The History of Skycoin

[Anonymous No.9205192]

Bitcoin’s consensus algorithm: Through PoW, miners competed to add the next set of transactions, or block, in the chain of blocks by racing to solve a difficult cryptographic puzzle. The first miner to a solution received a reward and transaction fee. Whereas many lauded and profited from this system of proof, the auditing team could only see red flags. Bitcoin’s enormous computational energy requirement centralized the majority of mining to areas of the world where electricity was cheap.

One group in particular grew out of northern Ukraine and formed an entire Bitcoin industry—equipped with mining pools, hardware, and exchanges—that gave way to GHash.io, a mining pool that would come to control over 60% of total mining power (Noble, 2014). This is only one instance. The current state of “decentralization”—three major mining pools all based in China (“10 Best and Biggest Bitcoin Mining Pools”, 2017) and a single producer of Asic mining hardware—was not Satoshi Nakamoto’s intention.

[Anonymous No.9205215]

As the Skycoin team began their earliest work researching ways to resolve the PoW algorithm, another conflict over centralization heightened—the fight for net neutrality. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) controlled the Internet’s physical architecture and could restrict quality of service for network users based on variable or tiered pricing. In addition, ISPs had the power to exploit customers by selling their information to third parties (e.g. location, browsing history, contents of unencrypted messages, etc.). This remains true even today.

Net neutrality and PoW are outwardly two different issues, but Skycoin’s team saw the same fundamental flaw: a system prone to centralization. The research and development for Skycoin would eventually lead to critical foundations for Skywire, a truly decentralized mesh-Internet that frees users from ISP dependence.

Today’s Skycoin Project has deployed multiple innovations (e.g. Skycoin, Skywire, Fiber, etc) under the hands of 15 development teams worldwide. While still growing, 2018 is the year Skycoin intends to make its formal introduction to the public.

[Anonymous No.9205247]

The Skycoin Project is one of the oldest crypto projects in development, and Skycoin is its first creation. Built as an infrastructure project rooted in the founding concept of decentralization, Skycoin runs on a completely different consensus algorithm, “Obelisk” or a “web-of-trust.” With Obelisk, Skycoin is not susceptible to the weaknesses of PoW and Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

>Lightning Fast
Transactions take as little as 2 seconds. With no bottlenecks or fees, Skycoin is faster than other cryptocurrencies and competitive with credit cards and Apple Pay.

>Zero Fees
Skycoin transactions cost Coin Hours, a separate currency paid to Skycoin holders for each hour they hold a coin.

>Secure
Built from the ground up in Golang, Skycoin makes full use of time-tested cryptographic standards to ensure transactions can’t be tampered with. Skycoin renders useless such threats as 51% attack, reversal, duplication, and malleability.

>Private
Skycoin’s transaction structure was designed to seamlessly adopt the CoinJoin protocol. Once integrated, Skycoin mixes transactions from multiple wallets to ensure they are indistinguishable from one another.

>Sustainable
Without the enormous computational energy requirement typical of PoW and PoS processes, Skycoin can run on a 30-watt cell phone processor.

>Incentivized
Skycoin is more than a cryptocurrency. It derives inherent value from the Skywire mesh network. Users earn and use Skycoin for providing and consuming network resources.

>Utility Backed
Skycoin’s practical application means it is backed by a real asset: bandwidth.

[Anonymous No.9205276]

In Bitcoin’s early programming, there was a fundamental miscalculation that the mining process would produce an economic incentive structure conducive to decentralization. Instead, PoW has concentrated influence among mining pools that can supply the resource intensive miners with cheap power. These same groups of influence can orchestrate widespread changes to the network (e.g. forks).

Satoshi Nakamoto himself identified mining-control as the biggest noncryptographic threat to the Bitcoin network due to the possibility of 51% attacks when more than 50 percent of the hashing power is confined to one actor. This also implies that the operation of the network is both economically and environmentally inefficient. According to Energy Researcher Sebastiaan Deetman (2016), “If the Bitcoin network keeps expanding...it could lead to a continuous electricity consumption…[equivalent to] the total consumption of...Denmark by 2020.” The continuous input of processing power required by the mining process also incurs monthly costs in the tens of millions. There is little sustainability.

[Anonymous No.9205306]

To tackle this centralization problem, Skycoin uses a distributed consensus algorithm, Obelisk. Obelisk distributes influence over the network according to a web-of-trust. There is no mining, instead the web consists of nodes (e.g. computers, Skyminers, etc.) and each node subscribes to a list of trusted nodes. Nodes with more subscribers hold more influence in the network.

Each node is assigned a personal blockchain that acts as a “public broadcasting channel,” where its every action is publicly recorded and visible. As all consensus decisions and communication occur through the personal blockchains of each node, the community can easily audit nodes for cheating or collusion—without compromising privacy. The nodes are addressed by their cryptographic public key and a node’s IP address is only known to the nodes it is directly connected to. Furthermore, there are no fixed ports and no known plain text in wire format.

[Anonymous No.9205332]

Skycoin transactions cost Coin Hours—not Skycoin. To earn Coin Hours, users simply hold Skycoin in order to participate in the ecosystem of Web 3.0. For each Skycoin held by an address per hour, its owner nets 1 Coin Hour. Therefore, holding 1000 Skycoin for 1 hour generates 1000 Coin Hours.

