Bitcoin Forum

Dear fellow bitcoiners,

it is time for us to leave all the ponzi drama behind and move our attention to something productive. Where are the digital gold nuggets in the mud of this forum? Let's wash them out with some publicity.

Projects need to be public, nonprofit and open for everyone to join.
Subprojects are ok (e.g. coincontrol for the classic client  ;)).

Please post your candidate for BPM November 2012 now. Voting will start 1st of November and go on for one week.

Not sure yet when the next vote will start.

Former / potential future nominees:


cbitcoin - A Bitcoin Library In The C Programming Language
cbitcoin is a bitcoin library written in standard C99. It is currently in alpha-stage and should only be used experimentally. The purpose of the library is to make it easier for developers to create bitcoin applications and the library should be versatile enough to be used in many bitcoin projects. It is not a client library, rather it provides the basic building blocks of the bitcoin protocol.

The features includes:
Bitcoin message structures including serailisation and deserialisation functions.
A bitcoin script interpreter.
Functions for building and verifying merkle trees.
Basic functions which can be used in various validation models (full nodes, pruning nodes, SPV nodes or whatever).
Asynchronous networking code whcih provides a simple interface to the bitcoin network for sending and receiving messages.
A network address manager
Automatic bitcoin handshakes, automatic peer discovery, automatic pings.
Base-58 bitcoin address encoding.
Simple reference counting memory management.
Doxygen documentation and well-documented source code.
Purely standard C99 with weakly linked function prototypes for cryptography, PRNG and network dependencies.
Implementations of the dependencies using libevent and openssl.

http://cbitcoin.com/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80521.0


OpenPay
OpenPay is a new EMV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV) compatible payment network that rides on top of the bitcoin network, and uses bitcoins as a currency agnostic interchange medium. The end result of OpenPay is that you will be able to spend your bitcoins at any merchant that is able to accept Visa or Mastercard.
For the consumer, OpenPay means you will be able to use an EMV chip & pin smartcard, an NFC capable device such as your smartphone (there will even be a magstripe card option for those of us still in the dark ages) to spend your bitcoins at your local merchant.
For merchants, OpenPay means you will be able to accept payment in your choice of currency (BTC, Local, or other), with no network fees* or fear of charge-backs.  
OpenPay is completely de-centralized, the Open Payment Alliance is a volunteer organization tasked solely with the development of the OpenPay reference implementation and standard. OpenPay's design and reference implementation are completely open, and will be released under the terms of the GPL.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92055.0


MultiBit
MultiBit is a secure, lightweight, international Bitcoin wallet for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Its primary focus is being fast and easy to use, even for people with no technical knowledge. It has a YouTube channel to help you learn the software, and includes helpful features such as an exchange rate ticker. MultiBit supports many languages such as German, Spanish and Greek.
MultiBit synchronizes with the network much faster than Bitcoin-Qt and should be ready for you to use within a few minutes. This is a good choice for non technical users who want an easy to use experience, especially if you use a Mac.
MultiBit is free and open source

http://multibit.org/


BlockViewer
The bitcoin block chain is a virtual accounting ledger which is passed around, appended, and agreed upon by people who are sending numbers to each other.
Blockviewer.com not only attempts to visualize this growing document of debits and credits, but it also attempts to derive more useful and revealing information about it by constructing an ownership network.
It is scraping user's signatures from these forums.  If you have a bitcoin address in your signature, your ownership node will be identified. This means that your single signature address can identify potentially thousands of other addresses owned by you (and addresses that might be redeemed by you in the future).

http://blockviewer.com
https://github.com/thallium205/BitcoinVisualizer


Armory
Armory is an open-source, python-based, wallet-managment platform for the Bitcoin network. It runs on top of Bitcoin-QT and brings a suite of high-power features to the average user, including easy offline wallets and an intuitive interface for managing and spending money from the offline system.

http://bitcoinarmory.com



Hall of Fame

http://bitcoinx.com/pics/bpm_september2012_s.png

Open Transactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions)

Open-Transactions is a solid, easy-to-use, Financial Crypto and Digital Cash LIBRARY, including a working SERVER, API, CLI, and TEST-GUI.
Open-Transactions allows users to issue and manipulate digital assets. Users may create pseudonyms (public keys), issue currencies, and create asset accounts. Users can transfer digital assets securely between accounts (even a server cannot change balances or forge transactions.) Users can also operate "cash-only" (without accounts) for maximum anonymity.
Open-Transactions supports a range of financial instruments, such as cheques, vouchers, and untraceable digital cash. These are all analogous to the same financial instruments that we all use at normal banks today.
Open-Transactions also implements higher-level, contract-based transactions such as payment plans and markets with trades. The markets on Open-Transactions support market orders, limit orders, fill-or-kill orders, day orders, stop orders, and stop limits, just like trading on a real market. OT also supports basket currencies.
All of this is accomplished in such a way that all parties are able to prove, at all times, which transactions have cleared and which instruments are authorized, without having to store their entire transaction history, but instead by merely keeping the last signed receipt.
More featueres: Smart Contracts (scriptable clauses.), Client-side scripting, with full access to the OT Client API.

