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Namecoin

NMC Launched 2011 source Historical / collapsed

Launch

• Genesis date 2011-04-19. secondary source source

Founders and creators

• Created in 2011 by a pseudo-anonymous founder named Vince. secondary source source

Origin story

• Namecoin was the first fork of Bitcoin. primary source source

Stated purpose

• Domain name registry for censorship-resistant .bit domains. secondary source source

Consensus mechanism

• On block 19200 Namecoin activated the merged mining upgrade to allow mining of Bitcoin and Namecoin simultaneously. secondary source source

Supply model

• Like Bitcoin, Namecoin has 21 million coins total, minus lost coins; 50 coins were generated per block at the beginning and the reward halves every 210,000 blocks. primary source source
• Coins paid for a name pre-registration are destroyed, reducing the usable maximum of 21 million NMC by 0.01 NMC per new name. primary source source

Main uses today

• NameID is a combination between Namecoin and OpenId, where users can convert their Namecoin Identities into OpenIDs. secondary source source

Key milestones

• On block 19200 Namecoin activated merged mining to allow mining of Bitcoin and Namecoin simultaneously. secondary source source

Notable events and controversies

• In October 2013, Michael Gronager, main developer of libcoin, found a security issue in the Namecoin protocol which allowed modifying foreign names; it was fixed in a short timeframe. secondary source source

Sources & studies

1. coingecko.com
2. namecoin.org
3. en.wikipedia.org
4. namecoin.org

Last checked: 2026-11-04 · Prices, market caps and circulating supply are left out on purpose because they change by the minute. Educational, not financial advice.

Education only, not financial advice. No signals. Backtests are hypothetical: real trading can be worse. Past results don't predict future results.