How to create a cryptocurrency
The process of creating a cryptocurrency is a whole complex of activities, including writing code, creating infrastructure and bringing the coin to the market. Typically, a new coin is launched for:
- Conducting ICO;
- Applications in the internal activities of the enterprise;
- Implementation of a new technical solution in the code;
- A successful marketing campaign with subsequent earnings.
Some people perceive the launch of a private token as a new experience in programming or marketing and do it to improve their skills, so to speak. Well, someone actually creates coins for fun - as was the case with Dogecoin.
- How to create a cryptocurrency
- Is it possible to create your own cryptocurrency?
- Ways to create cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency from scratch from developers
- Cryptocurrency fork
- Waves
How to create a cryptocurrency
The process of creating a cryptocurrency
To create your own cryptocurrency, you need:
- Decide what it is needed for.
- Choose a method for creating cryptocurrency.
- Get a unique code.
- Think over a marketing campaign.
- Arrange listing on exchanges and platforms, if required.
We will examine each of these stages in more detail below in order to make the winding and thorny path of the creator of a cryptocurrency easier for the creative and enterprising reader.
Recommendations
Useful tips:
- The project requires a “ trick ” that will allow clients to find something new.
- Discussions on thematic forums will help you create an idea, where you can identify the basic needs of digital coin holders.
- The development method must be decided in advance.
- You need to select your team carefully.
- Before launch, miners need to be found so that the network can function stably.
- You can use crowdfunding platforms to attract investors.
Looking at cryptocurrency rates and forecasts on exchanges, many people have a desire to create their own cryptocurrency. In reality, the process is not as complicated as it seems at first glance. There are many tools and services that allow you to launch a new digital currency without specific knowledge and with minimal investment.
Is it possible to create your own cryptocurrency?
Stages of creating a cryptocurrency
The main beauty of cryptocurrencies and the industry as a whole is its decentralization, as well as the regulatory vacuum that has developed in many countries. Therefore, if the state punishes for creating “its own” fiat currency (which is directly stated in the criminal code), then launching your own crypto-asset is completely legal.
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Any user with an “advanced” PC level can take the public code of an existing cryptocurrency as a basis or try to write their own from scratch.
How his asset will work, what it will be based on and whether it will even get on the market - only the owner decides, at least for now, no one except the owner knows about it.
Popularization of cryptocurrencies
But when withdrawing the coin “to the masses,” problems may arise because Advanced jurisdictions have so far been able to establish technical and economic requirements for various cryptocurrencies and tokens (for example, the USA).
The good news is that there are few such advanced jurisdictions with a strict regulatory approach.
If we talk about the CIS space, then we still have the promised land and unregulated for crypto-assets, with the possible exception of the Belarusian HTP.
Yes, there are trends, but trends cannot prohibit, allow or punish, so the creators are as free as birds in their impulses if there are no problems with the Criminal Code.
Moreover, the emergence of new cryptocurrencies on the market, provided they are useful and innovative, creates competition in the industry and contributes to its development. Therefore, to the question of whether it is possible to create your own cryptocurrency, we will answer:
Legally, yes (at least in Russia and Ukraine).
Economically, yes.
Technically yes.
And since we received three “yes,” we move on to the next section of our instructions.
Waves
The platform is distinguished by its high transaction speed and such convenient tools that even a beginner can create a cryptocurrency token on it. This is where its advantages end.
Waves does not issue ERC-20 tokens like Ethereum. This means that they can only be traded on the internal exchange of the DEX platform, the audience of which is not as numerous and solvent as the Ethereum audience. You will invent tokens, but difficulties will arise with their implementation.
Ways to create cryptocurrency
Ways to Create a Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency cannot be printed and minted like fiat, so the first question a new cryptocurrency creator faces is how to get the code for his coin.
At the same time, it would be nice to have a wallet, nodes, a standardized hashing algorithm and a more or less decent roadmap with a website so that you won’t be ashamed to show it to investors. There are two ways to solve this problem:
Cryptocurrency from scratch from developers
If you have a desire to create a cryptocurrency, but no programming knowledge, you can order development services from specialized companies. At the moment, there are many offices on the market that “create” a token according to technical specifications in a relatively short time, and with adequate communication, the result will meet expectations.
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The cost of turnkey cryptocurrency depends on the package of services provided and ranges from 1000 to $4,000-$5,000.
