Primecoin (XPM) cryptocurrency review: technology, mining, wallets, prospects

Andrey Primula 09/14/2018

1 comment

This cryptocurrency is one of the oldest along with Bitcoin and Litecoin. Appeared in 2013.

The coin is unique in its own way, as it uses special cryptographic principles and is controlled by a decentralized miner market.

True, the basic operating principle was taken from Satoshi Nakamoto.

From the history of Primecoin

At the time of the creation of the project, there were, in fact, only two leading cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin and Litecoin.

But the problem was that extracting them was already quite difficult and costly in terms of capital investment.

Naturally, the appearance of an alternative in the form of Primecoin in 2013 found its admirers. But this is not even what attracts such interest to the coin. The fact is that, unlike Bitcoin, in Primecoin, calculations are made not only to confirm transactions, enter them into blocks and maintain network security. Calculations are also used for scientific purposes, as will be discussed below.

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Primecoin – when did it appear and where did it come from?

Let's start with the fact that Primecoin is a cryptocurrency, just like the famous Bitcoin and Litecoin. It appeared in 2013, and this year was chosen for a reason. On exchanges this coin is designated XPM.

In 2013, mining Bitcoin and Litecoin became extremely difficult. To get the next block it was necessary to spend quite a long time, and this took a lot of effort from the computer components.

So, the miners found themselves in a rather unpleasant situation. There are more and more competitors, because of this it is becoming more and more difficult to mine cryptocurrency, therefore, the profitability of mining is also falling.

Against the backdrop of an unclear situation in the cryptocurrency market, a new digital currency Primecoin appears. Since the community of users involved in mining was already formed, and there were few quality alternatives to Bitcoin, it was not difficult for Primecoin to become a popular crypto with a large customer base.

Main features, Primecoin technology

Primecoin is one of the first cryptocurrencies and is usually compared to Bitcoin.

Primecoin has a number of important features that you should pay attention to.

First of all, the confirmation system in the Bitcoin network is based on hashes created using the SHA-256 algorithm.

The search for solutions, as noted above, is aimed solely at maintaining the functionality of the network.

Primecoin performs useful calculations as it operates. The confirmation system is based on searching long Cunningham chains.

When it comes to block creation speed, Primecoin has a clear advantage here.

BTC protocols are configured in such a way that each block appears no more than once every 10 minutes. For XPM, this figure is 1 block per minute, that is, 10 times faster.

When considering transaction confirmation, Primecoin is also ahead of the first cryptocurrency, and by about the same amount as the system is faster at creating new blocks.

Difficulty changes more smoothly than in Bitcoin, where this indicator changes every 2016 blocks. In Primecoin, the difficulty changes every minute.

The approach to calculating remuneration is also interesting. On the Bitcoin network, the number of coins issued is gradually decreasing.

This results in reduced rewards as difficulty increases.

In the Primecoin system, the reward amount for miners is calculated depending on the complexity of operations and corresponds to the formula 999/difficulty.

Finally, Primecoin has no emission limit. On the one hand, this is a minus, since there is no deflationary scheme. On the other hand, today many are arguing about what will happen if most of the coins are lost (as you know, the Bitcoin network will end up with not 21,000,000 units, but several million less).

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Forecast for 2022

In the case of Primecoin, the rate is stable, as is the stratis forecast.

So, in February (02/13/2018) the exchange rate to the ruble was 43.806, and today (02/15) it is 45.955. For comparison, at the very beginning of the year the price for one primecoin was 46,779 rubles. That is, the currency is not prone to sharp rises or falls.

If we compare it with the state at the end of 2016, when one XPM cost only 4 cents, we can see that the rate has gradually increased several times.

Now let’s move on to the important question - what will the Primecoin exchange rate be to the dollar and ruble in the summer, and what is the general forecast for 2022? The outlook is that XPM could skyrocket to 0.000135 Bitcoin under one condition: the market stabilizes at 0.00008 and is protected at that level.

XPM cryptocurrency capitalization

In exchange listings, the Primecoin cryptocurrency is designated as XPM.

On the first day of trading, the market capitalization reached $54,274.

In the same 2013, it grew to $10 million . Then came a long-term correction, which ended in 2017.

At the time of writing, this figure is just over $14 million.

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What does the Primecoin currency symbol symbolize?

Primecoin's currency symbol is the Greek letter psi (Ψ). This letter is chosen as a tribute to Riemann because its shape symbolizes the Riemann zeta function (there is a graphical rendering used in the Primecoin-Qt Windows setup screen).

The horizontal stripe not only standardizes the currency symbol, but also symbolizes one of the highest jewels of mathematics - the Riemann Hypothesis.

