Whitepaper
Preamble: A fair currency would favor the poorest over the wealthiest. It might include a mechanism that provides a universal income, while also applying demurrage fees. This way, users of the cryptocurrency would form a community separate from speculators, who would not be interested in using it. The currency would no longer be subject to excessive price fluctuations and will restore a balance of wealth between the working class and the rentiers.
The advent of cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin, brought forth a vision of a financial system free from centralized control. However, as cryptocurrencies have gained popularity, issues such as rampant speculation and price volatility have overshadowed their original goals. Ruthenium emerges as a response to these challenges, with a focus on creating a cryptocurrency that embodies fairness, discourages speculative behavior, and ensures a universal income for its users.
To understand the genesis of Ruthenium, it is essential to delve into the history and development of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, introduced in 2009 by an anonymous entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto, was the pioneer in creating a decentralized digital currency. Its underlying technology, blockchain, introduced a transparent and tamper-proof ledger for recording transactions. Since then, the cryptocurrency landscape has evolved with the emergence of various alternative coins (altcoins) and innovative blockchain projects.
While cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have offered a degree of decentralization and security, they have not fully addressed issues related to wealth inequality, speculation, and economic fairness. This whitepaper introduces Ruthenium as a cryptocurrency project aimed at aligning financial interests with the well-being of all participants, particularly the working class.
Ruthenium is founded on several core design principles that guide its development and functionality:
- Discouraging Speculation: Ruthenium's design discourages speculative behavior by introducing mechanisms that make it less attractive for traders and speculators.
- Universal Income: To rebalance wealth distribution, the economic model of Ruthenium provides a universal income to its users, ensuring that even individuals with limited resources can participate and thrive within the cryptocurrency's ecosystem.
The main difference compared to most of cryptocurrencies is that the wallet balance is evolving over time. Some of them propose a basic income (like Ğ1), others have demurrage fees (like Freicoin). Ruthenium proposes an alternative combination of both income and demurrage fees.
The following will describe the balance evolution philosophy whereas the balance evolution calculus is detailed in the balance evolution section of the bluepaper.
Similar to the natural decay of the ruthenium 106
The Ruthenium's half-life (373.59 days) have been chosen because it is close to one year, ensuring that a wallet balance is halved almost each year, counterbalancing the best existing speculative revenues that might sometimes reach 200% a year.
Ruthenium introduces a unique income distribution model designed to promote fairness and economic stability. Every single human is eligible to receive an income after fulfilling the following:
- Being registered in Proof of Humanity.
- Having spent at least one particle.
Combining disintegration and income, the wallet balance will evolve differently depending on the initial balance.
As shown on the graphical representation Figure 1:
- The balance of a wallet which address is not registered in Proof of Humanity will simply decay.
- Concerning a wallet which address is registered in Proof of Humanity, the behavior will be the following:
- Above the balance limit, the wallet balance will decay to reach the balance limit.
- Below the balance limit, the wallet balance will grow to reach the balance limit.
The balance limit is set to 50,000 Rutheniums because, according to the Global Wealth Report 2023, the financial wealth per adult is about 50,000 USD.
The Ruthenium's main network is set to provide an income of 1,000 coins over a period of one half-life if the wallet was initially empty and then, leading to a maximum income of around 3,300 coins for the same period with an initial wallet balance of around 15,600 coins, as shown on the graphical representation Figure 2.
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Figure 1 Ruthenium wallet balance evolution over time |
Figure 2 Ruthenium income evolution depending on initial balance |
Proof of Humanity was conceptualized by Santiago Siri. It is a system combining social verification with video submission in order to create a Sybil-proof list of humans. It is meant to be used by individuals as a point-of-entry to a myriad of new use cases that require Sybil-resistance to be able to be deployed at scale and also to be plugged into a variety of existing and new applications in need for such identity systems.
This ensures that each real human owns only one registered wallet address.
The Ruthenium network includes its own built-in currency, called Ruthenium coin.
Coins can be split into smaller units to facilitate smaller transactions. A particle is the smallest denomination of Ruthenium, equivalent to 100 millionth of a Ruthenium coin.
Ruthenium is committed to maintaining a secure and resilient network. To achieve this, the following security measures have been implemented (see the network operation section of the bluepaper for technical information).
Nodes within the Ruthenium network play a critical role in validating and verifying transactions. The validation process ensures that new transactions meet network criteria before being added to a new block, while verification checks the validity of new blocks.
These steps are essential for preventing fraudulent activities and maintaining network integrity.
Ruthenium's blockchain is immutable, meaning once transactions are recorded in the ledger, they cannot be altered or deleted. This feature ensures transparency and security, as transaction history remains accessible and tamper-proof.
The consensus mechanism based on Proof of Humanity enhances security by limiting the number of validator nodes to one per real human. This reduces the risk of Sybil attacks, excessive energy consumption, and centralization, contributing to the network's robustness.
Ruthenium is an evolving project with a commitment to continuous improvement. Future developments may include:
- Further enhancements to scalability to accommodate a growing user base.
- Refinements to the economic model to ensure income distribution remains fair and sustainable.
- Security updates and measures to address emerging threats.
- Integration with other blockchain ecosystems to expand utility and accessibility.
Please look at the roadmaps for more details.
The Ruthenium community plays a crucial role in shaping the project's future. Collaboration and contributions from users, validators, and developers are encouraged to drive the network's evolution.
The Ruthenium protocol is designed to eliminate any interest in speculating on the value of its coin. It would be necessary to make profits of more than 200% per year just to maintain the initial amount, which seems unrealistic and unnecessary. As a result, speculators would likely prioritize other assets. In addition, capitalization is not profitable beyond 50,000 coins. This cryptocurrency is intended for fair trade and responds to the growing demand for universal income. It is much more lucrative to benefit from the income than to hope for dividends from financial investment. Furthermore, since the selection of nodes is based on Proof of Humanity rather than an energy-intensive algorithm, this protocol also addresses environmental concerns by proposing a sustainable monetary system.
This concept will only come to life with the massive participation of contributors. Each connection of a new validator node to the network will strengthen its robustness. Each user who makes transactions through this protocol will give more credit to the project.