James, I was wrong.  I owe not only you an apology, but aldrin, pouncer and neer.g an apology as well. 

Reading your post made me realize I had made a mistake lumping the NXT donations you received from your patrons into the same category as unclaimed NXT controlled by CfB.  Pushing for committee control of all of this NXT as I did in my "committee summary" post is totally inappropriate, and I see that now. 

CfB, as original owner of the unclaimed NXT, has set the terms for its disbursement.  Those terms were to set up committees to administer it for the good of the NXT community.  It is totally appropriate for the NXT community to vote on who and how many should be on those committees.

Aldrin, pouncer and neer.g, as original owners of their donated NXT, also set the terms for its disbursement.  Those terms were for James /jl777 to use it as he personally saw fit to implement as many as possible of his endless stream of good ideas.  This is effectively a private contract between individuals.  It is totally INappropriate for the NXT community to vote on anything that would interfere with such a private contract and dilute James' intended spending authority under the terms of that private contract. 

I made a mistake in initiating such a vote, and I am sorry.

When I make a mistake, I will admit it as soon as I recognize it, and then do everything I can to correct whatever mess I have made.  Accordingly, I have frozen the poll I started and I will go back and edit my posts to delete this proposal I made.  I believe my error here will soon be forgotten outside of this circle.

Inside this circle, I want to say that I think James is a true fountainhead of good ideas and is doing a great job of implementing them, and funding his efforts is one of the best ideas of all.

-rickyjames

James, I was wrong.  I owe not only you an apology, but aldrin, pouncer and neer.g an apology as well.  

Reading your post made me realize I had made a mistake lumping the NXT donations you received from your patrons into the same category as unclaimed NXT controlled by CfB.  Pushing for committee control of all of this NXT as I did in my "committee summary" post is totally inappropriate, and I see that now.  

CfB, as original owner of the unclaimed NXT, has set the terms for its disbursement.  Those terms were to set up committees to administer it for the good of the NXT community.  It is totally appropriate for the NXT community to vote on who and how many should be on those committees.

Aldrin, pouncer and neer.g, as original owners of their donated NXT, also set the terms for its disbursement.  Those terms were for James /jl777 to use it as he personally saw fit to implement as many as possible of his endless stream of good ideas.  This is effectively a private contract between individuals.  It is totally INappropriate for the NXT community to vote on anything that would interfere with such a private contract and dilute James' intended spending authority under the terms of that private contract.  

I made a mistake in initiating such a vote, and I am sorry.

When I make a mistake, I will admit it as soon as I recognize it, and then do everything I can to correct whatever mess I have made.  Accordingly, I have frozen the poll I started and I will go back and edit my posts to delete this proposal I made.  I believe my error here will soon be forgotten outside of this circle.

Inside this circle, I want to say that I think James is a true fountainhead of good ideas and is doing a great job of implementing them, and funding his efforts is one of the best ideas of all.

-rickyjames

Somebody would have to be f@#King insane to use this service.  Hey, nothing personal, Passion_ltc !

Nevermind.

Klee has been designated as the treasurer of the infrastructure team.  As treasurer he has no say on the committee's decisions of what projects to fund.  Also, the official membership of all the committees is currently an open slate.

I am a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.

The misunderstanding has motivated me to generate the following: 

 ********* BEGIN COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7)  ************

What follows is a summary of organizational activity which has occurred during the first five days of the NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0 .   It was begun as a spinoff by the participants of the 1500+ page Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT) at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.31800 (where all the kewl NXT kids hang out).

The motivation for the NCNTTFC thread is that there are currently 9M of unclaimed NXT left over from the Genesis Block that are currently under control of Come-from-Beyond.  He has stated he will destroy these unclaimed 9M NXT  funds on April 3 (by "sending them back to the Genesis Block") unless the NXT community organizes a community funding committee structure that can accept and use them for the betterment of NXT.

So far activity on this thread has had the following activity, in roughly chronological order.  If somebody thinks I have left out or misrepresented something of significance, let me know and I will come back and edit this post accordingly.

