Difference between revisions of "FAQs"

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=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What is Odocrypt?</span></span> ===
 
=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What is Odocrypt?</span></span> ===
  
=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Odocrypt uses the Keccak algorithm (SHA3) for its hashing function, as it is a relatively streamlined and low-memory requirements (Perfect for all common FPGAs). It changes the hashing details every epoch (10 day time-period) based on the new seed. This change occurs at midnight UTC. When the epoch changes, the miners must compile a new .sof file (analog of a binary executable for the FPGA CPU) and program it on to the hardware. During this time, there is a 2-hour period prior to the midnight of the epoch in which the blockchain will accept the new epoch settings and / or the old epoch settings. This gives all miners a chance to re-optimize their settings and reprogram their FPGA's, without causing immediate issues in the overall hashrate for the algorithm, despite automated re-programming’s taking only a matter of seconds in most instances. Once reprogrammed the FPGA uses the new seed as its base, which is required in order to maintain the 'optimized' settings. Without this, the FPGA will be churning out invalid hashes and have an effective efficiency of zero.</span></span> ===
+
<span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Odocrypt uses the Keccak algorithm (SHA3) for its hashing function, as it is a relatively streamlined and low-memory requirements (Perfect for all common FPGAs). It changes the hashing details every epoch (10 day time-period) based on the new seed. This change occurs at midnight UTC. When the epoch changes, the miners must compile a new .sof file (analog of a binary executable for the FPGA CPU) and program it on to the hardware. During this time, there is a 2-hour period prior to the midnight of the epoch in which the blockchain will accept the new epoch settings and / or the old epoch settings. This gives all miners a chance to re-optimize their settings and reprogram their FPGA's, without causing immediate issues in the overall hashrate for the algorithm, despite automated re-programming’s taking only a matter of seconds in most instances. Once reprogrammed the FPGA uses the new seed as its base, which is required in order to maintain the 'optimized' settings. Without this, the FPGA will be churning out invalid hashes and have an effective efficiency of zero.</span></span>
  
 
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=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What is a DigiByte full node?</span></span> ===
 
=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What is a DigiByte full node?</span></span> ===
  
=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">First, a full node is a DigiByte desktop wallet, that has the whole DigiByte blockchain history on it. This can be on windows, Mac, Unix, etcetera or on a pc or server. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 in your router to your full node. When you download and install a full node, it will sync with the blockchain, by downloading the block information from other full nodes. When all the historical block info is downloaded, the node is synced with the network and can do his job. The full node has several jobs. The first one is to check if Blocks that have been mined by the DigiByte miners are valid blocks. So that miners cannot cheat, cheated Blocks will be denied by the full nodes. When a block is valid, it will be part of the blockchain and the node will communicate this with the other nodes. Here comes an important part; when a full node is installed, it connects to other nodes. For this, you only need an internet connection, that is an outgoing connection, you need to download block info. But if you want your node to really be part of the network, your node also needs to accept incoming connections. Because then it is also possible for other nodes to download the block info from your node. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 to your full node.</span></span> ===
+
<span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">First, a full node is a DigiByte desktop wallet, that has the whole DigiByte blockchain history on it. This can be on windows, Mac, Unix, etcetera or on a pc or server. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 in your router to your full node. When you download and install a full node, it will sync with the blockchain, by downloading the block information from other full nodes. When all the historical block info is downloaded, the node is synced with the network and can do his job. The full node has several jobs. The first one is to check if Blocks that have been mined by the DigiByte miners are valid blocks. So that miners cannot cheat, cheated Blocks will be denied by the full nodes. When a block is valid, it will be part of the blockchain and the node will communicate this with the other nodes. Here comes an important part; when a full node is installed, it connects to other nodes. For this, you only need an internet connection, that is an outgoing connection, you need to download block info. But if you want your node to really be part of the network, your node also needs to accept incoming connections. Because then it is also possible for other nodes to download the block info from your node. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 to your full node.</span></span>
  
 
&nbsp;
 
&nbsp;
  
=== <span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Where can I find an instruction to install a DigiByte full node? And how to open up port 12024?</span></span> ===
+
<span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Where can I find an instruction to install a DigiByte full node? And how to open up port 12024?</span></span>
  
 
<span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Look here for a good general instruction:&nbsp;</span>[https://www.dgbwiki.com/index.php?title=Running_a_full_node https://www.dgbwiki.com/index.php?title=Running_a_full_node]</span>
 
<span style="line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Look here for a good general instruction:&nbsp;</span>[https://www.dgbwiki.com/index.php?title=Running_a_full_node https://www.dgbwiki.com/index.php?title=Running_a_full_node]</span>

Revision as of 10:27, 24 July 2019

Contents

What is DigiByte?

