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Re: Would you like to become a Certified Bitcoin Professional?
Well, seems like big bullshit.
Why would you need this certificate ?
It does not prove anything.
Why would you need this certificate ?
It does not prove anything.
You may not need it personally, but I assure you employers need it so they have a trusted measuring stick they can look to. Imagine being a hiring manager told to get somebody on board who "knows the blockchains", how do you as a candidate convince that person you know what you're talking about when they don't understand a word. In another use-case, how do you convince your insurer that the people on your staff have the qualifications they say?
Not everyone agrees with certifications regardless of industry, but they absolutely have their place.
We're volunteers running a non-profit organization trying to help mature the space. If it was bullshit we wouldn't be wasting our time.
Re: Would you like to become a Certified Bitcoin Professional?
I've commented on another thread about the CBP and believe my comments are just as fitting here. FWIW, I'm a board member of C4 and yes, I'm lucky to share the board with some incredible people.
C4 has been around a pretty long time now but to be blunt, we aren't experts in marketing. We mostly just quietly do things we think are helpful. In addition to the professional certification, C4 also introduced the CryptoCurrency Security Standard, and have run a very well received training conference.
The certification may not have value to you, but we have many partners who are strong believers in it, including exchanges, professional services firms, dev shops, and banks. We especially find that organizations looking to hire their first couple blockchain focused employees find a lot of value in it, as they are less likely to know what questions to ask in an interview process. The cert gives them a measuring stick that helps ensure the people they are hiring are not completely smoke and mirrors.
From the side of the professional, we have had numerous people tell us that getting the certification helped prepare them for jobs in the space, and helped them prove that knowledge to perspective employers.
I mean, I get the teasing. Not everyone believes that certifications are beneficial. Not to mention there are a lot of scammers out there looking for a quick buck.
C4 is a non-profit, that's been around for over three years, which just aims to help mature the space and professional certifications is a means to doing that. We always make sure to work with incredible people across the industry to ensure what we offer is the absolute best that it can be.
As an update to my original post above, a second Blockchain Training Conference was just announced - again focusing on education and training, not crappy sales pitches.
WeHODLed, if you haven't registered for the exam yet, I'm going to be sending you a coupon to knock some cost off the exam. If you get a study group together, I'm happy to give each of you the same discount. Also, in case you missed it, there is a pretty helpful study guide: https://cryptoconsortium.org/cbp/CBPStudyGuide.pdf
Welcome to the kinda crazy crypto space!
A lot of people in this thread may sound negative, but they are genuinely looking out for you. There are lots of scams in this space and it's always good to do your own research.
Quote
I am sorry to say but this kind of certification has no value, at least to me. What was the process to get it ? Following the course and complete a quizz ? In their about page i see Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Vitalik Buterin, and a few others listed as their Board of Directors. I am a little surprised to see them and I never heard about this consortium
C4 has been around a pretty long time now but to be blunt, we aren't experts in marketing. We mostly just quietly do things we think are helpful. In addition to the professional certification, C4 also introduced the CryptoCurrency Security Standard, and have run a very well received training conference.
The certification may not have value to you, but we have many partners who are strong believers in it, including exchanges, professional services firms, dev shops, and banks. We especially find that organizations looking to hire their first couple blockchain focused employees find a lot of value in it, as they are less likely to know what questions to ask in an interview process. The cert gives them a measuring stick that helps ensure the people they are hiring are not completely smoke and mirrors.
From the side of the professional, we have had numerous people tell us that getting the certification helped prepare them for jobs in the space, and helped them prove that knowledge to perspective employers.
I mean, I get the teasing. Not everyone believes that certifications are beneficial. Not to mention there are a lot of scammers out there looking for a quick buck.
C4 is a non-profit, that's been around for over three years, which just aims to help mature the space and professional certifications is a means to doing that. We always make sure to work with incredible people across the industry to ensure what we offer is the absolute best that it can be.
As an update to my original post above, a second Blockchain Training Conference was just announced - again focusing on education and training, not crappy sales pitches.