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE MEMBER NOMINATIONS:

Jean_Luc was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Come_from_Beyond was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later declined to serve)
Joefox was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)   
rickyjames was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later requested membership on the infrastructure committee) 
salsacz was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)   
Nifty was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture  (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)   
Anon136 was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata for the tech / dev  committee)
Klee was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
opticalcarrier was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the infrastructure committee) 
msin was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture 
pinarello was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Pouncer was first nominated to a committee by Landomata
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Allwelder  was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Uniqueorn  was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee) 
VanBreuk was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve as unqualified)
EvilDave was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve unless truly needed)
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
Passion_ltc was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
l8orre was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
jl777 was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles (and later requested membership on the tech/dev  committee) 
buybitcoinscanada was first nominated by EvilDave (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee)
brooklynbtc was first nominated by brooklynbtc (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)   
jefdiesel was first nominated by brooklynbtc
bitcoinpaul was first nominated by NxtChg.com (who later declined)
2Kool4Skewl was first nominated by LiQio
nexetrn was first nominated by fmiboy
smaragda was first nominated by Coinonaer 
landomata was first nominated by Coinonaer
PeercoinEnthusiast was first nominated by Coinonaer  (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee)
Davetrouser was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
Wesleyh was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
laowai80 was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
ferment was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
Tai Zen was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
Utopianfuture was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
EmoneyRu was first nominated to a committee by EmoneyRu (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
mww was first nominated to a committee by rickyjames (specifically, the marketing committee)

Utopianfuture also received a vote of no confidence from Uniqueorn (because Uf is working on a clone)

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE STRUCTURE PROPOSALS:

The structure for the proposed committee(s) themselves have evolved during discussion from:

a single group of 5 or 7 receiving all 9M unclaimed coins; to

two groups of 5 or 7 : marketing and development with a 6M / 3M split of unclaimed coins (assumed by NxtChg.com); to

three groups of 5 or 7: marketing / development / infrastructure with a proposed 5M / 3M / 1M of unclaimed funds (first proposed by James - jl777)

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE TREASURER SELECTION:

Further discussion on committee structure / funding levels was shelved after the above consensus reached (primarily by no challenge to James' proposal except by Nxt.Chg).  Attention turned on selecting committee treasurers for the proposed so CfB could go ahead and transfer the unclaimed 9M NXT to them, as he has pledged to destroy them on April 3 if no accounts had been set up to receive them. 

These Treasurers will have no vote on committee decisions and will disburse finds as directed by their committees.  They exist as a safeguard to provide centralized accounting of a committee's expenditures.  They have been deemed high-trust individuals and will have sole access to their committee's funds.  Identification and verification of real-world identities has been proposed but not agree upon.

By general consensus the following committee treasurers have been selected.  Come-from-Beyond has expressed a willingness to transfer the outstanding 9M in unclaimed NXT to these individuals as soon as all committee treasury account numbers are available:

Fund: NXTmarketingfund
Treasurer: neer.g
Account: pending
Ledger: pending

Fund: NXTtechdevfund
Treasurer: Pouncer
Account: 10979837763882063
Ledger: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoE8nAOEMIa7dFFnWjRNYTM4RkhsN3dRRXFBaTBiaHc#gid=5

Fund: NXTinfrastructurefund
Treasurer: kLee
Account: 10979837763882063
Ledger: pending

********* END COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7)  ************

Above was a summary of historical activity.  What follows are my personal proposals and personal opinions based on where we are at so far in this committee organization process.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 1 - All treasurers should prepare paper backup copies of their account passwords, place these in stamped postal envelopes addressed to other treasurers, and place these backup envelopes at a safe off-site location such as a bank deposit box.

Rationale: I implemented this voluntarily when designated as treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund, and my envelope is currently addressed to James / jl777.  This proposal is just plain and simple a good idea, because you never know when....

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 2 - The NXTcommunityfund should establish itself as a fourth committee separate from the NXTmarketingfund / NXTtechdevfund / NXTinfrastructurefund, with James/jl777 adding additional members to moderate his current sole discretion on the disposition of these funds.

