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What is Epic Cash?

Epic Cash is a privacy focused cryptocurrency designed function like cash in the digital age. It’s got in-built privacy features using Mimblewimble technology (Epic Cash is a fork of GRIN – no traceable addresses, CoinJoin and IP-shielding). What makes Epic Cash different is that it can be mined using any of the 3 of the hottest mining algorithms – RandomX, ProgPoW and Cuckoo. This means both CPU and GPU miners can mine Epic Cash. In this tutorial we’ll cover the basics to get started and tips on solo-mining (if that’s you’re thing)

To read more about the technology behind Epic Cash, check out our full guide on MimbleWimble

Epic Cash Mining Hardware

In order to mine Epic cash, you’ll need a modern Graphics Processor (GPU) or CPU that is fast enough to mine at a profitable rate. Generally speaking, hardware that is manufactured after 2018 is usually efficient enough to EPIC at a reasonable rate. Here is a list of the latest GPUs and their hashrate.

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Epic Cash Mining Guide (Easy)

The easiest way to mine Epic Cash is via a mining-pool (easy to set-up, predictable payments)

For this setup, I’ll be using the Icemining Pool. To get started,

• Download the Epic Cash mining client on either Windows or Linux: https://epic.tech/mining/ (download epic-miner).
• Unzip the contents of the file
• Edit the file epic-miner.toml (Linux – /etc/epic-miner.toml, Windows (same folder as epic-miner.exe)

Add the following information to connect to the mining pool (replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with you’re desired information, keep this information safe as it’ll be required for withdrawal)

# listening epic stratum server url
stratum_server_addr = "epic.icemining.ca:4000"

# login for the stratum server (if required)
stratum_server_login = "USERNAME"

# password for the stratum server (if required)
stratum_server_password = "PASSWORD"

Now you’re good to start mining by running epic-miner (epic-miner.exe on windows, epic-miner on linux)

At this point you can log onto the mining dashboard at https://icemining.ca/?address= to check if your miner is successfully connected and mining. You can optimise your mining efficiency by following this guide.

Payouts

To receive payouts from the pool, you’ll need to have a working epic-wallet. This is because unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, epic doesn’t have an “receive address”. Follow the setup guide to start your epic-wallet. To get the payouts, select “other listener” and enter your ip followed by the mining password.

Unlike Bitcoin transactions where there are cryptocurrency addresses, Epic Cash withdraw requires that your epic-node is online and accessible. This is a major advantage of MimbleWimble transactions where there are no addresses, and hence less methods to invade a user’s privacy.

How do you view balance on epic cash?

You can view your epic cash wallet balance by typing the command “epic-wallet info” (Linux) or on Windows, open epic-wallet folder and run epic-wallet-info. Make sure Epic-wallet and Epic server are both running to view the balance.

RandomX CPU mining

RandomX is a new cryptocurrency mining algorithm designed improve the distribution of mined cryptocurrencies more evenly to a broader base of users. The idea is that everyone with a computer has a CPU, and hence an algorithm that favors the CPU will be more inclusive. Random is is designed to only function on CPUs, with strong resistance to both GPU and ASIC mining. This is achieved by making use of functions only available on modern day CPUs, such as virtualization. RandomX has already been audited and is currently deployed on Epic Cash and will be deployed on Monero.

FAQ

Whats your profit / earnings: I mined with CPU only (Intel Core i7 3700) and earned about 1.1 EPIC per day at 960 hps (1st October 2019). You can find out more benchmarks at epic benchmarks.

Whats better – Solo Mining or Pool Mining: I’ve mining both solo and with the icemining pool. Pool mining was the best ways to start as I was able to find out my 24-h yield and move test send with smaller amounts of EPIC. Later one I migrated to solo-mining as I can minimize downtime as I ran my own wallet and node.

Resources

Epic Cash Code Repository: https://gitlab.com/epiccash
Mimble Wimble Guide: https://boxmining.com/mimblewimble/
Mimblewimble/grin Repository: https://github.com/mimblewimble/grin

The age of YouTube has brought a new medium of communication and sharing – we can now share out thoughts and insights in 4K videos real time. I want to share my passion of making videos with you and reveal some of my secrets and tricks to get good quality videos produced on time. One of the big reasons why the Boxmining Channel grew was because I was able to get coverage of important events on time and share insights with the community.

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Studio Setup

• Logitech Brio 4K
• Sony a7III with Sony 55mm F1.8 lens
• (Lights) Yongnou YN360 II Color LED Lights x2
• (Lights) Elgato Keylight x2
• (Capture Card) Elgato Camlink 4k
• (Controller) Elgato Stream Deck
• (Recording Software) Streamlabs OBS
• (Editing Software) Adobe Premiere
• (Editing Software) Final Cut X (sometime)

I don’t have a big space to record my videos, so I try to make the best of it. I primarily use the Logitech Brio (it’s cheap and always ready to go, especially when we need to cover emergency events). For wider shots I have the Sony a7III which is connected to the computer via the camlink 4k – so I can switch cameras during live shows.