Mining cryptocurrency Primecoin

Unlike Bitcoin, Primecoin does not use a hash system in the process of mining a new block. Instead, useful calculations are applied.

To create new blocks, the computer performs calculations of varying complexity.

At the same time, the numbers themselves that are used in the calculation process do not appear randomly.

They are of some interest to the scientific community.

Accordingly, mining new Primecoin (XPM) comes down not only to ensuring the operation and protection of the network, but also to making a contribution to world science.

Taking into account the fact that the calculations for Bitcoin and Primecoin are different, in the first case, video cards and ASICs are used, and in the second, a central processor.

The Proof of Work system is configured in a slightly different way. Each participant checks the operation of the entire network. Accordingly, the size of the numbers should not be large. As a result of the work, chains of pseudo-prime numbers appear. Moreover, only three types of chains of prime numbers are accepted as proof of work.

Mining can be done either independently or within a pool.

To do this, you need to have an already created wallet, where all profits will be transferred.

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What does the company/project do?

Primecoin (XPM) is an open-source cryptocurrency that implements a unique scientific and computational proof of work.
Primecoin's proof-of-work system looks for chains of prime numbers. Primecoin was created by a person or group of people who use the pseudonym Sunny King. Primecoin's source code is copyrighted by a person or group called "Primecoin Developers" and is distributed under the MIT/X11 conditional software license.

How and where to buy Primecoin cryptocurrency

The coin is offered on many exchanges, including Gatecoin, CoinEx, btcltc, Vircurex, Wex, Poloniex, Cryptopia, Bit-Z, Bleutrade and other platforms.

To withdraw to fiat, you will need to exchange it for bitcoin, and then go to any exchange or exchanger, where bitcoins, in turn, are exchanged for fiat money.

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Let's start mining Primecoin

So, in order to start mining primecoin, you only need:

1. Download archive
2. Unpack
3. Change the wallet address to your own, this can be done in the rpool.bat file
4. After changing the file, run it. Now all mined forks will go directly to your wallet. We recommend everyone to take up primecoin mining, because it is still very young, therefore, mining is not and cannot be very difficult. Even with a fairly weak processor you can earn good money. And if you buy a good processor with this mined money, in the future for some this may become their main job. Don’t miss your chance, because not everyone gets the opportunity to try out a new cryptocurrency.

Advantages and disadvantages

PROS:

• Mining is carried out using the power of the central processor, and not expensive video cards or ASICs.
• Cryptocurrency is one of the oldest and is in definite demand among investors.
• Mining new Primecoins involves calculations useful for science. Each user makes a certain contribution to the development of world science.
• Higher speed of transactions and their confirmations compared to Bitcoin. The block formation time is about 1 minute.
• A smoother change in the complexity of the mining algorithm, which is recalculated every minute.
• The formula for calculating rewards is different from that of Bitcoin, which takes into account the benefits brought by the miner.
• A large number of exchanges on which cryptocurrency is traded. This greatly simplifies the process of transferring electronic money to fiat or purchasing primecoin for the purpose of settlements and investments.
• There is your own wallet, which you can download on the official website of the project.

CONS:

• There is no information about the project team. What is known is that XPM was developed by cryptography specialist Sunny King.
• The project does not have specific goals. Carrying out calculations for science is a positive thing, but the project does not set itself any other tasks.
• Despite the relative simplicity of mining, it is not profitable to mine primecoin on your own. The user will still have to access the services of various pools.

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Cranes

Primecoin faucets are generous compared to other cryptocurrency faucets. However, if you transfer the rewards into Bitcoin or Ether, then everything will be about the same, so don’t be fooled by the numbers of 1-2 million satoshi for each completed task.

To withdraw funds, you will have to create a FaucetHub micro-wallet, to which various Primecoin faucets can be linked and set up an automatic payout.

The following faucets are currently being heard:

• prime-get – a resource with a fixed reward of 75,000 primetoshi every ten minutes;
• prime-faucet – you can get an average of 80,000 primetoshi per hour;
• prime-queen – gives you the opportunity to get up to 100,000 every 5 minutes;
• prime-tk-faucet – has a zero interval between stamps and gives out 0.03 primecoins;
• prime-s – pays up to 0.003 XPM every 5 minutes;
• prime-bagi – promises from 10 to 100 thousand primetoshi every five minutes, and earnings are transferred instantly.

Unfortunately, taps for the most part are unstable resources, so they tend to close and open in completely unpredictable ways. But it makes sense to try them all, because no investment is required.

Microwallet FaucetHub

Forecasts and prospects

At the time of writing this review, Primecoin has recovered somewhat.