Rationale:  I am treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund whose balance currently stands at 2,679,156 NXT, and I will send this NXT wherever James/jl777 tells me to because that is the job I signed up for.  However, I do not think it is "right" or "fair" to be setting up other committees that are required have multiple members for funding decisions while leaving James as sole decision maker on an equally important and sizable fund.  However, as a mitigating circumstance, this NXT was specifically donated due to James' fundraising efforts to support the kind of whirlwind across-the-board ideas he generates seemingly non-stop.  To recognize this special nature of the NXTcommunityfund, I would suggest that its board be limited to 3, not 5 or 7, and that James pick who he wants to sit on this committee with him.  (Probably not Nxt.Chg, altho that would certainly be interesting..

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 3 - The 610,019 NXT currently in NXT Marketing Account 2037401990853753795 should be voluntarily surrendered immediately by account owner (I think Salsacz) to neer.g, the Marketing Committee Treasurer.

Rationale:  NXT Marketing account transfers can be viewed at http://87.230.14.1/nxt/nxt.cgi?action=3000&acc=2037401990853753795&offset=1&filter=1.  Spreadsheet documenting the transfers to and from this account is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgAGADgnQcrtdHRrV3V3Z1lzOXVEMWtqdElUaEtqV1E#gid=15 .  They don't match, and in particular the spreadsheet does not meet GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards. 

There have been 1,118,709 total NXT donated to the marketing account, yet it appears the spreadsheet only documents 1,012,710 NXT  being donated to NXT marketing - a difference of 105,999 NXT.  This difference between actual and recorded donations (almost a 10% shortfall) is unacceptable.  Organization of the spreadsheet only confuses rather than highlights where the NXT has gone.  Further disbursements from this account should not be made by people actively generating marketing materials and involved in marketing activities.   Auditing should be undertaken to determine where the 105,999 NXT unaccounted for by the spreadsheet has gone.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 4 - Unclaimed 9M NXT should be divided equally between marketing / tech-development / infrastructure committees at 3M each

Rationale:  OK, I admit it, this is a personal plug for something I feel is important - bumping up the funding for NXT infrastructure.  In the discussion on the committee thread, this started at zero and was bumped up to 1M NXT by James to Nxt.Chg's surprise.  I think infrastructure is just as important and needs just as much funding as marketing /  further software development and here's why. 

(1) We already have a lot of newbies getting the shock of realization that PoS means low amounts of NXT aren't going to forge get-rich-quick amounts of NXT on cheap Raspberry Pis instead of expensive ASIC rigs.   
(2) Discussion on this thread is casting into doubt the ability of Raspberry Pi and smartphones to participate in NXT forging anyway as the transaction rate gets higher and the blockchain gets bigger.   
(3) We have voted to drop the NXT transaction fee by a factor of ten, which is supposed to be the main motivator and financial incentive to set up infrastructure nodes in the first place. 
(4) We are getting increasing reports from the Good Samaritans who went all-in on NXT during the December DDoS attacks and set up lots of VPNs that their expenses - especially bandwidth expenses - are WAY more than they had bargained for or can maintain as a personal commitment to NXT. 

All of these factor point towards a total rethink about what infrastructure is needed to support NXT and just how much it is going to keep it running FOREVER.  People are not being motivated by forging to add personal nodes to the network, and cheap nodes are looking more and more unlikely.  Both the infrastructure and the finances required to keep NXT going are going to end up being larger than we think now, only three months in with a tiny active network.  And yes, I admit I want to be on the infrastructure committee as a voting member and push for a 1000 TPS network (the original NXT spec!!!) if that is all possible alongside our main network.  That's more infrastructure expense, but if we succeed, it is EXACTLY what will make people sit up and notice NXT.  And send the price to the moon.


RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 5 - Voters on funding committee nominations should not be limited to the endless Bitcointalk thread participants, but should instead be open to all nxtcoin.org forum members, with an active effort made to include them in these deliberations and consider them for committee seats.

