Topic: MasterCoin: New Protocol Layer Starting From “The Exodus Address” - page 113. (Read 448462 times)

This is great news, but you know the video on the website doesn't to much to introduce new people to mastercoin right?? and people have been asking about such an explainer...

FYI I'm in the "Bitcoin Alternatives" panel today at the Bitcoin Europe conference today, will talk about Mastercoin.

I have a happy announcement to make - mastercoin.org website is launched!
(DNS propagation might take a while)

If you have suggestions for improving the content of the website, please post them here.

I'd like to thank Mich Palmer for taking the time to setup the site, just in time for my talk today

FYI I'm in the "Bitcoin Alternatives" panel today at the Bitcoin Europe conference today, will talk about Mastercoin.

Just a work-in-progress update on my (thin) Mastercoin client.

Yes this is correct, all funds are towards the hiring/ development of mastercoin features. The process of awards has been quite diplomatic thus far

Just a work-in-progress update on my (thin) Mastercoin client.

I've been working on a Mastercoin client that uses a combination of the Mastercoin ruby library and Mastercoin-explorer in order to create a thin-client implementation for Mastercoin. This means that you don't need a local synchronised Bitcoind instance in order to make Mastercoin payments. Right now this is a very centralised solution but once the Alpha version is out I will create a Mastercoin-server project that will enable users to setup their own Mastercoin servers which clients can connect to; think Electrum.
 
All the client requires is a private key of a Mastercoin address and enough Bitcoin balance to create a valid transaction. I just send my first valid multi-sig Mastercoin transaction so I figured this is as good as time as any to show some early wip screenies.




The first real transaction can be found on Mastercoin-explorer and Blockchain.info

There is still a lot of work to do but at least we are getting somewhere. I hope somebody else can send some multisig transactions soon so we can finalise the spec and start working on the next feature

This will be my last post for a while as I will be leaving the country and be without internet for a few days. See you all on monday

It is possible to understand the potential of this project without understanding the technology, but you DO have to have a pretty good grasp of how markets work to understand the explosive potential of MasterCoin. You also need to be able to understand the limitations of bitcoin as it is today.

Putting on my marketing hat for a moment:

Somebody with a background in trading stocks and other assets will immediately grasp how groundbreaking it is to have distributed, unregulated exchange between assets, and the ability to pseudo-anonymously (as anonymous as bitcoin can get) place bets on real-world assets. There is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of money waiting for something like this, and only ~600k MasterCoins.

If, on top of all that, the escrow-backed currencies work as I expect, the real-world applications for distributed currencies with stable values would make MasterCoins yet another order of magnitude more valuable.

The difficulty of understanding the potential of MasterCoin is not a limitation of technical understanding, but a limitation of understanding how markets work (and how freakishly big they are), and a limitation of imagination.

Our ~600k MasterCoins are worth about 12000 BTC at current prices (about $1.5M). MasterCoins don't have a huge market cap right now because there are also a lot of risks. A TON of very real risks from numerous sources (potential competitors, technical risks, security risks, etc). However, I believe we are on track so far to overcome those risks.

Can anybody else add to that marketing pitch?

Thanks.

The address received 4,740 BTC, paid out 411 BTC, final balance 4,329 BTC.

One of the pay outs was to gmaxwell. He is a programmer I think. Do I understand it well that BTCs deposited in exodus address are used / will be used for programming and development of the system. How much of the remaining 4,329 BTC will be used this way?

All the info is in the first posting of this thread: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2841328
The address you're talking about is called the "Exodus address": http://blockchain.info/address/1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P

Thanks.

So there were about 5 - 6k BTC sent to a BTC address (controlled by someone) these BTCs were transferred (split and renamed) and became Mastercoins - so far I get it, I hope.

Does someone have this address so that I can have a look at its historical operations and final balance?

Mastercoins were made by sending bitcoins to the exodus address between 31 July  - 31 Aug. Every bitcoin sent earned the sender 100 Mastercoins + a bonus (10-40% depending on how early you sent them. early bird bonus). All the bitcoins sent made all the mastercoins that are ever going to exist. Roughly 600k mastercoins were "made" and that will be the total number for ever and ever. (+10% for the foundation but maybe that has already been factored in?).

