We are excited to announce that our team has finalized a release candidate blockchain for BlockShares as well as an accompanying basic branded B&C Exchange client. As a result we are now ready to begin distributing release candidate BlockShares to owners. To start with, here are the B&C Exchange client downloads and source code:
Download (Windows)Download (Linux)OS X download coming soonSource CodeThere are three different ownership groups outlined in our original announcement, and each group will have a slightly different method of acquiring their release candidate BlockShares.
1. NuShareholders All NuShareholders who held NSR at the end of July 3 UTC are entitled to a proportional amount of BlockShares. Just like Peercoin dividends have been automatically distributed to NuShareholders, BlockShares have also been distributed as a dividend.
Users can redeem their BKS by downloading the B&C client and then selecting File > Import NuShares Wallet. An updated BKS total will then be displayed in the client. Minting begins at 18:00 UTC today (11 July)
2. BlockShare purchasers If you purchased BlockShares directly you will soon receive a request for BlockShare addresses that you would like to receive your BlockShares at. To do this, you will need to download the B&C Exchange client and generate a few new BlockShare addresses to send to the B&C Exchange team. After we receive those addresses, BKS will be sent as soon as possible.
In the interest of ensuring a quick and fair distribution, please make sure that you do not send BlockCredit addresses by mistake. BlockShare addresses are those that begin with the number “8”.
3. Bitcoin holders This will be delayed until we have Bitcoin signers set up. We cannot distribute to Bitcoin holders until the exchange is operational.
Caution: The blockchain is a only a release candidate
This is a release candidate blockchain, which means that it may not be the final production version if problems with the distribution are discovered. Once we are confident the distribution was completed properly and the network proves to be stable, we will promote the release candidate blockchain to production status. We expect this process to take a couple weeks.
No one should be a buyer of release candidate BlockShares from individual sellers because there is a chance the blockchain could be discarded and a second release candidate would be used with BlockShares distributed based on the centralized ledger we possess. Accordingly, exchanges should not be listing BlockShares during the release candidate period. If you wish to purchase BlockShares during the release candidate period you should buy them directly from B&C Exchange so that the transaction appears in the temporary centralized ledger that would be used in the case that a second release candidate blockchain becomes necessary.
This initial distribution is the first step towards our goal of making B&C Exchange the best decentralized exchange in the world. While this release has none of the planned trading functionality included, it does allow BlockShareholders to own a liquid equity asset and to contribute their thoughts on development priorities through motions.
Going forward, the features described in the design paper will be developed in many iterations which will be individually applied to the test network in a sequential manner. Once a functional exchange has been built on the test network, we will update the production network with all the changes at once. At the moment we are working on two independent iterations in parallel. Sigmike is developing the reputation system, including its voting and block reward subsystems. Giannis will be developing the other voting items unique to B&C Exchange, which include number of confirmations required for each blockchain, number of signers required for transfers for each blockchain, total number of signers for each blockchain and max trade sizes for each asset. All voting can be configured manually or by data feed.
After those iterations are complete, we will begin to implement the messages unique to B&C Exchange as described in the design paper.