Dipper Proof-of-work

This is a memory-hard proof-of-work algorithm. It's based on vector algebra and computer graphics designed to search for "The Big Dipper" (the constellation) in a randomly generated star cluster (or galaxy.)

Although it is hard to construct proofs for finding them, it takes rather limited resources to verify a given proof.

Theory

The paper on this algorithm can be found here:

http://github.com/datavetaren/dipper_pow/doc/dipper_pow.pdf

Compile the code

git clone https://github.com/datavetaren/dipper_pow
make

Should work on Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Windows uses make.bat. But make.bat also provides "make vcxproj" and "make vssln" to create Visual Studio projects and solution.

Linux and MacOS use Makefile. I've tried to minimize use of other tools. I'm not even using 'configure' that is typically common for such projects.

Running the code

To test the PoW algorithm for mining you can use:

bin/test/dipper/test_mining --mining

To browse around in the galaxy manually you can start the mock HTTP server at port 8080 with:

bin/test/dipper/test_pow_server --server

This will initialize a galaxy for seed 'hello42'.

Then in a browser you can type the URL (make sure you're in dipper_pow/ root directory, i.e. the parent of src/ and bin/):

http://localhost:8080/render.html?nonce=3661

You can move the orientation of the camera with keys A, Z, I, J, K and L.