Ravencoin

What is Ravencoin (RVN)?

Ravencoin is a digital peer-to-peer network purely designed to do one thing—transfer assets from one party to another.

Ravencoin is an open-source, decentralized project with a strong community. Technologically, Ravencoin was forked from Bitcoin, although several critical changes were made to its codebase upon launch.

The Ravencoin network provides users with an excellent means of transferring value but also features the tokenization of real-world assets. Almost well ahead of its time, Ravencoin lets users burn RVN to issue their own assets on the blockchain—all without the use of smart contracts.

When Was Ravencoin Launched?

Ravencoin was launched on the ninth anniversary of Bitcoin’s launch, the 3rd of January, 2018. The launch was carried out as a fork of Bitcoin’s code with several key changes, including block time.

Just like Bitcoin, Ravencoin had a so-called “fair launch,” not carrying out any sort of private or public token sale to investors. As a result, none of its token supply was allocated to any parties in advance.

When introducing Ravencoin, the team published a post on the blogging platform medium referencing the popular television series Game of Thrones:

“In the fictional world of Westeros, ravens are used as messengers who carry statements of truth. Ravencoin is a use case-specific blockchain designed to carry statements of truth about who owns what assets.”

What is a Fork?

A fork is a very common occurrence when it comes to blockchain technology, but there are several types of fork. When Ravencoin is referred to as a fork of Bitcoin, it is not to be confused with a hard fork.

To launch Ravencoin, its developers took a copy of Bitcoin’s source code and made some tweaks. A change to the consensus algorithm, a higher coin count, and modified block time were among them. Then, the software was deployed anew.

A hard fork happens when a change is made to the code of a blockchain, which leads to divergence. The modified and the older version both run in parallel but have a shared history prior to the point of the hard fork.

Thus, while Ravencoin can be considered a fork of Bitcoin, projects like Bitcoin Cash are hard forks of Bitcoin. BCH and BTC both go back to Satoshi’s genesis block in 2009 but became distinct chains at the time of the BCH hard fork.

Who are the Founders of Ravencoin?

The Ravencoin whitepaper was published by three experienced developers and professionals: Bruce Fenton, Tron Black, and Joel Weight.

Fenton was an executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation prior to founding Ravencoin, holding this position between 2015 and 2018. Prior to that, he was a vice president at Morgan Stanley and a managing director of Atlantis Consulting. At the moment, he’s the managing director of stealth fintech startup Chainstone Labs.

Black is an experienced developer and has worked in the blockchain industry for close to a decade for companies like Verified Wallet, CoinCPA, and tZERO. He is a principal software developer at Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of Overstock.com.

Joel Weight is Overstock.com’s CTO. He has also worked at Medici Ventures as both CTO and COO. In fact, Medici Ventures, launched in 2015, was the entity that provided funding for the Ravencoin core team at the time of launch.

How Does Ravencoin Work?

Ravencoin is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency. In simple terms, it relies on computing power from as many computers as possible to propagate its blockchain.

A blockchain is a ledger that is distributed publicly. Ledgers are central to financial systems since they serve as a record of transactions within the system. Blockchains take these ledgers and make them public, with all of the network’s nodes maintaining a copy.

The blockchain, as its name implies, is made up of blocks that are composed of a group of transactions and a hash of the previous block. In this way, blockchains are made immutable, as modifying a previous block would also modify its hash, thereby invalidating the chain.

Computers on the network, called miners, race to solve cryptographic puzzles that are assigned a certain level of difficulty. This process decides which miner gets the right to create the next block and a 5000 RVN reward.

While blocks are time-consuming to solve, they are easy to verify. If over half of the other miners on the Ravencoin network verify the block, it gets published to the network.

What Makes Ravencoin Unique?

Ravencoin is unique in its popularity among enthusiast miners. Bitcoin was initially designed to be mined on the central processing units of ordinary computers, but that didn’t last. It wasn’t long before specialized and quite expensive mining computers called ASICs started doing the job on an industrial scale.

This was one of the central reasons for Ravencoin’s genesis. ASIC hardware deployed at scale by mining firms consolidated mining power and was pushing individual miners out. This was fundamentally against Bitcoin’s founding principles.

Ravencoin’s founders, therefore, decided to change the mining algorithm used by the protocol to become ASIC-resistant. This allowed RVN to be mined on consumer-grade computer GPUs, and individual miners were back in with a chance.

How is the Ravencoin Network Secured?

The Ravencoin network has gone through two algorithm forks thanks to the development of ASIC technology. The initial algorithm Ravencoin used was X16R.

X16R used the same algorithms as X15 and SHA512 but constantly disrupted ordering. ASIC technology was able to catch up and become economically viable despite this, so Ravencoin adopted X16RV2 first and then the current KAWPOW algorithm.

KAWPOW was derived from ProgPOW and Ethereum’s Ethhash, allowing standard GPU units to mine RVN. The Ravencoin team does not envision any further algorithm forks since KAWPOW limits the potential for ASIC efficiency gains compared to GPUs.

There has been one known hack of the Ravencoin network, and it came less than a month after the introduction of KAWPOW. In this incident, hackers were able to instantly mint and make off with 315 million RVN.