WeHODLed, if you haven't registered for the exam yet, I'm going to be sending you a coupon to knock some cost off the exam. If you get a study group together, I'm happy to give each of you the same discount. Also, in case you missed it, there is a pretty helpful study guide: https://cryptoconsortium.org/cbp/CBPStudyGuide.pdf
Welcome to the kinda crazy crypto space!
A lot of people in this thread may sound negative, but they are genuinely looking out for you. There are lots of scams in this space and it's always good to do your own research. 
Each year, one of our most popular battles at DEFCON is the King of the Hill style game, Most Wanted. Keep your droid alive the longest and ensure the demise of your enemies to keep them down the list. The droid with the highest Bounty on the final block of the tournament wins the glory and some sweet, sweet prizes.
This year, as we celebrate our 5th anniversary, we are going to take the tournament a step further than we've ever done - we're taking it global! In addition to our DEFCON Most Wanted in the Defcoin realm, we are going to hold the same competition in the Litecoin realm and welcome the rest of the world to compete too.
Prizes
We're giving away two prize packs, one to the winner of each realm: Defcoin and Litecoin.
Of course, even if you don't win one of the grand prizes, in Coindroids each attack you make can win you some Defcoin or Litecoin.
KeepKey Hardware Wallet
KeepKey has donated their amazing hardware wallets for us to give away. Keep all your hard-earned winnings safe in this cutting edge and stylish device.
More prizes to be announced!
How to play
New to Coindroids? Check out the tutorials:
* https://blog.coindroids.com/creating-a-droid/
* https://blog.coindroids.com/performing-an-attack/
* https://blog.coindroids.com/the-coindroids-economy/
Consider yourself somewhat hardcore? You likely want the Full Documentation.
Only want to follow the action? We welcome you to join our media partner CryptoBitGames for their coverage of the tournament, including real-time updates of the leaderboard and friendly discussion in their telegram channel.
Full Rules
The rules for both will be roughly the same, but with some subtle differences across the two currency realms. Please review the rules specific to the tournament you intend to win. If you do not intend to win, the rules are irrelevant and you may govern yourself accordingly.
All players must agree to our Terms of Service.
DEFCON 26 Rules
- Winner must be a defcon attendee
- Game ends at a block number announced on the morning of August 12th, 2018. Block number announced will be an estimated block expected to be mined around noon that day (PDT).
Litecoin Global Rules
- Winner can be wherever the hell you happen to be, but you have to provide us a mailing address somewhere to send your prize to if you win. Or you can request a ceremonial burn of the prizes (cardboard cutouts of prizes only will be used for ceremony).
- Game ends at a block number announced on the morning of August 12th, 2018. Block number announced will be an estimated block expected to be mined around noon that day (PDT).
Only a year ago our hero West needed your help to infiltrate the Imperial One city and remove CountZero from power. Everyone who tried to do their part did an incredible job of failing and the Counts' reign has continued.
Thanks to the Imperial One intrusion detection systems, the vulnerabilities that West provided have been patched up, which means you'll have to start from scratch and somehow still fail less this time. Those of us who were programmed to have faith, will absolutely use that to incorrectly believe in you.
To celebrate our 5th year anniversary of cryptocurrency battles and puzzles, the Droid that is able to finally take down CountZero will walk away with our most unique prize ever! We've been secretly creating a Coindroids card game, with all the fun and backstabbing that Coindroids is known for, and the first person to solve our adventure is taking home their own copy of the original prototype.
Your Adventure Awaits at DC26
Your #HackerFam won't help you this time around, this is a solo mission now. Find your way into the city and take down CountZero once and for all.
DEFCON 26 takes place August 9-12 in Las Vegas, NV.
Coindroids: The Card Game
If you're as excited about the card game as we are, stay tuned to our blog and social feeds to follow the development. We'll certainly have more to say on that in the near future.
The card game has already evolved since this iteration and we'll never print the original prototype again, meaning the winner will have a piece of Coindroids history, owning 1 of the 3 copies made.
(Original Post: https://blog.coindroids.com/infiltrating-imperial-one-dc26/)
It's been a while since I played and it seems that there's not much update here as well. Are there still active players? Because whenever I visit the site, all of the droids' healths are full. It's really enjoyable when there are many players.
