Tidecoin Frequently Asked Questions

Tidecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that replaces Bitcoin's ECDSA with Falcon-512, a post-quantum signature scheme selected by NIST for standardization (Draft FIPS 206). Every transaction is quantum-resistant. It is built on Bitcoin Core v30 with an approximately 21 million TDC supply, CPU-mineable via YespowerTIDE, and has been in continuous operation since December 27, 2020.

TDC is the ticker symbol for Tidecoin, the native cryptocurrency of the Tidecoin network. It is used for peer-to-peer transactions, mining rewards, and transaction fees.

Tidecoin's genesis block was mined on December 27, 2020. The genesis message references the photonic quantum computer Jiuzhang demonstrating quantum supremacy. The project was announced on BitcoinTalk on January 4, 2021.

Tidecoin is built on Bitcoin Core v30, preserving the UTXO model, scripting system, and 15+ years of peer-reviewed consensus logic. Rather than retrofitting quantum resistance later, Tidecoin replaces Bitcoin's classical transaction-signing model and extends the protocol stack with post-quantum primitives from NIST's PQC standardization process.

No. Tidecoin had no premine, no ICO, no developer allocation, and no foundation reserves. All coins in circulation were earned through CPU proof-of-work mining from block zero.

Approximately 21 million TDC — comparable to Bitcoin's supply limit. The emission schedule uses quartering rewards with doubling intervals, converging toward ~21M TDC. Currently 18,946,200 TDC are in circulation (90.2% of max supply).

Tidecoin replaces Bitcoin's ECDSA with FALCON-512, a lattice-based digital signature scheme selected by NIST for post-quantum standardization as FN-DSA (Draft FIPS 206). The underlying hard problem — Short Integer Solution (SIS) over NTRU lattices — has been studied since 1996 and has no known efficient quantum algorithm. Every transaction since genesis uses post-quantum signatures.

Shor's algorithm can break ECDSA in polynomial time on a quantum computer. NIST's draft transition guidance (IR 8547, 2024) targets deprecation of classical cryptography by 2030 and disallowance by 2035. The Federal Reserve warns that blockchain data is uniquely vulnerable to "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" attacks [FEDS 2025-093]. For Bitcoin, millions of BTC remain in quantum-vulnerable address formats.

Conservative estimates range from 10-20 years. NIST's mandatory PQ compliance deadline is 2035. However, the "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" threat means data recorded today is already at risk — an adversary can store blockchain data now and derive private keys once quantum computers are available. Tidecoin eliminates this threat because it has used PQ signatures since 2020.

Yes. FALCON (Fast Fourier Lattice-based Compact Signatures over NTRU) is the algorithm; FN-DSA is the NIST standardization name under Draft FIPS 206.

Tidecoin uses cryptographic primitives from NIST's PQC standardization process: Falcon-512/1024 (Draft FIPS 206, not yet finalized), ML-DSA-44/65/87 (FIPS 204, finalized August 2024), ML-KEM-512 (FIPS 203, finalized August 2024), and SHA-512 (FIPS 180-4). The whitepaper's emphasis is that Tidecoin redesigns the cryptographic stack around post-quantum primitives from genesis.

Yes. Unlike projects that add PQ at only one layer, Tidecoin secures every cryptographic surface: transaction signatures (Falcon/ML-DSA), P2P transport (ML-KEM-512), script hashing (SHA-512), wallet derivation (PQHD), and proof-of-work (memory-hard YespowerTIDE → scrypt merged mining).

No. All classical cryptography — ECDSA, Schnorr, x-only pubkeys, Taproot/MuSig, and secp256k1 key derivation — was completely removed. No ECDSA exists anywhere in the protocol.

Tidecoin has four additional signature schemes from NIST's PQC process already implemented: Falcon-1024, ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, and ML-DSA-87. If a vulnerability is found in one construction, alternative schemes can be activated via consensus upgrade without a hard fork.

Both are post-quantum cryptocurrencies operational since genesis. Key differences: Tidecoin uses FALCON-512 (stateless, 666-byte signatures, NIST Draft FIPS 206); QRL uses XMSS (stateful, ~2,500-byte signatures, RFC 8391). Tidecoin supports 5 schemes from NIST's PQC process with ML-KEM-512 P2P transport; QRL supports XMSS only with no PQ transport. Tidecoin uses Bitcoin Core v30; QRL has an independent codebase.

Tidecoin is built on Bitcoin Core v30 and shares the UTXO model, scripting system, and 21M supply cap. The key difference: Tidecoin replaced ECDSA entirely with FALCON-512 from genesis, making all transactions quantum-resistant. Bitcoin has no quantum protection and faces years of migration challenges through proposals like BIP-360.

FALCON-512 produces 666-byte stateless signatures — keys can sign unlimited messages. XMSS produces ~2,500-byte stateful signatures with limited key reuse. FALCON is a NIST Draft FIPS 206 standard; XMSS is defined in RFC 8391 but was not selected by NIST's PQC competition.

FALCON-512 signatures are 666 bytes; ML-DSA-44 signatures are 2,420 bytes. FALCON has the smallest combined public key + signature size of any NIST PQC standard, making it ideal for blockchain. ML-DSA's advantage is simpler implementation (no floating-point) and FIPS 204 is already finalized. Tidecoin supports both.

Tidecoin has been quantum-resistant since genesis (December 2020). Algorand added Falcon-1024 state proofs in March 2022 but did not make all transactions PQ until November 2025. Tidecoin uses Falcon-512 (smaller signatures), supports 5 PQ schemes from NIST's process, has ML-KEM-512 PQ transport, and a PQHD wallet — none of which Algorand currently offers (as of early 2026).

Yes. Tidecoin uses YespowerTIDE (N=2048, r=8), a memory-hard proof-of-work algorithm designed for CPU mining. No ASICs or GPUs required. You can mine from a desktop, laptop, Android phone, or web browser.

Yes. The Tidecoin Android Miner is available on GitHub. You can also mine from any smartphone browser at pool.tidecoin.exchange/workers.

Yes. Visit pool.tidecoin.exchange/workers, enter your wallet address, select 4-8 threads, and click Start. Requires Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge with WebAssembly support.

cpuminer-opt (open source), sugarmaker (open source), SRB-Miner (proprietary), Tidecoin Android Miner, and browser-based mining at pool.tidecoin.exchange.

Tidecoin has five wallet options: Web Wallet (tdc.cash), Android App (Google Play), Chrome Extension (Chrome Web Store), Core Desktop Wallet (Linux/macOS/Windows), and an iOS app coming soon.

PQHD (Post-Quantum Hierarchical Deterministic) is Tidecoin's custom wallet system that replaces Bitcoin's BIP-32. It uses hardened-only derivation with SHA-512 KDF, supporting all five NIST post-quantum signature schemes with encrypted multi-seed storage.

60 seconds.

Proof-of-work using YespowerTIDE (memory-hard, CPU-friendly). After AuxPoW activation, it will transition to scrypt-based merged mining with Litecoin.

Auxiliary Proof-of-Work (AuxPoW) enables merged mining, where Litecoin miners can simultaneously secure the Tidecoin network at no extra computational cost. This would significantly increase Tidecoin's 51% attack resistance by leveraging Litecoin's substantially larger hashrate (estimated orders-of-magnitude increase in attack cost). All AuxPoW code is implemented and tested, awaiting consensus activation.

Yes. Tidecoin is fully open source under the MIT license. Source code: https://github.com/tidecoin/tidecoin

C++ (Bitcoin Core v30 codebase). PQ cryptographic primitives are in C (PQClean implementations). Functional tests are in Python.