https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions

Am I allowed to nominate my own project?  :P

I would like to nominate Ponzi scams. They are public, clearly non profit (for investors) and usually open for everyone.

sure, but I go first :D


cbitcoin - A Bitcoin Library In The C Programming Language

cbitcoin is a bitcoin library in development that will use nothing but the standard C library. The aim for this project is to create a simple, portable and powerful library for bitcoin in C. The library should be easy to use but provide many configurable features. Using only standard C, the library should be small, efficient and portable. The library will be low-level such that it will provide a basic abstraction on the bitcoin protocol that enables programmers to make a diverse range of bitcoin applications. The library is not intended to become a simple client interface. cbitcoin may become useful for projects involving embedded devices.

https://github.com/MatthewLM/cbitcoin

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=80521.0

Are the rules too strict? Projects need to be public, nonprofit and open for everyone to join.

blockviewer for example is a nice project, too. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=103609.0


Other projects that come to mind:

http://code.google.com/p/bitcoinspinner/
http://code.google.com/p/bccapi/
http://code.google.com/p/bitcoin-wallet/
armory
electrum
multibit

bitcoin100

BlockViewer.com

Nice idea :)

Good idea to promote the positive work being done.

I wonder if monthly would be too often - would people suffer 'Poll Fatigue' ?
Anyhow that is a minor point and can be adjusted as required.



Edit: I would like to nominate the OpenPay project. The lead dev is Isis and he does not post much (as I suspect he is busy actually building stuff).

In essence OpenPay is a bridge between the world of credit cards/ debit cards and the Bitcoin network. If he can pull off all the internals and get everything working it would mean (in Europe) that you could issue your own debit cards and run the BTC payment software on your phone or home PC. You could use the debit card in any shop and the payment is automagically converted to a BTC payment.

The main threads on it are:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92055.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92055.0)

and

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=105791.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=105791.0)

we can still go down to bimonthly should there not be enough projects or voters. But time goes fast in Bitcoinland.

competition for bitInstant? sounds good!

I nominate Bitinstant's paycard:

http://codinginmysleep.com/6-8-weeks-until-bitcoin-debitcredit-card-says-bitinstant/

I know,  this project was discussed this month a lot - FOR A REASON! It'll make it so much easier to use bitcoins in daily live purchases, lower the entry barrier for a broader public and help bring bitcoin to mainstream adoption.

Let's Vote Instantly!

LOL, let's then nominate all vapourware projects... Remember, these guys have not delivered anything yet!

There already are anonymous visa/mastercards, which you can use pretty easily with bitcoin...

yeah at mad conditions

Also how many projects are mere vapour ware to this date? Some that come to mind:
- ASICs
- Ellet
- Bitcoin card (or whatever that other physical wallet was called)
- kronos.io
- decentralized exchanges
..

Currently commercial projects are not allowed. Should that be changed? Second category?


::)

Thanks for the nomination for OpenPay.  OpenPay isn't in a state right now where I feel it's worthy of the honor of nomination yet, so I'm doubly honored.

Personally I think MultiBit is a much better candidate for project of the month.  It's the best wallet going, hands down.

As for the comment about BitInstant vs OpenPay being in competition.  I don't see there being any real competition.  OpenPay is an attempt to create a whole new payment network similar to MasterCard or Visa using existing tech, to take your bitcoins from cyberspace to meatspace.  BitInstant appears to be attempting to become a card issuer for the MasterCard network.  I think there is far more room for co-operation than competition.  There is a natural symbiosis here.

I do agree that the nominations should include commercial as well as non-commercial projects, but that's up to the OP. ;)

Open Transactions

https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions)

Christ they are all so good.

I love multibit and promote it to everyone i speak to but for nomination it is a tie between

OpenTransactions and OpenPay.

I cant keep my head away from thinking these two projects together are the answer to all life's problems...

I'd second a nomination on OpenTransactions as well.  Even though it's not what we need for OpenPay, it's still a great project with lots of potential.

As far as I understand Open Transactions is not directly Bitcoin related?


Nominee #3: MultiBit
MultiBit is a secure, lightweight, international Bitcoin wallet for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Its primary focus is being fast and easy to use, even for people with no technical knowledge. It has a YouTube channel to help you learn the software, and includes helpful features such as an exchange rate ticker. MultiBit supports many languages such as German, Spanish and Greek.
MultiBit synchronizes with the network much faster than Bitcoin-Qt and should be ready for you to use within a few minutes. This is a good choice for non technical users who want an easy to use experience, especially if you use a Mac.
MultiBit is free and open source

http://multibit.org/

When bitinstant credit card comes to life, I want to be able to vote for it, as it truly will be the project of the month for Bitcoin.

