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What is the difference between Bitcoin and DigitalCoin? Is there any paper related to DigitalCoin?

Murch
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user123
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3 Answers3

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DigitalCoin utilizes three separate encryption algorithms while BitCoin only uses sha-256. In essence, it is harder to compromise the DigitalCoin network because breaking just one of the three algorithms doesn't give you full control. Bitcoin is also vulnerable to 51% attack, or anyone with enough power to hash using sha-256 faster than the rest of the network can rollback time, edit blocks, rewrite transactions, etc. With DigitalCoin, you would need control over all three algorithms to even attempt such a feat. The complexity of which would be insanely high even if you did manage to control all three algorithms.

baritus
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  • Hi baritus, thanks for your update here. I've some questions if you may: I don't understand why you would need control over all three algorithms, wouldn't it suffice to increase the mining power of one algorithm so that you intermediately have 51% of the mining power of Digitalcoin? Is there a rule against finding several blocks with the same algorithm? – Murch May 26 '15 at 08:13
  • Once you have 51% of the mining power in all three algorithms, why is it complex to create a longer alternate chain? I've also posted a follow-up question to your answer: [How does difficulty get rebalanced in Digitalcoin's Multialgorithm mining?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/37578/5406) – Murch May 26 '15 at 08:14
  • @Murch, I believe it's similar to Myriadcoin, where the coin is mined by multiple algorithms and each are weighted differently in terms of how much work they provide. There is also a rule that you can't mine more than 2 blocks in a row with the same algo. – morsecoder May 26 '15 at 13:10
  • @Murch, a 51% attack requires at least that much hash rate to pull off. What is often not clarified is that the higher the percentage of the hash rate the attacker controls, the more chance he has at successfully creating an alternate chain. So at 51%, you can theoretically pull off an attack, but your likelihood of succeeding is very low because the other 49% will likely create blocks that invalidate your chain before you've been able to write a longer chain than the current one and broadcast it to a majority of the network. – baritus Jun 22 '15 at 16:09
  • @Murch, therefore, successfully attacking a three algorithm crypto-currency requires majority control over every algorithm as well as a lot of luck to find consecutive blocks on all the algorithms. – baritus Jun 22 '15 at 16:12
  • I'm aware how a majority attack works. DigitalCoin being more resistant to it than a single algorithm altcoin of similar total mining power, fine, but I don't understand why DigitalCoin is supposed to be more resistant to it than Bitcoin. Achieving a majority in all three algorithms seems to be a low hurdle, and after that there doesn't seem to be a major difference to having the majority in a single algorithm coin. Once you have a majority, over time you are likely to build the longest chain. Is there a mathematical treatise available somewhere? – Murch Jun 22 '15 at 16:29
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Judging from the ANNouncement on BitcoinTalk, it is a Scrypt based cryptocurrency deriving from Bitcoin.

It has a limit of 144,500,000 units, a different reward schedule, and aims for confirmations every 40 seconds. They also probably use a different difficulty retargeting algorithm, as they mention faster difficulty adjustment.

Besides that I didn't see any special features distinguishing it from other altcoins.

I was unable to discover a (white) paper dealing specifically with DigitalCoin.

Murch
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  • The documentary series by Paul Grignon “Money as Debt “ which includes “The Essence of Money, explains well about digitalcoin. Information from that documentary makes me conclude that digitalcoin and bitcoin are different concepts. – user123 Sep 21 '14 at 11:59
  • There is a "DigitalCoin" that uses the source code of Bitcoin. Perhaps there is another DigitalCoin, that preceded Bitcoin? If that is what you are talking about, please clarify it in your question. Otherwise, feel free to add your own answer that improves on mine. :) – Murch Sep 21 '14 at 15:44
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DigitalCoin is just one of the many copycats of Bitcoin, probably made up by people who (mistakenly) think they missed the boat with Bitcoin, and now try to get rich quick by creating their own variant (which really doesn't add anything significant compared to Bitcoin). After easily mining the first DigitalCoins themselves, they hope to see the price rise. I don't see it happening though (as with almost any altcoins).

Madzi Konjo
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