Topic: [ANN][XEL] Elastic Project - The Decentralized Supercomputer - page 153. (Read 450523 times)

Ok, the contest idea seems to catch some attention, too tired to answer to everything, so here are some not-so-well sortet thoughts:

I think, a contest would be something that should be run when the mainnet is live for quite a while and proves to be stable. This would be the only time to collect XEL anyway and I'd much prefer people having the time to adjust to XEL and try it out before the contest is run, as opposed to starting the contest, basically the very second XEL goes live.

The travelling salesman problem may be a poor example. And you are right, that it is the network solving the problem, so you as a job author may just be extremely lucky or unlucky. Maybe a kind of Olympiad may be a solution, where there are multiple tasks to solve?

I am definitely not the right person to come up with specific tasks. Ideally, it should be something like finding the most accurate solution for a problem, instead of being the fastest to find the right solution(in case of an Olympiad style approach, both way may be feasible, though). Additionally, it should be something, where there is no "ideal algorithm", sorting algorithms may come to mind?

Obviously, the main focus of such a contest should be on using the Elastic network as efficiently as possible. This would include, that every contestant has a publicly known account, which can be observed, as well as a fixed number of XEL.
I thought about sandboxing the whole thing, as in running it on a testnet, but this would not show off the computational strengths of the Elastic Network as a whole.



Don't mistake a loud voice for a smart voice

Seriously though, to be completely honest, I don't feel comfortable with holding large amounts of money I don't own. I would use a reputable escrow for that, especially since I am not really a known or trusted entity in this forum. I wouldn't send me money and that is what escrows are for.

If it comes to things like writing out contest rules, setting up timeframes and so on, I might find time to do something like that.

But as mentioned earlier, we would need people to actually come up with tasks for the contest. Any suggestions?

Clivemy, that sounds workable as an approach which university departments could appreciate.  I could see a few professors encouraging their students to take part, for instance.  (A different but slightly analogous contest happened when I was in school, in one engineering class where there was an extra credit contest, with an external sponsor, to come up with the best way of transferring irrigation water in a remote South American village).

One concern would be ensuring potential participants know that what is being offered has much value, since a given amount of XEL won't mean much if not knowing what XEL is worth.  But that is easily solvable, if promotional communications mention what XEL is equivalent to at the time.

How about a contest where the winner gets 'x' amount of free processing power on the network?  So we could ask for projects that are 'worthy' of being given free processing power on the network, up to a value of $5,000 - $50,000 in XEL (depending what the community agrees) and approach universities and scientific journals to make them aware of the contest.

That way we don't have to create use cases, the applicants create the use cases by applying.  We'll need someone that's technically competent to say where an entry is technically valid and therefore a 'use case' and the best potential 'use case'. which shows off the potential of Elastic and is deemed worthy of getting the free processing power by the judges, wins.

Since the contest will take some time to run, hopefully Elastic will be listed on exchanges and we will be able to ascertain how much XEL needs to be contributed by the community to fund the reward.

That would seem possible as a contest, if giving out prizes to such as the top 1 or top 5 submissions.  Each submission would show working code in the Elastic programming language, while finding and demonstrating an use case where Elastic exceptionally exceeds other alternatives on something particularly useful.

(Presumably the niches of Elastic are where it has much increased performance on some problems, compared to a single personal computer, while being a lot cheaper and more conveniently accessible for many users than a conventional centralized supercomputer).

Judging the most useful and best submissions would be tricky, but a small panel of several people volunteering as judges might make a reasonably fair attempt, if each judge had some reputation and expertise (again, probably drawing from universities).

Since that metric of success is somewhat subjective, perfect judgment may be impossible, but it does not have to be perfect, as long as competitors feel the judging is decent enough to take part.

After all, there have been contests elsewhere which are even more subjective (such as awards for top artist submissions, or top engineering concept designs).

nobody cares about ico price any more. I think when elastic network will work you can expect minimum x20 this price....

I like the idea of a contest, but I'm not really sure how it would work.  The TSP example that was mentioned is just an approach to solving a problem...even if you came up with a TSP example to solve for 10,000 cities or something...it's the network that actually solves the problem.  The author just codes the algorithm...they don't solve anything.

Maybe a different way to look at this would be to come up with some sort of incentive for authors to create different types of basic examples that could demonstrate various use cases for xel.  That might draw in some outside groups to take a look at xel to see what it is capable.

