Topic: Mazacoin Weekly Reports (Read 4130 times)

We were pretty busy last week, so we skipped a weekly report. Much has happened in the past 2 weeks!

We moved our website to it’s new home, and updated it! You can now find important news, downloads, meet the dev team, and more from our site. There’s a Site & Services directory, please feel free to drop us a comment there if you have additions or subtractions from the Directory

The old site was briefly compromised by unknown attackers. In what seemed to be a non-directed attack, the mazacoin.org site was defaced and data was erased from the server it resided on. We presume that attackers gained entry via an old email account, either allowing a password reset, or containing a cleartext password. In all, 129K maza were lost to attackers. All data had recent backups, and was restored. This attack came on the very day we moved into our new site. The new site experienced a brief period of DDoS. The team has since moved all mail and other service off the server that was attacked, and we’ve gone through to ensure each account is protected by 2FA. Additional security measures have been put in place. It should not need to be said, but of course, the mazacoin network was not affected in any way, nor were our source code repositories.

Mazacoin has been added to several exchanges recently! You can now trade MZC against BTC, LTC, and DOGE on many exchanges, and mazacoin will continue to be available on MintPal and Cryptsy.

Cryptsy Wallet is down!! The Mazacoin wallet (and approximately 20 other wallets have been offline at Cryptsy for maintenance for a few days. It’s unknown when Cryptsy will restore deposit/withdrawal services.

The subject of the premine has come up in several contacts this past week. At this time, the Dev Team currently controls wallets with approximately 14.4M and 17.3M maza. Of the 17.3M, approximately 16.8M were from the original premine, and an additional 500k has been donated (primarily by mazaclub). Currently, owlhooter (lead dev) controls the 17.3M wallet, and Payu & Rob each have a copy of the 14.4M wallet. At this time, the 14.4M wallet is encrypted, and the password is misplaced. We assure you that none of these coins will be moved without the Dev Team announcing the movement. As we know development has begun on CoPay, we anticipate moving these funds to multisignature wallets as soon as this is available. Finally, it is not clear what the original amount of the premine actually was. Announcements were made of 2 phases of 25M maza each. Unfortunately, the mazachain doesn’t tell this same story. It doesn’t appear that 100% of the announced premine was actually premined (or sent to the correct wallet). We would like to perform a more proper accounting of all these transactions. If you can, or know of someone who can, perform extensive blockchain analysis, please contact the dev team ([email protected])

Mazacore has been released!!! Mazacore is a mazacoin fork of BitPay’s bitcore library. Get yours at https://github/com/mazacoin/mazacore – This library supports other excellent opensource products from bitpay, like their insight block explorer, and insight-API.. This library also supports CoPay, BitPay’s multisignature wallet solution. We expect to see announcements soon from multiple developers using these products.

We have opened a new Developer’s account with the Android Play Store at Google, and are in the final stage of putting the current android wallet into the Play Store. We hope to see this live by this time next week.

Mashable has released their documentary on Mazacoin. While the dev team was disappointed that Mashable chose to focus only on Payu & Pine Ridge, rather than ALL of mazacoin, its community, and the real goals of supporting inter-tribal trade & tribal sovereignty, we do note that the documentary has been generally well received by the public, and has stimulated significant interest in mazacoin.

As a result of the documentary, the dev team has been contacted by several different developers, service providers, and manufacturers. Because mazacoin is such a special coin, with a mission (not a cause), we find supporters of a very different breed than most. Most of our phone conversations include discussions of stewardship, spirituality, and how mazacoin can promote a return to lifestyles more in harmony with each other and the Earth. People believe in the power of mazacoin to become a major force.

As always: Mazacoin needs YOU to grow! We are always in need of more development talent. We need Javascript (nodejs), Java/android, C++, HTML/CSS, and python coders, sysadmins & DevOps professionals, graphic designers, and much more. How can you plug in? You can Join us on #mazacoin & #mazacoin-dev on freenode, submit pull requests to our github repositories, offer accounting or legal services to the team, help extend our social media communications.

This Week:

• Our new WordPress website rolls out today! Find links to core mazacoin software, and other projects the dev team is working on, mining information, and links to find mazacoin services. We'll have all the freshest news, these Weekly Reports, and soon to come, a road map for future mazacoin development. We need more contributors!
  
• New code release: Always, it is the case that projects take longer than expected. We're working hard to not just bring mazacoin up to date with current bitcoin code, but also best practices. We'll be producing gitian builds with this release.
  
• We're also finishing up work on mazacore - a mazacoin port of bitpay's bitcore. This will allow mazacoin service providers to use Insight (block explorer & API) and CoPay!! We're committed to bringing the mazatribe simple multisig capabilities.
  