There are still active players, but they do come in waves. We are working on a couple different initiatives to get some battles going such as some new boss battles to uncover, and other temporary PvP modes for special events.
Of course, DEFCON 26 is coming up too, and that always brings in a lot of players new and old.
We've got big announcements coming out soon but, in short, there is lots in the works to entertain and challenge our community
Thanks for the continued support and interest!
Ugh I was getting all signed up but I can't use Litecoins.. I don't think they have a mobile wallet which is exclusively what I use for bitcoins. Is that right though? I can't find anything on android that seems secure enough.
Best Litecoin wallet on Android has been Coinomi so far, but LoafWallet was also just released for android which might be worth a try. Neither support external devices for added security but they should be fine for some small amounts. Let me know via private message if you need some LTC to get started in the game
How Coindroids Deals with Forks - Volume 1
(Adapted from the original post here)
Many people have heard of forks as they related to cryptocurrencies, and understand that they represent what happens when two different portions of the same community both love their users very much but can longer stay together. The divorce leads to double the gifts during special occasions, and the two newly independent communities can live their separate lives.
What many people are not aware of is that small forks are actually happening constantly as part of a healthy distributed network.
Consider the following instance. Two perfectly valid blocks are mined around the same time, likely containing a very similar set of transactions, and are distributed around the network. Miners pick the first one they see and start to mine the next block on top of it. At the same times, Coindroids would see one of these blocks and start to process it as well.
Once the next block is found and distributed around the network, there is now an orphaned block that is no longer valid. If Coindroids learned of, and processed, the block that is no longer part of the chain with the most proof of work, we are now on the incorrect side of the micro-fork that took place. We learn this as soon as we receive a new block and check that the previous block is already one we have processed.
For a lot of systems, this is not a problem. As mentioned above, it is usually very likely that all the transactions that would have been in Block A will also be in Block B, maybe with some slight differences based on miner preferences to fees and friends.
With a centralized game built on top of a blockchain, this makes for some very fun problems to solve. We just processed the entire blocks worth of relevant transactions, all those attacks, item purchases, drop registrations, etc, and now our processor has learned that they were all invalid.
Note: In the Ethereum ecosystem, as long as all your code resides on chain, this is not a problem. Your code and state are part of the logical flow of the Ethereum system. If any part of your system syncs with a centralized database though, it can be equally as susceptible.
Blockchains may be specifically designed for immutability, but we had to write the Coindroids system with undo as a key process within.
Our First Solution
The first solution we experimented with was a reversible audit systems. Every time an action takes place, we keep track of how much of something was changed, and in what direction.
1. Droid A attacks Droid B
2. Droid A gains 5 experience, with a new total of 15 experience
3. Droid B loses 10 health, with a new total of 90 health
So, if we wanted to roll back, we would work backwards...
1. Droid B gains 10 health, for a restored total of 100 health
2. Droid A loses 5 experience, for a restored total of 10 experience
3. Droid A attack of Droid B is voided
This is pretty simple here, but with many attribute changes and actions taking place all 'at once' when a block is processed, this actually quickly becomes error-prone and time consuming. The audit system is still important overall to Coindroids, but it's use here in the fork processing system was quickly phased out.
Solution Two, Snapshots
Reading an audit long in reverse ended up as a bit of a dud, at least within our implementation. As both error-prone and slow, the true cause was easily defined as one theme: unnecessary complexities.
So how did we simplify? All the data we need is pretty small, so we just create a copy of it and tie it to the processed block.
Now our example looks like this:
1. Droid A attacks Droid B
2. Droid A gains 5 experience, with a new total of 15 experience
3. Droid B loses 10 health, with a new total of 90 health
So, if we wanted to roll back, we would:
1. Lookup the highest height in our system that relates to the new tip
2. Copy the old state of droid & inventory back into place based on this last good block
New Pros
As it turns out, this strategy gives us the backbone for eventually exposing a feature that allows users to view the full history of a droid over it's lifetime. Watching it evolve, or get it's ass handed to it, block by block.
New Cons
This strategy will no-doubt start to create a really big table over time, especially as the number of users grow. Designing this table properly early on in your development will be something you look back on fondly.
