08/13/14 Update

Hey guys.

Please find below an informal release of our development timeline and roadmap for Vault. Thanks for your support of our cryptocurrency project so far, hopefully you'll see reward and return for your efforts. Particular thanks to those staking during the zero reward period.


August Development Plan

Thursday 14th

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Full technical specification for VaultNodes. Whilst not a whitepaper (we’re not academics), Thursday will see the release of a full detailing of the modifications to the network protocol to accommodate VaultNodes. As a sneak peak, VaultNodes will offer variable staking reward percentages based on a block maturity commitment of your choosing.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Full codebase update to activate PoS rewards. Zero-reward staking will end on Thursday, the fixes to the ppcoin codebase we forked have been applied and tested.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png VaultNodes TestNet beta. As part of the update our TestNet code will now include VaultNodes support, allowing anyone to use them on the TestNet network.

Monday 18th

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png If we're satisfied with final TestNet runs, we will enable VaultNodes support on the MainNet by Monday of the next week. The security and stability of the network is our first priority but we plan to have the V-PoS system live in under 7 days.

Thursday 21st

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We commence VaultKey implementation along with release of the official Android app (we are also working on iOS; however, if this is your specialization please PM for bounty details).

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png With VaultKeys, you can print your own physical paper wallet consisting of a split private key distributed across multiple (default is three) QR codes.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png If a private key is lost, it can be recovered from a variable number of segment pieces using a preconfigured passphrase. The custom Vault Android application will prompt you to scan the segments of your key to recover the wallet.

More details soon.


Thursday 28th

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Release update adding VaultKeys functionality and enabling it for public use, and novelty official limited edition 'VaultKey Cards' go on sale (and giveaways!).

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We will announce the next stage of development in September and officially welcome a new member to our team.

Thanks for your patience. Feel free to ask any questions!

The Vault team

The official pool has been taken offline as all coins have been distributed and the proof of work phase has finished. The payouts happened automatically every 20 minutes so you will have received any coins you managed to earn.

We do not have affiliation with any previous or alternative cryptocurrencies using the name Vault.

We're now listed on CoinMarketCap http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/vaultcoin/

Status Update

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We've made some changes to the codebase as an attempt to to speed up the network. These are added to the review branch on github (though they should not be used as an updated client as of yet). See the changes here. We're currently testing these change on a private network to ensure the integrity of your investment is not damaged by a rushed update. When we're satisfied with the result, we will switch this to master and announce the necessary update. I'd like to stress that this is not production ready code.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We've invested some personal bitcoin into purchasing Vault and have reached a point where we're much more satisfied with the health of the network and the regularity of the blocks. Thanks for your patience during this time, and thanks to the others that have staked for no reward.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Fixes to the ppcoin codebase are nearing completion, staking rewards are likely to be activated within the next few days. We're currently weighing up whether we can simultaneously roll out the VaultNode beta with the staking reward updates, or if it would be better to jump into plain POS and introduce VaultNodes later. The decision will come as the result of testing currently taking place.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We are aiming to whitepaper the minutia of VaultNodes, but since I'm writing an update I'd like to give a little insight into what you should expect. Regular staking for VaultCoin was set to be 200% p.a., however this does provide a fairly intense level of inflation. Instead we have decided the regular staking reward is due to be 40% p.a, with VaultNodes providing a more attractive rate. A VaultNode acts as an untouchable 'safe' for coins, by committing x amount of Vault to a VaultNode for y blocks, you will receive a preferential POS reward. In effect, you are rewarded for dedicating staking power for a fixed period of time. The specifics of this and technical details are in prep for announcement this week.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Finally, we're also aiming to provide a roadmap for the development efforts within the next 24 hours. As soon as the other developers finish work, we'll be putting our thoughts down onto paper for you to consume the bigger picture, and give some details of our project that follows on from VaultNodes.

Thanks once again.

If you're having issues with wallet synchronisation, please ensure you are running the latest client and restart it. If you're running an older version this could be causing the problem.

The minimum staking age is 2 days. The original post has been updated to include this as so many people have been asking.

Hi zwiggel. We've bought more to stake and are slowly increasing the amount we're staking (as to not ramp up the effective difficulty). Looking into whether or not a fix should be pushed for min coin age, or if we can wait until further modifications are done to the codebase to reduce the amount of new wallets and updates.

Thanks for your patience.

