Topic: [ANNOUNCE] Elqnt -- Anonymous Peer-to-Peer Bitcoin Exchange (Read 7327 times)

We're going to be open sourcing the entirety of the platform, but we've been hesitant to do so yet because of the communication overhead of doing so (we're very strapped on time and really want to focus on development) ahead of the fundamental structure of the nodes themselves being sufficiently mature to open it for community review + discussion -- thus waiting until we finish up the first release itself.

We've got a fairly fleshed out incentivization model in place in the whitepaper that we think will incentivize all points of contact in a transaction that utilizes the exchange node network.

Last note -- we had and still have no plans to directly monetize the exchange structure itself (thus the challenge to raising funds), we had plans for ancillary monetization that would allow us to make money without compromising the integrity of an anonymous and decentralized network.

What about posting this as an open source project? I guess there will be people willing to contribute. I think it is more important to have this implemented than the profit.
Here is what I was thinking about recently: Implement this only as a platform to get in/out FIAT money. eg: 1 USD=0.99 virtual USD, people who do the physical exchange of the money get 0.01USD commission. This way there will be many people participating in the system. once you have virtualUSDs you can use them on a distributed exchange easily.

This specific project is currently on hold on our end --

A summary update of the past few months:

We reached the point of proof-of-concept w/ the decentralized nodes, meaning we had them successfully connecting w/ each other and communicating -- we used this version to pitch investors.

On the android side of things, 'the clients', it was also fairly progressed in development, but just short of successfully connecting up with the nodes due to some additional implementation necessary for them to find the nodes.

We ultimately had to put things on hold due to funding --

We'd been discussing the project with a number of investors, though none of these conversations moved past initial meetings specifically for the decentralized exchange platform, though they did progress in some other directions (that I'll mention towards the end of the post).
This was due to three things:
> Revenue Model (It's essentially impossible to directly monetize a truly decentralized network.  We did have a revenue model defined that wouldn't compromise the integrity of the decentralized network, but the runway for this model was just too long)
> Legality - It's a gray area and most investors won't go near it.
> Understanding - Even if you simplify down the fundamentals of what we're doing, it's still hard for most VCs or even angels to understand the value of a fully decentralized network.

We had truly hoped to get sufficient donations from the community to keep this running up until the point of v1, but that just didn't happen.

This all leads into what we're working on currently --

We're now building a fully featured, yet easy to use Cryptocurrency arbitrage platform called Elqnt | Arbitrage.  This will hopefully help fund continued development on the Elqnt Exchange.

The bitcointalk discussion for Elqnt | Arbitrage can be found here --> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/announce-elqnt-arbitrage-a-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-arbitrage-platform-459528

We've also launched an indiegogo campaign to help fund the development of the arbitrage platform --> http://igg.me/at/elqnt

We truly do hope to get back to developing on the exchange node infrastructure, but paramount at this point is making sure we have personal funding solidified.  Once that is in place, we'll be carving out time again to work on the exchange node infrastructure. 

Is there any update about this project?

I'm excited to present the Elqnt White Paper!

In the past two weeks, myself and another developer have conducted a number of lengthy discussions around how we might be able to leverage the existing p2p technologies I'd been developing over the past few months to actually bring about a fully decentralized + anonymous + peer-to-peer exchange for Bitcoin -- we think we've developed a way to do it and are actively developing towards the first proof-of-concept version.  

The above white paper gives a high-level overview of how the platform will function.

One of the most exciting pieces to this method of exchange is the incentivization model which rewards all peers involved in an exchange route (detailed in the white paper).  

Please give us feedback!  
We really want to hear what others are thinking, where you think things might break down, and what concerns you might have -- all feedback is welcome.

If you're interested in joining us in development, let me know -- [email protected] -- and I'll setup a time to get you spun up on things and plugged into our git repo.

All code will be released under GPL-3.0 license and will be completely modular -- meaning, we're shooting to structure the platform in such a way that you can run it without having to setup any servers -- just run the exchange node in a browser window (or extension) from file and run the peer client on an android device and you've got yourself a mesh network for exchange.

Best,
Stephen

Indeed -- up until this point, it's been operating under the idea of an anonymous + p2p localbitcoins alternative.

Just in the past few days though, I've been working through a model that would utilize the exising Elqnt p2p framework to provide true mesh exchange.

Thus far the model has essentially been 'an anonymous + peer-to-peer localbitcoins'.  The biggest differentiator between the two of us was that our back-end was completely p2p + anonymous -- the mechanics of actually executing a localbitcoins exchange are challenging if you truly want to maintain anonymity, not to mention the price lag, and the current workflow of Elqnt wasn't going to completely solve the mechanics aspect, but did solve the anonymity aspect.  

However, just in the past few days I've been developing a new idea around mesh exchange utilizing the Elqnt p2p framework.  This is 'The Holy Grail' of Bitcoin exchange and I may have figured out how to do it.

This new track is going to pause the deploy of the exchange because it may substantially change the infrastructure, but with the result of a much better exchange.

I'll post some updates in the coming days.  

In the mean time, if anyone is a solid Android dev, I'd love to talk -- [email protected]

Stephen

If it's peer to peer, who is collecting the money?

Very interesting project. I see this as one of the few solutions for a truly decentralized Bitcoin exchange.

Hey everyone!

