I built a toy Bitcoin-like chain where the ledger lives in a GitHub README and mining is subset-sum instead of hashing
I've been working on a small experiment to run a chain that's deliberately Bitcoin-shaped inside a github repo.
Blocks live in chain/blocks.jsonl. You mine on your machine, paste a submission as an issue comment, and a GitHub Action validates and appends it. The README re-renders from the chain file . Anyone can replay from genesis with a verify.py script.
Proof of work is subset-sum, Same compact bits / chainwork / retarget machinery as Bitcoin, but a valid block carries k solved subset-sum puzzles (meet-in-the-middle, n=40). Difficulty scales by requiring more puzzles per block, not bigger hashes.
Everything else is intentionally familiar:
- UTXOs, secp256k1 ECDSA (RFC 6979, low-s)
- 50-coin subsidy, halving every 210 blocks
- Retarget every 16 blocks, 10-minute target spacing
Coinbase maturity, median-time-past, merkle roots
Explorer (verifies in your browser): https://ram0verflow.github.io/ram0verflow/
Spec: https://github.com/ram0verflow/ram0verflow/blob/main/SPEC.md
Mine a block (issue #1): https://github.com/ram0verflow/ram0verflow/issues/1
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