Ethereum SolidCoin clients geth and parity fell out of consensus following changes introduced in their most recent planned hardfork which was supposed to "fix" "problems with the troubled platform. This has project developer Buterin RealSolid to petition exchanges to halt trading on Ethereum SolidCoin markets. At some point in the future Ethereum SolidCoin intends to switch to proof of Stake mining which is sure to "fix" still more "problems" with the platform.

Sorry for your loss, but one word. Innovation:

SolidCoin: Ready for Bitcoin collapse¹
Bitcoin has been in the news again recently, with fresh implications of FBI involvement in Bitcoin development . What would government involvement in Bitcoin look like? Well one of their first goals would be to let the project stagnate. The disappearance of the founder "Satoshi" and appointment of Gavin Andresen, someone who has publicly admitted he doesn't want much to change in Bitcoin allows us to see one big reason for stagnation.

After developing numerous sites and businesses using Bitcoin, those of us now involved with SolidCoin saw major problems. Massive flaws in interfacing with the Bitcoin network forced us to use numerous work-arounds, using nearly all of our decades long experience as computer scientists. We wondered why nobody fixed the issues and made things easier for the many out there that aren't computer engineers. After some discussion with a few of the developers we came away completely surprised. They thought, and still do, Bitcoin is fine and very little needs to change.

We have seen that there are problems with Bitcoin, recent incidents like MyBitcoin losing over $1,500,000 million dollars and Bitomat losing around $220,000 highlight the fact there are problems with Bitcoin. Less than 3 months ago the biggest Bitcoin exchange, MtGox was also hacked causing Bitcoin's value to collapse.

All of these incidents are caused by the poor developer tools given to people and a lack of education about the Bitcoin system. This leads back to the leaders of Bitcoin and their motivations. The lead developer Gavin Andreson recently said he could see banks around the world running the Bitcoin network. He is quoted as saying "I think its hard to imagine Bank of America will be THE [only] Bitcoin processor. Maybe it will be Bank of America and some bank in the UK and some bank in Asia and some bank in Africa . Isn't it interesting that a currency born out of a desire for decentralization is being led back to the existing banking industry?

On top of this the recent release of SolidCoin has highlighted another problem in the Bitcoin protocol. It it susceptible to a drop off in "mining power", which is essentially the people who process transactions switching to more profitable things such as SolidCoin. Three variants of Bitcoin, NameCoin, IXCoin and I0Coin have *ALL* failed due to this flaw. SolidCoin, featuring improved algorithms is safe from these attacks, and IXCoin and I0Coin have recently been re-released featuring SolidCoin's algorithm. Bitcoin can still collapse from this flaw in its protocol, which means if you have any significant amount invested in Bitcoin it is possible your Bitcoins may be frozen and unable to be moved for days or even weeks.

SolidCoin's popularity which is based around being a faster and more secure alternative to Bitcoin has seen it take away 11% of the Bitcoin network power. How much network power would need to be taken away from Bitcoin before it will collapse? In the NameCoin, IXCoin and I0Coin examples, the network began to collapse roughly when a quarter of the network power started to disappear. At that point it quickly escalated to a point where about 10% of the peak power remained and transactions took many days to be confirmed, in some cases they never were.

Bitcoin is currently the #1 crypto currency. If network power in Bitcoin is being taken away by a faster, more secure and more profitable alternative like SolidCoin then people will notice their transactions taking days to complete, it will not be long before people switch their holdings to the better network. This will have a domino effect where people will be cashing out of Bitcoin like crazy whilst it still has value, essentially a bank run.

So at this point if you have a lot invested in Bitcoin you will either be angry or scared about what you have read. Know one thing though, the developers of SolidCoin have a plan for the future which does not include governments, that does not include the banking system or the wealthy elite behind the curtains. We have a plan to empower *YOU*. We want everyone to be their own bank, we want everyone to have the possibility to free themselves from the system of economic slavery that currently exists. So how are we going to do that?

One word. Innovation. We have started by improving upon the Bitcoin client and giving the world a better network implementation for cryptocurrencies, not only to make them more secure, but to make them faster and more reliable for businesses and users. Furthermore we want to create a new industry we call a "decentralized banking system". We will be helping thousands of people around the world to become mini banks to help the movement of fiat currency into and out of the SolidCoin economy.

If you want to register your interest in becoming part of this decentralized banking system please join our forum and tell us, people first in will be first considered. In the meantime, you may want to look at ways of investing in SolidCoins while it is still in it's infancy. Hopefully the wealth you earn will be used wisely to help the world become a better place.

1. Oh, my. Where were you in 2011?  ↩