Coin Hours also open up different features within the Skycoin ecosystem such as VPN services, movie downloads from Popcorn Time, additional bandwidth on Skywire, etc. However, for holders more interested in its monetary value, Coin Hours will readily be accepted through an Over the Counter (OTC) Buy-Back program that guarantees a foundational value. Additionally, the launch of Skycoin’s Decentralized Exchange will enable Coin Hour holders to exchange them for various other currencies.

To ensure the establishment of a healthy Coin Hour economy and to reward hardware testers who earn Coin Hours for testing, Skycoin will initially fund an OTC buy-back of Coin Hours. Funds for the buy-back program come from undistributed coins. The Organization will burn the Coin Hours it buys back to increase Coin Hour scarcity and value.

[Anonymous No.9205346]

Yes but how exactly does it work

[Anonymous No.9205386]

>>9205192
what kind of idiot would throw money at something where you don't even know the head guy's name that is in charge of distributing all the coins?

also jesus christ your memes are normie-tier garbage

[Anonymous No.9205388]

SKYCOIN HARDWARE WALLETS

Skycoin believes that hardware wallets are the most secure means to storing coins. In order to maximize adoption, Skycoin will soon be supported by several popular hardware wallets in addition to producing its own. The Skycoin hardware wallet will support dozens of alternative coins as well as the ones on Fiber. This is on top of the convenience already provided by Skycoin mobile and desktop wallets.


SKYMINERS

Skyminers are custom-built hardware VPN units that provide the computing power, networking capability, and storage capacity necessary for the Skywire
network’s infrastructure backbone.

The Skycoin ecosystem is designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their means or technical knowledge. Skyminers are a major driver of that accessibility. Their low-cost hardware and energy efficiency make them relatively cheap to buy and run. A “plug and play” functionality is currently in the works so that nontechnical users can easily deploy their own nodes.

In keeping with the Skycoin Project’s open-source roots, full Skyminer part lists and assembly guides will be available to anyone who would like to build their own.

[Anonymous No.9205412]

The Skycoin team is already ramping up production of Skyminers. Post mainnet, Skycoin plans to have 1 factory producing 1,000 units per week with plans to scale up to 2 factories producing 10,000 units per week by Q1 of 2019.

There are two main areas of R&D for Skyminers. First is the antenna hardware. The team is developing two main antenna variants:

1. A short-range (up to 5km with clear Line-of-Sight) antenna for point-to-point access in urban areas
2. A long-range (up to 15km) antenna to connect sparsely populated communities

[Anonymous No.9205448]

SKYWIRE ADOPTION PLAN

When fully deployed, Skywire provides direct access to the Internet backbone. In order to achieve this, Skywire must provide:

• Short-range connectivity between nodes in densely populated regions
• Long-range wireless connectivity in sparsely populated regions
• Backhaul connections to the fiber backbone

These goals are achievable with existing technology. Skywire will use a phased approach to roll out the network.

Phase 1: Testnet
The first phase is already underway. A software-based testnet has been live since late 2017.

Phase 2: Mainnet
The second phase marks the official launch of the mainnet and the beginning of real mesh network capabilities. Skywire nodes will connect to each other over WiFi and share bandwidth. Both short-range and long-range wireless antennas will become available during this phase, enabling node peering over distances up to 5km and 15km

Phase 3: Backhaul
Backhaul traditionally refers to the portion of the network that connects the network edge and the main backbone. In Skywire, backhaul refers to the connection between the wireless meshnet and a fiber connection point. Once backhaul connections are implemented, the meshnet no longer depends on Tier 3 ISPs.

[Anonymous No.9205479]

>>9205386
>what kind of idiot would throw money at something where you don't even know the head guy's name

Synth, one of the earliest developers behind Bitcoin, started Skycoin 8 years ago with a vision of creating a new, decentralized Internet. He sits on the advisory boards of several cryptocurrency projects. Synth has a background in mathematics, distributed systems, and symbolic logic. Synth's real name is known to anyone familiar with the project. DYOR.

[Anonymous No.9205517]

You need a license to long range broadcasting. Wifi wavelengths are also caught and you can't use them for other things. Phase 2 is dead before being implemented

[Anonymous No.9205548]

>>9205517
true if big

[Anonymous No.9205553]

>>9205386

>what kind of idiot would throw money at something where you don't even know the head guy's name that is in charge of distributing all the coins?

>Crypto literally wouldn't exist without bitcoin.

Why are no-coiners so fucking retarded.

[Anonymous No.9205557]

>>9205479
damn, the guy putting on his own linkedin that he worked on bitcoin sure is great proof

[Anonymous No.9205561]

pretty compelling stuff, this project is very ambititious, how much sky do I need to make it ?

[Anonymous No.9205685]

>>9205517
There are unlicensed bands that will suffice in most countries. Licenses can also be sought where needed. And traditional ISPs or satellite can still be used in the rare scenarios where no direct bandwidth option is available.

[Anonymous No.9205703]

>>9205557
If his claims weren't true then he'd have been called out by now by the other Bitcoin OGs.

[Anonymous No.9205727]

>>9205557
SKY will eventually be worth more than Bitcoin. You work it out.

[Anonymous No.9205900]

fuck it, just bought 12 sky on cryptopia
I hate cryptopia btw

[Anonymous No.9205952]

>>9205332
Is there a discord group where I could find out more.

[Anonymous No.9206073]

>>9205952

t.me/Skycoin

The Telegram is very active.

[Anonymous No.9206269]

Interesting, I admit it's one I had completely skipped over until now. I should look into everything I hear about.