Official Feathercoin newsletter #34

1. Feathercoin to the moon!

We are glad to announce that the feathercoin community has raised the funds necessary to send a physical "spaceship", loaded with 1001 FTC, to the moon. In fact, 20 donators put money together in 2 days! Ok, you might be sceptic now, but please read forward as all is explained in detail. We are buying the Lunar Scout from http://pocketspacecraft.com/. It was initially a kickstarter project for a crowd funded, low cost, micro space ship.

Picture of Pocket Spacecraft

Lunar scout equals to

* access to the online Scout designer
* most of surface available for printing
* custom message transmitted (<140 characters)
* a replica Thin-Film Scout in a protective sleeve
* our own Scout spacecraft that will be photographed as it is launched into space and attempts to land on Earth from orbit
* a second Thin-Film Spacecraft that will be photographed when it is launched into space to attempt to land on the Moon[/li][/list]

It will contain:

* FTC logo
* FTC address with 1001 FTC loaded
* 20 nicks or real names (or both) of donators
* Catchword: "Feathercoin to the moon"
* + spacecraft will transmit our custom message[/li][/list]

As the demand was very high we opened second spaceship! Please visit https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/7458-send-ftc-to-the-moon-350ftc-each-20-positions/ and buy your seat for 350FTC, 20 positions only.

Picture of Feathercoin voyage

2. Neoscrypt

There is one more moon we aim for. By changing our hashing algorithm, we will step out of the Litecoin shadow once and for all. The algorithm is called Neoscrypt and was developed by the excellent Ghostlander. He took the development of Scrypt further by upgrading the two half's which creates it. In doing so, this significantly improves performance and makes feathercoin ASIC resistant once again. Neoscrypt will be focused on giving CPU and GPU miners a new home without having to utilizing a cumbersome myriad of algo's to achieve greater efficiency. We aim to lead the ecosystem which will allow scrypt crypto's to become decentralised once again. The algorithm is now ready and has been a thorough workout on a testnet. The CPU miner and pool software is now ready with the GPU miner currently in development. Welcome to the future of scrypt. https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/6626-changing-the-hashing-algorithm/

Neoscrypt logo

3. Cryptsy FTC/USD trading

Another good news is that Cryptsy launched FTC/USD pair live trading on July 1st. Together with BTC/USD, DOGE/USD, DRK/USD and LTC/USD pairs. Verified accounts are required for USD markets trading on Cryptsy.

4. FTC giveaway

To enhance overall good atmosphere and motivate new members to take an initiative we started new giveaway of more that 1.000 FTC. Generous Ghostlander matched the sum with PXC so people can claim 10FTC+10PXC now. For complete info please visit FTC forum.

5. Feathercoin multipool

After Neoscrypt launch you can still use your ASIC to mine FTC at official FTC multipool. Mine the most profitable Coins (Scrypt,SHA256,X11,X13,Scrypt-N) and get paid in Feathercoins! You will get more Feathercoins a day AND the buypower for Feathercoin will increase!

Official Feathercoin Referral Link: https://coinking.io/register.php?r=13260

6. MinerX

We also want to highlight that minerX developed by ChekaZ will fully support Neoscrypt. MinerX is an automated MiningTool for newbies. Its Java based (Yes you need Java to use it) and its combinated with CgMiner and CudaMiner. The only thing you need to put in is your FeathercoinAddress and if you use an AMD card, the last two digits of your cardname. ChekaZ is determined to develop MinerX further so we can expect more features in the future.

MinerX

7. Raspberry Pi FTC price ticker

Please read story of Tony (tmuir12) who just joined FTC team:

Quote

"I'm a big fan of the Raspberry PI, it's such a small cheap device which is really only limited by your imagination. After joining the Feathercoin forum and discovering that Feathercoin had its own API I realised this combined with the Raspberry Pi opened up all sorts of possibilities. Firstly I created a Feathercoin price ticker using Python and an old LCD display I had lying around. I then decided I need to use the API to do something more useful. The fact you can check account balances with the API made it immediately obvious to me you could use it as a payment device without needing to put a Feathercoin wallet on the Raspberry.

