Layer 1 blockchain
Ravencoin ticker RVN
Summary
Miners search for a block header whose KAWPOW hash is below the current target. KAWPOW, used since 6 May 2020, is a ProgPoW variant that needs a large memory dataset and is aimed at consumer graphics cards; earlier blocks used X16R and then X16Rv2 (from 1 October 2019). Blocks target one minute, and since block 338,778 (August 2018) difficulty has been recalculated every block from roughly the last 180 blocks (Dark Gravity Wave); earlier blocks used the periodic retargeting inherited from Bitcoin Core. Value is held as unspent outputs guarded by Script inherited from Bitcoin Core, and outputs can also carry quantities of user-issued assets that every node tracks as part of consensus. Ravencoin headers have no auxiliary proof-of-work field, so there is no merged mining with another chain. 1671112131723
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-work base chain forked from Bitcoin Core. Its asset layer (issuance, transfer, messaging and restricted assets) is enforced by Ravencoin's own consensus rules, not by a separate layer or token contract.
- Settlement family
- Bitcoin family
- Scarce resource
- Work (proof of work)
- State model
- UTXO
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Miners, mostly through pools, propose blocks by performing KAWPOW proof of work on GPUs. Every full node checks the header, the proof of work and all RVN and asset rules itself. From 7 August 2026 a header-validation bug let miners skip the memory and GPU work KAWPOW is meant to require; the 4.8.0 release notes say a self-described security researcher exploited it and a second attacker copied the method, until pools and developers shipped a fix.
- Fork choice
- Nodes follow the valid chain with the most accumulated work, with two local limits in Ravencoin Core: hard-coded checkpoints (the latest at block 4,487,775, added in August 2026) and a refusal to reorganize 60 or more blocks deep when the node has at least 4 peers and its tip is less than 12 hours old. Confirmations give growing, not absolute, confidence.
Qualifications
- Native asset layer · Applies. Issuing, reissuing and transferring assets, unique tokens, message channels, qualifiers and restricted assets are enforced by Ravencoin consensus (activated at blocks 435,456 and 1,092,672), not by contracts or an outside indexer. Each issuance burns a fixed amount of RVN.
- Merged mining · Not applicable. Ravencoin block headers carry KAWPOW fields (a declared height, a 64-bit nonce and a mix hash) and no auxiliary proof-of-work data, so mining work is not shared with another chain.
- Finality · Partial. Probabilistic, plus local node limits (checkpoints and a 60-block reorganization refusal). In August 2026 about three days of chain history containing forged blocks was replaced after a coordinated fix, according to a participating mining pool.
- Throughput · Unknown. No primary-source throughput figure with a stated method was found, so none is given.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Decentralization and Security
- Gives up
- Base-layer capacity, programmability and fast final settlement: about 2 MB of ordinary transaction data per one-minute block, asset features fixed in consensus rather than general smart contracts, and confirmations that never become final. Security rests on the GPU hashing power pointed at Ravencoin, which was not measured here, and in 2026 two consensus bugs were handled through emergency releases and coordination with mining pools.The whitepaper names security, user control, privacy and censorship resistance as priorities, and the no-premine launch and GPU-oriented mining aim at wide participation. The August 2026 recovery depended on core developers and mining pools acting together (2Miners describes itself and other pools building the replacement chain); pool concentration was not measured.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 679141727No official hardware guide was found. Blockbook at blockbook.ravencoin.org reported about 45.6 GB of node data on 2026-09-27 on Ravencoin Core 4.8.0 (provider figure, not checked locally). Pruning is supported. The weight limit allows about 2 MB of ordinary (non-witness) data per one-minute block, roughly 1 TB a year if blocks were always full (arithmetic, not a forecast); witness data, which consensus also accepts, counts less, so blocks could be larger. The roadmap lists in-app CPU verification alongside GPU mining.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Protocol, limited to the same chain: consensus enforces both RVN and Ravencoin assets, and the node's own guide shows two parties swapping assets in one jointly signed transaction that settles in full or not at all. Across chains, Script has hash locks plus absolute and relative timelocks (both enabled on mainnet), building blocks for hash-time-locked swaps, but no maintained cross-chain swap tool was verified. A draft proposal (RIP-15) describes one-sided signed partial orders; it is not a finished wallet feature. 6151920 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; consensus records the commitment and makes updates discoverable: whoever holds an asset's owner token or one of its message-channel tokens can publish by sending that token to the same address with an IPFS content hash, and nodes detect these messages and show them to holders, subject to anti-spam rules. Retrieval depends on IPFS hosting, which block validity does not require, so the retrieval software's publisher would set the value; no cited source shows it live, and content stays available only while someone hosts it. 3618 |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Protocol, limited: consensus produces the proof-of-work header chain, and Ravencoin Core serves bloom-filter requests (BIP 37) by default so light wallets can check payments against headers. Limits: bloom filters reveal which addresses a wallet watches, no compact block filter support was found in the source, and the main community light wallet, Electrum-Ravencoin, is archived and its maintainer says it will not be updated. 