Decred (DCR)

Welcome to our Decred (DCR) news page. Here you'll find some of our featured Decred Tokens content pieces as well as all our latest Decred (DCR) Cryptocurrency posts.

Decred (DCR) Cryptocurrency ASIC Miners and Hardware Are Here To Try

With Decred (DCR Coin) Rising, ASIC Miners and Hardware Companies to Profit

Decred is one of the most privacy-focused platforms in the crypto world, and it’s been around since February 2016. Originally, it only was valuable enough for tokens to be worth about $1, but it has since grown enough to be valued at $91, according to reports on May 30^th, 2018.

Somehow, with the cryptocurrency market in a state of decline, Decred hasn’t faltered, which is attracting the attention of miners that want to profit as well. Unlike other major platforms that use a single consensus mechanism for their mining, Decred uses two – Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake mechanisms.

Using ASICs To Mine Decred Tokens

Obelisk is one of the manufacturers that stands to profit greatly, as they work to create hardware that can meet the needs of miners during this time. Their custom 28nm ASIC, known more eloquently as the DCR1, has a hash rate of 1200 GH/second. However, despite this efficiency, the device only requires 500 watts for power consumption.

As Obelisk and other manufacturers develop solutions for mining, the hash rate of Decred has almost tripled within the last two weeks. It essentially breaks down to 16.3 k Th/s. With powerful mining hardware like this, other GPU mining pools may be obsolete.

Profiting With Mined Decred Tokens

When a miner validates their transactions within any given network, they must adhere to certain rules to receive a reward from the cryptocurrency. To determine how much profit an ASIC miner stands to make, they must factor in a number of variables, like:

• Chip hash rates
• Network difficulty
• Necessary power consumption
• Electricity fees
• Mining fees
• Coins awarded per block

While the DCR1 works hard to benefit the miners, it is also up against the Ibelink 6 Th miner, DSM6T. It has a hash rate of 6.23 Th/s, which is faster than any other Decred miner globally. It only weighs 17.6 kg and requires 2.1 kW for power.

Bitmain also plans to offer their own Decred mining hardware, which is only fitting with their existing status as developing the most powerful and profitable ASIC miner for bitcoin, named Antminer S9. The hash rate of the miner is 14 Th/s and has a power consumption of 1.28 kW. Bitmain is widely successful in mining hardware and is close to monopolizing the industry. Rumors say that the launch of their Decred ASIC will be in the third quarter of 2018.

Best Available Decred ASIC

Most miners will be looking at a price tag of $1,000 to $10,000 for an ASIC, with the Ibelink DSM6T to be listed at $9,999. However, the DCR1 is only listed at $1,999.

If an individual considers mining, they need to account for the startup costs of purchasing a miner, if they want to make the most profits possible. Even though the costlier ASIC miners tend to have the best results, the miner will still have to wait the same amount of time to get a return, putting them at a heightened risk of being hacked.

When choosing an ASIC miner, factor in the power consumption, the hash rate, and the amount of time that those tokens will be pending. These costs will help the miner to get the best expectation of their profits overall.

Bitmain Antminer D3 for Decred (DCR) Cryptocurrency Launches New Dedicated ASIC Rig

Decred (DCR) Gets Dedicated ASIC Rig From Bitmain

Bitmain has recently announced that Decred (DCR) will have a dedicated ASIC mining rig, the Antminer D3. According to the company, the new product mines with a hash rate of 7.8 TH/s and a power consumption of 1410 W.

DCR is a two-tier digital asset that relies on nodes to verify the network and it is resistant against 51% attacks. This means that an attack to this network could prove to be too expensive to be an alternative. With ASIC mining, it looks like the token might get even more resistant. DCR only had GPU-mining before, but it looks like ASIC mining is here to stay.

While this asset is somewhat unpopular and mostly supported by Korean trading alone, its price rose 1.11% in 24 hours after the new ASIC miner was announced. At the moment, the price of this token stays at $38.63 USD per unit.

https://twitter.com/Antminer_main/status/1043844217288699904

The Bitmain Controversy

This announcement comes amidst a bad time for Bitmain. The company is currently on a very tense situation as it is believed that some of its ASIC miners are now unprofitable as the price of the tokens in the crypto industry have all decreased over time. Also, the company has been accused of using the machines before it sold them to the customers.

Decred Rising

The hash rate of the token has increased a lot lately. It has risen from 3,700 TH/s to 85,000 TH/s recently and it is believed that this has been the result of ASIC mining (mostly done in secret) instead of GPU mining. It is possible that some ASIC mining has already occurred right now. The company uses the Blake 256 algorithm for mining, which is very popular in cloud mining.

