Topic: [ANN] [XCH] ★ ClearingHouse - Freedom by Blockchain ★ - page 36. (Read 119133 times)

Agree. There is no "burning" of coins here in any reasonable sense. This was over the top. One had to read carefully to understand what was going on.

I think that Drak should have explained patiently why he needs more coins. Instead of this he was talking about "shiny and new coins" which should not be destroyed. This was somewhat arrogant, showing lack of respect for investors.

I think this is all about advertising. A bit of hype for the coin.

Can someone explain to me how this is "the first"? Or is it semantics? The NXT Asset Exchange seems to be pretty much the same as clearinghouse.

Viacoin Team Implements Smart Contract Protocol Built on Altcoin Block Chain


source:  http://www.coindesk.com/viacoin-team-implements-smart-contract-protocol-built-altcoin-block-chain/

The first decentralized smart contracts protocol built on top of an altcoin block chain is now live.

ClearingHouse, a descendent of Counterparty, was created by the team behind viacoin and has been in active development since the alt first launched last month. The team has attracted top talent in the bitcoin space, most notably Bitcoin Core developer and Coinkite advisor Peter Todd who has been hired to work on his Tree Chains concept.

On 11th August, the viacoin development team announced new details regarding ClearingHouse’s internal currency, XCH, and information on how users can exchange viacoins for the new currency. Notably, a new Web-based client interface that implements the ClearingHouse protocol, Clearwallet, was also made public.

CoinDesk spoke with viacoin developer BTCDrak, who said that because the ClearingHouse protocol is built on top of the viacoin block chain, certain structural and political complications that have previously plagued decentralized contract platforms are largely sidestepped.

He explained:

“Because ClearingHouse and viacoin are part of the same project, the viacoin block chain will always accommodate ClearingHouse’s needs.”


He added that, in the past, the teams behind projects like Counterparty have faced pressure from bitcoin’s development community that ultimately impeded progress. Using viacoin as a basis, ClearingHouse-based projects can avoid these obstacles entirely.

First look at smart contract protocol

Clearwallet is the first implementation of ClearingHouse, giving users a decentralized environment for conducting various contracts. No keys are stored on the server and all transactions happen purely between the two parties.


As shown in the image above, the simple user interface currently offers an asset marketplace, a betting terminal and section for decentralized games. Clearwallet also offers a live chat box, with early adopters already investigating the implementation.

In its original announcement, the viacoin-ClearingHouse development team announced that the exchange rate between VIA and XCH would be 100 XCH per VIA. A 45-day sale period has already begun, with a diminishing exchange rate that will end at 85 XCH for each viacoin.



According to BTCDrak, exchange volume is up and nearly 230,000 viacoins have been converted to XCH, or roughly 143 BTC at press time. Users have already executed several trades in Clearwallet’s VIA/XCH marketplace.



Looking ahead, reputation and identity support will be implemented that add further layers of complexity to how the protocol can be leveraged. As the team noted in the blog post, this includes the creation of decentralized organizations, facilitation of online polls, the sale of goods and services and even the development of new cryptocurrencies.

Decentralized platforms grow in number

The ClearingHouse protocol represents the latest entry in a group of decentralized contract platforms, which also includes Counterparty and the off-block chain decentralized contract network BitHalo. Ripple Labs is also working on its own smart contracts platform, Codius.

Beyond contracts, decentralized platforms are attracting attention for their intrinsic security and appeal to a broad segment of the bitcoin community. It’s this level of grassroots support that has made such projects largely possible.

Among the projects taking shape in this space is BitcoinJ developer Mike Hearn’s decentralized crowdfunding platform Lighthouse. While no date has been given, the platform is expected to launch sometime in the next month.

Commerce has also proved to be a major area for decentralized development. Peer-to-peer marketplace OpenBazaar, created by Brian Hoffman and based on the Toronto Bitcoin Expo Hackathon winner DarkMarket, seeks to bring the principals behind decentralized actions to consumer-to-merchant interaction.

While he referenced burn, I thought he clearly described this as a fire sale.   

Most IPO/ICOs give the coins right away - the ones that don't are the exception.  Also why that would make it necessary to use the word burn is absolutely unclear.  

It is likely that what was initially going to happen was exactly that - the VIA used were going to be destroyed .i.e. burned.  
Now it has been changed to a straight sale (probably because someone has realised that those VIA are quite valuable now).  

If that is the case it is only reasonable to change the word "burn" as it is being intentionally misleading to continue to use it.  

Burn has a distinct meaning that relates specifically to the destruction of coins.  

Selling coins, whether on an exchange, IPO/ICO or via other means is not called burning and never has been.

Ok, so what if all VIA get sold for XCH.. Then what determines the price of VIA? Still free market or?

Also do you use BTC to buy some VIA to pay fees or can you trade XCH back for VIA? Getting there. just a lot to take in lol.  I'm still not sure what to do. If all sell VIA for XCH, there will be loads of those and noone will be holding any VIA, resulting in lower price per XCH and higher price of VIA; am i missing something? This stuff makes me feel kinda dumb lol...

Will there be an XCH/BTC trading pair?

I think you should make it clear that people are essentially buying XCH coins with VIA in the equivalent of an IPO/ICO.  Using the word "burn" just confuses matters as burn in crypto-currencies means putting coins beyond use in some way.  The VIA exchanged here can and will be used.  Why use the word "burn" at all?

Very nice!

sounds good

CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/viacoin-team-implements-smart-contract-protocol-built-altcoin-block-chain/

I want to be clear. I am not hating on Bitcoin, it's just their position is different and in many ways I sympathise with their standpoint. It just not very practical for downstream projects. That was my main motivation for all this... I have been thinking about doing it since October 2013. Since no-one filled the gap, I eventually went for it.

that's a really good point. this alone can make via a powerhouse.

Viacoin is in a position to truly innovate.

As it stands there is no way to auto-settle contracts where VIA is one half of the trade so at the moment there is no solution. However, because we are in control over both Viacoin and ClearingHouse, there may be changes we can make. This is the important thing to understand here. Mastercoin and Counterparty have been trying to work around a very unwilling bitcoin for all this time. If we need to change something in Viacoin, we can do it without fear. Those projects on the other hand have to dodge bullets as Bitcoin Core outlaws more and more stuff to block what they deem as blockchain spam.

Exchange fees are paid in Via.

Isn't Satoshi supposedly holding something like 980,000 BTC? 

xcp high value would also be a flaw. Lets say that at some point in the future due to the lack of available xcp that 1 xcp is worth $1,000. No one in their right mind would pay $1,000 just to complete one single transaction on clearing house. The system would eventually be to expensive for anyone to consider using.

Satoshi called destruction of bitcoins a donation to everyone else. XCH running out completely seems highly unlikely.


You could also say the same about the amount of funds stored at exchanges. If this became a problem I would certainly take steps to minimize any concern but I doubt this will be a problem. FYI Otoh controls 1.5MM viacoins and it's not been a cause of concern.

Valid point. I have the same experience. But this was only when you used BTC to buy something as I described before. If you used XCP to buy another asset, this was not a problem. By analogy I expect similar problems here when VIA is used to buy some other asset on the decentralized exchange. This is why I said that XCH will be useful for trading on the decentralized exchaange. VIA will be more useful for direct payments (and fees of course).

But maybe Drak has different plans. He should explain this.