Devcoin

Devcoin logo

Devcoin (DVC) is an ethically inspired cryptocurrency created in 2011 to fund open-source work by programmers, hardware developers, writers, musicians, graphic artists and filmmakers. Devcoin is one of the longest running blockchain based digital currencies.

The Devcoin code is open-source[1] and based around Bitcoin. Devcoin can be merge mined with Bitcoin, earned by developing, writing or traded on exchanges.

Contents

Description

The stated purpose of Devcoin is to give money to open source developers for their work in as fair a manner as possible.

Specifications

  • SHA-256 Algorithm
  • Merged mined with Bitcoin
  • 50,000 coins per block, 90% goes to funding developers.
  • Coin supply is constant.

Earnings and Payouts

Receiver files are used to load the addresses for payment into the mining operation. This is the first use of receiver files in cryptocurrency and allows the distribution of funds to Devcoin recipients.[2] Devcoin is expressly made to compensate individuals for their open-source and Creative Commons work, and payments are distributed throughout a round of 4,000 blocks.

Money Supply

The generation rate technicals were developed to pay for ongoing development and to address having to deal in milliDevcoins. Devcoin’s generation is constant at 50,000 coins per block, 1,000 times higher than the Bitcoin starting rate. The rate of growth falls as a percentage of the total each period. The generation is unlimited with no block halving. Devcoin has a marketcap of $348,056 USD as of Nov 11th, 2017.[3]

Transactions

Devcoin is an alternate Bitcoin blockchain.[4] The Devcoin daemon is a fork of the Bitcoin daemon and the client is a fork of the Bitcoin Windows version.

Open-source

Open-source is one model of open access and redistribution of time, work and information through collaboration. Devcoin was implemented to enable universal funding in line with this concept.[5]

Categories

Licenses for programming and hardware which qualify for Devcoins are the AGPL, Apache, BSD, GPL, LGPL, MIT, public domain, and unlicense. Web code must be licensed under the AGPL, to close the web services loop hole, it could also be dual licensed. Licenses for writers, musicians, painters and graphic artists, and filmmakers which qualify for devcoins are the Creative Commons Share Alike (wikipedia license), Creative Commons Attribution, public domain, and unlicense.

  • Programmers and hardware developers includes, but is not limited to, people who develop open-source software, websites, machinery, circuits, vehicles, housing, games, medicine, transportation, energy and resource extraction systems.
  • Writers includes people who write books, articles, fiction, poetry, and documentation. Fan fiction only qualifies if the source license also qualifies for Devcoins.
  • The musicians category includes people who perform music and people who create or record unique sounds. Currently musicians may only earn Devcoins for lyrics by the word, in future they may receive Devcoins for music videos.
  • The painters and graphic artists category does not currently include photographers because photography can be done mechanically with little or no creative work.
  • The filmmakers category includes people who make movies, shorts, and animation. Fan films only qualify if the source license also qualifies for Devcoins. Currently filmmakers only earn Devcoins for their scripts by the word, in future they may also receive Devcoins for the film itself.

Mining

If you have never mined Devcoins before then this may be a problem. If you want to mine Devcoins with your CPU, double click on the file “MineWithCPU.bat” from the folder “Mine Devcoins with CPU”. If your hardware can handle it, your computer will begin mining Devcoins for a test worker I’ve set up at the mining pool Bitparking. It could take hours before you get a share though. Mining Devcoins with your CPU isn’t effective, but you can experience how it works by executing this file.

If you want to mine Devcoins with your GPU, double click on the file “MineWithGPU.bat” from the folder “Mine Devcoins with GPU”. If your hardware can handle it, and the miner I’ve included recognizes correctly the graphical card you’ve got on your computer, it will begin mining Devcoins for the same test worker I’ve set up at the mining pool Bitparking. It could take minutes before you get a share though. Mining Devcoins with your GPU is far more efficient than doing it with your CPU, but still not good enough in a world where ASICs made specifically to mine Bitcoins contribute most of the mining power to the Bitcoin network. And since Devcoins and Bitcoins are usually mined together, you might not get many Devcoins with your GPU. You can experience how GPU mining works by executing this file though.

Now that you have tested your hardware and know you can mine Devcoins correctly, you may join a mining pool and change the name of my workers and the URL of Bitparking which you can see if you edit the files “MineWithCPU.bat” and “MineWithGPU.bat”. Write instead the names of the workers you created on your pool of choice and its URL:port so as you can mine Devcoins for yourself.

If you want to mine Devcoins solo (which is not recommended, because it’s extremely difficult that you ever find a block on your own), follow these steps: Copy the file “devcoin.conf” provided in this package to your Devcoin working directory (most likely “C:UsersYOURNAMEAppDataRoamingDevcoin”). Now navigate to the directory where Devcoin was installed (most likely “C:Program Files (x86)Devcoin”) and execute devcoin.exe. Wait until you are fully synchronized with the network.

Execute the file “SoloMineWithCPU.bat” from the folder “Mine Devcoins with CPU”, the file “SoloMineWithGPU.bat” from the folder “Mine Devcoins with GPU” or both of them. Your computer resources will begin mining Devcoins. It could take you a LOT of time before you find a full block. Or maybe you are extremely lucky and find one in one minute. It’s impossible to know!

Note 1: the miner provided for CPU mining is Pooler’s CPUminer 2.3.2 and the one for GPU mining is CGMiner 3.7.2. Other miners exist which might suit your hardware better and increase your mining speed.

Note 2: some antivirus programs consider all cryptocoin miners malware. They are not! The problem is that some bad people included them inside other legit packages of software so as they would mine for them on other computers without their owner’s knowledge. When they were found, antivirus companies labeled them as malicious software

See Also on BitcoinWiki

External links

References

  1. ↑ Devcoin Source Code
  2. ↑ Bootstrapping a Decentralized Autonomous Corporation, Part 3: Identity Corp
  3. ↑ Crypto-Currency Market Capitalizations, 11-11-2017
  4. ↑ What other digital currencies are there?
  5. ↑ Funding Open Source Projects With Devcoin