8141735 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | The earlier note said absence was not verified, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this unknown. Earlier finding: no payment or state channel implementation for Ravencoin was found in the project's repositories or documentation. The whitepaper says only that channel-based second layers could be built on the code base Ravencoin shares with Bitcoin. 1 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Outputs carry Script inherited from Bitcoin Core (multisig through script addresses, timelocks), and an extra opcode marks outputs that carry assets. This constrains how outputs are spent; it is not a contract VM with persistent storage, and asset features are fixed in consensus rather than programmable. 61517 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; timelocks are building blocks with which wallets can build delayed or escrow spend paths, but no cited source shows a sender-reclaim window or recovery path live. Issuers of restricted assets can freeze a single address or all trading of that asset, which stops transfers but does not move tokens back; that is issuer control. Neither RVN nor ordinary assets can be reclaimed after a confirmed transfer. 3616 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No source was cited for absence, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this unknown. Earlier finding: no rollup or validium anchored to Ravencoin was found; absence was not exhaustively verified. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Unknown | The earlier note said absence was not verified, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this unknown. Earlier finding: Ravencoin has no contract accounts, so no AMM runs at the base layer; same-chain trades use jointly signed swap transactions or off-chain venues, and no asset marketplace was reviewed. 19 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither Tether's supported-protocols page nor Circle's USDC address list includes Ravencoin. The Foundation's page on two proposed stablecoins (one to be minted on Ravencoin) marks both proposals inactive and says contributions over $1,000 were returned in the week of 17 July 2023. 363738 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | The earlier note said absence was not verified, so the rule that absence needs a source makes this unknown. Earlier finding: no algorithmic stablecoin with material usage on Ravencoin was identified; an archived Foundation proposal for an algorithmically stabilized coin would have lived on BNB Smart Chain and is inactive. 36 |
| Bridges | Unknown | No maintained bridge was verified. The Foundation's archived stablecoin page mentions pRVN only as proposed collateral for an inactive stablecoin contract on BNB Smart Chain; who issues pRVN and whether it is still backed was not checked. THORChain's asset list does not include RVN. Risk: Any wrapped RVN on another chain depends on whoever holds the backing RVN and controls minting; none of these parties was reviewed here. 3639 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemCryptoscope Ravencoin explorer, ravencoinexplorer.com asset explorer, Blockbook at blockbook.ravencoin.org | All three were serving the current tip on 2026-09-27. ravencoin.org links to Cryptoscope and to two asset explorers: one (assetsexplorer.com) is offline, and the other's link now leads to ravencoinexplorer.com, whose asset index reported itself fully synced but which still labelled the August 2026 incident as active. The Blockbook instance does not state its operator, and its own notice says it is an indexer for Trezor Suite and not for other uses. A public explorer's view is provider data, not independent validation. 22728293031 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger, Trezor | See the custody section: both vendors can sign RVN transactions, but only through third-party wallet software, and neither vendor's own wallet app manages RVN according to the pages found. 433 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryElectrum-Ravencoin (community desktop wallet, repository archived)Same as native: No | Can: Install a Ravencoin app on the device; Ledger's own legacy Bitcoin app repository builds a Ravencoin variant Can: Send and receive RVN with keys kept on the device through Electrum-Ravencoin, following ravencoin.org's Ledger guide Cannot: Manage Ravencoin assets with the Ledger setup, according to ravencoin.org's Ledger guide Cannot: Manage RVN inside Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live): no Ledger page documenting this was foundLedger's coin page for Ravencoin returned not found on 2026-09-27, and whether the Ravencoin app is still offered in Ledger's app catalogue today was not confirmed. The wallet ravencoin.org recommends for Ledger is no longer maintained. 43235 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryThird-party wallet apps (Trezor's page names none; Trezor Suite does not support RVN)Same as native: No | Can: Keep RVN keys on Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7, the models listed on Trezor's Ravencoin page Can: Connect the device to a compatible third-party wallet app to send and receive RVN Cannot: Manage RVN in Trezor Suite, which Trezor's page says does not support a Ravencoin wallet interfaceTrezor's firmware repository defines Ravencoin as a supported coin, but its page does not name a wallet app, and signing of Ravencoin assets on the device was not verified. 3334 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Ravencoin yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Ravencoin Core 4.8.0 fixed a KAWPOW header flaw exploited from 7 August 2026
Release 4.8.0 requires, from block 4,487,776, that the height declared inside a KAWPOW header match the block's real height, and adds a checkpoint at block 4,487,775. The release notes say the flaw let a miner bypass the DAG and GPU requirements and stopped nodes from syncing or restarting. According to 2Miners, pools rebuilt the chain from the last clean block after finding 96 forged blocks, replacing about three days of history.
