Finance:Feathercoin

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Feathercoin
Feathercoin-logo.svg
Official Feathercoin logo
Code(numeric: )
Unit
PluralFeathercoins, FTCs
SymbolFTC, ₣ (unofficially)
Demographics
Date of introduction16 April 2013; 10 years ago (2013-04-16)
User(s)International
Valuation
InflationLimited release (geometric series, rate halves every 2.1 million blocks reaching a final total of 336 million FTCs)

Cat:IB currency unk param:iso_number

Feathercoin (FTC or [1]) is an open source cryptocurrency, published under the license of MIT / X11.1, based on the Litecoin protocol. On 16 April 2013 Feathercoin successfully forked from Litecoin by the creation of its genesis block. As a cryptocurrency, creation and transfer of coins is based on an open source cryptographic protocol (the blockchain) and is not managed by any central authority.[2]

The hashing algorithm chosen for Feathercoin was the Proof-of-Work NeoScrypt,[3] which had premiered on Phoenixcoin. NeoScrypt is 25% more memory intense,[4] which makes it less feasible to create ASICs for it.

The main programmer is Peter Bushnell, at the time running the information technology for the Brasenose College of Oxford University. He explained his motivation for developing the coin in an interview with Vitalik Buterin.[5]

One month after launching Feathercoin, Peter Bushnell left his job as head of IT at the Brasenose College of Oxford University and lived off his Litecoin savings.[6]

He left the development of the coin in 2014, working on projects such as HullCoin[7] and returned to the platform in late December 2017 with the intention of bringing Feathercoin technically to the same level as Bitcoin Core 0.13 and subsequently adding Lightning and BarterDEX technology to the coin [8][9][10]

On the 21st March 2018, the creation of the Feathercoin Development Foundation was announced. Its goal is to foster the development and acceptance of Feathercoin.[11] Based in Zug, crypto-valley in Switzerland, the Feathercoin Foundation got rapid coverage by local media such as Swissinfo,[12] Finews[13] or Fintechnews.[14] On June 29, 2018 the Feathercoin Development Foundation celebrated its first 100 days of activity.[15]

History

The first version of Feathercoin was released on 16 April 2013 and based on the 0.6.3 build of Litecoin. The initial block reward was set at 200 blocks and not a single block was pre-mined. With its halving rate every 2.1 million blocks, Feathercoin is limited to 336 million coins. Approximately 16 times more than Bitcoin and 4 times more than Litecoin. Average block time is about 60 seconds, which, compared to Litecoin (2.5 minutes) and Bitcoin (8.4 minutes), is considerabily fast.[16]

On 9 April 2018, at precisely 22:31:59 GMT block number 2’157’120 was the first block to get mined with SegWit [BIP 141] activated. This made Feathercoin one of the cryptocurrencies having this feature, along with others like Litecoin, Bitcoin, Digibyte and Vertcoin.[17]

References

  1. Based on the former French currency Franc
  2. "[FAQ New forum Member? - Most Asked Questions! Try Here First!"]. 29 May 2016. http://forum.feathercoin.com/topic/8523/faq-new-forum-member-most-asked-questions-try-here-first. Retrieved 16 March 2018. 
  3. "Feathercoin ( FTC ) – What You Need To Know". http://cryptolix.com/feathercoin-ftc-what-you-need-to-know/. 
  4. Doering, John (26 July 2014). "NeoScrypt, a Strong Memory Intensive Key Derivation Function". http://phoenixcoin.org/archive/neoscrypt_v1.pdf. 
  5. Buterin, Vitalik. "Feathercoin: Interview With Peter Bushnell — Bitcoin Magazine". https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/feathercoin-interview-with-peter-bushnell-1376355117/. 
  6. Bradbury, Danny (25 June 2013). "Bitcoin's successors: from Litecoin to Freicoin and onwards" (in en). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/25/bitcoin-successors-litecoin-freicoin. 
  7. https://disrupts.com/catchy-header-nostrum-group/
  8. "Return to Feathercoin and future development". 2 January 2018. https://forum.feathercoin.com/topic/9468/return-to-feathercoin-and-future-development. Retrieved 16 March 2018. 
  9. Bushnell, Peter (17 December 2017). "Returning to Feathercoin proper in the new year to start work on the 0.13 release. The 0.13 codebase gives us the latest soft forks and will then allow us to join other services like Lightning Network, BarterDEX and others that make use of newer tech. #Feathercoin #FTC" (in en). https://twitter.com/bushstar/status/942326318758277120. 
  10. "Feathercoin Developer Bushstar Will Make a Surprising Comeback Next Year | NullTX" (in en-US). https://nulltx.com/feathercoin-developer-bushstar-will-make-a-surprising-comeback-next-year/. 
  11. Foundation, Feathercoin Development (2018-03-21). "Announcing the Feathercoin Development Foundation". https://medium.com/@Feathercoin/announcing-the-feathercoin-development-foundation-fabb42205f98. 
  12. swissinfo.ch, Matthew Allen,. "Feathercoin out to prove it’s no lightweight" (in en). SWI swissinfo.ch. https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sharing-foundation_feathercoin-out-to-prove-it-s-no-lightweight/43993544. 
  13. "Swiss Investor Digs Into Crypto" (in en-GB). finews.com. 2018-03-21. https://www.finews.com/news/english-news/31127-rainer-marc-frey-crypto-feathercoin-zug-peter-bushnell. 
  14. "Swiss Fintech Startup Map, April 2018, 10 new Swiss Fintech Startups | Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH" (in en-US). Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News - FintechNewsCH. 2018-04-09. http://fintechnews.ch/fintech/swiss-fintech-startup-map-april-2018/17516/. 
  15. Nambiampurath, Rahul (2018-07-14). "A Look at What the Feathercoin Foundation Has Achieved after its First 100 Days | BTCMANAGER" (in en-US). BTCMANAGER. https://btcmanager.com/a-look-at-what-the-feathercoin-foundation-has-achieved-after-its-first-100-days/. 
  16. "Bitcoin, Litecoin, Namecoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin, Ethereum stats". https://bitinfocharts.com. Retrieved 16 March 2018. 
  17. Foundation, Feathercoin Development (2018-04-09). "Segwit activates successfully and Feathercoin Core 0.16 First Release Candidate ready for download". https://medium.com/feathercoin/segwit-activates-successfully-and-feathercoin-core-0-16-first-release-candidate-ready-for-download-40b72295935.