The PulseChain Field Guide

01

The birthday

Day the coin was born

PulseChain has no genesis of its own

Block 0 is Ethereum’s genesis (hash 0xd4e56740…, timestamp 0x00). PulseChain’s own history starts at the PrimordialPulse fork. Neither 12 nor 13 May 2023 is supported by official config or chain data.

PulseChain inherits Ethereum’s entire block history through 17,232,999. At that height the hashes are identical. At 17,233,000 they diverge. “Clone” is not rhetoric. It is the literal chain data. Ethereum Merge (15 September 2022) is before the snapshot, so this is a post-Merge proof-of-stake clone, chain ID 369.

Richard Heart (Richard J. Schueler) is the public founder associated with HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX in SEC filings. HEX is a separate ERC-20. PLS is gas. PLSX is not PLS. Do not collapse them.

A full official PLS issuance schedule is unverified on pulsechain.com / GitLab beyond sacrifice, snapshot, and validator-deposit language. This book does not invent a total.

Some marketing repeats a “25% of Ethereum’s execution-layer gas” story. That claim is not in Go-Pulse’s published parameters sourced for this guide (chain ID 369, PrimordialPulse block, 10-second slots, 32,000,000 PLS validator deposit). This book does not print it as a protocol fact.

02

People and projects

Who is behind it

Official web entry: pulsechain.com. Official code: gitlab.com/pulsechaincom/. Do not cite or visit mypulsechain.com. Treat it as a lookalike.

Official wallets named on pulsechain.com: Internet Money, MetaMask, and Brave Wallet. ZKX Wallet is documented by Liberty Swap Finance as a third-party product — not first-party PulseChain. Do not mix it with StarkNet’s ZKX, which is a different project.

RAILGUN is an Ethereum privacy application. It is not a PulseChain protocol feature, and this book will not send you there as if it were first-party PulseChain.

03

Place and lineage

Where it came from

PulseChain came from a copy of Ethereum execution state plus a new beacon chain. Official testnet README: “We will only reuse an existing execution-layer database since PulseChain starts with a new Beacon chain.” Slot time 10 seconds versus Ethereum’s 12.

Validator deposit is 32,000,000 PLS (MAX_EFFECTIVE_BALANCE 32e15 Gwei) — Ethereum’s 32 ETH multiplied by 10^6. The mainnet README’s “32 million tPLS” is leftover testnet wording.

Copied ERC-20 balances are copies. Tether’s terms: if a fork creates two tokens that purport to be Tether, only the chain Tether announces is a Tether Token; wrappers cannot be redeemed with Tether. Circle’s terms similarly exclude unaffiliated copies. A USDC-looking balance on chain 369 is not Circle-backed USDC unless Circle says so.

04

Keep these separate

What it is and is not

05

The machine

How it works

Agreement method

Proof of stake in the post-Merge Ethereum style. Validators propose and attest. This is not Bitcoin mining.

Units

PLS for gas. Application tokens (including copied ERC-20s, HEX, PLSX) are separate.

Issuance

PLS is native gas. Sacrifice-phase credits and Ethereum staking-deposit refunds are in addition to copied ETH balances, per GitLab. A full official supply schedule is UNVERIFIED in the research pack. This book does not invent a promotional total. Validator deposit: 32,000,000 PLS.

Add the network with chain ID 369 and an RPC you verified from pulsechain.com—not from a reply guy.

A copied USDC-looking token is not automatically Circle-backed USDC. Issuer support did not teleport.

Bridged assets and copied assets can have different addresses. Check which one a market actually trades.

A payment, in order

1. A wallet switches to chain ID 369.
2. You sign a transaction that pays gas in PLS.
3. Validators include it under PulseChain rules.
4. The result is on PulseChain’s ledger, not Ethereum’s.

06

Keys, not cookbooks

How you send and hold it

The coins are recorded on the network. The wallet holds the secret that can move them. If someone else has that secret, they can usually move the coins.

A recovery phrase is a list of ordinary words that can rebuild the keys. Nobody who is helping you should need it. A support chat, a giveaway, or a “wallet check” that asks for it is trying to take the coins.

Custodial accounts (an exchange or app that holds the keys for you) can freeze, limit, or lose access. Self-custody gives you control and the full job of backup. Neither choice is magic.

This chapter is not a crime cookbook. It does not teach mixing, tumbling, fake identities, or how to hide funds from a lawful process. It teaches you not to donate your keys to a stranger.

Keep enough PLS for the return trip. A token balance without gas is a museum exhibit.

Official starting links: pulsechain.com and the PulseChain GitLab. Not mypulsechain.com.

If you use a third-party wallet such as Liberty Swap’s ZKX Wallet, you are trusting that vendor—not “PulseChain support.” It is not StarkNet ZKX.

Safer habits

• Download wallet software only from a site or store listing you found yourself, not from a message.
• Write the recovery phrase on paper or another offline backup. Do not photograph it, email it, or type it into a website.
• Send a tiny test first. Confirm the network, the asset, and the destination.
• For a company account, turn on a second factor that is not only a text message if you can.
• Stop if anyone asks for the phrase, a remote-control app, or a “verification deposit.”
• Confirm chain ID 369 in the wallet before you sign.
• Get RPCs and explorers from pulsechain.com.
• Treat copied tokens as untrusted until you check liquidity and issuer support.

