what's Gapcoin?
Gapcoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that performs useful computational work through its proof-of-work mechanism, distinguishing it from energy-wasting alternatives like Bitcoin. Launched as a scientific coin, it incentivizes miners to discover large prime gaps—sequences of composite numbers flanked by primes—contributing to number theory research while securing the network. The protocol uses a custom algorithm targeting prime gaps of increasing merit (gap size relative to prime magnitude), with blocks produced every 2.5 minutes and rewards halving every 420,000 blocks. Total supply is uncapped but practically limited to around 10-30 million GAP due to difficulty adjustments. It operates as a decentralized payment system without central authorities.
Block reward increases from 50 FREY to 200 FREY at the hard fork, with block time extending from 2.5 minutes to 10 minutes to maintain the same emission rate per hour.
Hard forked at mainnet block 5,000 (approximately February 19-20, 2026), updated by Sherpa, increasing minimum shift to 12,000 for 3,690-digit prime gap mining, with maximum shift raised to 16,384.