Announcing PascalCoin V6

PascalCoin is announcing version 6, a major protocol upgrade which puts Pascal at the forefront of next-generation cryptocurrency technology!

The PascalCoin community has come to consensus to implement the following game-changing protocol upgrades to PascalCoin:

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PIP-0035 Block Policy: A simple and efficient layer-1 governance model which fundamentally innovates the “economic code” of crypto.

PIP-0041 Pay To Key: a solution to a fundamental problem in PascalCoin; how first-time users get their first account.

PIP-0027 E-PASA: a backwards compatible addressing scheme that enables an infinite address-space within PascalCoin.

PIP-0033: DATA operation RPC implementation: A description of the missing JSON-RPC methods related to DATA operations.

PIP-0012 Change account recovery to 10 years.

PIP-0035 Block Policy: Layer-1 Governance

A simple and efficient layer-1 governance model is proposed called “Block Policy”. In the opinion of the author, the introduction of Block Policy is a significant innovation that fundamentally changes the underlying “economic code” of PascalCoin, and any other cryptocurrency which adopts it. Whilst only a minor technical change, it solves many problems afflicting cryptocurrencies today.

The proposed technical update fits so naturally into the SafeBox model, that in the opinion of the author, it’s as if it SafeBox was “made for this”. For this reason (and out of respect for the community) it is being proposed as an upgrade to the original project rather than implemented as a spin-off project (which it very easily could be).

In short, the proposal is to:

• Re-implement existing technical and economic protocol constants as dynamic variables.
• Allow accounts to vote on what these variables should be using a SafeBox signaling mechanism.
• Allow these variables to change on a block-by-block basis, enabling real-time governance.
• No longer award new accounts to miners, instead issue them without ownership and list them for public sale at a floating price.

Learn more: https://www.pascalcoin.org/development/pips/pip-0035

PIP-0041 Pay To Key: in-protocol PASA distribution

One of the issues with PascalCoin is that new users require an account (PASA) before they can receive PASC. This is known as the “first PASA problem” and is an chicken-and-egg type problem. In all other cryptocurrencies, first-time users can receive their first coins simply by giving the sender their “address”. In PascalCoin, a new user that wants to receive PASC for the first time is unable to give an address because they do not have an account. Instead, they must first acquire an account. This process typically comprises of them scratching their head, searching the internet for information, learning about PASA’s and eventually contacting a 3rd party PASA dispenser (like FreePasa.org) to get their account. Only after all that and waiting 5 minutes for a blockchain confirmation can they finally possess an address to give the sender in order to receive their PASC.

Almost all user feedback on this workflow has been highly negative. Attempts to solve this issue (as Blaise app does) are still a bad user experience and overtly complex. It’s a well known principle of product design that onboarding new users should always be as easy and smooth as possible in order maximize the market penetration of that product. Thus it is clear that the “first PASA problem” is an impediment to PascalCoin’s growth and needs to be solved.

This PIP finally solves this problem. It provides first time users an instant receive address they can use immediately, just like Bitcoin. This is achieved through the use of E-PASA, Block Policy and a Buy Account operation. In this proposal, all users will be able to receive funds directly to their public key by virtue of an E-PASA of the form @[1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2]. Here the users public key is encoded in base-58 within square brackets pre-fixed with an @ symbol.

A transaction to such an E-PASA is translated under-the-hood as a “Buy Account” operation for any floating account available in the SafeBox. Floating accounts are very similar to “Public Sale Accounts” except they are owned by no one and have no seller. The “sale price” for floating accounts is determined by an economic variable in the Block Policy called “New PASA Fee”. This fee is “floating” in that it can change with the block policy. This allows the price of new PASA to always be low enough to onboard new users but high enough to dissuade hoarding and abuse. This value is determined by the PascalCoin community through a layer-1 governance system called Block Policy.

From the senders perspective, this solution requires no change to their workflow. With the implementation of E-PASA, when sending transactions the sender can enter an E-PASA recipient. Thus, by simply entering an E-PASA of the form described above, the PascalCoin node can automatically produce a “Pay to key” style Buy Account operation under-the-hood. Thus it allows a sender to sent to a recipient’s account or key, as they desire. This is also true at the API-level where the API sender is an E-PASA and can perform a Pay to Key by virtue of the recipient’s address alone without any other details.

Learn more: https://www.pascalcoin.org/development/pips/pip-0041

PIP-0027 E-PASA: Infinite Address-Space

This PIP proposes a backwards compatible addressing scheme that enables an infinite address-space within PascalCoin. The usage of these extension addresses can be employed immediately by existing infrastructure such as wallets and exchanges and in future Layer-2 dapps.

PascalCoin currently allows users to send/receive operations between accounts using their account numbers (PASA). These account numbers are a limited (and commoditized) resource which form a finite address-space (note: this is fundamental to SafeBox design and it’s infinite-scaling capability).

PascalCoin will provide an infinite address-space (similar to other other crypto-currencies) via “decentralized custodial accounts” which are Layer-2 dapps governed via a Layer-2 Proof-of-Stake overlay network.

Before rolling out this Layer-2 infrastructure, PascalCoin first needs to establish an addressing-scheme for this infinite address-space. This PIP provides one such scheme. Additionally, this scheme can also be immediately employed at the presention-layer to greatly simplify exchange integrations and payload-based payments.

Learn more: https://www.pascalcoin.org/development/pips/pip-0027

PIP-0033: DATA operation RPC implementation

A description of the missing JSON-RPC methods related to DATA operations.

DATA Operations (optype = 10) were implemented in PascalCoin V4, but the node is missing the JSON-RPC methods to create and properly search for them. This PIP aims to describe the missing methods that need to be implemented to use this feature at it’s full potential.

Learn more: https://www.pascalcoin.org/development/pips/pip-0033

PIP-0012: Change account recovery to 10 years

It is proposed that the RECOVER operation be changed from 4 years to 10 and to include the account itself in the recovery.

Coinrot is a serious economic issue afflicting almost all other cryptocurrencies. Coinrot is the phenomenon of coins being permanently lost due to lost/corrupted keys and/or natural death. It is estimated that 20% of Bitcoins have already rotted. PascalCoin solves this problem by allowing PASC to be transferred from an account, without owners signature, after an inactivity period of 4 years. Whilst this is a good start, it does not solve the problem of PASA-rot, which is a far more limited (and important) resource than PASC. Also, community has expressed discomfort with the 4 year period, pointing out long-term savers could be seriously afflicted.

Learn more: https://www.pascalcoin.org/development/pips/pip-0012