I like the idea of contests, as well. I’d love to see some good cool videos that can explain how someone can easily create an asset out of thin air using Omni ;-)
I shared some of this on the subreddit earlier, but thought this audience would appreciate it as well.
We shifted development focus at the end of December to bring live the STO (Send-To-Owners) feature on mainnet. This is where an issuer can send a proportional amount of their token to all holders based on amount held in a single transaction. It was a release obligation for an issuer who will be doing their crowdsale and issuance later this month, and needed this feature live to do so. We’ve got a few more days of testing before we tag this release (0.0.9) and send out the daemon to integrators. This also brings the codebase in line with Bitcoin Core 0.9.3. I’m hoping we can immediately follow this daemon release with the Windows UI build - likely first for testing and then a wider audience. Some of us have been using it internally (in place of Bitcoin Core), and the final few bugs are getting worked out. I really like it. :-)
Once this is done, focus will resume on two things:
First and foremost the DEx (decentralized exchange). We’ve taken a huge amount of input from professional traders on the types of functionality that this will require so that they can use it for their needs. Protocol wise, it’s extremely elegant - it’s a single transaction type (“I want to exchange this many of such and such for this many of such and such), and all matching is done automatically. This means that you have the thing you bought the moment it’s matched - single confirmation exchange. The types of calls that you can make against it are exactly what professional traders use on traditional exchanges. We were about 90% done with verifying the matching logic before we switched over to STO, so it’s pretty close. This is one of those things that has to work perfectly the moment it goes live - so we’re not taking any chances on it. You can check out the testing procedures here:
https://docs.google.com/a/mastercoin.org/spreadsheets/d/1oL2jGfG3BwslURyDTYNvM6Z2p79ux46NmwcXDYleEbgThe DEx is important for many things, but the thing that excites me the most is what happens when you combine a Bitcoin-blockchain-based decentralized exchange with Tether. For those who aren’t aware, Tether is the project (formerly called Realcoin) that provides a “fiat-surrogate” token, built on Omni, where one TetherUSD always matches one USD - where the dollars that back the token are held in reserve, used only for redemption. When you combine a token whose value is always constant with a decentralized exchange (such as the Omni Exchange DEx), all of a sudden the entire blockchain knows the value of all the other tokens. Once you allow the market to trade Tethers against MSC/OMNI, or trade it against BTC, a permanent record of that exchange now exists directly on the blockchain. This enables smart contracts - because without it, no one is going to commit to pay 30 BTC over 4 years for a car if the smart contract can’t figure out how much a BTC is worth at the time of each payment. Now the blockchain has this information, and all smart contracts can use that data to price all of the payment conditions. For me, this is huge (not to mention that with Tether you’ll be able to withdraw your fiat balances from exchanges directly onto the blockchain as dollars!).
Happening concurrently is the new Omniwallet UI - and we’d like to have it released in time for BTC Miami. Screenshots available here:
https://github.com/mastercoin-MSC/omniwallet/issues/1137All the while, we’re in near-constant communication with the projects that have integrated Omni Core / Master Core, and those that are doing crowdsales or token issuances. We’ve got a a lot of interesting projects in the pipeline, and they rely on the team’s expertise to get it done. We’re forming solid relationships with some truly innovative individuals and groups, and I am really looking forward to what we’re going to accomplish this year.
The shift to the Omni Foundation from the Mastercoin Foundation is happening this month as well - giving the codebase back to the community that uses it. Those who participated in the original Mastercoin crowdsale trusted this team with the funds necessary to get us to where we are today, and we have and will continue to deliver. Integrators such as Bitfinex, Expresscoin and GoCoin have all exclaimed not only how easy it is to integrate Omni Core into their systems, but that they had no idea how powerful of a platform we had built until they plugged it in. One exchange CEO told me “this is amazing - it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, it’s easy, and I’ve barely scratched the surface." Now they’re looking at even more ways to use Omni.
Mastercoin was the first meta layer on the Bitcoin blockchain, and is the most widely deployed and robust environment for creating and issuing assets on top of Bitcoin, and the assets created on the platform are worth more than all of the other meta assets value combined. I’m extremely proud of this team, and I hope that the wider community begins to appreciate what’s been created.
Craig
But still please keep us to know what there happen.