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 · 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| Fact | Proof |
|---|---|
| 4 nodes across 2 continents | Live explorer |
| 11+ miners attesting | curl -sk https://rustchain.org/api/miners |
| 6 hardware fingerprint checks per machine | Fingerprint docs |
| 24,884 RTC paid to 248 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.logEvery 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 |  |
| 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 |
| 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 Bounty Board for active tasks and rewards.