Rationale:  This is in response to a proposal made several times by landomata in the "Funding Committee" thread :

"FINAL OPEN POLL TO PICK MEMBERS WILL TAKE PLACE ON NEXTCOIN.ORG & NXTCRYPTO.ORG.  YOU CAN SIGNUP ON EITHER NEXTCOIN or NXTCRYPTO before the poll start date BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE POSTED ON THE NXT :: descendant of Bitcoin - Updated Information THREAD BEFORE FEBRUARY 2nd.2014"

I (rickyjames) have a little heartburn with the implications of this, and think the committee seats (and votes for them) should be open to anybody that wants to try and get one.  The goal should be to get the people that are best for the job regardless of where they come from in the NXT community.  I believe we should not limit the pool of funding committee candidates to the relative handful of OCD ( ) people like me that endlessly surf the "Updated information" thread or as I call it,  the Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT).  In particular I think we should allow others to join the committees in the future as new and brilliant people join NXT that haven't even heard of it yet.  We are not trying to set up an oligarchy; we want to be open to new people and new ideas as time goes on.

In that spirit, I am cross posting this post in the endless "updated info" thread, the 8-page-because-nobody-is-paying-arrention-to-it "committee nominations" thread, and a completely new post over on nxtcoin.org.  Just call me a pot-stirrer.  One who is a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.

And I am posting polls on my proposals above.  Please vote!!!

Rickyjames Proposal 1:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454420

Rickyjames Proposal 2:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454397

Rickyjames Proposal 3:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454372

Rickyjames Proposal 4: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454327

Rickyjames Proposal 5: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454320

NXT continues to develop at an incredible pace.  If you've read this far, it's because you care about NXT.  Consider applying for a committee seat to help take it further.

NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0

Klee has been designated as the treasurer of the infrastructure team.  As treasurer he has no say on the committee's decisions of what projects to fund.  Also, the official membership of all the committees is currently an open slate.

I am a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.

The misunderstanding has motivated me to generate the following:  

 ********* BEGIN COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7)  ************

What follows is a summary of organizational activity which has occurred during the first five days of the NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0 .   It was begun as a spinoff by the participants of the 1500+ page Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT) at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.31800 (where all the kewl NXT kids hang out).

The motivation for the NCNTTFC thread is that there are currently 9M of unclaimed NXT left over from the Genesis Block that are currently under control of Come-from-Beyond.  He has stated he will destroy these unclaimed 9M NXT  funds on April 3 (by "sending them back to the Genesis Block") unless the NXT community organizes a community funding committee structure that can accept and use them for the betterment of NXT.

So far activity on this thread has had the following activity, in roughly chronological order.  If somebody thinks I have left out or misrepresented something of significance, let me know and I will come back and edit this post accordingly.

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE MEMBER NOMINATIONS:

Jean_Luc was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Come_from_Beyond was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later declined to serve)
Joefox was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)    
rickyjames was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later requested membership on the infrastructure committee)  
salsacz was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)    
Nifty was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture  (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)    
Anon136 was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata for the tech / dev  committee)
Klee was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
opticalcarrier was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the infrastructure committee)  
msin was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture  
pinarello was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Pouncer was first nominated to a committee by Landomata
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Allwelder  was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Uniqueorn  was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee)  
VanBreuk was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve as unqualified)
EvilDave was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve unless truly needed)
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
Passion_ltc was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
l8orre was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
jl777 was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles (and later requested membership on the tech/dev  committee)  
buybitcoinscanada was first nominated by EvilDave (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee)
brooklynbtc was first nominated by brooklynbtc (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing  committee)    
jefdiesel was first nominated by brooklynbtc
bitcoinpaul was first nominated by NxtChg.com (who later declined)
2Kool4Skewl was first nominated by LiQio
nexetrn was first nominated by fmiboy
smaragda was first nominated by Coinonaer  
landomata was first nominated by Coinonaer
PeercoinEnthusiast was first nominated by Coinonaer  (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing  committee)
Davetrouser was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
Wesleyh was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
laowai80 was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
ferment was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
Tai Zen was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
Utopianfuture was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
EmoneyRu was first nominated to a committee by EmoneyRu (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
mww was first nominated to a committee by rickyjames (specifically, the marketing committee)

