Frequently Asked Questions - Burstcoin FAQs

Burstcoin is a cryptocurrency and an open-source decentralized blockchain platform that connects people, companies, and financial institutions. It allows you to move value – according to your own rules – within a scalable, green, and customizable ledger.

Burstcoin is the first and only cryptocurrency to use the Proof-of-Capacity consensus algorithm whereby hashing functions securing the network are pre-computed, written to storage, and retrievable for reuse in the mining process indefinitely.  For more information, select ‘About Burstcoin’ from the main navigation menu.  (https://burstcoin.community)

An Informative and fast-paced videos can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyj9RIyxLb4.

A list of exchanges is maintained on the main page of Burstcoin.community.  Direct Fiat-to-Burst purchases are currently available on Indacoin. Please note: Not all exchanges listed operate in every country. For example, Indacoin does not operate in the United States. One option for individuals in the United States is to purchase Bitcoin at Coinbase, transfer the Bitcoin to Bittrex, and convert the Bitcoin to Burstcoin using a market order.

August 14th, 2014

Minimum transaction fees were recently reduced with the pre-Dymaxion hard fork. The fee structure is now dynamic with pricing tiers that include cheap, standard, and priority. This fee structure will allow transactions to be prioritized in times of heavy volume. The minimum transaction fee is now .007535.

These have been designed to be secure. It has been estimated that a systematic attack testing all possible combinations of words from the selection set (dictionary) against an account (known as a brute force attack) would require 13,537,856,339,904,134,474,012,675,034 years to be successful. While the system generated passphrase is secure, many users adjust the passphrase by adding an element of complexity (entropy) such as special characters, numbers, capitalization, or a few extra words in a foreign language. These and other modifications to increase complexity are permitted and will not adversely affect the operation of your wallet. They may even provide a degree of psychological comfort. (See FAQs 5 & 7)

For more information, see the following analysis: https://burstforum.net/topic/4766/the-canary-burst-early-warning-system

Before transferring coins to a new wallet, verify your passphrase by signing in and out of your wallet until you are comfortable that your record of the passphrase is accurate. Keep at least two copies of your passphrase in separate locations. Do not disclose your passphrase to anyone who cannot be trusted with it. Will your passphrase still be available to you if your computer is stolen, after a natural disaster, or to your estate or other trusted individual if this should be necessary? Your passphrase is your only access to your Burstcoin assets. Depending on the value of your account, extraordinary measures should be employed to protect it. Your security plan might include multiple wallets, one or more for cold storage, one or more for convenience, and another for special activities such as mining or operating a full node. (See FAQs 5 & 6)

Burstcoin is a currency with a robust platform that is attractive to many businesses for a variety of use cases. In the sense that Burstcoin is a currency, it cannot have partners. In the sense that Burscoint is a platform with a public blockchain, the Burstcoin community, through its current leadership team, seeks to maximize Burst’s value to businesses and 3rd parties in the same way that it does for individual community members. From time to time, there will be joint development processes in place assisting businesses who join the burst community. In this context, the word “partnership” is useful and does not imply that burstcoin will constrain itself to the interest of any third party. The development team will engage in mutually beneficial cooperation with 3rd parties when doing so is understood to maximize the value and utility of burst. The burstcoin development team greatly values those who contribute to Burstcoin by adopting its public platform to address their internal public blockchain needs.

Yes, some resources have been developed and others are in progress. Translation assistance is always needed to make Burst more accessible to communities throughout the world.  These are listed in the resources section on the front page of https://burstcoin.community.

Run a local wallet as a public node to assist with network growth and synchronization. If you are a programmer, contact the development team on discord to offer project assistance in the area of your expertise. Raise awareness whenever you can without engaging in the practice known as ‘shilling’. Help translate burst materials into your local or 2nd language (Esperanto?). Learn to assist others who will be getting started and will have the same type of questions related to Burstcoin that you do.

The Dymaxion white paper is located here:  Burst Dymaxion

A less technical treatise on the subject is located here: https://burstcoin.ist/2017/12/27/the-dymaxion-explained-in-laymans-terms/

Yes, the roadmap is located on the front page of Burstcoin.community.

Windows users can download Qbundle, a package that installs the BRS wallet and related software with just a few clicks.  This, as well as wallet software for Mac, Android, Linux, Derbian, and Ubuntu can be found on the main page of Burstcoin.community in the wallets and software sections.

Click on settings, Java, verify that “portable java” has been selected. Did this solve the problem?

If you have just upgraded your wallet to a new version, close the wallet completely, reopen, and restart. Did this solve the problem?

