What it is
The puzzle that bitcoin miners solve is completely arbitrary and takes a long time and a lot of computing power. But it doesn’t have any application beyond verifying bitcoin transactions.
Primecoin is an altcoin that attempts to redirect this energy into useful work. Instead of performing an arbitrary calculation, miners in the primecoin network search for sequences of prime numbers called Cunningham chains.
Who started it
Like bitcoin, primecoin was created by an anonymous hacker who goes by the name Sunny King. (He also co-founded another altcoin called peercoin.)
1 primecoin = $0.77
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