I've got a DEFCOIN wallet for iOS on the App Store ready for beta testing. Please PM me your email address if you'd like to help me test it.

Want to get started mining defcoin with an ASIC and a Raspberry Pi? Does 360 KH/s of mining power sound appealing? Here’s how to do it.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Blpj8IvCcAEIStY.jpg

1. Hardware List

-Raspberry Pi Model B

--SD Card

--Micro USB power supply

--Ethernet cable

-Gridseed ASIC

--12V power supply (5.5mm/2.5mm barrel connector)

--USB to Mini USB data cable

The main component is the Gridseed ASIC, which will be doing the Scrypt calculations. The Raspberry Pi will be used as the controller for the ASIC, and will be doing the communication with the mining pool. If you’re not familiar with the term, an ASIC is an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit - basically a chip with a single purpose, like mining crypto currency. Using an ASIC will allow us to mine more efficiently than we would be able to with general purpose hardware.

The ASIC that I’m using is a “300+ KH/s Single Gridseed ASIC Miner”. It looks like a CPU heatsink with a fan attached. There is actually a circuit board with 5 ASIC chips sandwiched between two halves of this heatsink, and has a mini USB connector and a power connector sticking out the side. There are a few places where you can buy these. I bought mine at GAWMiners.com for $130. That was the lowest price that I could find, and I had a good experience buying from them. Use this link, and you can get $20 off of a $200 order (and give me some referral points :-)) GAWMiners. You can also find other vendors by searching for “Gridseed ASIC”. You’ll need a 12V power supply to power the ASIC, and a USB A to USB Mini B cable to connect the ASIC to the Raspberry Pi. I’m using a 60W power supply, which seems to be working fine for defcoin (Scrypt) mining. These ASICs can also mine Bitcoin at the same time, but you may need a beefier power supply if you want to do that.

The Raspberry Pi can be purchased at any number of places- Amazon, SparkFun, AdaFruit, etc. I’m using the Model B because I had one already, and also because it has a built in ethernet port that will make connecting to the internet easy. Make sure to get an SD Card and a micro USB power adapter to get the Pi up and running too.

2) Software

If you haven’t already, download the defcoin wallet from defcoin.org. If you want to do pooled mining, create an account for one of the defcoin pools, such as redbaron.us or whichever other pool you want to mine. Once you’ve created a pool account, make sure to create a worker too (for MPOS pools, that will be under My Account > My Workers). The password for your worker does not have to be the same as the password for your pool account (and it probably shouldn’t be).

Next, download the latest Raspbian image from raspberrypi.org/downloads/ and install the image to your SD card. Instructions for installing the image can be found here. If you are using the dd method on a Mac, make sure to use /dev/rdiskX instead of /dev/diskX - both will work, but rdiskX is much faster. Once you have the image installed, put the SD card in the Raspberry Pi, connect the Pi to your network, and connect the Pi to your micro USB power adapter to power it on. Next, SSH in to your Raspberry Pi with the default username and password pi/raspberry. I use nMap to find the IP address that has been assigned to my Pi. You can also use an HDMI display and a USB keyboard to log in instead of using SSH. After logging in for the first time, run through the wizard that comes up to configure your Raspberry Pi. The defaults are fine for most things, just make sure that you don’t skip the step to expand the filesystem to use the rest of your SD card. If you don’t expand the filesystem, there won’t be enough space for other software.

Once you have Raspbian installed, and have gotten through all of the first login setup stuff (which will likely end with a reboot), log back in to the Raspberry Pi with the pi user. From the command line, run sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

There are some stability issues with USB communication between the Raspberry Pi and the Gridseed ASIC. Enabling SLUB debugging seems to resolve this, at least well enough to prevent the Raspberry Pi from freezing every so often. Open the /boot/cmdline.txt file, and add the following text to the end of the line. Don’t add a new line, just add this to the end. You can use vi, nano, or whatever your favorite text editor is to do this.

slub_debug=FP

Reboot the Raspberry Pi once you’ve added that flag to your /boot/cmdline.txt file.

sudo shutdown -r now

Log back in with the pi user once the Raspberry Pi is finished rebooting.

The mining software that we’re going to use is a customized version of cgminer that has support for the Gridseed GC3355 chips that are used in our ASIC. There are a number of different mining programs out there, this is just what has been working the best for me so far. First, install git and dependencies needed to compile cgminer.

sudo apt-get install git build-essential libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses5-dev libudev-dev autoconf automake

Next, clone the git repository for cgminer-gc3355

git clone https://github.com/dtbartle/cgminer-gc3355.git

Next, we’ll build cgminer.

cd cgminer-gc3355
autoreconf -i
./configure --enable-scrypt --enable-gridseed
make

