How to make your own altcoin

Following up on Andreas Antonopoulos’ metaphor of cryptocurrencies as apps, Coingen would be like an automated app developer.

Coingen has a beta version of its coinmaker, which you can see at coingen.io. It actually launched some months ago, but without the currency-as-an-app frame, a lot of people initially thought Coingen was just a scam.

All you have to do on the site is input a few names, make a few choices, and pay anywhere from 0.05–0.2 BTC to launch your own altcoin.

The purchase won’t include a build for OSX, at least at the moment. The builds also don’t contain a P2P network, pool or exchange; it’s just the coin. You’ll have to mine your own genesis block afterward.

Coingen says the builds will be delivered within a half hour of receipt of payment.

Here is a step-by-step guide to making your own altcoins:

Step 1: Give Your Coin an Identity

Let’s pretend you’re a grimy metalhead who has an equal love for 21st century currencies and 80s thrash metal. We’ll create a Bitcoin clone and call it AnthraxCoin as a tribute to your favorite band.

Step 2: Choose Your Algorithm and Determine Scarcity

You have two algorithm options: SHA256 and Scrypt. I kept the default settings for the block rate, the initial value per block and the halving rate, but you can input whatever values you like there.

Step 3: Choose a Port Number and Pay

I removed Coingen’s branding from AnthraxCoin and requested the source be included, so that drove the price up to 0.2 BTC (or less than 100 USD at current rates). The base price without those extras is 0.05 BTC.