Close Menu
    Crypto News Flash
    • News
      • Bitcoin News
      • Ripple (XRP) News
      • Success Stories
      • Shiba Inu News
      • Dogecoin News
      • Cardano News
      • VeChain News
      • IOTA News
    • Marketcap
    • Buy Crypto
      • Buy Bitcoin
      • Buy Litecoin
      • See all guides
    • Wallets
      • Bitcoin Wallet
      • Ethereum Wallet
      • Dogecoin Wallet
      • Aptos wallet
      • See all guides
    • Advertise
    • Crypto News Flash is Hiring!
    • English
    Crypto News Flash
    You are at:Startseite » What is Bytecoin – Beginner Guide & Criticism towards BCN
    Coins

    What is Bytecoin – Beginner Guide & Criticism towards BCN

    Jake SimmonsBy Jake Simmons14. May 20190
    Collin Brown By Collin Brown 2. July 2019 Updated:: 2. July 2019
    6 Mins Read

    What is Bytecoin?

    Bytecoin (BCN) is a crypto currency focused on privacy and anonymity that was developed by an anonymous team of founders in 2012. This makes Bytecoin, after Bitcoin, one of the oldest crypto currencies that can currently still hold its own on the market (within the top 50, as of October 2018). Bytecoin was then developed to address the weaknesses and problems of Bitcoin. Above all, the lack of privacy and anonymity should be realized by the Bytecoin.

    While all Bitcoin transactions are public and only pseudoanonymous, i.e. the blockchain can be used to track transaction amounts, addresses and account balances, Bytecoin is a crypto currency that uses CryptoNote ring signatures to perform transactions completely anonymously. This means that neither the transaction amount nor the sender, recipient or account balance of a BCN address can be traced if you do not have the private key.

    Bytecoin was the first Altcoin based on the CryptoNote algorithm. The transactions are both untraceable and unlinkable to each other due to the technology. Each transaction uses a unique public key for this purpose. This eliminates the problem of reusing addresses and thus reduces the traceability of transactions.

    In addition, the Bytecoin network offers instant transactions that are executed at low fees. You can view the current Bytecoin price on our Bytecoin price page. If you would like to check the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum or 2,000 other Altcoins, you can do so in our course overview.

    Technical data and Bytecoin Mining

    Bytecoins have a maximum supply of 184.47 billion BCN. As with Bitcoin, the emission is therefore limited. However, the number of coins is significantly higher in comparison (21 million BTC vs. 184 million BCN). It is also important to know that 99 percent of all Bytecoin have already been mined (as of October 2018).

    As a mining algorithm, Bytecoin uses CryptoNight, a proof-of-work algorithm originally developed to keep ASICs out of the network. However, after Bitmain published an ASIC Miner for the algorithm in April 2018, the Bytecoin team committed itself to ASIC mining. In a statement, the team stated that Bytecoin will support ASIC Mining at least until the end of 2018 and even referred to the advantages of ASICs for the network, so a further departure from ASIC seems unlikely.

    Compared to Bitcoin, Bytecoin has a considerably shorter block time. As a result, transactions are written to the blockchain much more frequently, namely every 2 minutes (instead of 10 minutes at Bitcoin), and miners in the network are rewarded for their work much more frequently. In contrast to Bitcoin, the Mining Difficulty is readjusted with each block to compensate for fluctuations in the mining power in the network if the hashrate of the network increases or decreases. In addition, the Block Reward also decreases with each block. This allows a smoother decrease of the Block Reward instead of reducing it gradually (like Bitcoin every 4 years, for example). The calculation formula for this is as follows:

    BaseReward = (MSupply – A)/2^18

    Where MSupply = (2^64 – 1) BCN and A = the quantity of BCN already generated.

    Since, as mentioned above, 99 percent of all 184.47 million bytecoins have already been mined, it seems less worthwhile to mine BCN compared to other PoW coins.

    In addition to the flexible Mining Difficulty, Bytecoin has another variable parameter in the source code, which is a significant difference to Bitcoin. Each Bytecoin miner can set its own soft limit for the block size it wants to mine. The hard limit of the block size is limited to twice the median of all previous blocks. This should enable the BCN blockchain to scale better in times when it is experiencing great growth.  If the transaction volume goes down, the block sizes can be reduced again by the miners if required. To prevent miners from creating blocks that are too large, Bytecoin has introduced a penalty for oversizes.

    These flexible parameters ensure that Bytecoin can execute instant transactions at low fees.

    Ring signatures

    As already mentioned, the CryptoNote ring signatures form the basis for completely anonymous transactions. The ring signatures can be presented as mixers. When a person sends a transaction to another person, that transaction is divided into small pieces. These pieces are assigned to different rings, each of which has the same amount. The transaction is then automatically mixed with many other transactions (“mixer”) and signed equally by all participants in the ring.

    This means that it is impossible to find out from which address the payment originated. Due to the division of the transaction amount, this is also no longer comprehensible. In practice, ring signatures make it almost impossible to trace the origin of payments.

    Other privacy Coins are the following:

    • Monero
    • Dash
    • ZCash
    • Verge

    The Bytecoin team

    Until July 2017, Bytecoin’s development team decided to remain completely anonymous until four and a half years after its founding, the team decided to change its image and open more transparency in the community through multiple communication channels. Within these channels, however, the team remains pseudoanonymous by providing only names and headshots on its website.

