Decred (DCR)
Decred (pronounced dee-cred) is an open-source, community-driven cryptocurrency, sharing similarities with Bitcoin.
Overview
Decred was introduced in February 2016 by developers who previously worked on btcsuite, a full-node Bitcoin implementation written in the Go programming language. It has been utilized in various projects, including Ethereum, Factom, BitGo, OpenBazaar, and the Lightning Network.
Blockchain architecture
Decred features a built-in governance system designed to address centralization and governance challenges, as well as the 'tragedy of the commons' often seen in decentralized cryptocurrencies. Its governance is supported by a hybrid Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus protocol. This approach was influenced by the 2013 technical paper "MEMCOIN2: A Hybrid Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake Crypto-currency" and the 2014 white paper "Cryptocurrencies without Proof of Work."
| Ticker | DCR |
| Category | Cryptocurrency |
| Website | https://www.decred.org/ |
| @decredproject | |
| Telegram | Decred |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/decred |
Hash function
Decred employs the BLAKE-256 hash function. BLAKE-256 is based on a HAIFA construction and incorporates a variation of the ChaCha stream cipher by Daniel J. Bernstein. It is known for its high performance on x86-64 microarchitecture.
Proof-of-Activity
The hybrid PoW and PoS system in Decred is also known as Proof-of-Activity (PoA). This consensus protocol was introduced in the "Proof of Activity: Extending Bitcoin’s Proof of Work via Proof of Stake" white paper, co-authored by Litecoin founder Charlie Lee.
History
2016
- February 7th: The Decred mainnet binaries were released under version 0.0.1.
2017
- April 25th: Decred version 1.0.0 was released.
- September: Decred developers executed an atomic swap between Decred (DCR) and Litecoin (LTC).
Tokenomics
Decred Token ($DCR)
Token utility
Decred's native cryptocurrency, $DCR, is utilized as a medium of exchange and a store of value within its network. It enables peer-to-peer transactions and allows users to engage in network governance through staking. By staking $DCR, users obtain tickets, which are non-tradable assets used in the PoS consensus mechanism and governance processes. Five tickets are selected in each block using a Poisson distribution to validate blocks created by PoW miners and vote on governance proposals during designated voting periods.
Token distribution
- Initial Allocation:
- At launch, 8% of the total 21 million $DCR supply (1.68 million DCR) was premined and distributed as follows:
- 50% was allocated to the founding organization, Company 0 (36%), and the Decred development team (14%). Company 0 committed not to trade its DCR for 24 months, while the development team’s allocation was locked for 12 months.
- 50% was distributed via an airdrop to eligible participants, with a cap of 5,000 maximum participants. Preference was given to contributors to the project.
- At launch, 8% of the total 21 million $DCR supply (1.68 million DCR) was premined and distributed as follows:
- Remaining Supply:
- The remaining 19.32 million DCR will be minted through mining according to Decred’s defined inflation schedule. This process will continue until the final block reward is issued, projected for January 2039.