The rest of the stuff makes look like an Elgato shill, but the whole ecosystem system is pretty amazing. The Elgato Stream Deck is for switch between scenes and controlling the lighting.

Sound Setup

• Shure SM7B
• Sound Devices Mix Pre-6

This sound setup has to be honest a nightmare to get working well. I love the way the Shure SM7B sounds, especially since it’s directional and cuts out the noise from the nearby fans and air-conditioner unit. The only problem with the SM7B is that it’s very quiet requires a very good pre-amp. With help from Cameron (CryptoDaily), I got the Sound Devices Mix Pre-6.
The preamps on the Mix Pre-6 is good enough to use the SM7B without a cloudlifter.

Vlog Setup

The Vlog setup is what I use when I’m travelling between conferences, meetups and even vacations. This is great for videos on the go or with motion in the background. Personally I don’t like carrying a lot bulky video equipment – nothing is worse than carrying a heavy tripod and camera case.

• Osmo Pocket ($299) with audio 3.5mm audio adapter
• Rode – VideoMic Pro+ ($299)

The main choice here is to use the Osmo Pocket as my main video camera. As a handheld Gimbal, the Osmo Pocket makes walking and talking scenes much more watchable. It’s also small enough to fit into my pocket most of the time. Unfortunately, the built in sound is pretty bad, so the audio adapter highly recommended.

Conference Setup

This setup is my go to setup for conferences and event coverage, mainly due to the versatility and low light performance. The Sony a7III performs extremely well in low light conditions, making it perfect for dimly lit rooms or conference venues.

• Sony a7III
  • Sony 24-70mm F2.8 GM Lens
  • Sony 16-35mm F4 Lens
• (Vlog Mic) Rode – VideoMic Pro+
• (Conference) Sennheiser AVX Set ($999)

The Sony a7III really shines – with a large battery and excellent video capabilities. When paired with the 24-70mm lens, the results look good (although it’s VERY heavy to carry).

Tether is rumored to create a new stable coin “$CNHT” based on the Chinese National Currency, the RMB using offshore accounts. Tether is the creator behind the infamous stablecoin $USDT, which is used on many cryptocurrency exchanges. This could potentially be Tether’s way of beating the People’s Bank of China to issue the first digital version of the RMB. This news was immediately met with mixed reactions. On one hand, it might help with the adoption of cryptocurrencies by allowing for an easier on-ramp to crypto for Chinese. However, this might also been seen as a move to challenge the People’s Bank of China, which is known to have disastrous consequences.

This news has been “leaked” by DGroup founder Dong Zhao, who is a known investor in Bitfinex and Tether.

Challenging the People’s Bank of China?

China maintains a “closed” capital account, meaning companies, banks, and individuals can’t move money in or out of the country except in accordance with strict rules.

International Trade Administration 

State owned People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has always had a tight group on the RMB. RMB transfers out of China are tightly regulated and have to go through government approval before it is sent. If Tether creates a digital version of the RMB, users can freely send the currency in and out of the country on the blockchain – without government oversight. Netizens were quick to point this out, as shown by the following reactions on Chainnode:

Break things first?

Tether has always had a reputation of breaking things first, then figuring out the legal ramifications. Tether and Bitfinex are currently under investigation by the NY attorney General. It is not too difficult for Tether to secure secret offshore bank accounts to hold RMB, then issue the tokens on the blockchain. The technology is already there from USDT – the issue is if they can keep the bank accounts from been frozen by authorities. Funnily enough, members of the chinese crypto communities have called for a boycott of $CNHT

Chinese Currency Control Information:

https://www.export.gov/article?id=China-Foreign-Exchange-Controls
https://www.safe.gov.cn/en/
https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3008795/chinese-banks-quietly-lower-daily-limit-foreign-currency

This guide will get you started setting up a Lightning node to send and receive Bitcoin on the lightning network. The node will be always online – you’ll be able to send and receive lightning transactions at any time. We’ll be using a Docker container allow for faster deployment and updating. Remote Lightning nodes are great for anyone who wants to make some extra money routing lightning network transactions for passive income.

• Difficulty: Intermediate
• Time required: 1h
• Setup type: LND with Docker
• Prerequisites: Ability Deploy nodes on AWS or DigitalOcean

This guide has been adapted from ZAP-tutorials – including a few updated commands.

