I built a small Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency called Sparrow (SPW) as a long-running side project. CPU-mineable (RandomX), Bitcoin-style UTXO ledger, optional stealth addresses, no pre-mine, no VC, no governance token. Mainnet has been running since April 2026. This post is about the design choices and what I'd do differently.

Why bother building another chain?

Most of what gets called a "blockchain project" in 2025–2026 is one of three things:

A high-FDV token launch with a small fraction unlocked at TGE and a reserved investor allocation that vests over years.

A fork of an L1 with a different validator set and a token re-skin.

A meme.

That's fine — the market wants those. But there is essentially no one shipping the original idea any more: a fixed-supply, proof-of-work, individually-mineable, cryptocurrency-shaped cryptocurrency. Bitcoin became infrastructure for institutions. Monero is solid but mandatory privacy puts it in a regulatory category I don't want to inherit.…