If your wallet is using the H2 database, you can likely resolve this issue by changing the database type to portable MariaDB. Select ‘Database’, ‘change database’, ‘portable MariaDB’, and click ‘Next’. This will require a re-synchronization of the blockchain from the genesis block and may take a significant amount of time. (See FAQ 10)

All Burstcoin wallets operate as public nodes by default while open. It may be necessary to open port 8123 on your internet router in order for your wallet to function as such. Running a public node continuously (24/7) is one of the most important and easiest ways you can contribute to the burst community. You can verify that your public node is operating as follows:

Click on the following link:
https://explore.burst.cryptoguru.org/peer/XXX:8123

In your browser, replace the “X”s with your external IP address and then refresh the link. (If you do not know your IP address, type “what is my IP address” into google). The results will inform you of your public node status. If your public node is not recognized after a period of time, it may be that your 8123 is closed. An easy way to check this is to visit https://canyouseeme.org/. Opening port 8123 may require access to your internet router’s settings. As each router may be different, you can check for advice on one of the forums or contact your ISP (internet service provider) for assistance. A common username for many routers is “admin” with a password of “admin”.

• Select “Database” from the wallet’s top menu and select “Change Database”.
• Select the radio button next to “Portable MariaDB” and Click “Next”.
• Click “Yes” when asked if you want to download and install MariaDB.
• After installation is complete, select “Database” from the top menu and verify that “No Copy” is selected.
• Click “Save and close”.

Exchanges will occasionally list a coin upon client request. Some exchanges require a listing fee. Currently, larger exchanges are changing the way they consider applications and at least one major will be donating the exchange listings fees that they collect to charity.  You can make a request for Burstcoin to be listed on your favorite exchange by contacting them and providing details such as the information found in the exchanges section on the front page of Burstcoin.community.

With “solo” mining your software submits mining results (deadlines) in direct competition for the lowest deadline value against all other “solo” and “pool” miners. With this setup, you receive the entire block reward. However, the rewards can be infrequent depending on the cumulative size of your plot files. With “pool” mining, you join forces with other miners and share block rewards earned by the pool. With “pool” mining you can expect smaller payouts per block but will receive these payouts more frequently. Each pool divides rewards differently so you will want to evaluate each pool’s reward distribution method to find one that is right for your mining setup.

A pool generally has two numbers that denote the pay-out method in the format ‘XX-XX’. The first number is the percent of the block reward that is paid to the miner submitting the winning deadline on behalf of the pool. The second is the percentage shared with other members of the pool. It is a common misconception that 0 - 100 pools are intended for miners with up to 100 terabyte capacity. This is not the case, 0 - 100 signifies that all of the miners share all fo the block rewards.

No, if you are using Blago’s miner, included with QBundle, once you have started mining, the miner is independent of your wallet. You can exit your wallet, or leave it running as desired. Other mining software should operate in this same way. If you are running a node, the related wallet must remain open.

Yes.

Some people have done so, but depending on the number of drives that you have in operation and how resource intensive your gaming is, you may experience degradation of performance at some point. With this level of resources at your disposal, you will likely have to experiment to see what works.

A plot is a file that contains the pre-computed hashes that are used to mine Burstcoin. A plot is tied to an account, but they can be created (with the same account ID) on other machines and transferred back to your mining computer. It is a common strategy to plot hard drives using computers with faster CPUs or GPUs and then mine the disks using computers with slower CPUs.

Having overlapping plots means that a portion of your drive has duplicate plot files. Plot your drives carefully to avoid this overlap. If you find that you have overlapping plot files and can identify them, it is best to re-plot these sections to assure the best possible utilization of your available hard drive space. Overlap in your plot files will not cause a malfunction, but it will waste space that would otherwise be productive.

Block rewards (although diminishing over time) will continue into 2026 when it is anticipated that the last coin will be mined. Transaction fees will continually increase during this time due to the expanding number of transactions that will be processed on the burst network. Mining profitability will slowly transition from being primarily based on block rewards to primarily based on transaction fees over this same period.

No. Because mining success is based approximately on 95% plot file capacity and only 5% related to the time it takes to read the plot files, and because SSDs are currently so much more expensive than regular drives, it is far more profitable to invest in regular drives with a lower price per terabyte. A popular starting point is an external 8 Terabyte drive from Western Digital or Seagate. The difference in price between these drives and a more expensive SSD would be better invested in buying Burstcoin directly from one of the exchanges.

When given a choice between hard drives of the same capacity, the cheapest is usually best. Divide the cost by the number of terabytes to establish the cost per terabyte and go with the lower cost per terabyte option, assuming they are both covered by comparable warranties. 8 terabyte drives are currently the best value among the readily available consumer hard drives, but price differences do exist between different manufacturers. Remember, you can start by using a portion of your existing computer’s hard drive and add external drives later.

eBay is a good source for previously owned drives, drives in job lots, and refurbished drives with short or no warranties. Amazon, Best Buy, Frys Electronics, and Micro Center are popular options for new drives depending on your geographic location. Any retail establishment that stocks hard drives is a good option if the price in competitive.

Maybe yes, but probably no. It may depend on your service level agreement. You may find yourself blocked for various reasons. This space changes from time to time so do research and report back if you find success. Some cloud-based services have terms and conditions that specifically disallow cryptocurrency mining.

The Qbundle wallet includes Blago’s miner which is commonly used for CPU mining. Other mining software has been developed, such as Creepsky and Scavenger, and is being used successfully.  Please see the software section on the front page of Burstcoin.community for the full collection of mining software.