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I've been wondering. What programming language is needed to develop and maintain an altcoin? Because I've been thinking to try creating my own altcoin.

I've seen a lot of services to develop an altcoin for certain amount of money. I could pay for it, but I prefer not to since it would be boring as hell to just do that and there's simply nothing that I can be proud of.

I've seen a step by step guide, forking from Litecoin. But I kinda want to do it blindly. (Meaning doing something that I don't understand at all).

I've learned Java and VB but I don't think it's even used a single bit in Cryptocurrency.

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  • Never roll your own cryptography unless you have at least a PhD in math and computer science. When you try to develop your own cryptocurrency from scratch, you will likely build something which seems perfectly secure from your perspective but will quickly fall apart in the real world. Then you will have to deal with people who lost real-world money because of it. Are you prepared for that?
    – Philipp
    Jan 8, 2015 at 9:22
  • Some of us just want to make an altcoin to learn underlying principles better, at least thats my use case @Philipp. Can't speak for OP, but as for my case I just want to learn.
    – SMT
    Jun 21, 2017 at 19:47

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Unless you want to reinvent the wheel or have a totally different architecture in mind from what's already out there you will most probably fork an existing implementation of your choice so if creating your own altcoin is what you really want, find the existing coin you will be forking and learn the programming language(s) that was used to create it.

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  • Im trying to fork Litecoin (github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin). It's C++ I Presume?
    – smsunarto
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:04
  • Yes. Litecoin is a fork of bitcoin which in turn is written in C++ for the most part.
    – user11221
    Jan 7, 2015 at 15:08
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You can use any programming language you want, as long as it allows you to build applications which run on most computers, perform advanced mathematical operations, make network connections to any other IP address and build graphical user interfaces.

Which one you pick should depend on what languages you are proficient with.

Java or Visual Basic would not be my first choice for such a project, but I see no reason why it would not be possible to implement a cryptocurrency with either.

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The most likely you followed this link to create an altcoin. If you feel that C++ is a bit cumbersome, then I would try Python.

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C, C++, Python, Java, QT, PHP, JS, and everything networking admin (apache, tomcat, node, whatever other server of your choice and network security/show stoppers for each)

Oh and SSL in whatever language variation of your choice.

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  • Your answer doesn't make clear if one should know all of these technologies or one of these technologies. I also wonder why you are mixing web technologies with technologies for developing binary applications. Bitcoin started as a binary application and the core of it still is. The web-based ecosystem around it developed later.
    – Philipp
    Jan 8, 2015 at 9:38
  • And why SSL? SSL is based on certificate authorities. Cryptocurrencies are usually decentralized without central authorities. I think what you actually mean is SSH. Or rather a solid knowledge of public key cryptography in general.
    – Philipp
    Jan 8, 2015 at 9:44
  • Well, you can learn languages that can interface with your bitcoin/altcoin daemon or make a new server that latches onto the coin server. And I mix the web technologies around because coins need apps, pools, charting tech, and all sorts of services that revolve around these network use cases. SSH is cool, but I meant SSL. SSL is used for the key creation/signature methods (or for straight SSL comm. for your web), & I know not all languages implement the same version of TLS and sometimes there are compatibility issues. I bring up all these things so that programmers are cognizant of it all.
    – JohnHanks
    Jan 8, 2015 at 18:19

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