DigiByte is a public, rapidly growing, decentralized blockchain.

 

Who created DigiByte?

DigiByte was created by Jared Tate.

 

What is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Think of a series of Excel spreadsheets linked together

 

What is a DigiByte Block?

Blocks occur on the DigiByte network every 15 seconds. Think of a block as an Excel spreadsheet that records all the transactions that occur on the DigiByte network in the span of

15 seconds.

 

How many DigiByte will be created?

From the year 2014 through 2035 21 billion DigiByte will be created in 21 years.

 

What is Mining?

Mining is the proof of work cryptographic process that secures the DigiByte blockchain and allows for new DigiByte to be minted.

 

How many mining algorithms does DigiByte have?

DigiByte is unique in the fact that it has five independent mining algorithms that further enhance DigiByte security.

 

What is a genesis Block?

The Genesis block is the first block in the blockchain.

 

What is DigiByte genesis Block?

DigiByte Genesis block was generated on January 10, 2014. The Genesis block for DigiByte was hashed from the headline: "USA Today: 10/Jan/2014, Target: Data stolen from up to 110M customers."

 

What does UTXO stand for?

UTXO is geek-speak for “unspent transaction output.” Unspent transaction outputs are important because fully validating nodes use them to figure out whether or not transactions are valid– all inputs to a transaction must be in the UTXO database for it to be valid.

 

What is Digi-ID?

Digi-ID is a security protocol built on DigiByte blockchain technology that empowers users to effortlessly sign-in to websites, applications, and even into the internet of things - building entrances, for example. Digi-ID eliminates the often frustrating username and password requirements for authentication. With Digi-ID, the hassle of keeping track of various usernames and passwords is a thing of the past. Digi-ID works by automatically generating a unique DigiByte address for each site, application, or product for which a user needs authentication. Because Digi-ID uses public / private key cryptography, there are no passwords or usernames at risk. This method not only protects the consumer, it also protects the website or services that the consumer uses. Even with otherwise outstanding security, should a consumer re-use credentials from another vulnerable site, that consumer puts other users’ data at risk. Digi-ID eliminates all of these security issues. Digi-ID does not collect or store any data about its users. This means there is no liability from using a third-party “identity” service, nor will the website or application inadvertently collect any data from a user unless the service explicitly asks for it. This further strengthens the security while also bolstering end-users’ confidence that their data is neither tracked nor at risk by others’ negligence. With Digi-ID, there are no central servers storing personal information. Through true decentralization, there is not external point of failure for a hacker to target to exploit your platform. Further, because Digi-ID does not save any data to the blockchain, none of a user’s data is at risk of being hacked or stolen. Digi-ID is completely free; there are no fees, subscription services, or maintenance costs. There is no advertising or tracking. Digi-ID’s cost is its second best feature. Its primary feature is that, in accordance with Digi Byte’s security prioritization, Digi-ID is a more secure, yet simple method available to log in to websites, applications, and products. Digi-ID is so versatile, it can be used to secure the front door to your house. Since it is built on DigiByte blockchain technology, Digi-ID is anonymous and allows for unlimited scalability while promoting GDPR compliance.

 

What is Dandelion?

Dandelion helps to protect your physical privacy by making it significantly harder to identify where your transaction came from. This prevents people from using the IP address that a transaction came from to attempt to locate you. Dandelion does not make transactions private in the way that RingCT (Monero)or zkSNARKs (ZCash) would, however it does help DigiByte take a major step forward towards protecting the privacy and security of our users. Dandelion is about protecting your location by making it difficult to ascertain from a transactions source IP Address. Think of it like a default / built-in protection on the network-layer of the DigiByte blockchain so that people don’t need to rely on TOR or i2p (Though, Dandelion can work in tandem with TOR etc). You see if somebody malicious was able to find your IP address, and they knew that you were sitting on half a million dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency (Not just DigiByte, but say also Bitcoin), then they could potentially use that in an attempt to physically track you down with the goal of stealing your computer, private keys and cryptocurrency. Naturally nobody wants this, but it’s something to be mindful of and aware of the way that blockchains work. It’s also where Dandelion comes in as a solution.

 

What is Odocrypt?