- Implementation:fix published as pull request 1289 on 18 August 2026
- Release:Ravencoin Core 4.8.0 released 19 August 2026; 2Miners says it distributed a patched build on 10 August
- Activation:header check enforced by upgraded nodes from block 4,487,776
Sources: RavenProject — V4.8.0 Core Release: Patch 2 major bugs (external site) · RavenProject — V4p8p0: fix the DAG/GPU-bypass mining bug (pull request 1289) (external site) · 2Miners — August 2026 Work Progress: Ravencoin Chain Rescue, Pearl Hard Fork, and Kaspa Reward Cut (external site) · blockbook.ravencoin.org — Blockbook: Ravencoin block 4,487,775 (external site) · blockbook.ravencoin.org — Blockbook: Ravencoin block 4,487,776 (external site) · RavenProject — Ravencoin Core chainparams.cpp (develop) (external site)
-
Ravencoin Core 4.7.0 patched an asset transfer overflow bug behind miner signalling
Version 4.7.0 added checks that reject out-of-range asset amounts, closing a bug that the release notes say let anyone holding one unit of an asset create an amount near 2^64. Enforcement needs about 70% of miners to signal readiness; the 4.8.0 notes say that vote had not completed before 4.8.0 was needed. The source was published in August as pull request 1287.
- Implementation:fix published as pull request 1287 on 10 August 2026
- Release:binaries 13 June 2026; GitHub release 14 June 2026; carried into 4.8.0
- Activation:miner signalling window opened 12 June 2026; activation inferred around 14 August 2026, not confirmed
Sources: RavenProject — Ravencoin v4.7.0: Patch the asset transfer qty overflow bug (external site) · RavenProject — V4.8.0 Core Release: Patch 2 major bugs (external site) · RavenProject — Fix the asset transfer qty overflow bug (pull request 1287) (external site) · RavenProject — Ravencoin Core consensus/tx_verify.cpp: asset input and output checks (external site) · blockbook.ravencoin.org — Blockbook: Ravencoin block 4,489,632 (external site) · blockbook.ravencoin.org — Blockbook: Ravencoin block 4,493,664 (external site)
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RVN block subsidy halved to 1,250 RVN at block 4,200,000
The scheduled second halving took effect at block 4,200,000, which the Blockbook explorer timestamps 18 January 2026: that block's coinbase paid 1,250 RVN plus fees, down from 2,500 RVN. The rule has been in Ravencoin Core since launch: the 5,000 RVN starting subsidy halves every 2,100,000 blocks.
- Implementation:part of the issuance schedule since launch
- Release:no new release required
- Activation:in effect from block 4,200,000
Sources: blockbook.ravencoin.org — Blockbook: Ravencoin block 4,200,000 (external site) · RavenProject — Ravencoin Core validation.cpp (develop) (external site) · RavenProject — Ravencoin Core chainparams.cpp (develop) (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Ravencoin through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No throughput figure is listed; no primary-source rate was classified.
- Hashing power, mining pool concentration and how much KAWPOW hashing power can be rented were not measured.
- Whether the asset-transfer overflow check has activated was inferred from sampled block version bits (signalling in mid-August 2026, then stopping), not confirmed from a node's own status report.