Utopianfuture also received a vote of no confidence from Uniqueorn (because Uf is working on a clone)

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE STRUCTURE PROPOSALS:

The structure for the proposed committee(s) themselves have evolved during discussion from:

a single group of 5 or 7 receiving all 9M unclaimed coins; to

two groups of 5 or 7 : marketing and development with a 6M / 3M split of unclaimed coins (assumed by NxtChg.com); to

three groups of 5 or 7: marketing / development / infrastructure with a proposed 5M / 3M / 1M of unclaimed funds (first proposed by James - jl777)

SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE TREASURER SELECTION:

Further discussion on committee structure / funding levels was shelved after the above consensus reached (primarily by no challenge to James' proposal except by Nxt.Chg).  Attention turned on selecting committee treasurers for the proposed so CfB could go ahead and transfer the unclaimed 9M NXT to them, as he has pledged to destroy them on April 3 if no accounts had been set up to receive them.  

These Treasurers will have no vote on committee decisions and will disburse finds as directed by their committees.  They exist as a safeguard to provide centralized accounting of a committee's expenditures.  They have been deemed high-trust individuals and will have sole access to their committee's funds.  Identification and verification of real-world identities has been proposed but not agree upon.

By general consensus the following committee treasurers have been selected.  Come-from-Beyond has expressed a willingness to transfer the outstanding 9M in unclaimed NXT to these individuals as soon as all committee treasury account numbers are available:

Fund: NXTmarketingfund
Treasurer: neer.g
Account: pending
Ledger: pending

Fund: NXTtechdevfund
Treasurer: Pouncer
Account: 10979837763882063
Ledger: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoE8nAOEMIa7dFFnWjRNYTM4RkhsN3dRRXFBaTBiaHc#gid=5

Fund: NXTinfrastructurefund
Treasurer: kLee
Account: 1218278327871973459
Ledger: pending

********* END COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7)  ************

Above was a summary of historical activity.  What follows are my personal proposals and personal opinions based on where we are at so far in this committee organization process.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 1 - All treasurers should prepare paper backup copies of their account passwords, place these in stamped postal envelopes addressed to other treasurers, and place these backup envelopes at a safe off-site location such as a bank deposit box.

Rationale: I implemented this voluntarily when designated as treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund, and my envelope is currently addressed to James / jl777.  This proposal is just plain and simple a good idea, because you never know when....

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 2 - The 610,019 NXT currently in NXT Marketing Account 2037401990853753795 should be voluntarily surrendered immediately by account owner (I think Salsacz) to neer.g, the Marketing Committee Treasurer.

Rationale:  NXT Marketing account transfers can be viewed at http://87.230.14.1/nxt/nxt.cgi?action=3000&acc=2037401990853753795&offset=1&filter=1.  Spreadsheet documenting the transfers to and from this account is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgAGADgnQcrtdHRrV3V3Z1lzOXVEMWtqdElUaEtqV1E#gid=15 .  They don't match, and in particular the spreadsheet does not meet GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards.  

There have been 1,118,709 total NXT donated to the marketing account, yet it appears the spreadsheet only documents 1,012,710 NXT  being donated to NXT marketing - a difference of 105,999 NXT.  This difference between actual and recorded donations (almost a 10% shortfall) is unacceptable.  Organization of the spreadsheet only confuses rather than highlights where the NXT has gone.  Further disbursements from this account should not be made by people actively generating marketing materials and involved in marketing activities.   Auditing should be undertaken to determine where the 105,999 NXT unaccounted for by the spreadsheet has gone.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 3 - Unclaimed 9M NXT should be divided equally between marketing / tech-development / infrastructure committees at 3M each

Rationale:  OK, I admit it, this is a personal plug for something I feel is important - bumping up the funding for NXT infrastructure.  In the discussion on the committee thread, this started at zero and was bumped up to 1M NXT by James to Nxt.Chg's surprise.  I think infrastructure is just as important and needs just as much funding as marketing /  further software development and here's why.  