Status Update

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Hi guys! Hope you're having a great weekend. Just wanted to put down some thoughts and updates for you since we've been in and out of the 'office' this weekend. Successful transition to our temporary zero-reward PoS period ocurred, but if you missed the PoW period we're now listed on C-cex and Coins-e.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png The anticipated proof of stake issue summarized in development update #2 is in the works of being fixed, we'll provide more lengthy updates throughout the week but we've begun overhauling of the ppcoin codebase to clean up the entire backbone of the network. Thank you for your support of the coin by staking even during this zero reward peroid, we've purchased some more Vault from C-cex to add to the staking supply to speed up the network as we're aware it's a little slow currently.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We're looking into pushing a quick fix to reduce min coin age for staking to also speed up the network, but hopefully this won't be necessary by tomorrow. We will see how that goes.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png With the proof of stake fixes we're also preparing the primary details of VaultNodes for integration into the main codebase. Currently, we're not sure whether staking will begin with straight PoS or VaultNode PoS, but as the week passes we'll be able to consolidate a more clear idea of a timeline for the work we're aiming to implement. As a quick synopsis, VaultNodes are a system that utilizes cryptographic commitment to supporting the network for a specific period of time, in exchange for an extended type of reward. We'll be releasing further details as soon as a timeline (or a light at the end of the tunnel) becomes apparent.

Once again, thanks for your patience and support of Vault.

Thank you.

Just to check in -

Unfortunately we've been unable to get in touch with anyone at pool.mn yet. We will continue to try and resolve the daemon situation at the pool.

Vault

Hi, we've sent an email to the pool and are currently hanging around in their IRC attempting to make contact. Their daemon is probably just offline.

The wallet will automatically stake unless you've set reservebalance

Coinbase TX of block 2448:

Value = 0.76562600

Please ensure you are running an up-to-date wallet.

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Let us also remind you again to add the following to your vaultcoin.conf if you do not wish to stake:

Due to the original code staking=0 will not work.

Development Update #2

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png New wallets released, updated to 1.0.4, with links added to the main post. This includes a mandatory update before block 2880. We have sent emails to relevant pools to make sure the correct fork is used beyond the Proof Of Work period.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We have anticipated a further issue with the proof of stake function from the previous codebase Vault is forked from. We'd like to summarize the complexity of the issue before going into detail about how we're going to handle it and maintain network integrity.

Since the original codebase is a modification of ppcoin, the value of COIN is only 6 decimal places. When used with the low supply of Vault, this raises an issue with stake rewards. In more detail, the transactions generated as rewards for low balances supporting the Vault network via staking will be below 0.000001, and therefore will effectively have no PoS reward for smaller balances (due to the internal integer representation).

As a quick fix to allow staking users to see reward, we could increase the stake reward by a multiplier, but we would prefer to instead stick to the original technical outline for Vault.

Further complexity is raised when attempting to alter the value of COIN, which is a very delicate variable, highly integrated into the core codebase. It is certainly not something we'd like to be pushing fixes for with limited time until the PoS switchover. A full fix to this issue will require a codebase cleanup, thorough checks and a little stress-testing, something we'd like to take a period of time to complete to a level we're confident with.

For these reasons, we have decided to implement a temporary repression of staking rewards until we are satisfied with a cleaner, bug-free codebase. What does this mean for you?

Well, not much, besides a short period of staking with zero reward. The core members of the development team have managed to mine around 22 Vault which we will commit to staking 24/7 during the zero reward period, allowing the network to continue it's mobility and allow transactions to confirm as normal. We are already working on the permanent solution, and integrating this solution with VaultNodes, which is the first novel unique innovation we're implementing into Vault.

Please remember, this update is mandatory. Any staking you perform with previous clients will exist on a fork that is not valid to the main network. We will provide another update when the permanent fix is prepared for public upgrade.

Thank you for your continued support, we hope that we have displayed a devotion to the continued development of Vault and the avoidence of problems before they occur.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Approaching the end of the Proof Of Work period, only 100 or so blocks remaining to mine.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We are preparing a documentation of future development plans, including an explanation of VaultNodes, and additional technical contributions, but would like to fix the ppcoin codebase's staking issues before we proceed with announcing the more complex developments.

Thanks for your patience and continued support!

1.0.4 Windows client: (download)
1.0.4 Mac client: (download)
See code changes: (github)

User announcement and reminder

Maturity for staked coins is 120 blocks so if you do not wish to stake please add the below to your vaultcoin.conf

reservebalance=1500

This file can be found/created in:

Windows: %appdata%\VaultCoin\
Mac: /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/VaultCoin/
Linux: /home/yourusername/.vaultcoin (or your home folder location)


Thanks!
V.

90 second block time, not 60 second.

Block 2880 is the LAST_POW_BLOCK, a three day parabolic proof of work period as documented in the original post.

V.

The hard fork at block 2350 has been successful.

Thanks for mining VAULT!

Development Update

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png New wallets released, updated to 1.0.3, links in main OP. This includes a hard fork at block 2350. We have sent emails to relevant pools to make sure no hashing time is lost.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png We anticipated an issue with staking, and have thus corrected the staking reward via the hard fork due to arrive at block 2350. This is a fix of the staking modifer interval, and also cleans up some issues with the code of the coin we originally forked.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Fixed anticipated problem with difficulty reset for Proof Of Stake switchover.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Corrected the height for staking GUI.

http://i.imgur.com/RPRYAoP.png Checkpointed in new wallet release.

Thanks for your patience and continued support!

1.0.3 Windows client: (download)
1.0.3 Mac client: (download)
See code changes: (github)