Killiz, those are some good points. I should point out that I can see how BTCat misinterpreted your post, as I got the wrong impression too when I initially read it
Anyway, all said with good intention, so let's concentrate on moving forward.
Guys,
I'm tired as hell due to following the election here in the UK, so please excuse any fuzziness in my text below.
I appreciate that a lot of the discussion takes place in private, and addressing that makes a lot of sense. Crypto in general seems to be quite 'protectionist' as many developers are worried about their work being copied before release. However, I don't think that's the correct mentality, especially if Crypto is to succeed. We need to work together as much as possible as there will be countless external threats to our existence in the future, I'm sure. Communication with the community hasn't been particularly great of late (on my part at least), so let's look to address that. I will aim to provide a weekly update from this point forward. Feel free to give me a nudge now and again
The team and the community is what initially attracted me to CryptoBullion and that still stands. We have some great people here and we should concentrate on working together and helping each other as much as possible in order to ensure the future success of CryptoBullion. The 'active' Core Team is indeed small and could certainly do with the injection of some new blood and renewed enthusiasm.
As Elambert mentioned, the Core Team (primarily Elambert, BTCat and myself) are working on CBX in our own time, without any payment and I'm sure you can appreciate many of us have families to feed and general day-to-day expenses to cover, which can make life a little stressful from time to time. The lack of funding of course affects the pace of development as we need to do other work in order to generate income. The continued fall in bitcoin value has also compounded this issue. The lack of a development and marketing budget also means that the Core Team has to personally fund things for now, so it's actually costing us to develop CBX. This is the fact of the matter and unless we look to raise some funding, this is how we're going to have to continue for the time-being.
With honesty and openness in mind, I'd like to lay out some of my thoughts in regard to the current situation and future hopes/goals for CBX. I think it's important to focus on negatives and shortcomings too, so that they can be discussed, addressed and resolved. I foresee a continued discussion leading to a short-list of features to be developed, which we can prioritise as a community according to time-required, importance and potential positive impact.
Blockchain BloatOne of my major personal bugbears with CBX is the ever increasing block count. Since PoS kicked in, the size of the blockchain has grown and grown and block 1,000,000 is now on the horizon. In the medium term, I believe we must look to address this issue by either condensing the blockchain and reducing future bloat or providing the ability to run 'thin' clients that do not require the complete blockchain to be stored locally. I am also inclined to suggest tweaking the PoS block time in the short to medium term as a measure to reduce blockchain bloat until an increase in volume warrants faster blocks.
The initial sync time required for a new CryptoBullion instance is also very slow and I feel this also needs to be addressed in order to make the experience as smooth and speedy as possible for new users.
Proof-of-Stake / Proof of WorkOur current PoS algorithm is not optimal and promotes hoarding of coins and allows users to stake periodically without any real penalty. Periodic staking is not ideal as it does little to improve network security if users are not actively minting/staking on the network. Elambert has spent a great deal of time addressing this and has produced a whitepaper with a proposal for a new and bespoke Proof-of-Stake algorithm to address these issues. I believe it's probably time to share this and open discussions so that we as a community can refine it and start to develop and implement it.
As Elambert has mentioned previously, we are working on incorporating merged mining (AuxPOW) into CryptoBullion, which will allow you to mine other PoW coins (Doge/LTC etc) at the same time as mining CBX. This should encourage more PoW mining and as a result, improve network security and stability.
Utilizing CryptoBullionWhat use are all these coins/currencies? The majority of Cryptocurrencies are merely get-rich-quick schemes or fodder for speculators who have no vested interest in the coin itself. Without a way to utilize a coin, what is its use?
For CryptoBullion to 'break out', it must stand out from the crowd by providing something unique and special. I've been giving this considerable thought and a dedicated CBX marketplace seems like a promising solution to kickstarting a thriving CryptoBullion economy. I've been working on something along these lines for another project, with incorporating the functionality into CBX being in the forefront of my mind. I'm thinking more along the lines of a decentralized EBay than SilkRoad, as I don't think that's a road CBX should travel along (pardon the pun). I think decentralized markets could well turn out to be something of a 'killer app' for cryptocurrency in general and a good fit for CryptoBullion.
The CryptoBullion Community and TeamI believe we really are in this together and in order for CryptoBullion to succeed, we all need to contribute in some way. If you're frustrated with the speed of progress or the lack of communication, please consider what you can do to assist in helping to overcome the issues. We are a friendly bunch and would love for more of you to get involved in some way
Thanks
raizor
TLDR: Let's talk more and plan our next steps for moving CryptoBullion forward together