At least, we think you will look back fondly on your grand design. We certainly didn't do this properly, so we get to deal with upgrading a giant F*&$-off table into a better system now. We'll write up a much more technical post in the future about how we are now using PostgreSQL's new built-in PARTITION feature.
What if Coindroids already sent out coin?
The other very fun, and potentially devastating part about forks. Yes it's possible that we sent out a completely valid transaction, maybe to reward a player for a kill, or to reimburse overpayment on an item. Now that we've re-processed up the new real chain we wish we hadn't. But wishing doesn't get you too far when it comes to immutable ledgers.
Want to know how we solved this problem? Check back next time for another volume of Fork'n Around.
(Adapted from the original post here)
Many people have heard of forks as they related to cryptocurrencies, and understand that they represent what happens when two different portions of the same community both love their users very much but can longer stay together. The divorce leads to double the gifts during special occasions, and the two newly independent communities can live their separate lives.
What many people are not aware of is that small forks are actually happening constantly as part of a healthy distributed network.
Consider the following instance. Two perfectly valid blocks are mined around the same time, likely containing a very similar set of transactions, and are distributed around the network. Miners pick the first one they see and start to mine the next block on top of it. At the same times, Coindroids would see one of these blocks and start to process it as well.
Once the next block is found and distributed around the network, there is now an orphaned block that is no longer valid. If Coindroids learned of, and processed, the block that is no longer part of the chain with the most proof of work, we are now on the incorrect side of the micro-fork that took place. We learn this as soon as we receive a new block and check that the previous block is already one we have processed.
For a lot of systems, this is not a problem. As mentioned above, it is usually very likely that all the transactions that would have been in Block A will also be in Block B, maybe with some slight differences based on miner preferences to fees and friends.
With a centralized game built on top of a blockchain, this makes for some very fun problems to solve. We just processed the entire blocks worth of relevant transactions, all those attacks, item purchases, drop registrations, etc, and now our processor has learned that they were all invalid.
Note: In the Ethereum ecosystem, as long as all your code resides on chain, this is not a problem. Your code and state are part of the logical flow of the Ethereum system. If any part of your system syncs with a centralized database though, it can be equally as susceptible.
Blockchains may be specifically designed for immutability, but we had to write the Coindroids system with undo as a key process within.
Our First Solution
The first solution we experimented with was a reversible audit systems. Every time an action takes place, we keep track of how much of something was changed, and in what direction.
1. Droid A attacks Droid B
2. Droid A gains 5 experience, with a new total of 15 experience
3. Droid B loses 10 health, with a new total of 90 health
So, if we wanted to roll back, we would work backwards...
1. Droid B gains 10 health, for a restored total of 100 health
2. Droid A loses 5 experience, for a restored total of 10 experience
3. Droid A attack of Droid B is voided
This is pretty simple here, but with many attribute changes and actions taking place all 'at once' when a block is processed, this actually quickly becomes error-prone and time consuming. The audit system is still important overall to Coindroids, but it's use here in the fork processing system was quickly phased out.
Solution Two, Snapshots
Reading an audit long in reverse ended up as a bit of a dud, at least within our implementation. As both error-prone and slow, the true cause was easily defined as one theme: unnecessary complexities.
So how did we simplify? All the data we need is pretty small, so we just create a copy of it and tie it to the processed block.
Now our example looks like this:
1. Droid A attacks Droid B
2. Droid A gains 5 experience, with a new total of 15 experience
3. Droid B loses 10 health, with a new total of 90 health
So, if we wanted to roll back, we would:
1. Lookup the highest height in our system that relates to the new tip
2. Copy the old state of droid & inventory back into place based on this last good block
New Pros
As it turns out, this strategy gives us the backbone for eventually exposing a feature that allows users to view the full history of a droid over it's lifetime. Watching it evolve, or get it's ass handed to it, block by block.
New Cons
This strategy will no-doubt start to create a really big table over time, especially as the number of users grow. Designing this table properly early on in your development will be something you look back on fondly.
At least, we think you will look back fondly on your grand design. We certainly didn't do this properly, so we get to deal with upgrading a giant F*&$-off table into a better system now. We'll write up a much more technical post in the future about how we are now using PostgreSQL's new built-in PARTITION feature.