By the way why commercial project aren't allowed?

Well you probably don't understand it very much.

That's why I'm asking.

If you field Multibit, you should also do so with the other wallets, like armory, electrum, etc.

I also would like to see blockviewer in the ring.

Can I nominate myself?  I'm disappointed to see Armory is left off the list, given that it is the only solution out there that provides cold storage in a user-friendly way.  And given the astounding number of compromises that could've been avoided by using cold storage, I think highlighting the fact that cold storage is available with an easy-to-use interface would be extremely valuable to the community.

And it's not like that's the only benefit of Armory.  One-time paper backups (because wallets are deterministic) is another dramatic improvement over Bitcoin-Qt, even though it's not unique to Armory.  And of course there is key importing and sweeping, message signing, GPU-resistant wallet encryption, URL-handling, and watching-only wallets.

While Armory is technically still "alpha", it's due to user interface and setup issues, not security or stability.  I know a few users that keep 1000+ BTC in Armory because it has demonstrated extreme reliability and so far no one has ever lost coins using it.  Not to mention, BitcoinOPX was using it for their financial trading platform (though, they are gone, now).  Armory should be "beta" within a couple weeks, even though most users already treat it as beta+.

Thanks for nominating my project then. ;-)

I think Armory deserves nomination too.

I agree that Armory and OT should be on the list.  

OT may not be limited to Bitcoin transactions but I see it as becoming very important for the Bitcoin economy.

/edit  Namecoin may have that potential as well as OT but I haven't seen much happening with it lately. 

Oh, I just realized this is "project of the month".  I won't un-nominate myself, but I think it makes more sense for Armory to be nominated when it actually goes Beta... probably next month.

By that logic, you should probably state that only projects you understand as a further criteria on the front page then.

cbitcoin now has a website: http://cbitcoin.com/

So it would be good if that was included alongside an updated description for the vote.  ;)

your choice :)

ok, I will put it up and let everyone decide.

as much as I am into Namecoin (see sig) I think it needs to wait for the next big thing.

I contacted thallium205 and it turns out blockviewer is public and nonprofit. Glad to have blockviewer as the next nominee.

Blockviewer is a strong argument to use "coin control". Sounds like thallium is going to pull more info out of the chain and even make it pretty. ;)

There are definitely some major changes coming - basically its going to look completely different.  I also ran out of space on my build server so its really delayed at the moment too - I feel its just really not yet polished enough for all this attention but oh well.  Thanks for nominating it!

You've omitted the Open-Transactions project page link in your OP for some reason ...

https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions)

(it wasn't that difficult to find btw.)

will set up the vote monday morning ~9:00 (european time)

Let me know about any changes you would like in the nomination infos.

Well I have an updated description: https://github.com/MatthewLM/cbitcoin/

cbitcoin is a bitcoin library written in standard C99. It is currently in alpha-stage and should only be used experimentally. The purpose of the library is to make it easier for developers to create bitcoin applications and the library should be versatile enough to be used in many bitcoin projects. It is not a client library, rather it provides the basic building blocks of the bitcoin protocol.

The features includes:

Bitcoin message structures including serailisation and deserialisation functions.
A bitcoin script interpreter.
Functions for building and verifying merkle trees.
Basic functions which can be used in various validation models (full nodes, pruning nodes, SPV nodes or whatever).
Asynchronous networking code whcih provides a simple interface to the bitcoin network for sending and receiving messages.
A network address manager
Automatic bitcoin handshakes.
Automatic peer discovery.
Automatic pings.
Base-58 bitcoin address encoding.
Simple reference counting memory management.
Doxygen documentation and well-documented source code.
Purely standard C99 with weakly linked function prototypes for cryptography, PRNG and network dependencies.
Implementations of the dependencies using libevent and openssl.

So it is a purposeful omission?

If you don't want Open-Transactions on the list, leave it off, it is your contest after all. But please don't be petty about it, it is beneath you Phelix.

No, I forgot it and have you ignored. Thanks for the reminding me, though.

Well I don't know how relevant Open Transactions is yet... We still need to develop it to a more stable state.
However if any developers want to come and sail out onto the brave new waters of Open Transactions.  You are welcome to hang out in #opentransactions on Freenode.net

aka... it would be really cool to have some more developers! :)  Our API is coming along leaps and bounds.  :D :D

To be the Bitcoin Project of the Month it does not have to be finished. BPM is meant to draw attention to interesting projects with potential to help realize them.   :)

I applaud the efforts laid out on this thread, but please don't waste your vote on Bitcoin100 for this particular endeavor because we don't deserve a single vote at this time.