A utility token without infrastructure and promotion will cost several hundred dollars. As an example, we can give the prices of two companies offering the creation of cryptocurrency:
Price list of a company offering cryptocurrency development
The second team has a slightly different approach to determining the cost:
And another price list for creating cryptocurrency
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But you need to take into account that in most cases, such companies do not write code from scratch, but create a cryptocurrency based on the source code of another currency, modifying it to suit the customer’s requirements.
Launching a coin “from scratch” can take from 6 months to several years, and you will most likely have to find a team for all processes yourself.
The services of programmers and designers cost from $100-150 per hour, so the cost of a serious technological coin is several orders of magnitude higher than a fork. Actually, such currencies are launched only for serious ICOs or large projects involving funds from investors.
Cryptocurrency fork
Bitcoin fork
A fork is the creation of a new cryptocurrency using the source code of an already known one (for example, Ethereum). In fact, this is what most agencies offering cryptocurrencies from $1000 do. You can carry out a fork yourself, although it will be more clumsy.
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Read the full article: Bitcoin forks: rethinking the code of the main cryptocurrency
Instructions
to create a cryptocurrency by launching a fork:
- On github.com you need to download the source code of any cryptocurrency you like:
Cryptocurrency options on github.com // Source: habr.com
- Install on your PC the necessary libraries to work with it.
- Using a special program, replace the name of the coin in the code with your own. TextWrangler is suitable for Mac OS, and Search and Replace or Actual Search & Replace is suitable for Windows. All applications are free.
Applications for Replacing names in the Regexxer application // Source: habr.com
- Select and replace P2P and RPC network ports. The port number should not be the same as one already in use (Wiki will kindly provide a list of free ports). The port number in the code must be replaced with the selected one in several lines, the order of which may differ depending on the source cryptocurrency.
Replacing the port number in lines of code // Source: habr.com
- Set up coin generation - you can write:
- block generation time:
Filling out the block generation time field
- reward for mining a block:
Filling out the field about the reward for mining a block
- emission limit:
Filling out the field about the issue of cryptocurrency
- maximum number of blocks per day:
Filling out the field about the maximum number of blocks per day
- Replace icons - this is done on a ready-made GUI application, which should be obtained after carrying out all the above steps. In the application resource folder there will be a standard icon pack that can be replaced with your logo, maintaining the size and name of the original.
Icons in the application system folder // Source: habr.com
All that remains is to distribute the application among your new community so that people actively start using the created cryptocurrency.
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The above instructions are very approximate, because... The numbering and names of the lines may vary from coin to coin, so after determining the exact source code, you will have to look for a detailed manual on how to work with it.
When launching a fork, it is more difficult to create not the cryptocurrency itself, but a client for it and infrastructure. Most amateur altcoins use the blockchain and parameters of mother coins, but this is not enough for a promising currency, which is why they turn to specialists.
Altcoin #3: Litecoin (LTC)
Price:
$60.
Market capitalization:
$3.28 billion.
Peculiarity:
Litecoin was created in 2011 by former Google engineer Charles Lee.
Like Ripple, it is open source and processes transactions four times faster than Bitcoin.
Initially, Charles Lee tried to tie the cost of the coin to the cost of silver, which is why Litecoin was later nicknamed “electronic silver” for its stability and reliability.
Programs for creating cryptocurrencies
What programs can you use to create a cryptocurrency?
For those who do not trust all sorts of artisanal crypto-designers and do not want to rummage through the code themselves, there are special platforms that allow you to quickly create a token of a certain standard or using developed smart contracts. Among them:
Waves
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It is considered one of the most understandable and accessible platforms for the average user.
You can launch your own token by downloading the client from here, in which you then need to create an account. After authorization, the user will have access to a simple interface for creating a cryptocurrency, in which they only need to indicate the description, total quantity and name.
The token can be added to the client’s portfolio and even withdrawn to a decentralized exchange.
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The launch cost is 1 Waves, which is approximately $0.6.
Menu for creating a token in the Waves client
You will find detailed instructions on how to create cryptocurrency on Waves in the video below:
How to create cryptocurrency on Waves
Walletbuilders
Provides more customization options than Waves, and you can launch your own currency directly from the Walletbuilders website.
The service will prompt you to specify the name, emission, encryption algorithm and a number of other parameters.