What is the Use of RVN?

Aside from being used as a medium of exchange and store of value, as well as a way to incentivize mining on the network, RVN is also used for token issuance and messaging.

Ravencoin users can create new crypto assets on the network by burning a certain amount of RVN. They become token issuers, and their tokens can be customized by setting the amount issued, the decimal places to which they can be divided, and fungibility.

Some of the use cases the Ravencoin team has put forward for these custom tokens include shares of projects such as energy credits, land deeds or physical assets, virtual goods such as licenses or tickets, and even securities.

Ravencoin also allows token creators to message anyone who holds their tokens, allowing for use cases such as notifications about upcoming votes on proposals. Issuers can also distribute RVN rewards to token holders, essentially giving them a means to issue a dividend of sorts.

Interestingly, Overstock.com and Medici Ventures were also plotting a cryptocurrency dividend to holders of the company’s ordinary stock during RVN’s formative years. This was, however, done via the blockchain platform tZERO. This crypto dividend was an attempt by then Overstock CEO Dr. Patrick Byrne to combat predatory and often illegal naked short selling of his company’s stock. Despite the media often painting Byrne as a conspiracy theorist, hedge funds and prime brokers have paid Overstock millions to settle naked short selling lawsuits.

Who Controls Ravencoin?

Ravencoin isn’t controlled by any entity. Rather, it is open-source software run by volunteers, with decisions about its direction being made by network miners. It is, however, stewarded by the Ravencoin Foundation. Being a non-profit organization, the Ravencoin Foundation endeavors to assist and protect the project.

The Ravencoin Foundation also provides a legal entity that can hold and distribute development funds and signing keys and certificates. It can also hold App Store accounts, run Ravencoin explorers, seed nodes, and connect community members.

How Much Is RVN In Circulation?

Ravencoin has a circulating supply of over 11.75 million RVN out of a maximum supply of 21 billion RVN.

The circulating supply of RVN is constantly increasing as miners reap block rewards of 5000 RVN every minute. Still, there is pressure in the opposite direction as well when RVN is burned to create tokens.

Ravencoin did not have an ICO, premine, or any sort of investment round granting VC firms any tokens. It was subject to a fair launch, with all RVN in circulation being mined following the project’s launch.

How Do You Buy RVN?

Given Ravencoin’s popularity, especially with GPU miners, it is listed by many cryptocurrency exchanges, including those considered top-tier.

Ravencoin is most commonly traded against stablecoins like USDT, but pairings against Bitcoin and various fiat currencies are also quite common.

Is It Possible to Buy Ravencoin Instantly?

Ravencoin is a payment network that features 1-minute block times, so it can be considered ten times faster than Bitcoin. This doesn’t make it the fastest cryptocurrency out there, but its speed is certainly serviceable.

You’ll only be reliant on block time when you buy RVN in a p2p fashion or withdraw RVN from your exchange account. Exchange accounts tend to be custodial in nature, so you only take settlement of your RVN coins when you withdraw them.

Simply buying and holding RVN on an exchange platform is instant. However, given the project’s spiritual connections with Overstock, there may be lessons to be learned about custodial arrangements.

How Do You Store RVN?

Thankfully, there are plenty of RVN wallets to choose from if you want to take charge of your RVN and prevent it from being rehypothecated or short-sold.

The Ravencoin website provides download links for all major operating systems of its native desktop wallet, along with the Electrum community wallet.

A list of supported third-party wallets is also provided, including the likes of Atomic Wallet, Crypto.com Wallet, Exodus, Guarda, Trust Wallet, tZERO wallet, and many more.

The same page also provides links to generate a paper wallet. While it’s considered safer than many software wallets, users should be cautious when generating and printing paper wallets. Storing them safely is also a good idea!

Ravencoin Energy Consumption

Ravencoin is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency, and therefore does rely on energy to a significant extent. Specifically, RVN is mined by computers. The more computers doing this job, the more secure Ravencoin as a network gets.

Unfortunately, this also means that Ravencoin’s power consumption grows as it gains adoption and use. In fact, a 2020 report by researchers at the Technical University of Munich rated Ravencoin at over 270,000 kW.

This is in comparison to higher “market cap” projects like Bitcoin (4.2 million kW), Ethereum (719,000 kW), Monero (210,000 kW), and Dogecoin (157,000 kW). These figures do suggest that Ravencoin is very much on the higher end of the blockchain industry’s energy consumption charts.

Of course, it is important to consider utility. Ravencoin isn’t simply a speculative asset floating around in the proverbial ether. It is a fully-fledged, versatile payment system run by its community, not beholden to any highly-capitalized shadow backers.

Is RVN a Good Investment?

Ravencoin’s allure comes from its fair launch and the fact that it fights centralization. The coin’s appeal to smaller-scale miners and resistance to ASIC technology remains a large draw.

When combined with its utility, this creates an appealing proposition. The RVN coin’s “tokenomics” are simple to understand and very similar to Bitcoin’s, even though they feature a few more zeroes.

Tokenization is one of the major utilities of the network, and Ravencoin is a pioneer of that trend in many ways. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, were the buzzword of 2021, but Ravencoin was already giving users a way to tokenize all sorts of things well before that.