- Details of the August 2026 chain rebuild (96 forged blocks, about three days of history replaced) come from one mining pool's account; no Foundation or core-developer postmortem was found, and exchange or user losses are unknown.
- On 2026-09-27 the ravencoinexplorer.com status feed still labelled the August 2026 incident as active and said data after block 4,487,775 should not be treated as final, pointing to a Ravencoin post from 10 August that could not be fetched. Blockbook (running 4.8.0) and Cryptoscope were at the same current height, and 2Miners says the clean chain overtook the exploited branch, so the flag may be stale; no project statement closing the incident was found.
- How much Segregated Witness data, which the consensus code accepts, is used on Ravencoin was not measured; Trezor's coin definition for RVN marks it as not supported.
- The Foundation blog link was broken (its hosting service reported an expired connection) and the project's Medium page refused automated access, so older announcements, including the 2020 consensus fix, were not reviewed.
- Ledger's coin page for Ravencoin returned not found; whether Ledger's app catalogue still offers the Ravencoin app was not confirmed.
- Trezor's page names no compatible wallet app; which third-party wallets currently work with a Trezor for RVN, and whether assets can be signed, was not verified.
- Electrum-Ravencoin is archived; whether its public servers still run was not checked.
- The issuer and backing of pRVN on BNB Smart Chain were not verified; no other bridges or wrapped forms were reviewed.
- No asset marketplace or swap service was reviewed, and wallet support for the draft RIP-15 partial orders was not verified.
- Chain size comes from one provider and was not checked against a local node; no official hardware guide was found.
- Tokenview's Ravencoin explorer, linked from ravencoin.org, returned a bot-check page and was not reviewed.
- ravencoin.org still shows a 5,000 RVN block reward and 4.7.0 downloads, both out of date as of this review.
- How many assets exist and how actively they are used was not measured.
- Availability of IPFS content referenced by messages and asset metadata was not measured.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Ravencoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic System for the Creation and Transfer of Assets (external site)
- Ravencoin (external site)
- Ravencoin assets (external site)
- Ravencoin with Ledger (external site)
- Ravencoin Core source repository (external site)
- Ravencoin Core chainparams.cpp (develop) (external site)
- Ravencoin Core validation.cpp (develop) (external site)
- Ravencoin Core validation.h: relay fee and bloom filter defaults (external site)
- Ravencoin Core consensus.h: block weight and coinbase maturity (external site)
- Ravencoin Core amount.h: base unit and maximum money (external site)
- Ravencoin Core pow.cpp: Dark Gravity Wave difficulty (external site)
- Ravencoin Core primitives/block.h: block header fields (external site)
- Ravencoin Core primitives/block.cpp: X16Rv2 and KAWPOW hashing (external site)
- Ravencoin Core init.cpp: pruning, index and bloom filter options (external site)
- Ravencoin Core script.h: opcodes (external site)
- Ravencoin Core rpc/assets.cpp: asset, tag and freeze commands (external site)
- Ravencoin Roadmap (external site)
- Ravencoin Messaging (external site)
- HOWTO: Atomic Swaps (external site)
- RIP-15: User-Friendly Atomic Swap Process (Draft) (external site)
- Ravencoin v4.1.0 release notes (KAWPOW) (external site)
- Ravencoin v4.7.0 release notes (external site)
- Ravencoin v4.8.0 release notes (external site)
- Fix the asset transfer qty overflow bug (pull request 1287) (external site)
- V4p8p0 (pull request 1289): KAWPOW header height check and checkpoint (external site)
- August 2026 Work Progress: Ravencoin Chain Rescue, Pearl Hard Fork, and Kaspa Reward Cut (external site)
- Blockbook status API (Ravencoin) (external site)
- Solus Ravencoin Explorer (external site)
- Ravencoin Asset Explorer (offline notice) (external site)
- Ravencoin explorer status API (sync state and incident flag) (external site)
- Ravencoin explorer asset index status API (external site)
- Ledger legacy Bitcoin app Makefile (Ravencoin variant) (external site)
- Ravencoin (RVN) wallet (external site)
- Trezor firmware coin definition: Ravencoin (external site)
- Electrum-Ravencoin wallet repository (archived) (external site)
- Stablecoin Proposals (archived) (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Shortened asset names (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding