinbase is listed as the custodian for 8 out of 11 Bitcoin ETFs in the US including Grayscale’s and BlackRock’s offerings. Will Coinbase become the next Inputs.io? The next Mt. Gox? The next Cryptsy, QuadrigaCX, Celsius Network, and FTX? Wallets can be hacked and employees can go rogue. The only way to protect yourself from situations like these is to hold the private keys to your bitcoins. However, if you don’t trust yourself to safely store your own private keys and are only interested in speculating on the price of Bitcoin (rather than using it as a currency) then a Bitcoin ETF might be the best option for you. Just understand that you’re not holding actual bitcoins. “Not your keys, not your Bitcoin” is a often quoted phrase in the Bitcoin community and it’s specifically situations like these where it matters most.

In 2018, there was a popular infographic that made rounds on social media that listed the top 100 cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap with short descriptions of each project (click to expand):

The author also wrote lists for the top 200 and 300 cryptocurrencies:

I found these lists to be useful because they provided a bird’s-eye view of the cryptocurrency industry at the time. The lists are a bit outdated now because a lot of new projects have appeared since then while others have fallen out of popularity. As a bit of a homage to the original series, I decided to create an updated list for 2024. Due to time constraints, I have shortened the list to include only the top 50 cryptocurrencies:

Here is the same list as a table:

Market cap rank	Coin	Ticker	Description
1	Bitcoin	BTC	First decentralized cryptocurrency.
2	Ethereum	ETH	Smart contract platform.
3	Tether	USDT	Stablecoin pegged to USD.
4	BNB	BNB	Binance exchange utility token.
5	Solana	SOL	Fast, cheap transactions and DApps.
6	USDC	USDC	Stablecoin backed by USD.
7	XRP	XRP	Global money transfer network.
8	Toncoin	TON	Telegram-linked scalable blockchain.
9	Dogecoin	DOGE	Fun, meme-inspired cryptocurrency.
10	Cardano	ADA	Decentralized app platform.
11	TRON	TRX	Decentralized app platform.
12	Avalanche	AVAX	Fast, scalable smart contracts.
13	Shiba Inu	SHIB	Ethereum-based meme token.
14	Polkadot	DOT	Interoperable multi-blockchain platform.
15	Chainlink	LINK	Decentralized oracle network.
16	Bitcoin Cash	BCH	Peer-to-peer electronic cash.
17	UNUS SED LEO	LEO	Bitfinex exchange utility token.
18	Dai	DAI	Stablecoin pegged to USD.
19	NEAR Protocol	NEAR	Fast, scalable smart contracts.
20	Polygon	MATIC	Ethereum L2 scaling solution.
21	Uniswap	UNI	Decentralized Ethereum token exchange.
22	Litecoin	LTC	Silver to Bitcoin’s gold.
23	Kaspa	KAS	Secure, scalable PoW cryptocurrency.
24	Pepe	PEPE	Meme-inspired cryptocurrency.
25	Internet Computer	ICP	Decentralized world computer.
26	Ethereum Classic	ETC	Immutable smart contracts.
27	Artificial Superintelligence Alliance	FET	Fetch.ai utility token.
28	Monero	XMR	Private, anonymous cryptocurrency.
29	Aptos	APT	Scalable smart contracts in Move.
30	Stellar	XLM	Fast, cheap cross-border transfers.
31	Render	RNDR	Decentralized GPU rendering.
32	Hedera	HBAR	Asset tokenization platform.
33	Cosmos	ATOM	Interoperable blockchain ecosystem.
34	Arbitrum	ARB	Ethereum L2 scaling solution.
35	Cronos	CRO	DeFi and metaverse platform.
36	Filecoin	FIL	Decentralized storage network.
37	OKB	OKB	OKX exchange utility token.
38	Mantle	MNT	Ethereum L2 scaling solution.
39	Maker	MKR	Dai decentralized governance token.
40	VeChain	VET	Supply chain transparency blockchain.
41	Stacks	STX	Bitcoin smart contracts and DApps.
42	Injective	INJ	Interoperable DeFi smart contracts.
43	Immutable	IMX	Ethereum NFT L2 scaling solution.
44	First Digital USD	FDUSD	Stablecoin pegged to USD.
45	Sui	SUI	Fast smart contracts.
46	Optimism	OP	Ethereum L2 scaling solution.
47	Bittensor	TAO	Decentralized machine learning models.
48	Bonk	BONK	Dog-themed Solana memecoin.
49	The Graph	GRT	Decentralized indexing system.
50	Notcoin	NOT	Telegram-based play-to-earn token.

I hope this post is helpful to anyone interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. If you find a mistake then feel free to post it in the comments.

Those who have been active in the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space for a while are probably aware of Primecoin (XPM) – a cryptocurrency that contributes to scientific and mathematical research by searching for primes. There has been a lot of discussion about how wasteful Bitcoin mining is in terms of energy usage and resources and Primecoin’s innovative proof-of-work algorithm is viewed by some in the cryptocurrency community as a potential way of turn mining into something that can be more useful for society. But Primecoin isn’t the only altcoin with mathematical research in mind out there – there’s Riecoin (RIC) too.

While Primecoin and Riecoin have their own independent development teams and communities, saying that Riecoin is Primecoin’s little brother seems like quite an accurate description. Both were developed by pseudonymous developers: Primecoin was launched in 2013 by Sunny King who would later go on to develop the first proof-of-stake coin in the form of Peercoin while Riecoin was launched in 2014 by a developer who went by the name of gatra on the BitcoinTalk forum. Perhaps as a nod to Satoshi Nakamoto, both Sunny King and gatra also stepped away from development of their coins after a few years and handed over the reins to their respective communities.

Both coins are CPU mineable (although Primecoin can be mined more efficiently with GPUs now) which is a bit of a rarity in today’s ASIC dominated world. While SHA-256-based coins like Bitcoin and Namecoin and scrypt-based coins like Litecoin and Dogecoin have been dominated by ASICs for a several years now, coins like Primecoin and Riecoin show that mining with regular home computers is still feasible in this day and age.

In terms of differences, Primecoin has 1 minute blocks, no maximum cap on coins, continuous difficulty adjustment, block rewards that are determined by the current difficulty, and a centralized checkpointing system. Riecoin on the other hand has 2.5 minute blocks, a maximum cap of 84 million coins, difficulty retargeting every 12 hours, and block rewards of 50 coins – halving every 4 years.

Both coins look for chains of prime numbers but Primecoin looks for Cunningham and bi-twin chains while Riecoin looks for chains of primes with minimum possible distances between each other. Primecoin also uses a combination of the Euler-Lagrange-Lifchitz and Fermat tests to prove primality (a faster but less accurate method) while Riecoin uses the Miller-Rabin test to test for primality (a slower but more accurate method).

Market cap-wise, Primecoin is certainly in the lead. As of July 8, 2024, Primecoin has a market cap of nearly $1.4 million while Riecoin’s is only $500,000. Both coins had fair launches with no signs of premines, instamines, ninjamines, and so on that plague the cryptocurrency community (I’m looking at you Bytecoin). From the Riecoin announcement thread:

“Fair launch:

Since this is a new PoW, it is very hard to define a starting difficulty that avoids instamining. To overcome this and contribute to a fair launch, the first 576 blocks will have no reward and the next 576 will linearly increase and reach the full reward at block 1,152, after 4 difficulty adjustments were performed. Besides avoiding instamining, this should allow time for those who want to compile their own clients. Expect the starting difficulty to be hard.

Source code will be provided a few days before launch, but the PoW functions will be replaced by stubs. The idea is that everyone would be able to examine the code and confirm that there’s nothing strange and it is indeed pretty similar to Bitcoin’s. Everyone would be able to compile it, see if they have the correct dependencies, etc. but it won’t run. At launch time, when the final code is released, everyone could easily check that the only thing that changed is the PoW code, so you’d only have to check the diff of a few lines of code and recompile.”

If you are interested in what Riecoin has to offer then I encourage you to visit the official website. It has all of the information you need to download, install, and run the software and guides to set up mining either by yourself or in a pool. There is also a handy link to download the entire blockchain bootstrap so that you don’t have to spend hours to days waiting for the client to sync up with the network.