    It is well known that the Bytecoin project has been highly fragmented since its inception in 2012. In the early years, several isolated teams worked on the project without communicating with each other. This led to numerous hard forks by Bytecoin, among others Monero was created as part of a Bytecoin Hard Forks in April 2014.

    Criticism towards Bytecoin

    Bytecoin has a very questionable and unknown mining history. Riccardo Spagni, core developer of Monero, explained that Bytecoin had already pre-mined 82% of all BCN before the public launch. Spagni wrote on Reddit:

    Well, not much of a rumour – the reality is that 82% of the coins were already mined before its “public” release. Even if the premined coins weren’t done so maliciously, it still means 82% of the coins in the hands of persons unknown and invisible. It basically centralises a decentralised currency.

    The statement is all the more explosive if you remember that Monero is a hard fork by Bytecoin and that’s exactly why he split off. Riccardo Spagni and other like-minded people did not feel comfortable with the questionable mining history and therefore developed Monero.

    Conclusion: Is Bytecoin worth investing?

    Bytecoin is a crypto currency whose primary goal is to preserve the anonymity of its users. Moreover, it is one of the oldest projects in the crypto-universe that can still hold its own in 2018. However, there are other competitors in the area of privacy coins, such as Monero (XMR) and Dash (DASH), whose development in recent years has been more strongly driven and which have developed better and more privacy features.

    For example, Dash can use its InstantSend protocol to confirm a transaction in a few seconds. In addition to ring signatures, Monero has added other privacy technologies such as Stealth addresses, Ring Confidential Transactions, and Bulletproofs. There is a big question mark behind the pre-mining of 82% of all BCN.

    Last updated: 05/07/2019

    [ratings]
    BCN Bytecoin Bytecoin Investment
    This article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. The content does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any securities or financial instruments. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with financial advisors before making investment decisions. The information presented may not be current and could become outdated.
    Previous ArticleWhat is Monero (XMR) – Beginner Guide + The Best Privacy Coin?
    Next Article What is Verge (XVG) – A Privacy Coin with potential?
    Jake Simmons
    • Website
    • X (Twitter)

    Jake Simmons was the former founder and managing partner at CNF. He has been a crypto enthusiast since 2016, and since hearing about Bitcoin and blockchain technology, he has been involved with the subject every day. Prior to Crypto News Flash, Jake studied computer science and worked for 2 years for a startup in the blockchain sector. Business Email: [email protected] Phone: +49 160 92211628

    Related Posts

    Shiba Inu (SHIB) Rally Turns 358 Investors into Millionaires—More to Come for SHIB Holders?

    Did Libra Token Pay for Javier Milei’s Endorsement? New Report Raises Questions

    Ethereum Holders Are Moving ETH—Here’s Why

    Arbitrum DAO Backs Tokenized Treasurys With $11M Investment Plan
    9. May 2025
    Crypto News: Celsius Network Fallout Continues as Ex-CEO Gets 12-Year Sentence
    9. May 2025
    Space and Time Mainnet Goes Live | The Fastest ZK-Proven Database in Web3
    9. May 2025
    Geopolitical Tensions May Drive Bitcoin Up, Russian Politician Suggests
    9. May 2025
    ABOUT US AND ADDITIONAL INFO
    Crypto News FlashCrypto News Flash is your number one source for the latest news and information from the world of cryptocurrencies.

    About us
    Contact us
    Editorial Guidelines
    Terms of Use
    Legals
    Data protection policy
    Cookie Policy

    *= Affiliate-Link

    Charts
    • Bitcoin Price
    • Ethereum Price
    • XRP Price
    • Litecoin Price
    • Bitcoin Cash Price
    • EOS Price
    • Cardano Price
    • Tron Price
    • IOTA Price
    • Monero Price
    Buy Cryptocurrencies
    • Buy Bitcoin
    • Buy Ethereum
    • Buy XRP
    • Buy Litecoin
    • Buy Bitcoin Cash
    • Buy EOS
    • Buy Cardano
    • Buy Tron
    • Buy IOTA
    • Buy Monero
    Wallets
    • Bitcoin Wallet
    • Ethereum Wallet
    • XRP Wallet
    • Litecoin Wallet
    • Bitcoin Cash Wallet
    • EOS Wallet
    • Cardano Wallet
    • Tron Wallet
    • IOTA Wallet
    • Monero Wallet
    Risk warning and disclaimer: The contents of this website are intended solely for the entertainment and information of readers and do not provide investment advice or a recommendation within the context of the Securities Trading Act. The content of this website solely reflects the subjective and personal opinion of the authors. Readers are requested to form their own opinions on the contents of this website and to seek professional and independent advice before making concrete investment decisions. The information found on this site does not contain any information or messages, but is intended solely for information and personal use. None of the information shown constitutes an offer to buy or sell futures contracts, securities, options, CFDs, other derivatives or cryptocurrencies. Any opinions provided, including e-mails, live chat, SMS or other forms of communication across social media networks do not constitute a suitable basis for an investment decision. You alone bear the risk for your investment decisions.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.