Limited release, production rate before this limit re-evaluated with the production of every block (at a rate of approximately 1 block per minute) based on the difficulty with which primecoins are produced.[citation needed]
Primecoin was launched in 2013 by Sunny King, who also founded Peercoin.[4][5]
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, which are mined using algorithms that solved mathematical problems with no extrinsic value, mining Primecoin involves producing chains of prime numbers (Cunningham and bi-twin chains). These are useful to scientists and mathematicians and meet the requirements for a proof of work system of being hard to compute but easy to verify and having an adjustable difficulty.[6][1][4][7][5][8]
Shortly after its launch, some trade journals reported that the rush of over 18,000 new users seeking to mine Primecoin overwhelmed providers of dedicated servers.[1][9] It was ranked as being one of the top ten currencies before 2014.[10]
Primecoin has a block time of one minute, changes difficulty every block, and has a block reward that is a function of the difficulty.[4][8]
Symbol
The currency symbol from Primecoin is the Greek letter psi (Ψ) which was chosen as a tribute to Riemann, so that its shape symbolizes the zeta de Riemann function.[11][12] The horizontal bar, not only defies convention, the symbols of monetary units, but also symbolizes one of the biggest stones of the mathematician Riemann's hypothesis.
Features
Primecoin's proof-of-work system has the following features:
The proof of Primecoin's operation takes the form of chains of prime numbers.[13][14][15]
Finding the first number of the chain becomes exponentially more difficult as the length of the chain increases.
Checking the reasonable size of chains of prime numbers can be efficiently performed by all nodes in the network.
Simple Mersenne numbers are forbidden because of their very large size.
Three types of chains of prime numbers are accepted as proofs of the paper: a Cunningham chain of type one, a Cunningham chain of type two, and bi-twin chains.[16][17]
Other cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, typically use Hashcash-type proof-of-work based on SHA-256 cryptographic hash algorithms, which have no value beyond maintaining their own system.[18] The Hashcash algorithm is also used as a proof of work.
Advantages
Proof-of-work in Primecoin not only secures the network, but also generates a special form of prime number chains of interest for mathematical research.[19] Thus, the Primecoin network is multi-purpose compared to the Bitcoin network, being designed to support a mining market that is increasingly evolving computationally while maintaining good scarcity properties.[20] Primecoin also processes payment transactions 10 times faster than the Bitcoin network.[21]
Fanning, Kurt; Centers, David P. (13 June 2016). "Blockchain and Its Coming Impact on Financial Services". Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance. 27 (5): 54–55. doi:10.1002/jcaf.22179.
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