What if Coindroids already sent out coin?
The other very fun, and potentially devastating part about forks. Yes it's possible that we sent out a completely valid transaction, maybe to reward a player for a kill, or to reimburse overpayment on an item. Now that we've re-processed up the new real chain we wish we hadn't. But wishing doesn't get you too far when it comes to immutable ledgers.
Want to know how we solved this problem? Check back next time for another volume of Fork'n Around.
Re: [LTC] List of Litecoin Faucets, Lotteries, Gaming Sites, Free Litecoin
Not really a faucet or gambling, but it is a game you can earn Litecoin with: https://www.coindroids.com
I see the list was updated recently but Coindroids wasn't added. Any particular reason it wasn't included? Happy to answer any questions you may have.
We built Coindroids on a blockchain for a number of reasons..
1) It was/is a fun challenge and learning experience
For the same reason that we wrote a space battle game in a database, we wanted to see what we could do with different blockchain ecosystems. It was a way to learn more about blockchain technology ourselves, and also helped us to research security requirements and best practices which were incorporated into the CryptoCurrency Security Standard.
2) Games can help people learn about blockchain technology and get comfortable interacting with it
We have hosted the game at conferences unrelated to blockchain tech and the patrons there had a chance to install their first wallets, get their first coin, and make their first transactions, all through playing Coindroids. People who were generally unfamiliar or agains the concept suddenly had a better appreciation for the technology.
3) It is a completely new paradigm where new mechanisms can be explored
There is so much possibility to explore when it comes to games. The fact that you can so easily play a game with real value at stake, without it being gambling, is huge imo. It's hard to know what will be popular, fun, or what will end up cumbersome and frustrating until you give a concept a try, but it is exciting to get to be the first to explore these new options and platforms.
1) It was/is a fun challenge and learning experience
For the same reason that we wrote a space battle game in a database, we wanted to see what we could do with different blockchain ecosystems. It was a way to learn more about blockchain technology ourselves, and also helped us to research security requirements and best practices which were incorporated into the CryptoCurrency Security Standard.
2) Games can help people learn about blockchain technology and get comfortable interacting with it
We have hosted the game at conferences unrelated to blockchain tech and the patrons there had a chance to install their first wallets, get their first coin, and make their first transactions, all through playing Coindroids. People who were generally unfamiliar or agains the concept suddenly had a better appreciation for the technology.
3) It is a completely new paradigm where new mechanisms can be explored
There is so much possibility to explore when it comes to games. The fact that you can so easily play a game with real value at stake, without it being gambling, is huge imo. It's hard to know what will be popular, fun, or what will end up cumbersome and frustrating until you give a concept a try, but it is exciting to get to be the first to explore these new options and platforms.
Funnily enough, I've been googling all day to find out where "LTC bits" are defined, haven't found any canonical place! Presumably it is the uLTC in the client, but best to rephrase the payment page. I always had the impression QR codes could encode the amount too, which seems true now that I installed Coinomi! IIRC the Defcoin QR code only encoded the address. Is there a more proper mobile wallet than Coinomi?
We do encode the amounts into the QR code. I'm a bit surprised that Coinomi isn't reading that data. I'll take a look into this and pass along a feature request to Coinomi if this is the case. In the mean time, you can try LoafWallet and see if you like that experience more (https://loafwallet.org).
As for the name LTC Bits, I'm sorry for the confusion. Since we moved over to that format, there has been some discussion on the proper name of this format in the Litecoin community but it doesn't seem well documented or standardized in either direction, so we've just kept what we have. For the record, a bit is 0.000001 (as oppose to a satoshi which is 0.00000001). This is good feedback though, I'll be sure this is mentioned somewhere in the docs at the very least.
By clicking "Battlefield" I was expecting to see either all the enemies or territories where I could move to find enemies. Instead "Most targeted" and "Worst Enemy" only shows myself. I can find enemies in the leaderboard, is this a design choice perhaps, so that , for example, noone will attack me as I am sitting on 0 bounty, but people will attack the juicy leaders? The number 1 appears to have a multi-month break in activity, with one attack against it today, is this a bug or simply the players where few and did not attempt an attack?
