LYNX: “Hybrid Proof of Work”
⚠️ JAN 23, 2020 — This article has been replaced/updated! ⚠️
Click here instead to read LYNX: A Complete Guide To Mining
On February 16th, 2019 (at block 2,630,000) a modified work protocol for mining cryptocurrency was born via the LYNX blockchain. This new configuration hybridizes the features of both the Proof of Work and Proof of Stake models through a unique set of principles that more closely resemble the original intentions of cryptocurrency.
Aptly named “Hybrid Proof of Work,” or HPoW, it is a very real and serious effort to address two of the most important issues plaguing cryptocurrency: true democratization of the network and protection against the dreaded 51% Attack!
You may have heard the term before but just in case you haven’t, a 51% Attack (also know as a Double Spend Attack) is when a single miner is able to maintain control of over half of the entire network’s hashing power, thus able to control transaction selection and even falsely manufacture transactions into the official ledger (among other things). This usually results in a double spend along with a loss of faith in the system as a whole and could spell utter ruin for any coin’s value.
LYNX’s one-of-a-kind hashing algorithm greatly reduces the incentive to mine only for profit while keeping the network totally secure. Doing so makes it hard for high powered miners to turn a profit and thus allows the entire network to sustain purely on low-cost, low-power computers (like Raspberry Pis) which lowers the network’s energy global costs to only a few dollars a day. And, best of all, it levels the playing field and democratizes blockchain technology because almost anyone, anywhere in the world can run a node and participate in the project!
HPoW, Explained
It works by still utilizing Proof of Work rules but with some very interesting twists! First of all, every single LYNX desktop wallet and node, even on a Raspberry Pi, is able to begin mining simply by supplying it with a valid LYNX address stocked with between 1000 and 100,000,000 LYNX as a weighting factor, ala Proof of Stake. If this amount is held within the node’s wallet itself, the node will use its own internal account for reward payments. You may also deposit your LYNX into a safe cold storage paper wallet, or even a Coinomi wallet, splitting up your stack into multiple addresses for a better chance at winning, and supply your node with a list of those eligible addresses. The more you have in each address, the better it’s chances of successfully winning a block.
Another big part of this design is the reduction of incentives to mine for profit. The coinbase reward amount for each block is simply 1 LYNX + all mining fees per block. While you can still make some money if you win a block with a lot of transactions, the idea is to create an atmosphere where running a high powered miner capable of overpowering the network becomes ludicrously unprofitable due to power consumption costs with the low mining reward. Thus when the powerful miner gives up and goes offline, and the difficulty readjusts, the ever-growing network of much lower-powered mining nodes will be able to once again resume their eco-friendly, low-cost mining duties!
Now let’s take a look at HPoW’s unique set of rules, each crafted to compliment the others to form one solid balanced system…
Rule #1 ::: A single miner can NOT win a block more than once every 30 minutes.
One necessary main ingredient needed to carry out a successful 51% attack is the ability to gain and hold control of a chain for a consecutive amount of blocks in order to write your transactions in and verify them. This rule immediately thwarts that by forcing each miner to wait 60 blocks (of 30 seconds each), per reward address, in between each successful win. This means an attacker would need at least 60+ eligible mining addresses to work in tandem to win each block one after another. And I can already hear you, yes, that is a real possibility so let’s continue…
Rule #2 ::: The miner’s reward address balance MUST be greater than or equal to a required fluctuating minimum amount of LYNX to win a block.
So now to carry out the attack, not only does our attacker have to own 60 addresses all stocked with enough LYNX to qualify as miners in the first place, but the amounts in them must outweigh the unknown and ever-fluctuating minimum amount requirement to win as well. This forces them to have to pre-buy enough LYNX to stock these many addresses high enough to be able to successfully outweigh every other node every single time. It should immediately become clear how expensive this operation would be, especially given the low return on reward fees. But I can still hear you saying “well some rich whale could fill up 60 addresses with 100,000,000 each,” and while technically true that would be 6 Billion LYNX to carry out a single attack — do the math on current market prices to see how unrealistic this would be. However, just in case someone did come up with that kind of cash just to spite the network, let’s continue on to the final layer of this design…
Rule #3 ::: By using random selection, the fastest miners are NOT always guaranteed to win the block reward.
“Wait… what?” I hear you say. That’s right! In traditional cryptocurrencies the fastest miners always win the blocks, leaving the rest of the populous out in the cold. Well LYNX turns that on it’s head by including a sort of lottery system to the final phase. Any miners who successfully find a candidate block and meets all other rule requirements, regardless of their speed and hashing power, basically gain a seat at the table to be randomly selected for the block win via a hexadecimal number matching system, almost similar to a Pinball game where you may win a free round at the end if the numbers match up. So to pull off a successful 51% attack you will have to be very rich and astronomically lucky!
Roll Out… Roll Out…
The rollout of HPoW will be performed in stages to allow the budding LYNX network’s volume of support time to grow into itself while these rules take effect. Each rule will begin to come online at separate intervals and at varying difficulties, occasionally adjusting and becoming more and more strict until eventually the entire network is running on the fully realized algorithm. As more and more rules come online and tighten up, you will begin to see real positive impact on security throughout the entire LYNX network!
It’s Not Easy Being Green
One more lovely side effect of this new design that really makes me smile is that it’s incredibly eco-friendly! The overall impact to our ecosystem using a global network of super-low-powered Raspberry Pi’s on an intelligent work protocol allowing everyone to participate — versus the absolutely insane amount of power consumption and resources gobbled up by BigCoin™ across the globe on a daily basis — is a huge leap in the right direction. I mean, the figures are literally hundreds of thousands of times smaller!
#GetLYNX
https://getlynx.io
The official website is the best place to start. Please read the white paper, it lays all of this out clearly and has a wonderful non-techie summary for those not wanted to pour over pages and pages of essentially latin.
https://www.altilly.com/market/LYNX_LTC
https://www.altilly.com/market/LYNX_BTC
LYNX is available to trade in BTC and LTC markets on Altilly Exchange.
https://discord.gg/yTfCs5J
There is also a growing and thriving community on Discord where the developers regularly hang out and chat with other members. Plus they have a sassy tip/rain bot there named Tipsy that I think you’re going to just love!
Follow Lynx on Twitter:
Discuss Lynx on Reddit:
So what are you waiting for? A bull run? Go check them out :)
