What is Ravencoin (RVN)?

Ravencoin is a proof of work blockchain designed to let people create and move digital assets, such as tokens that stand for shares, collectibles or other items. It started from a copy of bitcoin's code with changes to the supply, block time and mining method. Its native coin is RVN.

What is Ravencoin used for?

The project calls itself a "use case specific blockchain" built for transferring assets from one holder to another. Unlike Ethereum, it does not rely on general smart contracts. Asset features are built into the chain itself.

Ravencoin's asset page lists several types, each created by burning, or permanently destroying, some RVN:

• Main assets cost 500 RVN and work like a top-level name.
• Sub-assets cost 100 RVN and sit under a main asset.
• Unique assets cost 5 RVN and represent a single item, similar to an NFT.
• Restricted assets cost 1,500 RVN and can only be sent to addresses approved by a qualifier, a feature aimed at regulated uses.

Asset owners can also send short messages to holders. CoinGecko notes that in 2018 the company Chainstone issued over 12 million digital shares on the network, an early example of tokenization. RVN itself pays transaction fees and mining rewards.

What network is Ravencoin on?

Ravencoin runs on its own blockchain. It is not a token on Ethereum or another chain. Its genesis block was mined on January 3, 2018, the ninth anniversary of bitcoin's launch, according to CoinGecko.

The project says there was no ICO, no premine and no coins set aside for founders. CoinGecko names Bruce Fenton and Tron Black as its creators and says Medici Ventures, an Overstock subsidiary, funded early development. The code is open source under the MIT license.

Blocks arrive about every minute, compared with about 10 minutes for bitcoin, and the maximum supply is 21 billion RVN.

What algorithm is Ravencoin?

Ravencoin uses KAWPOW, a version of the ProgPOW algorithm adapted from Ethereum's mining research. It went live on May 6, 2020, per CoinGecko. The project says KAWPOW is meant to let ordinary consumer graphics cards mine RVN and to resist ASIC miners, the specialized machines that dominate bitcoin.

It was the network's third algorithm. Ravencoin started with X16R, which shuffled the order of 16 hashing functions to resist ASICs, then moved to X16Rv2. The project says ASIC makers eventually caught up with X16R, which led to the switch.

How does Ravencoin mining work?

Miners use GPUs to compete to find the next block, in the same basic way described in the guide to crypto mining. The winner receives newly created RVN.

The reward started at 5,000 RVN and halves every 2.1 million blocks, roughly every four years. The first halving was on January 11, 2022, cutting it to 2,500 RVN. Coinpaper reports that the second came around January 15, 2026, cutting it to 1,250 RVN as of October 2026.