• We're also finishing up work on mazacoinj. We don't have an expected release date for this yet.
  
• This week we'll have a few additions to our github repos: paper-wallet generator (with BIP38 encrypted privkeys) and the android wallet source.
  
• The Dev Team has been using Skype for communications for some time. We are moving those communications to a more public venue: IRC You can catch us on freenode in #mazacoin or, if you're a developer, please join us in #mazacoin-dev. We will soon have #mazacoin-dev logged for reference.
  

It's been an exciting week. We're still keeping out eye out for the Mashable documentary - make sure you catch that!!

This week:

We've been working out some details for hosting our updated website. Expect to see this launch within the next few days.

We'll be enhancing the dev team's infrastructure along with this website roll out, with more tipping bots, more IRC presence and availability, and more base services for the mazacoin network. Upcoming code releases will follow the website rollout.

A couple of mazacoin faucets have been spotted in the wild. We're always on the lookout for anyone paying out MZC !

Comkort Exchange has added Mazacoin, with MZC/LTC MZC/BTC and MZC/DOGE trading pairs. @ComkortCom https://comkort.com

Moolah has announced that MZC will be available for trading when they relaunch Mintpal. https://mintpal.com

Casheer has announced they will support Mazacoin in their upcoming merchant payment gateway. Continue to support Mazacoin by posting in the MZC thread on forum.casheer.net/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=111 or on twitter @CasheerApp

Evan Engel of Mashable has informed us that the upcoming documentary will be out "before October"!

Have a prosperous and fun week!!

Busy week, with much more than coding development.

Mazacoin codebase update is progressing well, but is taking a bit longer. Work is underway to separate mazacoin diversions from bitcoin-core code to improve future merges.

Paper wallet generator is nearly complete! We need to add some design work, and do a final review. This will be added to the Mazacoin github repository by this time next week.

Hashrate has been steadily increasing, with significantly higher averages and minimums, consistently remaining above 10Th/s, last 2 days avg about 15Th/s with spikes above 20TH/s

We have been investigating the state of the premine, and have sent this information to attorney. This is the first step in getting the Mazacoin Development Foundation set up. The Foundation will control the premined coins. The Dev Team is in direct possession of 31m+ of the premine, and is investigating the disposition of the balance, as well as what the actual original balance was (and should have been). Once the Foundation is fully operational, we will issue a statement about the premine and how it will be handled.

We have received requests from reporters, researchers, and other coin developers for assistance in understanding how cryptocurrency relates to, and can improve the opportunities for indigenous peoples.

A mazacoin documentary, featuring Payu Harris, previewed in NYC last night at the Bitcoin Center NYC. produced by Bianca Consunji & Evan Engel of Mashable! We look forward to seeing the completed work!

Another heavy workweek for the dev team, so it's been fairly quiet from us.

• Newsweek published an article on Mazacoin this week - mostly a positive article, though a little excessive in focus on Anonymous Pirate. We just remind the mazatribe that AP currently has nothing to do with MZC, but is a capable coder. The team is forever grateful to AP for his efforts.
  Read the artice here: http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/tribe-brought-you-custers-last-stand-sitting-bulls-bitcoin-264440.html
  More mainstream publicity is upcoming.
• We've had a productive meeting with the first member of our soon-to-grow legal team. We expect to see legal hurdles that will need to be overcome to build mazacoin into the tribal powerhouse we know it will be. We have a verbal agreement, and assurances that we are a top priority for this firm. We will need to raise funds to cover upcoming expenses. Attorneys may work for free, but their staffs, and courts, do not. Our first order of business is to establish the Mazacoin Development Foundation as a legal entity, so that we can use it as a vehicle for fundraising. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to contribute in any way.
• Codebase update appears to be on schedule. We anticipate release of updated mazacoind and mazacoin-qt next week, around report time. Once this is complete we will put the Android Wallet into the Play Store.
• updated p2pool-maza code was released this week! Now even easier for miners to get started mining with p2pool  This is based on the latest p2pool code from forrestv.
  https://github.com/MazaCoin/p2pool
• Mazacoin.Org website redesign is on schedule. We expect to release this update to coincide with Play Store availability of the Android Wallet.
  
• mazabot on reddit is now active and available for tipping! Send a message to /u/mazabot for instructions. We will expand to Twitter and Facebook.
• we have a unicode symbol for MZC!  ₥
  We have a logo designed to accompany this, but would like more input. Do you feel it's important to use a representation of the ₥ unicode symbol in the logo?
  http://www.animation.fi/mzc_mill_small.jpg
  http://www.animation.fi/mzc_small3.jpg
• The dev team is actively improving Mazacoin's social media presence. We are seeing significant increases in pageviews and engagement.