Battlefield is a work in progress still. We haven't quite figured out the best layout for that page, so it's a bit awful/useless. Right now, the best way to find enemies is through the leaderboard/main page, or if you are a bit more on the technical side, you can use the API.
When you start the game, you'll start with zero bounty over your head and no real reason for anybody to be attacking you. As other players are attacked, some of those funds go into your bounty, making your droid more interesting to attack over time. This gives you some time to get comfortable in the game and make some initial attacks without some old grumpy droid destroying you.
The game does require a bit of a network effect in a sense that the more people playing, the more fun it is. We aren't quite where we'd like to be as far as active players yet, but we have some ideas to hopefully build that player base early this year. As such, my offer of free LTC also stands for anybody who wants to play.
Is it OK to use this thread as "support"?
Absolutely! Sorry for the delay, I'll get to this is a day or two. Just a bit crazy over the holidays
Just signed up the game. Pretty clean graphics, easy to play. Good game. Thanks.
Aw thanks! ❤️
Let me know if you have any questions
Don't know what went wrong the first time with defcoin QR generation, but the second time the address came up with readable QR and text address, I made the payment and ... hours later I am at 2/6 confirmations and my bot is not activated. Is the message "Your droid will be activated on the next block" meant to apply after 6 confirmations?
The maintenance is complete and all the processors are back online. Your droid should be activated and ready for battle now. I will warn you that the Defcoin network is very slow these days, I imagine somebody piled on some processing power and then took it down. This makes play in the DFC realm slower and less fun unfortunately (at least, until the network readjusts). If you want to try out the Litecoin realm, send me a direct message with a Litecoin address and I'll send some over so you can get started there.
Don't know what went wrong the first time with defcoin QR generation, but the second time the address came up with readable QR and text address, I made the payment and ... hours later I am at 2/6 confirmations and my bot is not activated. Is the message "Your droid will be activated on the next block" meant to apply after 6 confirmations?
Hey, sorry about this, you caught us in the middle of some database maintenance. We'll be back online once it is done and I'll send you a direct message to let you know
When we're not in maintenance mode, actions only require one confirmation.
That looks like a nice game to me. I'm surprised, I have never heard of it.
Cryptokitties seemed to be the first of their kind.
Cryptokitties seemed to be the first of their kind.
Thanks! Weve been working on the game a while but have never really done a big marketing push. Most people have been focused on hodling or ICOs, but maybe 2018 will be the year of blockchain based gaming.
How is development coming along? I just stumbled across this and have to agree with the other post, I'm surprised also. As for marketing, I can probably help out in that regard - if you would like. Is the project open source? Feel free to PM me with anything you might need a hand with. If the code is open source, depending on the language I can lend a hand there also.
Regards,
-MisterCoin
The game is a labour of love for all involved so development can be a bit slow at times, but overall the game has drastically evolved since we started compared to what we have now. Our API is still more full featured than our front-end, but we continue to expose new features as we decide how they should look and behave.
Some of the code is open, some portions are not. That may change in the future if we notice we have something that could help others, but the code is mostly pretty specific to our needs.
If you want to get involved a bit, send me a PM with your email. Id love to chat more.
Is there any problem with the site right now? It keeps on loading in the log in page and comic is the only page I could browse well. I think it is not a connection problem in my end because I can browse other sites without a problem (even youtube).
API, front-end, and payout processor are all back online now. Thanks for your patience!
That looks like a nice game to me. I'm surprised, I have never heard of it.
Cryptokitties seemed to be the first of their kind.
Cryptokitties seemed to be the first of their kind.
Thanks! Weve been working on the game a while but have never really done a big marketing push. Most people have been focused on hodling or ICOs, but maybe 2018 will be the year of blockchain based gaming.
Is there any problem with the site right now? It keeps on loading in the log in page and comic is the only page I could browse well. I think it is not a connection problem in my end because I can browse other sites without a problem (even youtube).
Ya, sorry about that! Our TLS cert expired and Ive been in the air. Ill have it fixed up this afternoon.
Settlement issues have all been resolved and all pending payouts have been sent out. We've also got some performance improvements in place that make the website respond a lot better.