For quite a long time, the price of cryptocurrency, as well as capitalization, were at their minimum values.

Perhaps, with the growing interest in cryptocurrencies in general, some miners have turned their attention to Primecoin as an opportunity to mine on a CPU. This led to the coin “reviving” again in 2022.

At the same time, as noted above, the project does not have any specific tasks and goals other than scientific calculations. Accordingly, its prospects remain unclear from the point of view of the practical application of the cryptosystem. There is no innovative technology behind Primecoin. At the same time, the transaction speed, which is almost 10 times higher than that of Bitcoin, is still not a record by modern standards.

Some modern blockchain payment systems allow more than 1000 transactions per second.

Most likely, interest in this cryptocurrency in 2022 arose precisely in the wake of the popularization of the blockchain and widespread interest in it from novice miners and investors.

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What is the science behind Primecoin?

The Primecoin network looks for special chains of prime numbers known as Cunningham chains and lookalike chains. The distribution of these simple chains is currently not well understood, since even for its simplest random doubles their infinite existence has not been proven.

The distribution of prime numbers was one of the most important discoveries in arithmetic, and the study of prime chains traces its connection to the workings of Riemann's theorem and prime numbers, connecting with the deeper nature of the seemingly random pattern of the prime distribution. The fundamental distribution is not just an abstract interest of mathematicians.

Riemann's research discovered connections between the Riemann zeta function and simple distribution, while the later Riemann zeta function was very relevant in other scientific disciplines such as physics,

Links to targets for finding prime numbers and prime patterns in general:

• Structure and randomness in prime numbers - presentation by Terence Tao
• Why do people find prime numbers?
• Ask Ars: Why waste time and money searching for new prime numbers?

Is it possible to hack a Bitcoin wallet. The question is partly rhetorical, since everything can be hacked, but there are very few ways to do it. If we discard the option where a unique key is stolen from you by breaking into your computer, then the only option left is to select this very key.

On one of the forums where I live and communicate on the topic of cryptocurrencies, a debate ensued about whether it is possible to hack a Bitcoin wallet or not. In the end, it all came down to two options: the first is by gaining access to your computer and obtaining a unique key for the wallet. And the second method is the method of selecting a key by enumerating options. If the first option is more or less clear, then a serious dispute broke out about the second option, which lasted more than one day.

So I decided to do some research to see if this was possible.

An article about the “Large Bitcoin Collider” was cited as an argument.

It claims that a certain anonymous group is engaged in targeted hacking of Bitcoin wallets using the power of all willing users who join a common network, thus called the Large Bitcoin Collider (LBC).

Anyone can go to the website of this group and download an application that will join the general power of the distributed network and will select keys for certain Bitcoin wallets. As a result, any participant, in theory, claims a part of the “catch” if successful.

This project has existed for about a year and, according to statements, the result of the work was the hacking of more than 30 wallets. But only three of them had bitcoins, and then very little. But all this is not possible, and below I will give one of the comments that proves this.

As they say, all the energy in our space would not be enough to generate two identical keys. It is possible to hack (Brute force) the blockchain, not even with a quantum computer of the future, but with a computer operating outside of space/time. Since we won’t see teleportation for a long time and moving faster than the speed of light is also not planned. There cannot be a resource capable of cracking the key.

And that’s all because there are only 2 to the 262nd power of key options.

Imagine you have created an ideal computer, forget about GHash and Megahertz.

You have created a computer that uses the minimum theoretically required energy to write a simple bit (1 to 0 or 0 to 1)

We are talking about the limit of thermodynamics; anything with higher efficiency is not possible.

Now imagine you used most of the natural resources of our solar system to construct a Dyson sphere and forced ENTIRE space into a supercomputer.

Now imagine you could keep this computer at a maximum temperature of zero degrees, without spending additional energy on it.

If you met all these conditions and used all the energy of this star (not for a day or a week, but for so long until it completely goes out), then you still will not be able to count to 2 to the 256th power before all the energy runs out.

And that's just overkill.

Just counting, not a hash, and no comparison, no register searches, just counting as 1.. 2.. 3.. …. 2to256degrees.

These numbers have no connection with the capabilities of our technological devices; they are greater than everything possible that the law of thermodynamics allows.

And this strictly implies that a “brute-force” attack on keys of 256 bits is not feasible. For now, our computers are made of something like matter and occupy something like space.

Bitcoin - Your money is protected by the law of the universe.

Therefore, if someone tells you that a Bitcoin wallet can be hacked by simply selecting a key, even using all the free power on the planet for this, feel free to refute this article.

I'd love to hear your opinions in the comments.