I would donate once there is a bitcoin address to do so.

While up to the community, I would see four near-term purposes for the donations pool described in my prior post:

1) Helping ensure an orchestrated mainnet launch

2) Then helping get Elastic listed on exchanges, paying exchange fees

3) Funding a contest, like the contest proposed by Ttookk

4) Fueling other marketing efforts, such as semi-paid volunteers systematically contacting university after university, an idea related to what someone else proposed a while back

Manage #1 through #4 well, and this could take off greatly and fast, leading to more coders and technically skilled volunteers arriving, along with general community expansion.  (EK said he might pay one exchange fee himself, but, as generous as he has been, the proposed donations pool would actually aid decentralization by making such funding not dependent on a single person -- and, besides, EK presumably couldn't pay everything else by himself, not that he should have to do so).

Golem misses a truly gem like EK!

Sounds like a good idea.

Naturally, we can't promise "there is a reward of X bitcoins for ..." in a contest unless X amount is already collected and ready.  And I don't think any single person here can fund everything solo.

So, to best do anything like the contest (and much else), there should be an Elastic donations fund, as in some Bitcoin address and some Elastic address which accept donations from a number of people.  The latter could not be set up until after Elastic goes live on the mainnet.  The former could be set up anytime, even now.

That means there needs to be one or more donation funds coordinators, in terms of people acting to set such up and manage it, giving out appropriate reward payments.

Myself (and probably other would-be donators) would be fine with donation fund coordinators receiving a small fee for their efforts, like an escrow: maybe each 0.5 Btc plus 2% of the amount received in the future over time (a fee perhaps adding up to a number of Bitcoins over time if Elastic becomes large eventually).

A small funds pool might be managed by a single person with some reputation, or a larger funds pools could use a 2-of-3 multisignature wallet with 3 people.

For those 3 people, probably there should be at least one person from among top original contributors (such as Evil-Knievel, Unvoid, Coralreefer, ImI, and/or ... you). Selsonblue and Clivemy have already volunteered for other tasks and might be willing.  While debatable whether or not needed, a professional escrow from elsewhere on Bitcointalk could probably also be found willing to help out for a 2% fee or something.

As one of the original contributors to Elastic's development, you personally being involved with those two wallets could be helpful.

Do you volunteer?

Sorry, I'm not trying to seem pressuring, since of course you are not obligated, but getting anything going requires someone specific.  The workload wouldn't have to be all you alone, as others (such as Selsonblue) seem to be ready, but you being involved would lend the aid of reputation as an original contributor.  (Of course, any other original contributor reading this could volunteer too or instead, but there aren't that many).

Disagreement with the logic in my post is possible, naturally open for debate, but it seems reasonable: To give out funds for a contest, beyond what a single donator can cover, some funds have to be pooled.

XEL is far better than golem...

XEL is already been finished. and Golem is still POC

Waiting for more details.

Must believe the community will bring you unexpectable surprise.
good developer.

XEL is better than Golem..i think time will prove this.

1 USD
But this is only speculation.

golem  : total supply 1,000,000,000 GNT
current price:$0.038/0.00003693 BTC

elastic : total supply 100,000,000 XEL
current price:?

i think you have more potential than golem

Thank you for your time explaining.

Golem is @ 33 mill market cap currently. The amount of coins has nothing to do with market cap (same market cap can divide on 25 mill coins or 100 mill coins or more, makes no difference besides the change of price per coin). What mainly determines market cap is how attractive a project is in many different regards (what is currently considered the new fab (changes from time to time), tech quality and promise, dev work, progression rate, stability, communication with community and pr work, important affiliations and prominent figures, liquidity in the market and trading outlets, and more).  xel can reach 25 mill market cap and more based on several of these mentioned factors, if seen as attractive enough by enough people and trading outlets. The fact that Golem is currently at 33 mill is positive when trying to make valuations compared to similar field projects. I think that this field is yet to have it's real days in the sun (and it will happen, with several projects running side by side offering alternatives).

These are fine ideas, a competition will be nice. I am sure there are several directions to raise awareness and increase outreach and traction.
I would love to see serious scientists and academia using this system to answer real need for computational resources in their work.

if Golem has $25 million market cap with 1 billion shares, XEL with 100 million shares should have much more market cap . Please feel free to correct my calculations!