~Bruno~

I was just brainstorming and nobody nominated it. Maybe next time...
edit: the website looks very professional!

Will try to produce a banner tomorrow.

I'm beginning to feel sorry for that poor chap who develops cbitcoin at only 10% in last place.  ;D

To me it is not quite clear what the advantage is of it being in c99. Embedded systems?

Possibly on embedded systems if you can get dynamic allocation to work and implement some of the standard library.

C is one of the most popular languages out there and I like coding with C which is why I'm using it.

I like it, too, but I like Python even better ;)   

Python is reeeeaaaaallllly sloooooooow on OSX for some reason. It's not so bad on Linux or Windows as I've experienced. Maybe it's just my Mac.

banner available here:
http://bitcoinx.com/gfx/bpm_vote.png
http://bitcoinx.com/gfx/bpm_vote_s.png

use & scale as you see fit.

http://bitcoinx.com/gfx/bpm_vote.png

http://bitcoinx.com/gfx/bpm_vote_s.png

Shameless bump for more voters!

Very nice man. Casted my vote.

voting will stop in 3h 45min


For doing this regularly I would like the voting period to start on the 1st of the month. Should we do two quick ones to catch up? Or would be enough to skip October and start the next vote on the 1st of November (for BPM November 2012).

thanks. I just stole Bitboy's original button design, though  ;)

I think my project is a bit too early to prove itself yet. When I get my full block-chain downloader/validator working I think it will create much more interest.

Still got my vote, a good library in staid of rpc calls to client would make development of third party tools a lot easier and adds more flexibility.

Bitcoin Project of the Month 2012-09 is:

http://bitcoinx.com/pics/bpm_september2012_s.png

Open Transactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions)

Congratulations!

I reserved some space on my website to advertise it.

Really nice initiative & grats Open Transactions!

Regarding the criteria for selection of projects - like bitcoin projects should be without borders & international.
While bitinstants card is a really great initiative and, being backed by mastercard means the card will be accepted globally, regulations can be pretty tight around issuing cards to non-residents.

I just wanted to thank you guys for recognizing the project.

I strongly encourage everyone to download it and just play around with it.

Get it up and running with the test data, and play with the GUI as well as the new command line tool.

Notice the command line tool is written in the OT script language (maybe play around with writing your own scripts...)

There's plenty of in-depth technical instructions here:  http://open-transactions-tv.github.com/ (http://open-transactions-tv.github.com/)
As well as on the Wiki: https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/wiki (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/wiki)

Contrary to da2ce7, you shouldn't notice any stability issues. But the best way to get any issues worked out is for people to start using it!

Also we only have a single test server operating, so if anyone else wants to put one up, that would be useful to the project.

yay we won!

Thanks for the vote.

Well done to OpenTransactions which might not specifically be a bitcoin project but compliments bitcoin nicely.

I really like the idea behing OpenTransaction. Congrats guys, you earned it.

Now maybe I will finally install and try to use it :D

http://bitcoinx.com/pics/bpm_september2012_s.png

Open Transactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions)

Thanks to everyone participating!

Will let you know about the next BPM here. Voting is scheduled to start 2012-11-01 with nominations starting two weeks earlier.

Would rather see OT than GLBSE.  OT seems to be a very well thought out system.

Starting now: Nominations for the Bitcoin Project of the Month November 2012

Voting will start on November 1st and go for one week.


Should we automatically include the previous nominees? Each Project can become BPM only once per year.

Is Armory ready?

I would like to suggest Multibit myself as I use it more and more.

pls make a new thread!

P.S.: I nominate the Reddit Tipping Bot (http://www.reddit.com/r/test/comments/11iby2/bitcointip_tip_redditors_with_bitcoin/)

check

why? I think it is better to continue this one because a lot of people interested into bpm have already subscribed. The only problem is that I can not remove the old poll - or can I?

I noticed this interesting development, too. Is it "open"?

Because it gets too messy, because of the poll, you need a new title, because you need to make a new OP,..
Just make a new thread every month and link to the past votes from the front page.


Not yet. reddit is though.

bump!

Unfortunately there is not much happening here currently. Kinda hard to get this thing going without a website and even signature.

Will postpone the next vote for a week, maybe a month.

The Reddit Tipping Bot is now open and on github at https://github.com/NerdfighterSean/bitcointip

The code isn't currently running, but the testruns were promising.  Working on rewriting it in python so it can scale up.

I know I'm a little late, but I finally released Armory beta (http://bitcoinarmory.com/index.php/get-armory).  Try it out, and please consider it for the next round of BPM!

hmm... maybe it's time for bpy 2012

The saga continues: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=251087  ;D