Bitcoin Forum

I was a developer for Bitmark since early 2017. I created most of the protocol changes that transformed it from a simple SCRYPT chain to an 8 algo chain with full merge mining support. The idea is to create a decentralized reputation platform or a web of trust. Right now it mostly functions as a highly secure and reliable (http://explorer.bitmark.co/plots/) blockchain for use as a currency or for embedding data in transactions. The leaders of the Bitmark development team now want to release a fork that would only serve to manipulate the price from the supply side and that would obviously and permanently harm the value of Bitmark (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3169983.180).

I have some ideas on how to build a meaningful web of trust (https://github.com/project-bitmark/bitmark/wiki/Marking-Protocol). It would rely on a sort of betting market, similar to how Truthcoin/Hivemind works, but I would like to start with something very simple (but still powerful), and focused entirely on building a web of trust, one "web" for each "category" that someone "funds". And each web would be like a function that depends on the user of that web (initial assumptions are needed as to who you trust in order to create your personalized web of trust). I think this would be a good first step in creating a truly decentralized and meaningful search engine, where people can quickly access information they find useful based on who they have "marked" in the past as reputable for whatever category (and those who were marked would mark others, and you may trust their marking judgements to some degree as quantified in your markings).

I can launch a new "coin" and have it be traded with other "coins", but I am now leaning more towards the idea of just using bitcoin as the currency, and place the chain a sidechain of Bitcoin. Yes there are still trust issues with how sidechain coins are unlocked, but since the point of this project is to create a reputation platform, I think solving the "who is reputable enough to unlock coins" problem could be a first step. A category for that can be created and then whenever someone wants to add funds to the sidechain, they would have to for example, use 2 signing keys from the "top 10" most reputable keys from that category, and they can use 1 from whoever they want, and to unlock would need 2 out of 3. The top 10 can be constructed based on how much fees are paid to bet on or donate to those keys overall. If this all works, and miners get comfortable with the system, then it can perhaps be used for introducing new sidechains (let them use this sidechain to determine who can be trusted for unlocking coins). I realize that in the future more efficient zero knowledge proofs will allow for a trustless use of sidechains, but for now this can be a good alternative.

A lot of the implementation ideas are rough, but I hope it makes sense and if there is enough interest, then people can help me build something that would strengthen the value of Bitcoin, and further decentralize mining (what sidechains do). I have an idea for the name, but I will save that for later :)