(1) We already have a lot of newbies getting the shock of realization that PoS means low amounts of NXT aren't going to forge get-rich-quick amounts of NXT on cheap Raspberry Pis instead of expensive ASIC rigs.  
(2) Discussion on this thread is casting into doubt the ability of Raspberry Pi and smartphones to participate in NXT forging anyway as the transaction rate gets higher and the blockchain gets bigger.  
(3) We have voted to drop the NXT transaction fee by a factor of ten, which is supposed to be the main motivator and financial incentive to set up infrastructure nodes in the first place.  
(4) We are getting increasing reports from the Good Samaritans who went all-in on NXT during the December DDoS attacks and set up lots of VPNs that their expenses - especially bandwidth expenses - are WAY more than they had bargained for or can maintain as a personal commitment to NXT.  

All of these factor point towards a total rethink about what infrastructure is needed to support NXT and just how much it is going to keep it running FOREVER.  People are not being motivated by forging to add personal nodes to the network, and cheap nodes are looking more and more unlikely.  Both the infrastructure and the finances required to keep NXT going are going to end up being larger than we think now, only three months in with a tiny active network.  And yes, I admit I want to be on the infrastructure committee as a voting member and push for a 1000 TPS network (the original NXT spec!!!) if that is all possible alongside our main network.  That's more infrastructure expense, but if we succeed, it is EXACTLY what will make people sit up and notice NXT.  And send the price to the moon.


RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 4 - Voters on funding committee nominations should not be limited to the endless Bitcointalk thread participants, but should instead be open to all nxtcoin.org forum members, with an active effort made to include them in these deliberations and consider them for committee seats.

Rationale:  This is in response to a proposal made several times by landomata in the "Funding Committee" thread :

"FINAL OPEN POLL TO PICK MEMBERS WILL TAKE PLACE ON NEXTCOIN.ORG & NXTCRYPTO.ORG.  YOU CAN SIGNUP ON EITHER NEXTCOIN or NXTCRYPTO before the poll start date BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE POSTED ON THE NXT :: descendant of Bitcoin - Updated Information THREAD BEFORE FEBRUARY 2nd.2014"

I (rickyjames) have a little heartburn with the implications of this, and think the committee seats (and votes for them) should be open to anybody that wants to try and get one.  The goal should be to get the people that are best for the job regardless of where they come from in the NXT community.  I believe we should not limit the pool of funding committee candidates to the relative handful of OCD ( ) people like me that endlessly surf the "Updated information" thread or as I call it,  the Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT).  In particular I think we should allow others to join the committees in the future as new and brilliant people join NXT that haven't even heard of it yet.  We are not trying to set up an oligarchy; we want to be open to new people and new ideas as time goes on.

In that spirit, I am cross posting this post in the endless "updated info" thread, the 8-page-because-nobody-is-paying-arrention-to-it "committee nominations" thread, and a completely new post over on nxtcoin.org.  Just call me a pot-stirrer.  One who is a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.

And I am posting polls on my proposals above.  Please vote!!!

Rickyjames Proposal 1:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454420

Rickyjames Proposal 2:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454372

Rickyjames Proposal 3: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454327

Rickyjames Proposal 4: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454320

NXT continues to develop at an incredible pace.  If you've read this far, it's because you care about NXT.  Consider applying for a committee seat to help take it further.

NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 1 - All treasurers should prepare paper backup copies of their account passwords, place these in stamped postal envelopes addressed to other treasurers, and place these backup envelopes at a safe off-site location such as a bank deposit box.

Rationale: I implemented this voluntarily when designated as treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund, and my envelope is currently addressed to James / jl777.  This proposal is just plain and simple a good idea, because you never know when....

EDITED TO ADD : THIS VOTE NOW LOCKED.  SEE POST BELOW.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 2 - The NXTcommunityfund should establish itself as a fourth committee separate from the NXTmarketingfund / NXTtechdevfund / NXTinfrastructurefund, with James/jl777 adding additional members to moderate his current sole discretion on the disposition of these funds.

