freecoin

freecoin is a fully-functional cryptocurrency I'm making for fun. Unlike most cryptocurrencies which followed Bitcoin (litecoin, dogecoin), freecoin uses no Bitcoin source code.

Background

What is a cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency is a currency that is functionally possible because of cryptography. Mathematics and cryptographic principles allow a user to prove they were the recipient of a past transaction.

What does it mean to be "decentralized"?

With banks that deal with regular currencies, all regulation happens in one place. Storing the amount of money each person has along with the processing of transactions all happens on a few servers. Though they probably take backups and security very seriously, banks (and the governments that regulate them) represent a central authority over a vastly powerful resource. With decentralized currencies, transactions are processed and balances are stored by the people. Everyone agrees on how things should work, so it works.

Protocol

#####Revision 5.0 - 6/4/16 All freecoin communication is done over TCP. Because data must be able to permeate the network quickly, most functions are designed with the purpose of data request and exchange.

Header

All messages have the following 7B header.

[4][2][1]
[body_len][version][CTYPE]

Content types (CTYPE_*)

0 <reject>
[1][1][<=255]
[ETYPE][info_size][info]
Sent in response to invalid data.

1 <gethighest>
[]
Requests an inv of a peer's highest chained block.

2 <getchain>
[32][1]
[start_block][count]
Requests an inv of the [count] blocks that proceed [start_block].

3 <gettxs>
[]
Requests an inv of all orphan transactions a peer knows about.

4 <getpeers>
[]
Requests all of a peer's peers.

5 <inv>
[1][1][count*32]
[DTYPE][count][hashes..]
Informs a peer about the existence of data.
Should only include *orphan* transactions and *chain-valid* blocks.

6 <getdata>
[1][1][count*32..]
[DTYPE][count][hashes..]
Requests blocks or transactions.

7 <block>
[?]
A block. Should only be sent when solicited by getdata.

8 <tx>
[?]
A full transaction. Should only be sent when solicited by getdata.

9 <peer>
[1][1][addr_len]
[port][addr_len][addr]
Information about a peer.

10 <alert>
[1][48]([1][4][msg_len])
[msg_len][sig]([ATYPE][time][msg])
Notifies peer about network emergency. Only valid if signed by admin_key.

11 <ping>
[]
Requests that a peer respond with a <pong>.

12 <pong>
[]
Solicited by <ping>.

Error types (ETYPE_*)

1 bad_version
2 message_malformed
3 bad_ctype
4 bad_dtype
5 bad_atype

Data types (DTYPE_*)

0 blocks
1 transactions
2 peers

Alert command types (ATYPE_*)

0 warnuser
1 forceupdate

General procedures

Note: See the source for info on handling received messages.

General

In order for the network to remain functional, all clients must abide by the following three rules:

• Stay as informed as possible
• Keep others as informed as you are
• Strive to have the highest possible chain.

Joining the network

• Try connecting to known nodes until one works. This is peer₀ .

• For (0 <= n < 8):

  • Ask peer_n what peers they are connected to. Select a node randomly from this pool (excluding ourself, peer_[0,n-1] and any nodes we've failed to connect to). This is peer_n+1.
  • If peer_n for n>0 has less than 8 peers, send them a list of all our peers.
  • If peer_n for n>0 has no nodes that are valid to us (according to above exclusions), select another node from the same pool we selected peer_n from.

Do periodically:

• Send all peers a <gethighest>.
• If you have less than 8 peers, send each peer a <getpeers> until you do.

Validation

It's important to test the validity of data we receive. Although there are certain traits a block or transaction may have that make them blatantly invalid, there are certain types of validity that can't be tested for until we have a complete picture. To remedy this, there are two tiers of validity: pseudo-valid and chain-valid. Data can be confirmed to be pseudo-valid at first glance. However, it's only until we know about the entire chain of a block or the block of a transaction that we may deem data to be chain-valid.

Block validation (pseudo)

• sha256(block_header) <= target field
• version field matches that of the current client
• merkle_root must be merkle root of transactions in body, in order
• The body must contain tx_count transactions, all of which must be pseudo-valid.

Block validation (chain)

• if height == 0:
  • Block hash must be equal to ONE_TRUE_ROOT
• elif height > 0:
  • time field > time field of previous block
  • height field == 1 + height of previous block
  • If height < CHAIN_RECALC_INTERVAL:
    • target must be equal to the previous block's target
  • else:
    • target must be correct in terms of the previous block and the block CHAIN_RECALC_INTERVAL blocks prior to it
• The body's transactions must all be chain-valid.

Transaction validation (pseudo)

• version field matches that of the current client
• If [transaction_size] > 1000 bytes, this transaction's outputs' combined output surplus must be >= [transaction_size] * TX_FEE_PER_1K
• The body must contain in_count tx_inputs and out_count tx_outputs. All inputs must be pseudo-valid.

Transaction validation (chain)

• If this is the first transaction in the block and (in_count == 0) (coinbase transaction):
  • The combined output amount <= (MINING_REWARD + the combined tx_output surplus from other transactions in the transaction's block).
• Else:
  • in_count > 0
  • The the sum of the amounts corresponding to each tx_input must be >= than the sum of the amounts corresponding to each tx_output.
  • The body's inputs must all be chain-valid.

Transaction input validation (pseudo)

• The sig field must contain a signature (corresponding to the pubkey) of the sha256 of the input's transaction, minus the parts where the signatures would go.

Transaction input validation (chain)

• The out_indexth output of the ref_tx must not have been spent in this block or one prior (within the same chain).

Source information

Source guidelines

Todo

Routine

Far future

Misc

• ipv6
• fast_mine: C API, and the first 64B chunk of every hash need not be calculated on each iteration.