Alternatively, if mining isn’t your cup of tea then you can head over to FreiExchange and buy them directly.

So far, I’ve been mining on a mid-range gaming laptop with an Intel Core i7-8750H for the last three hours and it takes little less than a day on average to mine a block. That being said, I don’t recommend mining on laptops for extended periods since their thermal designs aren’t as good as desktops.

If you’ve read my earlier post then you would know that I began accepting Peercoin donations for my blog because I believe the technology of proof-of-stake (PoS) to be interesting and worth exploring. Despite being the first PoS coin however, Peercoin still retained a proof-of-work mining scheme in order to handle the distribution of their coins especially during their initial phase of growth.

Nxt is another cryptocurrency that is interesting to me because it relies purely on proof-of-stake and thus forgoes mining entirely. In addition, it also features a Java-based codebase written entirely from the ground up as well as features not found in simple Bitcoin clones such as a decentralized asset exchange (think of a stock exchange) and a monetary system that allows users to create their own coins and tokens on top of the blockchain:

The official download page for the Nxt client can be found here. Make sure that Java is installed first. If you’re using Ubuntu like me, just enter sudo apt install default-jdk in the command line to install Java. Underneath the download links, there is also a blockchain bootstrap available to speed up syncing with the network.

And finally, if you are interested in helping support my work then feel free to donate some NXT to the following address:

NXT-ZMXT-JGWD-CHSN-8CBSH

A regularly updated list of all donation methods accepted by this site can be found here.

History shows that the cryptocurrency community desperately needs good auditing services. Currently, those who are best equipped to audit businesses such as exchanges are people who have an in-depth understanding of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies – often but not necessarily developers.

For example, Mt. Gox invited Roger Ver (a.k.a. “Bitcoin Jesus”) to audit their reserves in 2011 and again in 2013. In 2014, exchanges responded to the influx of new customers, increased competition, and the collapse of Mt. Gox by taking audits much more seriously: Coinbase was audited by Bitcoin advocate and entrepreneur Andreas Antonopoulos, Bitstamp was audited by former Bitcoin Core developer Mike Hearn, and Bitfinex, Kraken, Huobi, and OKCoin were audited by former Ripple Labs CTO Stefan Thomas.

Sounds great right? The only problem is, those who have the technical skills to audit exchanges generally don’t have the skills to audit the fiat side of things. And the people who have the skills to audit the fiat side generally don’t have the technical skills to audit the crypto side of things, as Mike Hearn explained during his audit of Bitstamp:

“The overlap between people who are traditional accredited auditors and people who understand the Bitcoin technology and things like signing with private keys is presently very small.”

In December 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao also indicated during an interview that traditional accounting firms had difficulties auditing crypto exchanges:

“Audits don’t reveal every problem… Many of them don’t even know how to audit crypto exchanges.”

The fiat side is important because it is possible for a business such as an exchange to make up for a shortage of BTC or ETH by borrowing or buying cryptocurrencies with fiat. In such a case, someone like Andreas Antonopoulos might look at the hot and cold wallets and assume that everything is fine. However, a closer look at the fiat side would indicate that the exchange is actually insolvent.

In fact, during his audit of OKCoin, Stefan Thomas explicitly warned about this possibility:

“Note that there are limitations to this type of audit. It does not verify an exchange’s fiat assets and liabilities or other aspects of their balance sheet. It is also difficult to prove definitively that the bitcoins in question are actually owned by the exchange versus being on loan for instance.”

Of course, there could still be issues even if we had a healthy and competitive marketplace of cryptocurrency auditing services to choose from. For example, Roger Ver had name recognition but his audit of Mt. Gox wasn’t a particularly thorough one and it couldn’t save them from collapse in 2014.

And while cryptocurrency reserves can be proven transparently and in real time, confirmation of fiat reserves cannot be done in real time and companies might not want to expose their financial operations for their competitors to see. Therefore, some degree of trust will probably be necessary in this field.

