Bitgrin (XBG) just scammed you

Pharozen
3 min readMay 30, 2020

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TL;DR: Bitgrin is a scam that minted billions of coins (XBG) in a single block, despite claiming to only have a max supply of 21 million XBG.

Proof:

Have a look at the following code, which is supposed to return the reward for each block: https://github.com/bitgrin/bitgrin/blob/master/core/src/consensus.rs#L142-L150

And in particular, this line: https://github.com/bitgrin/bitgrin/blob/master/core/src/consensus.rs#L144

This logic was added as part of “HF Update v2.0.5”: https://github.com/bitgrin/bitgrin/commit/c9b70b3cef6b975b67fdf57b3f11c0c92c88610b

Notice year_block_overage multiplies BLOCK_REWARD (5) by BITGRIN_BASE (1,000,000,000), which is 5 billion nano bitgrins, or 5 full bitgrins. So “year_block_overage()” returns 5,000,000,000 = 5 XBG

But notice, the result of “year_block_overage()” is then multiplied by BITGRIN_BASE *again*, meaning it returns 5,000,000,000,000,000,000 nano XBG = 5,000,000,000 XBG or 5 billion XBG!!

YEAR_HEIGHT = 52 * 7 * 24 * 60 = 524160

BLOCK_REWARD * BITGRIN_BASE * BITGRIN_BASE = 5,000,000,000 XBG

This means that the “adjusted” block reward for block height 524,160 (YEAR_HEIGHT) is actually 5 BILLION bitgrins. Not nano-bitgrins. *5 billion full bitgrins/XBGs!!* Which is billions more than the claimed 21 million max supply.

Let’s look at block height 524,160 in a block explorer:

O good, it says it’s unspent, so maybe this can be salvaged. Except… that’s not true, according to any full node. The block explorer, is hosted and manipulated by the scammers. Simply navigate to http://localhost:8513/v1/txhashset/outputs?start_index=558000 on any machine running a full node with the API enabled, then scroll down and you will see that the output from block 524,160 is not there, meaning it actually has been spent.

SUMMARY

So, what does this all mean? It means the creator of Bitgrin (@Pharazen/XBG Probe) is a scammer who minted 5 billion XBG for himself, and has been slowly selling coins to unsuspecting victims who were led to believe only 21 million would ever exist. Please avoid this scam at all costs, or you WILL lose your money.

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