The whitepaper for Ravencoin was authored by Bruce Fenton, Tron Black, and Joel Weight. Distinct from much of the cryptocurrency sector, each of these individuals brought substantial business and development experience prior to initiating this project. Bruce Fenton is recognized in the cryptocurrency community for serving as a board member and as the executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation from 2015 to 2018. Before venturing into cryptocurrencies, he built a reputable career in investment banking, holding the position of vice president at Morgan Stanley in the 1990s and serving as managing director at Atlantis Consulting for 13 years. Currently, he is the managing director at Chainstone Labs, a startup operating in fintech and in stealth mode. Tron Black is a principal software developer with over three decades of experience and has led several software companies in the capacity of CEO. His involvement in the crypto industry began in 2013, engaging in various projects such as Verified Wallet, CoinCPA, and t0. At present, he works with Medici Ventures, a subsidiary of Overstock.com dedicated to blockchain technology applications. Joel Weight is the chief technology officer at Overstock.com, a prominent online retailer. Previously, he held positions at Medici Ventures as COO and CTO. Weight is an experienced software developer who embarked on his career after graduating from the University of Utah in 1998, during the height of the dotcom bubble.

Ravencoin, a fork of the Bitcoin code, introduces four significant modifications: a revised issuance schedule with a block reward of 5,000 RVN, a reduced block time of one minute, a coin supply limit of 21 billion (one thousand times more than Bitcoin), and the KAWPOW mining algorithm (previously X16R and X16RV2) designed to reduce the centralization of mining due to ASIC hardware. Ravencoin addresses the issue of asset transfer and trading on blockchain networks. Traditionally, assets created on the Bitcoin blockchain were vulnerable to accidental destruction when the coins they were associated with were traded. Within the Ravencoin network, RVN coins function as the internal currency and must be burned to issue token assets on the Ravenchain. These assets can represent a variety of entities, including real-world custodial items such as gold or physical currencies like euros, virtual goods and objects, shares of projects similar to stocks and securities, airline miles, or even an hour of someone's labor. Future iterations of the Ravencoin protocol are planned to include integrated messaging and voting systems.

Ravencoin is committed to maintaining the highest standards of fairness and transparency as a new cryptocurrency. It was launched without a pre-mine, ICO, or any allocation for developer or founder rewards. As of March 2021, within three years of its inception, 39% of Ravencoin's total coin supply has already been mined. The overall supply is limited to 21 billion coins.

Ravencoin is a Bitcoin derivative, benefiting from the security afforded by decentralization and mathematical principles. It employs a proof-of-work mining algorithm known as KAWPOW, which replaced the previous X16R and X16RV2 algorithms on May 6, 2020. This transition was aimed at enhancing security while also being resistant to ASIC mining hardware. The original X16r algorithm suite utilized a sequence of 16 distinct hashing algorithms for each mining block. The sequence order was different for each block, determined by the last eight bytes of the previous block's hash. This dynamic order was believed to negate any ASIC advantage over CPUs and GPUs. However, the eventual emergence of ASICs specifically designed for X16r prompted Ravencoin to transition to KAWPOW. KAWPOW is a slightly modified version of ProgPow, itself an evolution of Ethash, and is optimized for GPU mining. In line with its commitment to fair distribution, Ravencoin was launched without a pre-mine to ensure that no single entity can accumulate enough hash power to execute a 51% attack or manipulate market prices. Unfortunately, the Ravencoin blockchain experienced a successful hack, which was publicly disclosed on June 3, 2020. During this incident, attackers illicitly minted 315 million RVN coins, representing approximately 1.5% of Ravencoin's total supply cap of 21 billion. At the time of the announcement, the value of the stolen RVN was estimated at USD $5.7 million. Importantly, existing coin holders were not directly impacted by this breach. For more detailed data and statistics, please refer to Eulerpool.

RVN is a freely traded cryptocurrency with trading pairs against stablecoins, such as Tether (USDT), other digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as fiat currencies. The leading exchanges for trading Ravencoin currently include Binance, Huobi Global, OKEx, ZG.com, and VCC Exchange. Additional exchanges are available on our crypto exchanges page. Are you new to the cryptocurrency world and interested in learning how to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) or any other token? Discover the details here.