This book does not tell you how to hide funds, evade a law, or defeat an investigation. A wallet lesson is about not losing your own keys—not about becoming invisible.

07

Read this twice

What can go wrong

08

United States readers only

Law and tax notes

These notes are for United States readers only. Other countries have different rules.

The Internal Revenue Service treats convertible virtual currency as property for federal tax purposes. That is the starting point in IRS Notice 2014-21. Later IRS pages, including the virtual-currency frequently asked questions, expand on reporting. They do not turn this book into tax advice.

Selling crypto, trading one crypto for another, or using crypto to pay for goods or services can be a taxable event. Receiving crypto as wages, as a trade or business payment, or in some airdrop or hard-fork situations can also create income. See Notice 2014-21 and Revenue Ruling 2019-24 for the IRS’s own words on forks and airdrops.

Keep records: date, amount in U.S. dollars, what you received or spent, and which service or wallet you used. A lost key is not automatically a deductible story you can invent later.

A listing, an exchange product, or a court remark about someone else is not your tax result.

In SEC v. Schueler (a/k/a Richard Heart), Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX, No. 23-cv-5749 (E.D.N.Y.), Judge Carol Bagley Amon granted the motion to dismiss. The memorandum and order on the docket (document 57) is dated February 28, 2025. The opinion explains two independent grounds: lack of personal jurisdiction, and failure to plead a domestic application of the federal securities laws under Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., 561 U.S. 247 (2010).

That is not a trial on whether HEX, PLS, or PLSX is a security. It is not a finding that anyone “won on the facts of fraud.” Read the PDF on CourtListener’s RECAP copy of docket 23-cv-5749, document 57.

A snapshot copy of a token is not automatically income, a gift, or nothing. U.S. tax facts depend on your situation. This book will not invent a ruling.

This is not legal or tax advice. Rules change. Read the linked primary pages and talk to a licensed professional about your own facts.

Words used in this book

GLOSSARY

Read these before the check-the-terms pages. A word is only useful if you can say it back in your own words.

PLS

PulseChain’s native gas asset.

PLSX

The PulseX protocol token. Not PLS.

Chain ID 369

The official PulseChain identifier. Confirm it before signing.

Snapshot / state copy

A copy of Ethereum system state at block 17,232,999 (10 May 2023). Not a copy of issuer backing.

PrimordialPulse

Fork block 17,233,000 (10 May 2023, 22:52:51 UTC). First PulseChain-specific block. Block 0 is still Ethereum’s genesis.

HEX

A separate token with its own contract rules. Not the PulseChain gas coin.

ZKX Wallet

In this ecosystem, a Liberty Swap third-party wallet—not first-party PulseChain, and not StarkNet ZKX.

Morrison

A Supreme Court case limiting extraterritorial reach of certain U.S. securities laws. Used in the Heart dismissal.

Personal jurisdiction

Whether a U.S. court may haul a defendant in. The Heart dismissal granted the motion on this ground as well.

Check yourself

CHECK THE TERMS

Circle one answer. The answer key is on the next pages. Do not peek until you have tried.

1. PulseChain’s official chain ID is…

   1. 1
   2. 369
   3. 56

2. PulseChain’s genesis block is…

   1. A fresh chain born 12 May 2023
   2. Ethereum’s genesis. Own history starts at PrimordialPulse, 17,233,000, 10 May 2023
   3. Missing

3. Copied tokens automatically keep Ethereum issuer backing.

   1. True
   2. False. Tether and Circle terms exclude forks and wraps
   3. True for USDC only

4. SEC v. Heart was dismissed on the merits of fraud.

   1. True
   2. False. Personal jurisdiction and Morrison, E.D.N.Y., 28 February 2025. The court did not decide Howey
   3. The case never existed

5. This book’s official web start is…

   1. mypulsechain.com
   2. pulsechain.com
   3. A Telegram sticker

6. ZKX Wallet in this guide is…

   1. First-party PulseChain
   2. Liberty Swap third-party, not StarkNet ZKX
   3. A Bitcoin Core plugin

7. RAILGUN on PulseChain is…

   1. A first-party PulseChain privacy feature
   2. Not a PulseChain protocol feature this book will send you to
   3. Required for PLS

8. A “25% of Ethereum gas” claim is…

   1. In Go-Pulse params, so we print it
   2. Not in the Go-Pulse parameters sourced for this book, so we do not print it as fact
   3. The validator deposit

Check our work

Sources

Primary pages first. In-repo research packs under docs/field-guides/ were used as source wells. Payhip product blurbs were not used as facts. If a pack left a gap UNVERIFIED, this book leaves it open.

1. PulseChain official site (chain ID 369)
2. PulseChain GitLab / mainnet (snapshot block 17,232,999)
3. Go-Pulse PrimordialPulseBlock
4. PulseChain explorer
5. Liberty Swap: what is ZKX Wallet
6. SEC press release 2023-143 (July 31, 2023 complaint)
7. SEC Litigation Release 25794, 23-cv-05749
8. SEC v. Schueler (Heart) M&O, E.D.N.Y. 23-cv-5749 doc. 57 (Feb. 28, 2025)
9. Morrison v. National Australia Bank, 561 U.S. 247 (2010)
10. IRS Notice 2014-21