It's been a very good week for mazacoin. We've had a couple successful giveaways. Markets have taken large hits with the decrease in BTC/USD exchange rates. Mazacoin has performed very well throughout this general slide, actually seeing rallies this past week while most other assets have dropped. Past 48hr volume on mazacoin has seen a significant jump. While we are not focused on MZC/BTC price, we are focused on increasing trade volume. We see this as an indicator of the real and positive developments coming from the Team.

Let's have another ₥agical ₥aza week!!!

This has been a quiet week with a lot of work being completed:

• We have adopted the unicode symbol "₥" for mazacoin
• Mazacoin subreddit has been updated! Tipbot for reddit is up and running!
• We're updating the mazacoin codebase to the latest bitcoin code. This is a major update.
• Mazacoind is updated, and currently undergoing testing. We anticipate release within 2 weeks
• New mazacoin-qt wallet update is underway, with some additional features being planned for this release. We don't have a projected release date.
• We're updating graphics & reskinning the wallets prior to formal release - android wallet will be in the Play Store once this is complete We still hope to meet our target of release next week.
• Infrastructure improvements are also underway - we'll be adding some permanent mazacoin.org nodes and dns-seeders with the new update.
• We are recruiting attorneys to assist with drafting regulations and legislation for Tribes interested in adopting and implementing mazacoin. We would like to provide model regulations to avoid a repeat of the NYDFS "bitlicense" and to avoid barring the majority of interested entrepreneurs from entering the mazacoin service market.
• We have been in contact with several exchanges and service providers to update their contacts with our Development Team, and ensure there is clear communication going forward.

Let's ₥ake ₥aza ₥agic this week!

All in all, it's been a very positive week. Much renewed interest in mazacoin.

• Payu has asked me, guruvan, to assist more with mazacoin development - I'll be helping with communication, and helping support Payu's efforts to bring mazacoin to more tribes, and to persuade the Lakota Tribal Council to formally adopt Mazacoin. We will be assisting the tribes in understanding how they can legally integrate mazacoin into their governmental structure and business.
  
• Android wallet is completing beta testing period. We will register it with the Play Store withing the next 2 weeks.
• Lakota powow was this past week. There was much discussion of mazacoin, and how the tribe can use it to operate more efficiently. Payu says there is definite progress in showing this to the Tribal Council, with more members understanding the potential of mazacoin.
• mazacoind is being updated to reflect latest bitcoin best practices, and mazacoinj is nearly complete.
• Coinpayments.net is Back Online!  - The mazacoin development team is growing! With more help, we will be able to communicate more and more clearly with tribes, traders, exchanges, merchants, and payment/settlement providers.
• More graphics, symbols, and social media presence are available, and coming. Server time has been donated to provide tipbots, which will launch soon, and additional services. - It seems that we're seeing new and renewed interest in mazacoin.
• Payu has been spending time with film crews and interviews! We expect to see some release in the mainstream news and tech blog spaces soon.
• We're working to build some prototype machines and tools for vendors, merchants, and payment processors  - ATMs, scratch cards, paper wallets, and debit cards.
• Mazacoin Development Tools Fund - we are raising some funds to acquire some of the hardware the dev team will need to provide these prototype.
• Mazacoin development foundation - we are in the first stages of setting up a foundation and trust as legal entity

As always, Mazacoin needs you! We have ongoing projects that can always use more minds and hands! Do you have CSS/HTML, C++, python, nodejs, or php skills? We could use you! Are you active in your social media circles? Please, come help spread the message of mazacoin! Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] and I'll get you hooked into the team! Or, just drop by https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=661322.new#new

In our effort to expand our communication with the mazacoin community we will try our best to get a report out to you once per week.

As mazacoin grows there are many different aspects to keep you apprised of:

• Developments with the Oglala Lakota
• Developments with other Tribes
• Technical Developments
• Business Developments
• Important changes with vendors, pools, exchanges, and payment processors
• Commecrial mazacoin services and vendors we become aware of

As some members of the Mazacoin Development Team have commercial interests in MZC, we'll do our best to be fair, and promote everyone's business equally. Let us know if you have a new mazacoin business that the community should know!

In the interest of disclosure:
 guruvan represents ShastaFarEye Prospectors, which operates serveral mazacoin related services, including pools, mazacha.in block explorer, and more
 owlhooter represents cryptoadhd which operates several pools, including an MZC pool.