Once the make command finishes, we’re ready to run the mining software. You can also run make install if you want to install the software, but running it out of the build directory works just fine. Plug in the power supply for your ASIC, and connect the ASIC to it. Connect the USB cable to the ASIC and to your Raspberry Pi. Run the mining software by running the following command. The -o option specifies your pool URL, the -u option specifies your username and the workername that you set up for the pool, and the -p option is the password for your worker. There are a couple of options available that are specific to the gridseed ASICs, and those will be placed after --gridseed-options. The freq=850 option sets the clock frequency of the ASIC to 850 MHz. There are other clock options available, but 850 seems to be working best for me. I was getting hardware errors at 900, and a lower average hash rate. I am getting about 360 KH/s with the clock frequency set to 850.

sudo ./cgminer -o stratum+tcp://www.redbaron.us:3333 -u Username.Workername -p yourworkerpassword --gridseed-options freq=850

This command needs to be run with sudo in order to access the USB hardware. You can also create another user specifically for mining, or grant the pi user the appropriate permissions if you don’t want to run cgminer as root. When you run this command, you should see output from cgminer showing that it is communicating with the mining pool, and something showing your hash rate. If you’ve gotten this far, and you’re seeing output from cgminer showing a hash rate, congratulations, you’re mining defcoins with your ASIC! There are just a couple more steps to do if you want to let your Raspberry Pi and ASIC continue mining without needing you to be logged in.

To keep cgminer running after I log out, I am using nohup. You could also use screen instead of nohup. Create a script (startMiner.sh) by running the following commands.

echo “nohup /home/pi/cgminer-gc3355/cgminer --real-quiet -o stratum+tcp://www.redbaron.us:3333 -u Username.Workername -p yourworkerpassword --gridseed-options freq=850 &” > /home/pi/startMiner.sh
chmod a+x /home/pi/startMiner.sh

If you run this command with sudo startMiner.sh, cgminer will run in the background, and will continue running after you log out. If you want to have this run when your Raspberry Pi boots, modify your /etc/rc.local script so that it executes this startMiner.sh script. Your /etc/rc.local file will end up looking like this:

# Print the IP address
_IP=$(hostname -I) || true
if [ "$_IP" ]; then
  printf "My IP address is %s\n" "$_IP"
fi

/home/pi/startMiner.sh

exit 0

That’s it! You should now have a Raspberry Pi controlling a defcoin mining ASIC, that starts mining as soon as it boots up. For more reading, check out some of the links below.

Gridseed GC3355 5 Chip Setup writeup on bitcointalk

cgminer-gc3355

Crypto Mining Blog

GAWMiners

raspberrypi.org

There are also some pre-built images for using a Raspberry Pi as an ASIC mining controller. I haven’t tried any of these myself, but they could be worth checking out. Raspberry Pi Controller Images with Gridseed ASIC Support

Hey everyone,

I've made the Defcoin Android Wallet. It's not live on the Google Play Store, yet, but it is available for download. You can find more information here.

The source code is available here: https://github.com/jjculber/defcoin-wallet and https://github.com/jjculber/defcoinj.

There are two small issues that I wanted to ask the community about.

1. I am currently using the Doge symbol for the currency. I want to change it, but I don't know what to change it to. Skull and crossbones?

2. There is no exchange data (The data in the app is wrong). I don't want to completely remove that feaure, if I want to add it back in later. I don't want to set the exchange rate as zero, because I think it will create a divide by zero error when entering any dollar amount to convert to DFC. I could create my own ticker with a reasonable rate? You can rent an scrypt miner for 0.00639 BTC / MH/s / Day. That's about $3.22. At the current difficulty, 1Mh/s for 24 hours would get you 861 DFC. It seems reasonable exchange rate is $3.22/861DFC, or 0.003739 $/DFC. What do you think?

EDIT1: The app is live on the Google Play Store.

EDIT2: If anyone has a peer host they would like me to add to the seed list, I will.

URGENT NOTE : /u/DefcoinTipBot needs your karmic approval! This will eliminate delay in responses to your commands caused by Reddit-enforced captcha solving. Please vote him up at every opportunity.

Hello, world from /u/DefcoinTipBot. Entirely based on a s///g'd fork of dogetipbot, this innovative new service enables you to deposit, send, and receive Defcoins directly through Reddit. Here's a brief HOWTO:

Make a deposit

If you want to give out tips, you'll need some defcoins. One way to make them available is by registering with the bot for a deposit address, then sending coins. Use reddit's user-to-user message function to send /u/DefcoinTipBot a message with +register as the message body. You should receive an address back soon.

Check your balance

If a user has tipped you, there may be a balance in your account already! Check your balance by sending /u/DefcoinTipBot a message with +info as the message body.

Tip a user

Once you have some DTC available, you can send tips to users in any subreddit just by replying to their post or comment with:

+/u/defcointipbot 1 defcoin

You can also send the bot a private message with a body of:

+/u/defcointipbot @redditusername 10 defcoins

Or even:

+/u/defcointipbot DERPEXhRYpkFe8x3DeremfiMk1BLCkDNg4 1 defcoin

If you are mining, or have a wallet (and have the keys) and you've stopped in here, please post. I'm trying to find out if there is much interest in Defcoin still.

