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Show HN: A Cryptocurrency in 4K Lines of Scala Code

37 points by kushti 11y ago

kushti 11y ago
Main developer is here. Would be happy to get feedback and contributors here :)
- j-m-o 11y ago
  Neat project. Any particular reason you chose to roll your crypto rather than build on top of existing implementations? https://github.com/WhisperSystems/curve25519-java https://github.com/WhisperSystems/curve25519-java http://rosettacode.org/wiki/RIPEMD-160#Java http://rosettacode.org/wiki/RIPEMD-160#Java
  - kushti 11y ago
    Curve25519 implementation was taken from the internet. The problem I see with all the Java implementations of it, they're not reviewed by professional cryptographers. This is one the reasons why Scorex isn't production-ready. RIPEMD implementation was taken from the internet too.
    - j-m-o 11y ago
      That Curve25519 implementation is by Moxie Marlinspike, and that RipeMD160 algorithm is built into BouncyCastle. There may still be attack vectors on them, but that's about as close to "reviewed by professional cryptographers" as you're likely to get at this point.
sciencerobot 11y ago
this would be an awesome challenge for a game of code golf.
- jboggan 11y ago
  I'd wager that an APL-based language (J/K/Q) would win.
aaron-lebo 11y ago
I love the thought process behind this. For those who aren't familiar with C++ or cryptocurrencies in general, Bitcoin and similar codebases are daunting to get into. This reminds me of BasicCoin [1], also featured on HN [2]. 1. https://github.com/zack-bitcoin/basiccoin https://github.com/zack-bitcoin/basiccoin 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7713795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7713795
sscarduzio 11y ago
This could become much smaller in Scala if you design it using FP style. Now it's more like decaf Java to me! Great project, thanks for making it available, now I have no excuse to understand how a crypto currency actually works.
- kushti 11y ago
  That's very true. The reason of that is the code was rewritten from Qora cryptocurrency source code(24K LOCs in Java). I will definitely make it more FP-like.

37 points by kushti 11y ago

kushti 11y ago

Main developer is here. Would be happy to get feedback and contributors here :)

j-m-o 11y ago
Neat project. Any particular reason you chose to roll your crypto rather than build on top of existing implementations? https://github.com/WhisperSystems/curve25519-java https://github.com/WhisperSystems/curve25519-java http://rosettacode.org/wiki/RIPEMD-160#Java http://rosettacode.org/wiki/RIPEMD-160#Java
- kushti 11y ago
  Curve25519 implementation was taken from the internet. The problem I see with all the Java implementations of it, they're not reviewed by professional cryptographers. This is one the reasons why Scorex isn't production-ready. RIPEMD implementation was taken from the internet too.
  - j-m-o 11y ago
    That Curve25519 implementation is by Moxie Marlinspike, and that RipeMD160 algorithm is built into BouncyCastle. There may still be attack vectors on them, but that's about as close to "reviewed by professional cryptographers" as you're likely to get at this point.

sciencerobot 11y ago

this would be an awesome challenge for a game of code golf.

jboggan 11y ago
I'd wager that an APL-based language (J/K/Q) would win.

aaron-lebo 11y ago

I love the thought process behind this. For those who aren't familiar with C++ or cryptocurrencies in general, Bitcoin and similar codebases are daunting to get into. This reminds me of BasicCoin [1], also featured on HN [2]. 1. https://github.com/zack-bitcoin/basiccoin https://github.com/zack-bitcoin/basiccoin 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7713795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7713795

sscarduzio 11y ago

This could become much smaller in Scala if you design it using FP style. Now it's more like decaf Java to me! Great project, thanks for making it available, now I have no excuse to understand how a crypto currency actually works.

kushti 11y ago
That's very true. The reason of that is the code was rewritten from Qora cryptocurrency source code(24K LOCs in Java). I will definitely make it more FP-like.