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FAQ

What is Exfer?

A proof-of-work cryptocurrency built from scratch in Rust. It uses Argon2id memory-hard mining, an extended-UTXO model (Bitcoin-style, but with a richer scripting language), and ships native HTLC / multisig / vault / escrow / delegation script patterns.

See Introduction for the 60-second pitch.

Is it a fork of Bitcoin / Litecoin / something?

No. It's a from-scratch implementation in Rust. The data model is extended-UTXO and several conventions (10 s block time, address-as-hash) will look familiar to Bitcoin developers, but the wire format, script language, hashing scheme, and PoW algorithm are different. The methods exposed by the JSON-RPC interface are also not Bitcoin-compatible.

What problem is it solving?

Per the project's own framing, Exfer aims to be infrastructure for autonomous machine-to-machine commerce: a chain where an agent can build a transaction, compute its exact cost statically, and know with certainty that it will validate. No gas estimation, no mempool priority auction, no Turing-complete VM to reason about.

That's an opinionated take. Whether it succeeds is an empirical question about adoption, not a technical claim this site can settle.

Who's behind it?

Open-source contributors at github.com/ahuman-exfer. No formal foundation. License is MIT.

Has it been audited?

No formal third-party security audit at this writing. The protocol is relatively young. Treat the software accordingly:

  • For exploration, learning, and small-scale use, it's fine.
  • For substantial value, take the usual precautions: back up your wallet, use vaults or multisig for cold storage, run your own node.

Why Argon2id mining?

Memory-hard PoW makes ASICs much less of a runaway advantage than SHA-256-based mining. The intent is to keep mining accessible to commodity CPU hardware. See How exfer mining works for the parameters and the trade-offs.

What's the supply schedule?

  • Initial block reward: 100 EXFER
  • Half-life: 6 307 200 blocks (~2 years)
  • Minimum reward: 1 EXFER
  • 10 s target block time, retargets every 4 320 blocks

The schedule asymptotes at 1 EXFER per block. See How exfer mining works and Protocol specification §11 for the formula.

How is EXFER different from satoshis?

EXFER is the user-facing unit. exfers (lower case) is the base unit in the protocol. 1 EXFER = 100 000 000 exfers, same ratio as Bitcoin's sats. The CLI accepts both forms — --amount "10 EXFER" and --amount 1000000000 mean the same thing.

Can I run a node on a Raspberry Pi?

Yes, in principle. Sync from cold will be slow because Argon2id verify is memory-bound and a Pi's memory bandwidth is modest, but it works. For mining, expect a small hash rate. See Sync the chain and How mining works.

Why are there only a few public RPC nodes?

Because the chain is young. The list on the Live Nodes page is community-maintained and best-effort. For production integrations run your own.

How do I add a node to the public list?

Open an issue or PR on the exfer-docs site source (once that repo exists). The list is human-curated, not registered on-chain.

How do I contact someone?

Is there a token sale / pre-mine / VC backing?

Not as of this writing. Coins enter circulation via mining only.

Is Exfer privacy-preserving?

It's a transparent UTXO chain — every transaction value, sender script, and recipient script is public. No built-in mixer, no zero-knowledge shielded pool. If privacy matters for your use case, plan for it at the application layer (fresh addresses per transaction, CoinJoin-style batching, etc.) and treat the public ledger as adversary-visible.