If you owned any ProtoShares at block 32,000 (12/12/2013 12:05:31 AM UTC) – your ProtoShares private key can be used to claim MemoryCoins that were set aside for you in the MemoryCoin blockchain. The distribution was 10:1, so if you owned 100 ProtoShares, there are 10 MemoryCoin waiting for you.

How do I claim them?
The easiest way is to
1. Download the MemoryCoin wallet
2. Start it and synch the blockchain so it is up-to-date
3. Shut it down
4. Copy your ProtoShares wallet.dat file over the top of your MemoryCoin wallet.dat file (obviously don’t do this if you already have funds in your MemoryCoin wallet – make a backup first)
5. Restart the MemoryCoin wallet
6. Your funds should appear.

When do they expire?
There is no expiry date. The funds will remain in the blockchain until you use them. There is no hurry to do this, but don’t lose your ProtoShares private key.

My ProtoShares were on an exchange. What then?
If your ProtoShares were held by an exchange at the distribution date, then the exchange has the private keys and they can claim them. However, please be patient with your exchange, they may not understand what has happened yet, they may not have a listing for MemoryCoin, and the distribution is extra, unexpected work for them.

Status so far of different exchanges:

BTC38.com : Currently reviewing
Bter.com : No comment, but users report distribution not made yet.
Cryptsy.com : They misunderstood. Next question is for you!

I run an exchange, how do I make the distribution to our users?
It depends how you hold the ProtoShares for your users.

Scenario A: Each customer’s ProtoShares balance is held at a separate address.
This is the easiest to deal with. You can do a simple transform on the ProtoShares public address and private key to get the corresponding MemoryCoin keys. See below for code.

Scenario B: All the ProtoShares balances are held together in another address or multiple addresses.
You’ll need to run a report to identify the balances of your users as at the distribution time and date – (12/12/2013 12:05:31 AM UTC) – then convert the private keys you hold with the code below to claim the MemoryCoin balances. Distribute the balances either directly to your users if you have MMC listed, or solicit addresses to send the funds to if you do not.

Transform code

string convertAddress(const char address[], char newVersionByte){
    std::vector<unsigned char> v;
    DecodeBase58Check(address,v);
    v[0]=newVersionByte;
    string result = EncodeBase58Check(v);
    return result;
}

//For the private key
memoryCoinPrivKey = convertAddress(protoSharesPrivkey, 0xB2)


Good news you can now buy and sell MemoryCoin on the Bter Exchange Platform.

Update: Bter trading on MemoryCoin has re-opened, trading as MMC. Old balances from block 8820 should be restored to your account.