Then there’s also the fact that the cryptocurrency industry is much more complex and diverse now. Back in the old days, when nearly all attention was focused on Bitcoin and a handful of altcoins that simply copied Bitcoin’s code, a technically inclined and sufficiently dedicated accountant might have gained a working knowledge of the entire space in just a few months. Now the cryptocurrency space is significantly more complex with multiple layer 1 and layer 2 platforms, NFTs, ICOs, utility tokens, smart contracts, stablecoins, DeFi, DAOs, blockchain forks, airdrops, and DApps.

Finally, companies that enter this space will likely face challenges such as finding sufficiently qualified experts that are respected in the community (who won’t come cheap) and building up a reputation. The latter is unfortunately a catch-22 because a company with little reputation is unlikely to attract clients and their “seal of approval” won’t mean much. But without clients, it would be difficult for a company to build up a reputation.

In conclusion, it seems apparent that there is a large void in the industry for auditing services that team up cryptocurrency experts with fiat experts. Yet, very few startups have expressed an interest in filling it. This is understandable because there are probably far easier ways of making money in the cryptocurrency space that don’t involve dealing with clueless accountants and the legacy fiat-based banking system. That being said, most of the challenges faced by companies that enter this space don’t seem too insurmountable. Perhaps there are more that I might have missed? If you have any thoughts on this issue or know of any companies working in this space (or even wish to promote your own) then feel free to share them in the comments.

The Bitcoin Standard, written by Saifedean Ammous and published in 2018, is a comprehensive and enlightening book that delves into the world of Bitcoin. In a similar vein to The Internet of Money series by Andreas M. Antonopoulos, the book focuses on the “why” of Bitcoin rather than how it works on a technical level. Written from the perspective of Austrian economics, it provides readers with a deep understanding of the history of Bitcoin, its underlying economic and financial principles, and its potential future impact on global society.

The author’s writing style is engaging and easy to follow, making complex concepts accessible even for those who are new to the subject matter. Ammous begins by providing an overview of money throughout human history, explaining how various forms of money such as seashells, rai stones, silver, gold, and fiat money have evolved over time in response to technological advancements and societal needs. This historical context sets the stage for a thorough examination of Bitcoin’s philosophical underpinnings, its unique properties as digital gold, and its potential to replace the current fiat standard.

Ammous also explores the potential implications of Bitcoin on global finance, including its role in international trade, remittances, and as a reliable store of value for those seeking a hedge against economic mismanagement by political entities. Despite the book’s age, the author’s optimism for the future still feels as fresh and relevant as ever, providing readers with a clear understanding of the potential benefits and challenges that lie ahead.

One of the key strengths (and slight weaknesses) of The Bitcoin Standard is the author’s strongly opinionated and confrontational writing style. Ammous correctly emphasizes the importance of sound money as a cornerstone for economic stability and growth, arguing that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it immune to the issues faced by traditional fiat currencies such as inflation and political manipulation.

However, while the book’s aggressive writing style can be very effective at times, it also ends up being a bit of a double-edged sword. Ammous makes it very clear that he absolutely despises Keynesian economics and while I found his criticism of Keynesian economics through its role in funding endless wars and triggering economic recessions to be quite enlightening, his takes on more subjective topics like modern art, popular music, and the rate of technological innovation seemed like a bit of a reach. The fact that he isn’t afraid to hurl ad hominem arguments against John Maynard Keynes and his supporters doesn’t really help the cause either.

That being said, this is a minor issue and I found the value of what I learned to be much greater than dealing with some of the book’s subjectivity. I still highly recommend The Bitcoin Standard as an essential read for anyone interested in gaining a deep understanding of the philosophical foundations of Bitcoin and its implications for global society. With its comprehensive coverage of Bitcoin’s historical context and its future possibilities, this book offers readers the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their involvement with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in an ever-changing world.

An audiobook version of The Bitcoin Standard narrated by actor and professional narrator James Fouhey was also published in 2018. After reading the book, I listened to the audiobook version and found it to be equally enjoyable. In particular, Fouhey’s narration is refreshingly clear and easily understandable with an air of confidence befitting the book’s ideas.