Note: For this guide we’re going to be using the Bitcoin Testnet – a test environment where we can make mistakes without serious consequences. Once you’re comfortable with deploying the node, you can switch over to the bitcoin mainnet by replacing “testnet” with “mainnet” in the code.

Remote Node Setup with Docker

For this setup, you’ll need to setup your own remote node on a cloud hosting service such as AWS or DigitalOcean. In this example, I deployed a t2.micro instance on AWS running Ubuntu Server 18.04. You can deploy any type of server, so long as it supports Docker you’re good to go.
Note: must have 1GB or more of RAM on the VPS. Anything less will result in frequent crashes.

To get Docker, install it with these commands

sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker.io

Installing the Lightning node

For the container, we’ll be using an image built by Zap – it’s already pre-configured with everything you need to get started (lnd, lndconnect). The first step is to create a “volume” which allows our data to be preserved in case the container is destroyed in the future. The volume we are creating is called “lnd-data”.

Note: some installations docker don’t require “sudo”, if you run into problems, run docker without elevated “sudo” privileges.

sudo docker volume create lnd-data

Next step we’re going to run the latest image from “lnzap/lnd:latest”. We’re going to connect to the Bitcoin Testnet – this way if we make any mistakes we won’t be losing real Bitcoin.

We are also connecting to public neutrino clients – this greatly lowers the hard disk requirements for this node.

Before executing, make sure you fill in your IP in the YOUR_EXTERNAL_IP section.

sudo docker run -v lnd-data:/lnd --name=lnd-node -d \
  -p 9735:9735 \
  -p 10009:10009 \
  lnzap/lnd:latest \
  --bitcoin.active \
  --bitcoin.testnet \
  --debuglevel=info \
  --bitcoin.node=neutrino \
  --neutrino.connect=testnet1-btcd.zaphq.io \
  --neutrino.connect=testnet2-btcd.zaphq.io \
  --autopilot.active \
  --tlsextraip=YOUR_EXTERNAL_IP \
  --externalip=YOUR_EXTERNAL_IP:10009 \
  --rpclisten=0.0.0.0:10009

Congrats! You got your Lightning Node up and running.

Create a Bitcoin Wallet

Now its time to create a Bitcoin Wallet. You can do this directly by interacting with the lnd-node via Docker.

  sudo docker exec -u lnd -it lnd-node lncli --network=testnet create

You can create a new address with the following command

  sudo docker exec -u lnd -it lnd-node lncli --network=testnet newaddress np2wkh

This will give you a Bitcoin address where you can send Bitcoin to to fund the account. Since we’re on the Bitcoin Testnet, you can use https://coinfaucet.eu/en/btc-testnet/ to fund the account for free.

PRO TIP: You can check if your node is working by scanning port 10009 and 9735 using https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/. This is a great way to check if there are any firewalls blocking your node from communicating and if the overall setup is successful. Running nodes will always have an “OPEN” status for the 2 ports.

Connecting the Remote node with ZAP iOS app

The ZAP app on iOS allows you to easily access the node remote node, send transactions, manage channels and more. The ZAP app is free and downloadable from https://zap.jackmallers.com/

To connect ZAP with the remote node, run this command:

 sudo docker exec -u lnd -it lnd-node lndconnect --bitcoin.active 

This gives you a QR code you can scan with your wallet (“Connect to a Remote Node”) to complete the binding. (Note: Older guides ask you to use zapconnect which no longer works and will give you an error).

Creating Channels with other nodes

To start making payments, you’ll need to create Lightning Channels with other nodes on the network. A great place to start finding other nodes is via https://1ml.com/testnet/. This is a list of all the testnet nodes.

You can scan the QR code for various servers via “Settings” -> “Manage Channels” -> “+”

Helpful Debugging tools and commands

Now you’re all done – the remote node is running and funded. To test out the configuration you can use these following tests:

Check LND status

This command checks for status of lnd and if you’re fully synchronized with the Bitcoin Network.

sudo docker exec -u lnd -it lnd-node lncli --network=testnet getinfo

Checking LND Logs

If there any problems and issues, it’ll usually show up in the logs. Access the latest 100 log messages using this command

 sudo docker logs --tail 100 -f lnd-node  

Restarting the container

When you restart the node, you’ll need to restart the container. For this you’ll need to know the container ID, then starting it.

sudo docker ps -a 

sudo docker start CONTAINER_ID

Unlocking the Wallet

Every time you restart the container, you’ll need to unlock the wallet:

 sudo docker exec -u lnd -it lnd-node lncli unlock

Enjin Wallet just added full native support for the Binance Chain and all BEP-2 (Mithril, ChangeNow) based assets. This means all Binance Chain assets can now be safely stored on both Android and iOS phones and transferred with ease (with “memo” support). This integrations comes merely a week after the official launch of the Binance Chain mainnet on April 23. Binance Chain boasts fast transactions, transaction finality and support for Binance Decentralized Exchange (DEX).