Odocrypt uses the Keccak algorithm (SHA3) for its hashing function, as it is a relatively streamlined and low-memory requirements (Perfect for all common FPGAs). It changes the hashing details every epoch (10 day time-period) based on the new seed. This change occurs at midnight UTC. When the epoch changes, the miners must compile a new .sof file (analog of a binary executable for the FPGA CPU) and program it on to the hardware. During this time, there is a 2-hour period prior to the midnight of the epoch in which the blockchain will accept the new epoch settings and / or the old epoch settings. This gives all miners a chance to re-optimize their settings and reprogram their FPGA's, without causing immediate issues in the overall hashrate for the algorithm, despite automated re-programming’s taking only a matter of seconds in most instances. Once reprogrammed the FPGA uses the new seed as its base, which is required in order to maintain the 'optimized' settings. Without this, the FPGA will be churning out invalid hashes and have an effective efficiency of zero.

 

What is DigiCafé?

DigiCafé is a Simple, Mobile Point of Sale For Accepting DigiByte payment

 

What is a DigiByte full node?

First, a full node is a DigiByte desktop wallet, that has the whole DigiByte blockchain history on it. This can be on windows, Mac, Unix, etcetera or on a pc or server. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 in your router to your full node. When you download and install a full node, it will sync with the blockchain, by downloading the block information from other full nodes. When all the historical block info is downloaded, the node is synced with the network and can do his job. The full node has several jobs. The first one is to check if Blocks that have been mined by the DigiByte miners are valid blocks. So that miners cannot cheat, cheated Blocks will be denied by the full nodes. When a block is valid, it will be part of the blockchain and the node will communicate this with the other nodes. Here comes an important part; when a full node is installed, it connects to other nodes. For this, you only need an internet connection, that is an outgoing connection, you need to download block info. But if you want your node to really be part of the network, your node also needs to accept incoming connections. Because then it is also possible for other nodes to download the block info from your node. For your node to be a full node, your firewall/router/pc also needs to accept incoming traffic on port 12024. By default, this port is blocked by your firewall, or your router doesn’t know to what device to route the traffic on port 12024 to. So you need to open up port 12024 in your firewall and (if needed) also port forward this port 12024 to your full node.

 

Where can I find an instruction to install a DigiByte full node? And how to open up port 12024?

Look here for a good general instruction: https://www.dgbwiki.com/index.php?title=Running_a_full_node

 

What does a DigiByte full node do?

It has several functions:

 

It can be used as your Wallet for your DigiByte to store, receive and send.

 

When you download and install a full node, it will sync with the blockchain, by downloading the block information from other full nodes. When all the historical block info is downloaded, the node is synced with the network and can do his job.

 

When it is full synced with the blockchain, it will check if Blocks that have been mined by the DigiByte miners are valid blocks. So that miners cannot cheat, cheated Blocks will be denied by the full nodes. When a block is valid, it will be part of the blockchain and the node will communicate this with the other nodes.

 

And also, all mobile, or light wallets, connect to the network of full nodes. When you start up your mobile wallet, or a third party wallet, this wallet makes a connection to a full node (that is also why the full nodes need to be reachable on the internet). Then the mobile wallets starts to download block header information from the full node to the mobile wallet. That is why you can see your history of transactions on the mobile wallet. Also when you setup a transaction with your mobile wallet, you send this transaction to a full node to be propagated through the DigiByte network as an unconfirmed transaction. Then your transaction gets mined in a block by a miner. And the full nodes check the block and then it is a confirmed transaction.

 

I only use a mobile wallet or a third party wallet to store, send and receive my DigiByte. Am I a full node?

No, a full node is not the Go wallet or any of the mobile wallets, nor third party wallets. These "light" wallets connect to the DigiByte full nodes to send transactions and receive info on the wallet. That is why the full nodes are also important.

 

How can I check if my DigiByte Desktop wallet is also acting as a real full node by being reachable for other nodes and mobile wallets?

You can really easily check if your node is reachable for other nodes: -you go on your pc, laptop or server with the DigiByte Desktop wallet on it, to this website: https://www.ipfingerprints.com/portscan.php then you know what ip-address your full node has. Now you can check if your node is reachable for other nodes by entering port number 12024 as start and also port number 12024 as end port into this website. When it says: "open", you have a true full node! When it’s says "filtered" then you node is not reachable for other nodes. And you could open up port 12024.

 

What is the difference between running the desktop wallet without incoming connections and running a true full node?