To test the service, the user can order a free token with limited functionality and a 5-day node host.
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A full-fledged currency will cost 0.109 BTC without taking into account the cost of additional services, that is, approximately $700.
Service packages and costs for launching cryptocurrency on Walletbuilders
Cryptonotestarter
This is not so much a service for creating cryptocurrency, but a page with detailed instructions on how to fork yourself with the source code. Something like the one described above, only in more detail. The main value of Cryptonotestarter is that after the launch of a token, the owner can announce it on the site for discussion and distribution.
Step-by-step instructions for editing source code from Cryptonotestarter
These are services that are understandable and accessible to people who do not delve into the technical aspects of cryptocurrencies.
More advanced developers can use complex platforms like Ethereum, NEO and EOS. This toolkit is also paid - for example, on Ethereum, the size of the commission will depend on the number of smart contracts used to create.
Altcoin #1: Ethereum (ETH)
Price:
$323.
Market capitalization:
$30.96 billion.
Peculiarity:
Despite its late appearance (in 2015), Ethereum has already staked out about a quarter of the entire cryptocurrency market. Now it ranks second in popularity after Bitcoin and surpasses it in the speed of confirmation of transactions on the network.
The main advantage of the Ethereum cryptocurrency is smart contract technology, which allows minimizing human participation in operations.
Suppose two people argued about the outcome of a football match. In this case, the technology removes the bet amount from the accounts and holds it until the condition is met - the end of the match, which will determine who will ultimately receive the winnings.
It is expected that smart technology will soon also spread to law, logistics and accounting.
Is it possible to create a cryptocurrency for free?
Free creation of cryptocurrency
Theoretically, it’s possible, practically, if you’re not a programmer and you don’t have a development team hostage in your basement, then no.
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Of the above, the only free option is to fork by manually editing the source code.
But even after this you will need:
- Wallet for various platforms;
- Masternode;
- Perhaps your own blockchain, which requires a VPS;
- Promotion and listing on exchanges (optional).
All this costs money, quite a lot of it, so a working example of a cryptocurrency with basic infrastructure starts at $1,500. You can only test your ability to work with code for free and end up with a low-functional, unknown token with a beautiful personal label.
The exact amount depends on the technical features and specifications of the project. For some, a working fork will be fine, but for others, they will want to write code from scratch, both with a website and with WhitePaper for a potential ICO.
Altcoin #2: Ripple (XRP)
Price:
$0.2.
Market capitalization:
$7.96 billion.
Peculiarity:
A unique open-source cryptocurrency was created for venture funds in 2013 in order to increase the speed of banking transactions and reduce costs.
Ripple's main advantage is speed. The transaction is processed within a few seconds, and its actual cost is only $0.00001.
It is noteworthy that mining this cryptocurrency is impossible - there are currently about 38 billion coins in use, and all of them belong to Ripple Labs. In turn, Ripple Labs gives out coins not for mathematical calculations, but for calculations useful for science and medicine.
For example, the World Community Grid allows you to use computer power to support an AIDS program, a clean energy project, or cancer research.
Disadvantages of the system:
- To launch a crypto coin on NEO, you need to pay about 500 GAS coins - a network token with which a commission is charged (depending on the rate). Selling your own assets on this site takes a lot of time.
- Users doubt the decentralization of the platform, since all the coins of the project belong to OnChain. This means that the crypto coin issued on NEO will be controlled by the company’s closed community, and this contradicts the principle of cryptocurrency.
Why create a digital currency?
There are many reasons to create your own coin, but the main one is financial prospects. Satoshi Nakamoto has earned a decent fortune, many want to repeat his success. Other advantages of digital money:
- decentralization. Coins do not control states. They are not backed by gold reserves, oil, or other assets. You can transfer and withdraw cryptocurrency without worrying about taxation;
- convenient, secure payments. If you have an international platform that accepts payments in multiple directions, you may want to consider creating a universal payment instrument that is convenient for all users and provides the most secure transactions;
- high volatility. The exchange rate of coins fluctuates greatly. This is a high risk, and also a factor that has helped many coin holders quickly earn large sums;
- can be used as in-game currency. For your own gaming platform, server to accept payments from users;
- The digital money market is constantly growing. Coins are increasingly becoming part of the life of a modern Internet user. Large investors make up their portfolio of digital currencies.
New coins appear daily. But only a few managed to gain a strong foothold.
