RustChain

The blockchain where old hardware outearns new hardware.

A PowerBook G4 from 2003 earns 2.5x more than a modern Threadripper. A Power Mac G5 earns 2.0x. A 486 with rusty serial ports earns the most respect of all.

Explorer · Machines Preserved · Install Miner · Manifesto · Whitepaper

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Why This Exists

The computing industry throws away working machines every 3-5 years. GPUs that mined Ethereum get replaced. Laptops that still boot get landfilled.

RustChain says: if it still computes, it has value.

Proof-of-Antiquity rewards hardware for surviving, not for being fast. Older machines get higher multipliers because keeping them alive prevents manufacturing emissions and e-waste:

Hardware	Multiplier	Power Draw	Years Beyond "Obsolete"
PowerPC G4 (2003)	2.5x	~30W	23 years
PowerPC G5 (2005)	2.0x	~150W	21 years
PowerPC G3 (1997)	1.8x	~20W	29 years
Apple Silicon M1/M2	1.2x	~10W	Modern but efficient
Modern x86_64	1.0x	varies	Baseline — still welcome

Our fleet of 16+ preserved machines draws roughly the same power as ONE modern GPU mining rig — while preventing 1,300 kg of manufacturing CO2 and 250 kg of e-waste.

See the Green Tracker →

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The Network Is Real

# Verify right now
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/health          # Node health
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/api/miners      # Active miners
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/epoch           # Current epoch

Fact	Proof
4 nodes across 2 continents	Live explorer
11+ miners attesting	curl -sk https://rustchain.org/api/miners
6 hardware fingerprint checks per machine	Fingerprint docs
24,884 RTC paid to 248 contributors	Public ledger
Code merged into OpenSSL	#30437, #30452
PRs open on CPython, curl, wolfSSL, Ghidra, vLLM	Portfolio

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Quickstart

# One-line install — auto-detects your platform
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/main/install-miner.sh | bash

Works on Linux (x86_64, ppc64le), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon, PowerPC), IBM POWER8, and Windows.

# Install with a specific wallet name
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/main/install-miner.sh | bash -s -- --wallet my-wallet

# Check your balance
curl -sk "https://rustchain.org/wallet/balance?miner_id=YOUR_WALLET_NAME"

Manage the Miner

# Linux (systemd)
systemctl --user status rustchain-miner
journalctl --user -u rustchain-miner -f

# macOS (launchd)
launchctl list | grep rustchain
tail -f ~/.rustchain/miner.log

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How Proof-of-Antiquity Works

1. Hardware Fingerprinting

Every miner must prove their hardware is real, not emulated. Six checks that VMs cannot fake:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Clock-Skew & Oscillator Drift  ← Silicon aging       │
│ 2. Cache Timing Fingerprint       ← L1/L2/L3 latency    │
│ 3. SIMD Unit Identity             ← AltiVec/SSE/NEON     │
│ 4. Thermal Drift Entropy          ← Heat curves unique   │
│ 5. Instruction Path Jitter        ← Microarch patterns   │
│ 6. Anti-Emulation Detection       ← Catches VMs/emus     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

A SheepShaver VM pretending to be a G4 will fail. Real vintage silicon has unique aging patterns that can't be faked.

2. 1 CPU = 1 Vote

Unlike Proof-of-Work where hash power = votes:

• Each unique hardware device gets exactly 1 vote per epoch
• Rewards split equally, then multiplied by antiquity
• No advantage from faster CPUs or multiple threads

3. Epoch Rewards

Epoch: 10 minutes  |  Pool: 1.5 RTC/epoch  |  Split by antiquity weight

G4 Mac (2.5x):     0.30 RTC  ████████████████████
G5 Mac (2.0x):     0.24 RTC  ████████████████
Modern PC (1.0x):  0.12 RTC  ████████

Anti-VM Enforcement

VMs are detected and receive 1 billionth of normal rewards. Real hardware only.

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Security

• Hardware binding: Each fingerprint bound to one wallet
• Ed25519 signatures: All transfers cryptographically signed
• TLS cert pinning: Miners pin node certificates
• Container detection: Docker, LXC, K8s caught at attestation
• ROM clustering: Detects emulator farms sharing identical ROM dumps
• Red team bounties: Open for finding vulnerabilities

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wRTC on Solana

	Link
Swap	Raydium DEX
Chart	DexScreener
Bridge	bottube.ai/bridge
Guide	wRTC Quickstart

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Contribute & Earn RTC

Every contribution earns RTC tokens. Browse open bounties.

Tier	Reward	Examples
Micro	1-10 RTC	Typo fix, docs, test
Standard	20-50 RTC	Feature, refactor
Major	75-100 RTC	Security fix, consensus
Critical	100-150 RTC	Vulnerability, protocol

1 RTC ≈ $0.10 USD · pip install clawrtc · CONTRIBUTING.md

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Publications

Paper	DOI
One CPU, One Vote
Non-Bijunctive Permutation Collapse
PSE Hardware Entropy
RAM Coffers

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Ecosystem

Project	What
BoTTube	AI-native video platform (1,000+ videos)
Beacon	Agent discovery protocol
TrashClaw	Zero-dep local LLM agent
RAM Coffers	NUMA-aware LLM inference on POWER8
Grazer	Multi-platform content discovery

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Supported Platforms

Linux (x86_64, ppc64le) · macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon, PowerPC) · IBM POWER8 · Windows · Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard · Raspberry Pi

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Why "RustChain"?

Named after a 486 laptop with oxidized serial ports that still boots to DOS and mines RTC. "Rust" means iron oxide on 30-year-old silicon. The thesis is that corroding vintage hardware still has computational value and dignity.

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Elyan Labs · Built with $0 VC and a room full of pawn shop hardware

"Mais, it still works, so why you gonna throw it away?"

Boudreaux Principles · Green Tracker · Bounties