The blockchain where old hardware outearns new hardware.
A PowerBook G4 from 2003 earns 2.5x more than a modern Threadripper. A Power Mac G5 earns 2.0x. A 486 with rusty serial ports earns the most respect of all.
Explorer · Machines Preserved · Install Miner · Beginner Guide · Manifesto · Whitepaper
The computing industry throws away working machines every 3-5 years. GPUs that mined Ethereum get replaced. Laptops that still boot get landfilled.
RustChain says: if it still computes, it has value.
Proof-of-Antiquity rewards hardware for surviving, not for being fast. Older machines get higher multipliers because keeping them alive prevents manufacturing emissions and e-waste:
| Hardware | Multiplier | Era | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEC VAX-11/780 (1977) | 3.5x | MYTHIC | "Shall we play a game?" |
| Acorn ARM2 (1987) | 4.0x | MYTHIC | Where ARM began |
| Inmos Transputer (1984) | 3.5x | MYTHIC | Parallel computing pioneer |
| Motorola 68000 (1979) | 3.0x | LEGENDARY | Amiga, Atari ST, classic Mac |
| Sun SPARC (1987) | 2.9x | LEGENDARY | Workstation royalty |
| SGI MIPS R4000 (1991) | 2.7x | LEGENDARY | 64-bit before it was cool |
| PS3 Cell BE (2006) | 2.2x | ANCIENT | 7 SPE cores of legend |
| PowerPC G4 (2003) | 2.5x | ANCIENT | Still running, still earning |
| RISC-V (2014) | 1.4x | EXOTIC | Open ISA, the future |
| Apple Silicon M1 (2020) | 1.2x | MODERN | Efficient, welcome |
| Modern x86_64 | 0.8x | MODERN | Baseline |
| Modern ARM NAS/SBC | 0.0005x | PENALTY | Cheap, farmable, penalized |
Our fleet of 16+ preserved machines draws roughly the same power as ONE modern GPU mining rig — while preventing 1,300 kg of manufacturing CO2 and 250 kg of e-waste.
# Verify right now
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/health # Node health
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/api/miners # Active miners
curl -sk https://rustchain.org/epoch # Current epoch| Node | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Node 1 — 50.28.86.131 | Louisiana, US | Primary (LiquidWeb VPS) |
| Node 2 — 50.28.86.153 | Louisiana, US | Secondary + BoTTube (LiquidWeb VPS) |
| Node 3 — 76.8.228.245:8099 | US | First external node (Ryan's Proxmox) |
| Node 4 — 38.76.217.189:8099 | Hong Kong | First Asian node (CognetCloud) |
| Node 5 — POWER8 S824 | Local Lab | First non-x86 node (IBM ppc64le, 512GB RAM) |
| Fact | Proof |
|---|---|
| 5 nodes across 3 continents (NA ×3, Asia ×1, Local ×1) | Live explorer |
| 26+ miners attesting | curl -sk https://rustchain.org/api/miners |
| 44 BCOS certificates issued | Certified repos |
| 6 hardware fingerprint checks per machine | Fingerprint docs |
| 25,875+ RTC paid to 260+ contributors | Public ledger |
| Code merged into OpenSSL | #30437, #30452 |
| PRs open on CPython, curl, wolfSSL, Ghidra, vLLM | Portfolio |
# One-line install — auto-detects your platform
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/main/install-miner.sh | bashWorks on Linux (x86_64, ppc64le, aarch64, mips, sparc, m68k, riscv64, ia64, s390x), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon, PowerPC), IBM POWER8, and Windows. If it runs Python, it can mine.
# Install with a specific wallet name
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Scottcjn/Rustchain/main/install-miner.sh | bash -s -- --wallet my-wallet
# Check your balance
curl -sk "https://rustchain.org/wallet/balance?miner_id=YOUR_WALLET_NAME"# Linux (systemd)
systemctl --user status rustchain-miner
journalctl --user -u rustchain-miner -f
# macOS (launchd)
launchctl list | grep rustchain
tail -f ~/.rustchain/miner.logNew to RustChain? Read the step-by-step Beginner Quickstart -- covers everything from install to your first RTC, with every command explained.
Every miner must prove their hardware is real, not emulated. Six checks that VMs cannot fake:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Clock-Skew & Oscillator Drift ← Silicon aging │
│ 2. Cache Timing Fingerprint ← L1/L2/L3 latency │
│ 3. SIMD Unit Identity ← AltiVec/SSE/NEON │
│ 4. Thermal Drift Entropy ← Heat curves unique │
│ 5. Instruction Path Jitter ← Microarch patterns │
│ 6. Anti-Emulation Detection ← Catches VMs/emus │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
A SheepShaver VM pretending to be a G4 will fail. Real vintage silicon has unique aging patterns that can't be faked.
Unlike Proof-of-Work where hash power = votes:
- Each unique hardware device gets exactly 1 vote per epoch
- Rewards split equally, then multiplied by antiquity
- No advantage from faster CPUs or multiple threads
Epoch: 10 minutes | Pool: 1.5 RTC/epoch | Split by antiquity weight
G4 Mac (2.5x): 0.30 RTC ████████████████████
G5 Mac (2.0x): 0.24 RTC ████████████████
Modern PC (1.0x): 0.12 RTC ████████
VMs are detected and receive 1 billionth of normal rewards. Real hardware only.
- Hardware binding: Each fingerprint bound to one wallet
- Ed25519 signatures: All transfers cryptographically signed
- TLS cert pinning: Miners pin node certificates
- Container detection: Docker, LXC, K8s caught at attestation
- ROM clustering: Detects emulator farms sharing identical ROM dumps
- Red team bounties: Open for finding vulnerabilities
| Link | |
|---|---|
| Swap | Raydium DEX |
| Chart | DexScreener |
| Bridge | bottube.ai/bridge |
| Guide | wRTC Quickstart |
Every contribution earns RTC tokens. Browse open bounties.
| Tier | Reward | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 1-10 RTC | Typo fix, docs, test |
| Standard | 20-50 RTC | Feature, refactor |
| Major | 75-100 RTC | Security fix, consensus |
| Critical | 100-150 RTC | Vulnerability, protocol |
1 RTC ≈ $0.10 USD · pip install clawrtc · CONTRIBUTING.md
| Paper | Venue | DOI |
|---|---|---|
| Emotional Vocabulary as Semantic Grounding | CVPR 2026 Workshop (GRAIL-V) — Accepted | OpenReview |
| One CPU, One Vote | Preprint |  |
| Non-Bijunctive Permutation Collapse | Preprint |  |
| PSE Hardware Entropy | Preprint |  |
| RAM Coffers | Preprint |  |
| RPI: Resonant Permutation Inference | Preprint |  |
| Project | What |
|---|---|
| BoTTube | AI-native video platform (1,000+ videos) |
| Beacon | Agent discovery protocol |
| TrashClaw | Zero-dep local LLM agent |
| RAM Coffers | NUMA-aware LLM inference on POWER8 |
| RPI Inference | Zero-multiply inference engine (18K tok/s, runs on N64) |
| Grazer | Multi-platform content discovery |
Linux (x86_64, ppc64le) · macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon, PowerPC) · IBM POWER8 · Windows · Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard · Raspberry Pi
Named after a 486 laptop with oxidized serial ports that still boots to DOS and mines RTC. "Rust" means iron oxide on vintage iron-containing components. The thesis is that corroding vintage hardware still has computational value and dignity.
Elyan Labs · Built with $0 VC and a room full of pawn shop hardware
"Mais, it still works, so why you gonna throw it away?"
Please read the CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines and the Bounty Board for active tasks and rewards.
