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Show HN: A Browser-based Blockchain

nimiq.com

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Re: Show HN: A Browser-based Blockchain

#123
post #91
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in Santa Teresa Costa Rica

Okay, looks like this place: http://www.skyloftcostarica.com/ . Wonder if that's full time or just a field trip.

There you get an insight how hard they work on this project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOgOWWVinfY&list=PLuhSf5DE3F...

Re: Show HN: A Browser-based Blockchain

#125
I like the idea of reducing the barrier to entry in the multitude of markets, but I'm also a bit cynical in that any web-based wallet seems extremely risky to me in terms of the potential for attacks and stolen coins.

Re: Show HN: A Browser-based Blockchain

#126
Left this running all day at about 30kh/s and got 200 coins

Couple of hints:

* Have a way of backing up your private keys! Many people delete browser local storage and this is not a safe or long term place for them to live! NAG THE USER TO DO THIS. 99% of the people here betanet will lose their keys, fo sure

* Consider hierarchical deterministic (HD) generated keys, so a single seed can generate all future keys

* Consider brainwallet seed (must be long, suggest at least 256 bits entropy), custom dictionary words

Most cryptocurrencies use secp256k1 or ed25519 for ecdsa/xeddsa as their curve, this is using P-256. Satoshi was suspicious of the NIST curves, thats why he didn't use P-256 for bitcoin.

You will need something better than SHA256 for PoW function too, others have identified memory hard hash as idea. Look at Momentum (ProtoShares), EtHash (Ethereum) and CryptoNight (Bytecoin/Monero) as approaches to this. All have rolled their own in this space, keep you tx hashes standard but use something creative for PoW function.

Re: Show HN: A Browser-based Blockchain

#129

Left this running all day at about 30kh/s and got 200 coins Couple of hints: * Have a way of backing up your private keys! Many people delete browser local storage and this is not a safe or long term place for them to live! NAG THE USER TO DO THIS. 99% of the people here betanet will lose their keys, fo sure * Consider hierarchical deterministic (HD) generated keys, so a single seed can generate all future keys * Con…

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

The protocol we've deployed in our Betanet is not final. The Betanet is just about getting early community feedback and testing in the wild. There will be lots of breaking changes.

We will not use NIST curves in our mainnet for the reasons you mentioned. We are working on an implementation of ed25519 in WebAssembly.

We will not use sha256 as in our mainnet. We are already working on a WebAssembly implementation of a memory hard POW.

We want to bring blockchain technology to the masses. So in the long run we are explicitly targeting users who are not yet familiar with cryptocurrencies. Following from that we will put a lot of effort in creating user interfaces that take users by the hand and explain important aspects like "How to keep your private key secure".

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