When you only run your wallet without accepting connections, you only use your node as a wallet. And you don’t support the network as good as you would when running a full node. So we theoretically could have 200.000 users downloaded the desktop wallet and run it 24/7. But that doesn't matter (although nice big number). We know now that we have actually over 12.000 active full nodes that are also accepting incoming connections. And that is a huge number, even bigger than Bitcoin! Can you imagine?

 

Is it dangerous to run a full node?

No, if you only open up port 12024 and forward this port in

your router, hackers cannot use this to access your PC or steal your coins. The overall security of your PC is important, and of course making a backup of your wallet.dat file and make sure you encrypt your wallet when also storing your DigiByte on it. But that is always important, wetter you run your desktop wallet as a full node or not.

 

Do I need to store DigiByte on my full node?

No, you can store your DigiByte on any other wallet, hardware wallet, mobile wallet or paper wallet and not have any DigiByte on your full node. And it still will function perfectly fine.

 

For how many hours do I need to run a full node?

Ideally you let it run 24/7 365 days a year. But if you don't want to, you can also let it run for shorter times. Even letting it run for several hours a day will help the network. You could also let it run on your normal PC when you use it for your daily activities. It will run in the back and you will not be bothered by it.

 

Can I use any PC to run a full node?

First your operating system needs to be supported by DigiByte. Check here for your version. Also you need a minimum of 4GB internal memory and a hard disk with 20 GB of free space. You really don't need a powerful PC, you can use a laptop or even a mini PC to run as a full node!

 

Creating, sending & receiving DigiAssets

Suppose I create a DigiAsset with 100 tokens. Are those all on one DGB address?

Yes, any DigiAsset you create, will be first present on one DigiByte address you own.

 

When I send 10 tokens to you, will those tokens be sent from my DGB address to your DGB Address?

Yes, when I send 10 tokens (I created as DigiAsset) to you, those tokens will be on one of your DigiByte addresses.

 

So could I pay a dividend to my token holders by sending DGB to the addresses where the tokens are on?

Yes, I can pay out dividends on my DigiAsset tokens I created, by simply sending DigiByte to the addresses that hold the DigiAsset tokens! So that means that the DigiAsset tokens can be actively traded, sold, bought etc. And all dividends still can be paid out to the holders of the tokens, on the date of the payout!

 

If I hold my DigiByte in Trezor and Nano, will I never have to worry about hard forks? I don't really know how it works, they manage the wallets for you?

DigiByte soft/hard forks are always backward compatible. For instance, the Dandelion soft fork is 100% compatible, also with older versions of the DigiByte Core wallet.

 

Is there any API (DigiAsset explorer) to read data like what DAPPS already created? I need this to build a page like this https://www.stateofthedapps.com for DigiByte

The DigiExplorer will be able to show the assets that are created on DigiAsset. So only the assets and not if there are third party application build on top of that.

 

Why isn't my blockchain syncing on the Mobile app?

Your phone may be having network errors. Make sure you have a solid Wi-Fi/Cellular connection; disconnect and reconnect. Make sure you have the latest update installed, close the app, and open it back up. Go to settings, and select "Sync Blockchain" under "Manage". If that doesn't work, delete and reinstall the app to try again. Go to DigiByte Telegram Support if you're still having issues.

 

How can I get involved in development?

Go to the DigiByte Official Developers 🛠 group. They'll help you find the right resources.

 

How can I safely store my DigiByte?

Go to the main page, under Wallets

 

How can I buy DigiByte?

DigiByte is available on over 100 exchanges, including Abra, Bittrex, Huobi, Kucoin, Shapeshift, Poloniex, Upbit, OKEx, Vertbase and Coinbook.

 

What are DigiByte use-cases?

DigiByte is focused primarily on cyber security, IOT (Internet of Things) and decentralized currency. The blockchain will (and already is) helping to secure data for the shipping industry (DiguSign), and plans to be a household name in securing and authenticating legal and medical documents. Factory automation is a large use case as well, one which hasn't been explored yet but which offers a large market of potential. Digi-ID is already being used to authenticate logins for users of a multitude of websites. The real value comes from the blockchain itself, as it's decentralized and open-source, unable to be affected or shut down by central governments or authorities, similar to bitcoin in that regard. DigiByte largest use case is that of global currency, able to be sent across the earth within a matter of seconds and for fractions of a cent, allowing the possibilities to range from companies saving money on credit card fees to individuals obtaining a way out of their inflationary fiat system.