So there is no mining. Right now the only way to buy mastercoins is from another person who has them (there isn't yet an exchange). Im not sure but my guess is that the current valuation is a rough estimate that the price of mastercoin has doubled  (50 coins for 1 btc)

How many of the 600k Mastercoins have already been mined? Are they mined the way BTC is mined or they created in some other way? Where can one buy these Mastercoins? How was the valuation: 600k Mastercoins = 12k BTC arrived at?

I'd just like to bring attention to Retep's proposition at this link and Cunicula's valuable comment regarding derivatives/smart property, in case anyone didn't catch it.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/offer-mastercoin-analysis-and-transaction-specification-design-299679

I really think these things need serious consideration and I'm a bit concerned with the dismissive attitude they have received. The consensus on Retep's ability and knowledge regarding Bitcoin is that of high regard from what I can tell. This seems like a potentially invaluable resource. The white paper is a good outline, but this could provide a more solid framework to build on, giving focus and direction and accelerating development. I'm sure the content of the reports can be optimized so it's effectively aligned with the projects goals, as decided by the board and community. It's at least worth negotiating, even if you don't go down that road in the end.

Regarding Cunicula's comment, is there a plan to consult someone with an economics background to be sure you're building a viable system for the smart property/derivatives? J.R., you said one of the great features of the planned smart property implementation is it's simplicity. Are you professionally qualified to claim viability of the planned design in these type of systems and markets? A well working system is as simple or complicated as it needs to be. To move forward rigidly with your plan, viability be damned because you want a "simple" design, seems like a setup for failure. I realize these aren't absolute priorities at the moment. But they will be in the (near) future and it just feels a bit flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants with the talk about some of this.

You've laid out the basics with the white paper. Personally, I'd expect team building (probably more ad-hoc than structured for the moment, I know) so the goals for the respective parts of the project can be met effectively by those with the most suitable skills and knowledge. The coding contest and everyone doing the work they are is a great start. These considerations could be an important addition.

Again, nice work Tachikoma

Prior to these recent posts I have been explicitly avoiding using remote sources for data.  Forgive the relative naivety of this question if it comes across that way (I'm fairly new to cryptocurrencies) but would this not be considered a form of centralization?  And is that considered acceptable for Mastercoin given it's the presentation layer we're centralizing not the protocol?

Perhaps given recent discussion it may be worthwhile adding this option to the Masterchest desktop wallet also (sorry Tachikoma/JR, not meaning to poach your ideas but they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!!!).  Currently in my desktop wallet settings panel users configure their connection to a bitcoind/bitcoinqt server but it would actually be quite a small amount of work to add in another option to use masterchest.info as a data source if the blockchain is not available locally (especially since they use the same transaction engine/data structures).  If Tachikoma and I were to standardize a JSON-RPC API then we could offer users a choice of web services for remote data sources which would be even better.

As always appreciate comments/feedback - thanks

Holy crap! Tachikoma strikes again!

Did you see the post I JUST MADE about how to do thin clients?! It's like you're reading my mind! (Are you?)

1. You are putting TBF developers to shame. Last time they released a client with new features was in May (4 months ago) https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2311420 And the most appreciated feature in that release was the new icon and splash screen for Bitcoin-Qt  
What a joke Bitcoin development has become!

2. I get the impression you guys at Mastercoin project are focusing on important features and functionalities that not only make a difference but also are much needed by the users of your system.

3. Keep on!

1. You are putting TBF developers to shame. Last time they released a client with new features was in May (4 months ago) https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2311420 And the most appreciated feature in that release was the new icon and splash screen for Bitcoin-Qt  
What a joke Bitcoin development has become!

It is possible to understand the potential of this project without understanding the technology, but you DO have to have a pretty good grasp of how markets work to understand the explosive potential of MasterCoin.

You also need to be able to understand the limitations of bitcoin as it is today.

Somebody with a background in trading stocks and other assets will immediately grasp how groundbreaking it is to have distributed, unregulated exchange between assets, and the ability to pseudo-anonymously (as anonymous as bitcoin can get) place bets on real-world assets.

There is an UNBELIEVABLE amount of money waiting for something like this, and only ~600k MasterCoins [...]
Our ~600k MasterCoins are worth about 12000 BTC at current prices (about $1.5M). MasterCoins don't have a huge market cap right now because there are also a lot of risks.