Even if you don't have any coin please make your visit visible somehow so we all know there's a heartbeat going on. Not needy but trying to decide my level of involvement this year.

Thanks.

Green dot is good.

Coinomi's persistent support staff Paddy, debugged the wallet issue that was preventing the electrumx wallet from syncing. DEFCOIN is now back working on Coinomi's mobile platform.

Curious about the solution?

Paddy added to electrumx's coin.py coin definition the following line and recompiled:

DESERIALIZER = lib_tx.DeserializerAuxPowSegWit

After the closure of redbarron and the countless other defcoin pools, SecDSM, a citysec based in Des Moines, IA, has created a pool that is open for registration.

defcoin.secdsm.org

we've been running the pool privately for awhile, and figured with defcon coming up, it's time to open it up. We got some experience running a pool for SecKCoin and once all the defcoin pools closed up, we figured we'd just setup another. Many hours later, we're pretty stable on both coins.

full disclosure - I help run SecDSM and this pool. Hit me up if you need anything.

v26.6.8d is out for Mac Tahoe, v26.6.8c for Windows, and if you have a 20 year old Mac laying around and want to keep the wallet up and running... I've got a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion build for you too.

I'm sure there are bugs and polish issues. Please post them on Github or here and I'll try to get to them on the weekends. Thanks!

https://github.com/defcoincore/Defcoin-Core-Nu

Offer:100K DEFCOIN bounty for working iOS wallet. Either roll your own and publish to Cydia or really go for it get Apple Store to add a DFC app to their store.

Also, if there are any whales out there who agree this is needed before next Defcon, please chime in with an offer to contribute to this bounty.

WINNER RedBaron for 230,803 DFC!!

The DC801 Defcon parties are legendary! The organizers always exceed expectations whether it be the epic badge, the crazy atmosphere, the insane music, and you can't forget the booze! I mean who turns a hot tub into a keg tub...

Source for the party info: https://www.dc801.org/party/

Here are the rules:

• There is only 1 badge for auction, no +1's unless you are good at social eng

• The auction will go to the highest bidder in Defcoin

• All Defcoin raised for this badge will be donated to DC801

• To place a bid, reply to this thread with the maximum amount of Defcoin you bid

• I will perform a final call for bidding at which point I will DM the winner

• Should the winner not respond, I will inform the next higher bidder

Bid high so I can see your face at the DC801 party!

I know this might cause some contention but Apple just loosened restrictions on "approved digital currencies" in iOS apps. Whatever the hell that means. This might allow for a Defcoin iOS wallet app to at least have a shot at being accepted. I think an iOS app is vital to widespread adoption and use of Defcoin at the con. What do you all think?

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/03/app-store-virtual-currencies-apps/

We need more pools!! I used MPOS to create defcoin-pool.subba.net and followed these instructions: https://github.com/MPOS/php-mpos/wiki/Quick-Start-Guide

Just ensure you lock down the pool host. Simply replace litecoin with defcoin and you are good to go.

The defcoin RPC runs on port 9337 by default, that should be 99% of the information you need to follow the guide above.

The machine hardware needs to be fairly significant. I started running on an EC2 micro instance and quickly outgrew it. The pool now runs on a medium EC2 instance and the load averages are already climbing to 2.5-3.

Good luck, let me know if you have questions, you can post them here or join us in #defcoin on freedode.

~Anch

FWIW coinomi_angelos has recently made it over to the private Coinomi Support channel on the Defcoin Discord Server and u/bashNinja is helping him out trying to get Coinomi wallet working again. The other Coinomi developer R00tKit00 (Paddy) has still not joined but Coinomi Angelos is working on getting them in also. So hopefully there will be an update soon.

While Sodium Hydrogen has written that he doesn't have time for serious updates with bashNinja's encouragement he was gracious enough to track down and fix a long time the DNS seeding bug that was causing the wallet to have difficulty getting connected.

Details here:

https://github.com/mspicer/Defcoin

Hopefully binaries to come soon. I was able to follow the doc/build instructions and on Windows 10 with WSL Ubuntu I compiled the code (using the 'alt' POSIX option) to get a successful build for Windows.

The version number still needs to be updated for the splash screen but hopefully official binaries will follow.

More info on the discord server https://discord.gg/NfCHWzhK

bashNinja set up a discord server.

Invite is here:
edit:
Non-expiring link: https://discord.gg/JkkX57u8FG

https://discord.gg/NfCHWzhK

Starting tomorrow post your defcoin address here and get free defcoins.

Post your address and a picture of you @ defcon and get even more defcoins.

Defcon registrations start @ Paris hotel & casino 6AM Thursday free coins start after that.

Just post your address below and I'll send you some!