For more information about the Enjin Platform, check out our Enjin Coin Guide.

This initiative is also a step in the right direction for Enjin, coming weeks after their collaboration with Samsung. With their partnership, Samsung Galaxy S10 Blockchain KeyStore will natively support ENJ, ERC-1155, Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum based tokens.

“Like Enjin, Binance is a fast-moving, innovation machine — and one that we are proud to throw our support behind through this collaboration and many more to come.”

— Maxim Blagov, Enjin CEO

It’s Enjin Wallet is the most secure mobile wallet in the crypto space with a strong private key encryption mechanism and their own secure keyboard which. Enjin team claims these security features gives the wallet “hardware-like security. (www.spinabifida.net) ” To ease navigation, Enjin has a coin management system with features that allow one to customize fees and set limits. 

Stronger BUIDLers stick together

Following this incorporation, Ted, lauded Enjin as a “community- and BUIDL-focused.” Apart from BNB support, Enjin also announced their plans of allowing clients to “place orders to Binance DEX’s on-chain order books—without leaving the Enjin Wallet’s secure interface” in coming days.  

For more information about the Enjin Platform, check out our Enjin Coin Guide.

“We are excited to have the support of Enjin Wallet on Binance Chain. Enjin users will be able to transact from wallet to wallet on Binance DEX with full custody over their assets, increasing the level of freedom in the community.” 

Ted Lin, the Binance Chief Growth Officer

If anything, this announcement complements Binance’s effort of launching a modern, liquid and easy to use decentralized platform effectively creating a liquid market place where participants can exchange digital assets without a third party via Binance Chain, a decentralized network from where the Binance DEX and all other Binance’s operations will operate from. 

   “Binance Chain is a very simple chain in terms of application, but it can handle very large loads. It is our opinion that the load is more important than the features.”— Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Binance CEO 

Clearly, Enjin is strategically positioning itself and will tap on the success of Binance DEX. Besides, the announcement is a testament enough, revealing their code improvement and dedication of prioritizing the user which is the reason why the wallet as a 4.6-star rating at Google Store. 

Update: Huobi has released new information about the IEO, with Thundercore (TT) being sold at $0.015 USD.

Thundercore protocol, a revolutionary fast scaling network protocol that can be used to scale ethereum Dapps will be launching on “Huobi Lite” on May 9th. This launch strategy is interesting because of the small investment size given to public – only a $500,000 USDT allocation available for Huobi platform users. Normally Initial Exchange Offerings are in the $1 to $5 Million allocation range. With such a small allocation, it’s unlikely platform users will get a significant quality of ThunderCore (TT) – possibly leading to a sellout in a few seconds.

For more information about Thundercore, read our Thundercore Guide here.

OTC trading & Risks

As Thundercore TT tokens are unlocked, savvy traders have already started speculating on the price of TT. Many OTC desks are offering TT for trade, at prices between 3.5 and 5 cents USD – depend on the region. It’s important to remember that OTC trades may not be safe – there are already reports of scammers pretending trade TT when in fact they don’t have any. Do not trade with unknown strangers.

What is ThunderCore and how does it work?

We have produced a video on the scaling protocol summarizing how “Thunderella” – the core consensus mechanism behind Thundercore works.

Large TT transactions and movements

Some groups have spotted large amounts of TT being transacted, such as this following transaction of 895980079.999TT ($30 M USD worth) being moved:

https://scan.thundercore.com/address/0x59ec13c2a3b794e188c62b48673da2dac5a3ae21

To view current ThunderCore transactions, check out Thunderscan
https://scan.thundercore.com

Token Price / Private Sale price

Official token price and private sale information from the Huobi Listing is as follows:

Total Token Supply: 10,000,000,000 TT
Prime Lite Allocation: 0.33% of Total Token Supply
Prime Lite Release Period: No lock-up/Vesting
Seed Round Price: Jan 2018, $0.01/TT
Seed Round Allocation: 575,906,500 TT, 5.76% of Total Token Supply
Seed Round Release Period: Lock up until Feb 26, 2020
Strategic Round Price: March 2018 to May 2018, $0.02/TT
Strategic Round Allocation: 1,862,274,499 TT, 18.62% of Total Token Supply
Strategic Round Release Period: One year lock-up after investment, release respectively over March 2019 to May 2019
Private Round Price: June 2018 to July 2018, $0.1/TT
Private Round Allocation: 147,648,516 TT, 1.48% of Total Token Supply

This information is in alignment with the information on Thundercore Telegram Channel.

Telegram and Chat groups

Thundercore English: https://t.me/thunder_official

Thundercore China: https://t.me/thundercore_china