Rationale:  I am treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund whose balance currently stands at 2,679,156 NXT, and I will send this NXT wherever James/jl777 tells me to because that is the job I signed up for.  However, I do not think it is "right" or "fair" to be setting up other committees that are required have multiple members for funding decisions while leaving James as sole decision maker on an equally important and sizable fund.  However, as a mitigating circumstance, this NXT was specifically donated due to James' fundraising efforts to support the kind of whirlwind across-the-board ideas he generates seemingly non-stop.  To recognize this special nature of the NXTcommunityfund, I would suggest that its board be limited to 3, not 5 or 7, and that James pick who he wants to sit on this committee with him.  (Probably not Nxt.Chg, altho that would certainly be interesting..)

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 2 - The 610,019 NXT currently in NXT Marketing Account 2037401990853753795 should be voluntarily surrendered immediately by account owner (I think Salsacz) to neer.g, the Marketing Committee Treasurer.

Rationale:  NXT Marketing account transfers can be viewed at http://87.230.14.1/nxt/nxt.cgi?action=3000&acc=2037401990853753795&offset=1&filter=1.  Spreadsheet documenting the transfers to and from this account is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgAGADgnQcrtdHRrV3V3Z1lzOXVEMWtqdElUaEtqV1E#gid=15 .  They don't match, and in particular the spreadsheet does not meet GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards.  

There have been 1,118,709 total NXT donated to the marketing account, yet it appears the spreadsheet only documents 1,012,710 NXT  being donated to NXT marketing - a difference of 105,999 NXT.  This difference between actual and recorded donations (almost a 10% shortfall) is unacceptable.  Organization of the spreadsheet only confuses rather than highlights where the NXT has gone.  Further disbursements from this account should not be made by people actively generating marketing materials and involved in marketing activities.   Auditing should be undertaken to determine where the 105,999 NXT unaccounted for by the spreadsheet has gone.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 3 - Unclaimed 9M NXT should be divided equally between marketing / tech-development / infrastructure committees at 3M each

Rationale:  OK, I admit it, this is a personal plug for something I feel is important - bumping up the funding for NXT infrastructure.  In the discussion on the committee thread, this started at zero and was bumped up to 1M NXT by James to Nxt.Chg's surprise.  I think infrastructure is just as important and needs just as much funding as marketing /  further software development and here's why.  

(1) We already have a lot of newbies getting the shock of realization that PoS means low amounts of NXT aren't going to forge get-rich-quick amounts of NXT on cheap Raspberry Pis instead of expensive ASIC rigs.  
(2) Discussion on this thread is casting into doubt the ability of Raspberry Pi and smartphones to participate in NXT forging anyway as the transaction rate gets higher and the blockchain gets bigger.  
(3) We have voted to drop the NXT transaction fee by a factor of ten, which is supposed to be the main motivator and financial incentive to set up infrastructure nodes in the first place.  
(4) We are getting increasing reports from the Good Samaritans who went all-in on NXT during the December DDoS attacks and set up lots of VPNs that their expenses - especially bandwidth expenses - are WAY more than they had bargained for or can maintain as a personal commitment to NXT.  

All of these factor point towards a total rethink about what infrastructure is needed to support NXT and just how much it is going to keep it running FOREVER.  People are not being motivated by forging to add personal nodes to the network, and cheap nodes are looking more and more unlikely.  Both the infrastructure and the finances required to keep NXT going are going to end up being larger than we think now, only three months in with a tiny active network.  And yes, I admit I want to be on the infrastructure committee as a voting member and push for a 1000 TPS network (the original NXT spec!!!) if that is all possible alongside our main network.  That's more infrastructure expense, but if we succeed, it is EXACTLY what will make people sit up and notice NXT.  And send the price to the moon.

RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 4 - Voters on funding committee nominations should not be limited to the endless Bitcointalk thread participants, but should instead be open to all nxtcoin.org forum members, with an active effort made to include them in these deliberations and consider them for committee seats.