New Kind Of Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Concept By Decred (DCR)

Due to several security risks such as system hacking and exit scams, decentralized exchange or DEX has caught the attention of several companies and individuals in the digital currency space. There are several projects in the works to get cryptocurrencies to try and replace the standard virtual-only digital currency exchanges. These projects focus on tokens or utilizing the blockchain technology.

One company, however, is proposing a new alternative to the current decentralized exchange markets. Decred is looking to facilitate the exchange using only cryptocurrencies instead of fiat currencies. The company is offering a service that is structured by the client and server which doesn't rely so heavily on a similar blockchain or token. Decred has envisioned a system where the operators of the server never take ownership of the users funds.

The proposed project offers a program where the operators won't collect any fees on matching orders. Plus, the orders taken on the new DEX exchange can be regulated internally. Of course, there will be rules that are applied and enforced.

Decred will deal with malicious clients by implementing a system that is structured off of Politeia. To discourage malicious behavior the company is requiring an upfront payment in order for a new client to create an account on their server.

Decred has a full list of properties that they would like to include to create this alternative decentralized exchange. With Decred's proposal, and is suggesting smaller orders use the LN network which operates off-chain with atomic swaps.

The new infrastructure that Decred is proposing will help to improve the digital currency ecosystem that is currently in place.

The Motivation Behind The New Decentralized Exchange

Anyone who has ever tried to introduce new cryptocurrencies to the exchange market knows there are several hoops to jump through. Operators that deal with centralized exchange markets understand that to take ownership of funds, specific rules and laws must be followed.

Compliance and registration to regulatory agencies such as FinCEN takes time. Of course for the clients dealing with centralized exchanges, there is the issue of invasion of privacy due to the KYC/AML policies.

It is also well known that client funds can be placed on hold or even frozen for any reason. It is also a known fact that projects seeking to add cryptocurrency to the exchange markets often come at a substantial fee for listing to the network. Most of the larger exchanges will only list is certain cryptocurrencies that will generate higher profits.

Many DEX projects have shown to be successful to varying degrees using tokens or blockchain technology. However, they have only been able to address some of the issues. And while many of these DEX projects are removing the third-party, there is still trading fees within their systems. And while these fees no longer go to third parties but remain within the company itself, it still is counterproductive to a network of open source exchange.

Present challenges from the user experience, technological perspectives, regulatory, are still susceptible to HFTs or high-frequency trading nodes. Since the 1990s HFT's have a huge influence in equity, forex, and commodity. This influence has been noted as "flash crashes." The flash crashes are the result of HFT's pulling they're liquidity from the market all at once.

HFT's go to the extreme measures of having a delay in data transfer than their competitor. While many say that HFT's is a positive thing by offering liquidity to the exchange markets, that liquidity can vanish at a moment’s notice.

HFT's have been able to distort the costs of assets which they trade to come out on top. They are also known to sabotage the price discovery process. Due to many of each HFTs that are operated or possibly funded by investment banks, and other financial institutions can exert influence over the digital currencies.

How To Make DEX A Reality

There is some basic practical ideas to make DEX a reality. By implementing atomic swaps, it is plausible to utilize trustless exchanges. To maintain a ledger of transactions, there has to be a platform where the users can correspond with one another about prices. Of course, there are always users that will submit fraudulent claims. To circumvent these orders, there needs to be a way for users to prove they can control and regulate the funds there orders relate to.

There also needs to be a mechanism in place where users are able to receive and transmit the limit of exchanges so that the orders placed can be matched. To achieve a fully functional DEX, it would be plausible, to begin with a simple structure that revolves around the client/server. Once that is established the server could be extended and have it relate orders between different servers which creates a mesh.

Decred And The Future Of DEX

Because Decred is a late arrival to DEX projects, they are able to understand and utilize the best of what has come before. Decred has taken the stance that extracting fees from trades using a blockchain or tokens is the wrong initiative structure.

The idea is to become a genuinely decentralized exchange. Of course, the company will be implementing a small fee for creating a new account, this will help sort out those with malicious intents to jeopardize the ecosystem. Clients with dishonorable intentions whose accounts get banned will have to pay this fee repeatedly to set up a new account.

According to Decred, the fee that is in place will not be scaled due to volume but is intended to act as a spam deterrent as well as offsetting some of the costs to operate the DEX server. The site has also made it known that the DEX will not be a blockchain. However, there will be specific rules that must be followed for Decred's DEX to work correctly.

It is imperative that specific rules be followed precisely. Such as the rule that the orders must correspond to signed messages. These messages will demonstrate control of a corresponding amount of unspent coins. A valid order will require that the coins have not moved on-chain for over 24 hours. While there are other rules in place, it is important to note that the rules are voluntarily enforced.

