Coming Soon: Compucha and NinjaButton

I’ve decided the next most important priority is to finish designing and building the peer-to-peer network and launch the first alternate mines, Compucha and NinjaButton. When finished, the three first mines, EarthBucks, Compucha, and NinjaButton, will constitute the 1.0 version of the EBX network. The other projects, such as the exchange and mining advantage for verified users, will have to wait until the new mines launch.

EarthBucks vs. EBX

For branding reasons, legal reasons, and symbolic reasons, I’ve decided the EarthBucks blockchain should actually be called the EBX blockchain, and the EarthBucks network should actually be called the EBX network. EarthBucks will continue to be the first EBX mine, and I will still refer to the currency as “EarthBucks” or “EBX” interchangeably.

The reason for this distinction is to make sure that my company owns the brands that I create. However, I want to make sure there is some sort of community name that anyone can use and for which I will not claim the trademark. I’ve decided “EarthBucks” is a brand that I own, and the term “EBX” will not be something I try to trademark, but instead will be a name anybody can attach to their project, like the term “internet” or “bitcoin”.

You can read more about this decision in this blog post: Please don’t use the name “EarthBucks” in your company name, and here’s what to do instead.

The EBX Blockchain and EBX Network

The EBX blockchain is a datastructure very similar in architecture to Bitcoin. The EBX blockchain has transactions which each have multiple inputs and outputs, and where each input and output has a script written in a FORTH-like programming language, and the outputs have a value denominated in adams, where 1 EBX = 10^11 adams. A block has a header with proof-of-work and includes a Merkle root of a Merkle tree containing all transactions in chronological order.

The EBX network is a a collection of inhomogenous nodes that communicate using the EBX protocol to share and validate EBX blockchain data. At the core of the network and constituting a small world graph are what I call “mines,” which are the equivalent of mining pools on Bitcoin. The mines validate all new transactions and contain the recent history of the blockchain (but not necessarily the full blockchain, because expiry and recovery enables pruning old data).

Reaching EarthBucks 1.0 means we have more than just one mine. Right now, all mining takes places at earthbucks.com. However, that is arguably fully centralized. A critical step to increase decentralizion of the EBX network is to start adding more mines. The next mines will be hosted at compucha.com and ninjabutton.com.

Compucha and NinjaButton

In order to clarify to all EarthBucks users that EBX is more than just an app hosted at earthbucks.com, I’ve decided it is important to give completely different brands to the first two alternate mines. I have chosen the names Compucha and NinjaButton for this purpose.

Compucha is based in London, UK and NinjaButton is based in Tokyo, JP. This does not mean I am creating new business entities for these mines (although that could happen later), but rather that the servers that host these mines are located in London and Tokyo respectively. Meanwhile, EarthBucks is located in Virginia, USA.

The reason for this choice is to make sure the 1.0 version of EarthBucks is technically decentralized and geographically decentralized. Sometime after these mines are launched, proving the basic idea actually works, I will be able to open up mine operations to new players. (Although it will always be privately regulated, and not purely based on proof-of-work, making the EBX network markedly different than Bitcoin.)

Concurrency

Not only are new mines needed in order to finish EarthBucks 1.0 and prove that the network is actually decentralized, but I’ve also learned in recent weeks that my current database schema, based on mutable data, is far too prone to concurrency bugs and needs to be redesigned. Redesigning the database schema to better handle concurrency is the perfect time to also build the peer-to-peer network, consisting of the mines at the core.

Conclusion

I am eager to reach the 1.0 milestone for EarthBucks. The most critical technical and branding step that must happen next is the development and launch of new mines, Compucha and NinjaButton. All other priorities will be put on hold until these new mines are finished. After that, the exchange and mining advantage for verified users will be the next priorities.

Thank you for your continued support of EarthBucks. I am excited to see the network grow and evolve. Please look forward to more announcements about these projects in the weeks to come.