PIVX Official Documentation
What is PIVX?
PIVX is a Proof of Stake Coin, a form of digital online money using blockchain technology that can be easily transferred all around the world in a blink of an eye with nearly non-existent transaction fees with market leading security & privacy.
Launch Date: January 31st, 2016
Block Time: 60 seconds
Block Size: 2mb
Total Coin Supply To Date: 55 million
Circulating Supply: < 30 million. This is due to masternode collateral (10,000 PIV per masternode) being locked in escrow as well as any staking wallets holding PIV off exchanges.
PIVX Transaction Fee: < $0.001 (for Normal sends), < $0.01 (for Private sends)
PIVX DETAILS
PIVX is a multifaceted community-centric endeavor in the blockchain tech and cryptocurrency realms.
PIVX is the fastest and lowest cost privacy-focused digital currency, using a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus system algorithm allowing all owners of PIVX to participate in earning block rewards while securing the network with full node wallets.
Designed to be used as a viable currency that preserves individuals privacy and security, PIVX has the most sustainable supply model, is not susceptible to 51% attacks, is already globally distributed without centralization of coins to select few, is supported by thousands of passionate individuals in a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), and is already being accepted and used by merchants (online and physical locations) around the world.
In support of our global reach, PIVX was the first cryptocurrency project to translate it’s website and materials into over 30+ native languages, providing unparalleled access to information about cryptocurrency and PIVX in individuals most familiar language.
PIVX employs a second-tier decentralized network of masternodes providing additional services such as community voting governance, self-funded treasury system and instant transactions. It’s easy to implement and setup a PIVX wallet, be it desktop, mobile, raspberry Pi, etc, allowing for simple merchant adoption.
Additionally, PIVX has one of the most stable designed economic models in cryptocurrency. PIVX has implemented a Dynamic Supply System governing its coin supply; block rewards are static and inflation is reduced whenever a transaction is included in a block by burning transaction & zerocoin fees. At a certain threshold combination of transactions per minute, PIVX will become deflationary.
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PIVX Proof of Stake PoS – more detail…
Unlike its predecessors—Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash—the PIVX network functions on a Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, which was introduced in a paper by Sunny King and Scott Nadal in 2012. The original concept relied heavily on the notion of “coin age”, or how long a UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) has not been spent on the blockchain. In this way, it differs from Proof of Work by not focusing on and rewarding miners, but rather rewarding anyone willing to participate in the running of the network. The protocol was further refined in PoS version 2 for BlackCoin by Pavel Vasin (Rat4) with several potential security fixes, such as the potential of a malicious node to abuse coin age to perform a double spend; or the potential for honest nodes to abuse the system by staking only periodically, negating coin age from consensus. The robustness of the Proof-Of-Stake was further enhanced in a version 3 of the protocol at the end of 2016, and most recently, Zerocoin Proof of Stake (zPoS) was implemented by PIVX in 2018.
• For more on PIVX’s zPoS see section 6.
Simply put, staking is making computing resources available to the network, which may “select” the node to generate the upcoming block on the chain based on delimited competition. In the case of PIVX, these limits are demarcated by considering the balance (UTXOs) staked by the wallet—every staking node is competing trying to create a valid block, very much like in PoW. Nodes, however, are technically limited in the number of trials in a given time (eliminating the need for higher computing power) and the difficulty to get a valid block is inversely proportional to the amount being staked. A higher balance means a higher chance of satisfying the difficulty criteria, validating the block, and being rewarded.
Staking is significantly less demanding on resources than PoW mining, as there is no need to push towards ever increasing difficulty, and the associated increase in computing power to solve it. As such, PoS is an environmentally friendly alternative to PoW.
While the environmental factor alone already helps PoS stand out against PoW, there is another factor to be considered: maintaining a fair, distributed power across the network, which should be a high priority target of any cryptocurrency. With the expanding difficulty in mining that necessitates more powerful rigs that cost more to run, the ability for people to feasibly operate such rigs becomes more exclusive. Such things as the costs of hardware, electricity consumption spent on computing, and further consumption on cooling, rule out a great many locations as suitable for mining. Inevitably, this results in a great deal of power held by miners, of which fewer and fewer are able to remain competitive, not only leading to a monopoly in rewards, but in control over networks.