A portable point of sale device has already been made for Feathercoin, but as far as I was aware no-one had tried to set to create a Cryptocurrency payment device for Arcade or vending machines.I opted to make one for an arcade machine in particular a pinball machine, I just like the idea of merging a retro 60s pinball machine with a cryptocurrency payment system. At its simplest all it does is know the balance in an account and when it goes up by the required amount for one credit, it close a relay contact to simulate a coin been inserted.The code to do this I put together in one evening and have successfully tested.Over the next week I plan to add a display to the Raspberry Pi that will display a QR code to scan, this will only shown when the Raspberry can talk to the API, to make sure people don't send payments when its off-line.It will also allow for you to pay for more than one credit per transfer.

I hope other people will be able to adapt it to use on other arcade or vending machines and it helps bring Cryptocurrencies closer to main stream.The code is available on git hub now just search for FTC_Arcade_Pay, my Feathercoin ticker is also available on Github under FTC_Ticker. You can track the progress of my Arcade Payment Machine project on the Feathercoin Forum."

links to further reading:

https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/7412-raspbery-pi-based-ftc-ticker/
https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/7425-raspbery-pi-based-arcade-machine-ftc-payment-proof-of-concept/

Working prototype of FTC price ticker

8. FTC opensource ATM

Open Fethercoin ATM is an open-source automated seller machine for education and experimentation. Based on John Mayo Smiths OpenBitcoinATM which can be seen in action here. A voucher is printed containing a private key QR Code that has been pre-loaded with the correct value of Feathercoin for the denomination deposited during the setup stage. Designed to work with any currency taken note or coin that outputs a number of pulses per denomination deposited. Continue reading for full details about hardware assembly and software here: https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/6802-dev-openfeathercoinatm/

Working prototype of FTC ATM

9. FeatherPay

A simple and easy to use handheld payment terminal that merchants can use to take payments via feathercoin for any goods or services that they sell or deliver, how easy would it be for these people to accept feathercoin if all the technology was wrapped in a simple handle held device?

3d printed prototype of FeatherPay

So how does it work?

Quite simple really, there are 4 steps to each transaction

1. Obtain the current value of feathercoin
2. Tell the device the transaction value
3. Present a payment QRCode for the customer to scan
4. Display confirms for the transaction

featherPay is designed with 3 connectivity methods in mind

WiFi
Everything takes place in real time, every time a transaction is started the current exchange rate is obtained via the network connection, once the transaction has taken place the merchant can get a visual on the number of confirms for the transaction. Aimed at the corner shop, pub, coffee shop etc..

3G
Exactly the same as operating in WiFi mode, but with the added advantage of not needing the WiFi connection. Opening up a greater choice of locations for feathercoin merchants. Aimed more at the market trader, street vender type of merchant.

Off-Line
Prior to the trading day, the merchant can obtain the current exchange rate and this is saved to the device, when the trading day is finished the unit is connected to WiFi and all transactions throughout the day are processed. It goes without saying that step 4 from above does not work in this mode as there is no network connection to obtain the confirms against the payment address from. Again aimed at the market trader and street vendor type of merchant.

Input into the payment terminal is via both a touch screen display and the small number pad, for most actions you tap the buttons on the touch screen and for transaction values you input the value using the number pad.

Transaction Walk Through
please continue reading here: https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/7206-dev-introducing-featherpay-point-of-sales-device/

10. Hullcoin - Crypto Currency Workshop

We are currently in the process of preparing to visit Hull City Council to demonstrate to the members of the board and their retailers how they can accept crypto currency easily and to address any questions that the retailers may have.

Final words

I am very glad to see lot of good development and new ambitious people joining Feathercoin these days. Please note not all project was mentioned in this newsletter, for greater insight please read also: https://forum.feathe...n-developments/

"There is still lot of hard work ahead of us so everybody is welcome aboard!"

Link to original post at FTC forum: https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?/topic/7486-official-feathercoin-newsletter-34/