A short update on the progress of Elqnt development --

Please give me any feedback, questions, thoughts if you have any!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwgnUbU2-fw

Some of the big things I mention in the video:

1. The entirety of the exchange is going to be open source
2. I'm going to be separately open sourcing the p2p framework I've built for propagation + synchronization (not immediatly, but soon) so that others can build their own p2p + decentralized web + mobile services.  
3. The entirety of the Elqnt exchange will be free!  Individual exchangers might charge a fee/percent, but elqnt itself will be ad supported (at least for now -- exploring other revenue options that might supplement as well).
4. I still have bugs, but I'm hoping the community will help me trace and fix ones that I've not yet been able to squash.  

Again, give me any feedback, thoughts, opinions, etc. you might have!  

It kind of seems folk have grown weary of interest in the length of time it's taken to get this out there, but know that it's coming and close!  

I'm wrapping up persistent messaging and then finishing up the UI and then I'll be going live w/ the alpha!

Best,
Stephen

Elqnt Exchange Update -- 11/16/13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeB2PqI9FDY

Hey,

I recorded another update to show everybody the progress around authenticated listing propagation + synchronization.  

I want to also seriously apologize for how LONG this development cycle has been taking me.  It's honestly been requiring much more work to get it functioning the way I want than I had originally anticipated.  I'm not publicaly setting a specific date (though I have one set in my head) for the go-live, but I'm forging forward daily.  
I'll be calling this an alpha release and I explain a bit more why @ the end of the video.

Please give me any feedback if you have it and I really look forward to getting this live, open sourced, and kicking with real users!

Best,
Stephen

Thanks!  I'm super excited to get it out and it keeps me pumped hearing about others being excited. 

Awesome, can't wait to get your feedback on the codebase when it's out.

Very weird, I was able to duplicate this on my ipad.  In the immediate, watch on your laptop.  I'm digging into it. Could possibly be an issue w/ it having been recorded via hangout, as I've got the settings set for 'all platforms'. 

The simple answer, as the network stands now, is yes - it's vulnerable.  

Three ways that I'm addressing integrity around listing + messaging data right now --

1. I've built in mechanisms to handle user spoofing + spoofed edits of existing listings.
2. I'm going to be limiting the amount of listings a user can post to 1 at launch.
3. I've made the decision (since posting the video) to limit listing posts to 7 days of visibility + messages for those listings to 14 days of accessibility (purged from the network by all peers after that).

Those three measures prevent the majority of attacks in the form of corruption / manipulation and, to an extent, flooding / spamming.

Going forward --

Reputation is the next big functionality that I'm going to be building in after launch.
This will allow us to much more effectively address DDOS + spamming potential in that:
1. Peers can automatically reject messages from peers deemed to be spamming even before any decryption is necessary
2. The peer server can auto-kick users from the network who are spamming

This is an ongoing thought process for me as I continue to engineer the network.  Would love any feedback on the above and/or other thoughts.

Best,
Stephen

The video is not working for me on the iPad YouTube app.

Playback error tap to try again.

@elqntdotorg

Just watched the youtube video. Looks good.
What are your thoughts regarding anti DOS measures? Can the attacker DDOS other users with lots of encrypted meaningless data which the user will then have to decrypt and thus consuming the CPU.
When a user creates a sell offer, does this offer get broadcasted to the whole network? What's preventing attackers from creating fake offers and spamming the system?

Very cool I can't wait to use this! I am also a dev, my skill set is on the side of this, but I will for sure be playing with this when it open sources as well.

Hey all,

I wanted to share a quick video I made walking through the state of development on the exchange.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlrvJfiWZOk

I'd love feedback and I'm pushing hard to get this last set of functionality wrapped up so you can get your hands on it.  

I'm also looking to find some folk interested in jumping in on the project as well.  I'm thinking of structuring it as a rev share between whomever joins in.  If you'd be interested, shoot me a message.

Best,
Stephen

Hey all,

Quick update on my end --

Elqnt is now going to be hosted out of a data center here in SF -- still on our own hardware.  I was able to find space (and the proper bandwidth) to accommodate the loads I'm hoping to be able to handle. 

I'd been capitulating to the idea of cloud hosting over this past week due to the in-house setup not measuring up to what I'd hoped -- not to mention the provider was not reliable enough -- but finding this space keeps things solid in the track of managing and hosting everything on our own hardware for additional control/access.

I'm really pushing to wrap up development in the next few days -- the timestamp on this should be an indication of the long hours   Getting all of the hardware setup in the data center this week set me back a couple days, but is a huge step up in stability + bandwidth. 

Anyways, I'll keep everyone posted as I get ready to push it live!

Stephen

Hey all,

A quick update on things:

It's not looking like I'm going to be able to push the service live today.  I'm super bummed, but it's honestly for the best.  You'd hate the experience if I pushed it live today.

Reasons:

• I want the experience to be very good when it goes live -- it's not there yet.
• P2P Messaging + Listings are working great, but getting persistence of both of those is taking a lot of time to get right -- but it is very close.
• The in-house mapping server didn't pan out.  I simply don't have the optimal hardware for it and I couldn't reach parity w/ other open street map options such as Mapquest.  This didn't delay things persay, but I'm bummed.  In order to do this, it would require another server specifically designed for high IO -- which costs quite a lot.

I also have one other major feature (sort-of) that I've not yet announced (and had hoped to today!), but it will have to wait until Elqnt goes live  

Best,
Stephen