PIVX Proof of Stake – identity and security
PIVX utilises staking as it’s a strongly held position within PIVX that a fair alternative to PoW is necessary for a decentralised currency to be valid, feasible, and welcoming to newcomers. The design of the PIVX PoS and private zPoS systems are intentionally tailored to mature in such a way that growth of the network and further adoption work in favour of the network, rather than bog it down and focus power on a select group. PIVX transactions will remain expedient, with elastic block sizes coming soon to ensure this—or instant if electing to use SwiftX; they will remain private—only getting even harder to trace as new implementations following zPIV, such asI2P, and dandelion go live; and they will remain decentralised.
• For more on zPoS see section 6.
Criticisms towards PoS consensus networks do exist, such as potential double spending, and vulnerabilities to long-range and nothing-at-stake attacks. Staking/masternode rewards require 100 consecutive confirms, making them spendable after 101 block confirms; this protects against network dominance via malicious staking involving exponential growth were a vulnerability ever to be found and exploited.
It was estimated by a PIVX developer that an attacker would need to own 70.7% of staked coins for a 50% chance of double spending or invalidating a single block—a number practically impossible to acquire.
Another proposed PoS vulnerability is a long-range, or history attack, wherein early blocks are rewritten, compromising the blockchain. For this reason, checkpoints—blockchain markers set at intervals preventing any alteration/forking prior to them—are used to maintain the valid chain, and help by protecting against long-range attacks.
A successful PoS attack would greatly de-value the attacker’s assets when discovered, whereas a successful PoW attack may cost an attacker only electricity. Also, PIVX staking can be decentralized amongst all of its users and cannot be traced by electricity use, whereas mining is usually centralized by mining cartels, concentrated in regions with cheap electricity, and is traceable by high constant power demand.
• For more on privacy and security see section 6.1.
Addressing nothing-at-stake criticism
Nothing-at-stake is a criticism of PoS focused on the fact that PoS is not resource heavy, and therefore by nature promotes malicious forks. The argument proposes that in the event of a fork, as the staker is not tight on processing power or resource to contribute to both the initial chain, and the fork, supporting both will provide maximum rewards, and so is the best course of action.
Rather than provide an abridged version of the important counterargument to this concern within this document, this comprehensive article written by PIVX PoS developer Presstab is strongly recommended. It can be found here: https://pivx.org/nothing-considered-a-look-at-nothing-at-stake-vulnerability-for-cryptocurrencies/
While staking is active, it doesn’t necessarily ensure users will mint new PIV right away. As participating in PoS means a node may hash a block to contribute to the blockchain at any point, and depending on the quantity being staked (the more staked, the higher the chance of being selected). For this reason, variance exists in PIVX staking as rewards are not allocated regularly, but are randomly awarded per the hashing competition of the PoS consensus model.
A guide for setting up a PIVX wallet for staking can be found here: https://pivx.org/knowledge-base/staking-setup-guide/
Masternode network
The PIVX network is two-tiered. The network is composed of the first, staking tier, in which all PIVX holders can participate in through staking their PIV; and the more exclusive masternode tier.
• This section is dedicated to the Masternode network. For more on staking see section 4.
Masternodes are a set of incentivised nodes on a network within the PIVX network responsible for the handling of particular specialised tasks. The PIVX Masternode network has been carried over from Dash, though with the significant restructure to a Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. The functions carried out by PIVX masternodes are fundamentally similar, however, to those of Dash. As such, these nodes are an integral part of the PIVX digital ecosystem, and necessary to network functionality.
Masternode network technical functions
The Masternode network fulfils a range of functions independent of staking nodes. These distinct functions are limited to masternodes, and cannot be completed by a standard staking node. These responsibilities are distributed across the Masternode network, and no one masternode has power or authority in excess of others in the network.