Final Thoughts

It is quite clear that by using the existing cryptocurrency infrastructure, it can be done. By elaborating on the technology already in place, making the exchange process permissionless, and removing the gatekeepers as well as all barriers to entry, the proposal that Decred has set forth takes in all considerations for how an ideal DEX should operate.

Decred is offering a platform that is truly decentralized with minimal fees, less censorship, and that excluding HFTs. Many people will find this proposal to be a true decentralized exchange. You can read the full plan on Decred's blog if you or your company is interested in collaborating with Decred and build the DEX.

Decred (DCR) Shares Blockchain-Less Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Plans

Decred Introduces a Dex Devoid of Blockchain

Digital coins are decentralized currencies stored in most cases centralized depositories called exchanges. These exchanges have time and again proven to be unsafe since they are always exposed to hackers. Point in case is the Mt.Gox exchange that was hacked and billions worth of bitcoins stolen.

Despite this apparent risk, traders still prefer to leave their coins in the exchanges. In most cases, it is just a matter of laziness going through the process of setting up a wallet and transferring the coins to those wallets. However, for day traders, having the coins within the exchanges is a necessity. Day traders need to access their coins instantly to keep up with the fast-moving markets when trading. making profits or loses depends on speed significantly. Another reason they prefer to have their coins on the exchanges is to minimize mining and exchange fees. It would be costly for traders to keep moving coins from the wallets to the exchanges when buying or selling.

It is for these reasons that we still have the central points of failure that have always failed at one point or another. The bitcoin ecosystem still requires them despite the danger they expose to the digital currencies. Recently, another exchange called Coinrail in South Korea was hacked and lost about $30 million worth of various altcoins.

Developers have been working hard to find a solution by they keep hitting a snag. Currently, there are a few decentralized exchanges, but are marred with challenges key among them being slow transaction speed and problems with pairing orders.

Following the need to have a decentralized exchange, Decred proposes a solution to the numerous challenges facing the centralized exchanges. The proposed solution goes beyond the Atomic-Swap system that decentralized exchanges use.

Features in Decred’s proposal.

• It will facilitate exchange between digital currencies only. Fiat currencies are out of the equation at the moment.
• It is designed to connect just the client and the server without any corresponding blockchain or token.
• The server operators do not have any control of the clients’ coins
• It will use on-chain transactions to complete orders and enforce regulations and rules.
• There will be no fees collected by server operators to match orders
• Including coins support will simply involve adding corresponding atomic swap support.
• Clients and server will enforce rules to internally regulate all orders placed on the exchange
• It will be possible for external services such as wallets to access simple client API from the server that will provide a data feed, allow users to place order among other functions.
• It enables servers to connect through a mesh network enabling cross-server order matching.
• Order matching will occur randomly and pseudonymously.
• Off-chain LN-based network that utilizes atomic swaps will enable near instant trading for small orders.
• Market orders will be routed from client-to-client, while the client will broadcast limit orders and cancels through the server.
• The size of orders on both buy and sell side of any trading pair will have standardized lot sizes.
• There will be a reputation system based on Politeia that will expose malicious clients
• Creating a client account will come with cost a fee to discourage malicious users.

The system aims to use a client-server system to match orders instead of using an Ethereum token to enable Atomic-Swap trades. In this system, users will create their min-exchanges on the Politeia registry. It is on this exchange that traders will enter into a smart contract that will keep the funds safe from both parties. The contract will only release the funds when its conditions are met.

During trading, any suspicious behavior will be recorded on the participants blockchains and on the Politeia registry. Coupled with the small sign-up fee, developers expect this move to discourage malicious traders. They expect to use the proceedings to maintain and run the Dex server.

Ideally, this system will work more or less like the file-sharing software, Hotline Connect. The system allowed users to create their personal file repositories, and set their own rules governing the use of the system. Users controlled who could access what in the system. Servers could be in centralized list, but each server was on itself. This ensured that if one server collapsed, it could have insignificant effect on the system as a whole. The Dex system works in more or less the same manner, but the servers in this can match orders and communicate with each other.

This system eliminates the need for a trusted third party. It decentralizes the overseeing role to the crowd and ensures fast transactions by reducing the burden of unnecessary blockchain.

Despite the promising features this system presents to users, there are bound to be problems as with any other development. Being an open-source software makes this system good since arising challenges can be met head on by a multitude of users. As long different users can access the source code, they can propose solutions to help make the system better even if the solutions are different from Decred’s proposals. There is at least some hope for a fast decentralized exchange since the existing ones have not solved the challenges posed by the centralized platforms.