Rationale:  This is in response to a proposal made several times by landomata in the "Funding Committee" thread :

"FINAL OPEN POLL TO PICK MEMBERS WILL TAKE PLACE ON NEXTCOIN.ORG & NXTCRYPTO.ORG.  YOU CAN SIGNUP ON EITHER NEXTCOIN or NXTCRYPTO before the poll start date BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE POSTED ON THE NXT :: descendant of Bitcoin - Updated Information THREAD BEFORE FEBRUARY 2nd.2014"

I (rickyjames) have a little heartburn with the implications of this, and think the committee seats (and votes for them) should be open to anybody that wants to try and get one.  The goal should be to get the people that are best for the job regardless of where they come from in the NXT community.  I believe we should not limit the pool of funding committee candidates to the relative handful of OCD ( ) people like me that endlessly surf the "Updated information" thread or as I call it,  the Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT).  In particular I think we should allow others to join the committees in the future as new and brilliant people join NXT that haven't even heard of it yet.  We are not trying to set up an oligarchy; we want to be open to new people and new ideas as time goes on.

In that spirit, I am cross posting this post in the endless "updated info" thread, the 8-page-because-nobody-is-paying-arrention-to-it "committee nominations" thread, and a completely new post over on nxtcoin.org.  Just call me a pot-stirrer.  One who is a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.

And I am posting polls on my proposals above.  Please vote!!!

When the three accounts are created, may I humbly suggest you secure them to 256 bit level by purchasing the appropriate aliases:

NXTmarketingfund
NXTtechdevfund
NXTinfrastructurefund

to go along with the previously established

NXTcommunityfund

I also am willing to undergo the personal identity verification step as treasurer of NXTcommunityfund if that is done for treasurers of the other funds.  

I also STRONGLY urge that my previously announced action of placing a password written backup copy in a stamped postal envelope addressed to a trusted NXT person, and then placing into that envelope into secure offsite storage such as a bank safe deposit box, be enforced as a treasurer requirement.  I currently have my envelope addressed to James / jl777.  If there is now to be a pool of trusted treasurers who must verify their real identities, I would suggest that there be three such backup envelopes per treasurer and that they be addressed to the other treasurers in the pool.  I will change my current single backup envelope from being addressed to James to three backup envelopes addressed to Klee, pouncer and neer.g when their real life postal address is PMed to me.

For the record, there was no "theoretically" about 1000 transactions pe rsecond (TPS).



There have been occasional hints by CfB of incremental steps to improve the capacity of NXT by making the number of bytes encapsulating a transaction smaller (going from JSON to binary with a target of 128 bytes per transaction) so a block could hold more transactions, synchronizing the timing of blocks ("time warp"), and speeding up the rate at which NXT blocks were produced.  The problem of block chain bloat has not been discussed by the core devs and remains a future problem to achieving this stated capability.  

In my opinion, solving the block chain bloat ( by reforging a new genesis block around every 1500 blocks) is THE problem facing future expansion of NXT.  But:


Once the development committee membership has been finalized and they are in control of 3M NXT from the unclaimed funds currently held by CfB, I will lobby vigorously for them to immediately hire a programmer to focus exclusively on block chain bloat shrinkage and real time genesis block forging.  This is how we take the future of NXT into our own hands as a community.  This is too important to just throw a bounty up and wait for somebody to wander by and say they'll do it.  Ideally, such a hired programmer should integrate ASAP with JLP's ongoing efforts under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and not wait for open source release in 60 days.  We need to be working on block chain bloat NOW.  

We don't have to sit around wailing while the price of NXT slowly sags.  We can take action NOW to make NXT the premiere cryptocurrency on the planet.  Once we crack the "not-rocket-science" nut of real-time genesis block reforging, we will have created all the components necessary to set up a 1000 TPS testnet that we can demonstrate to the world.  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.msg4964910;topicseen#msg4964910

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.msg4966259;topicseen#msg4966259

And with a functional 1000 TPD demonstration testbed in place to demo at will to media, venture capitalists, and critics, NXT WILL GO TO THE MOON.  

+1

Let's call it 1500 blocks between pruning / re-genesis to be on the safe side.  1500 minutes = 25 hours.  So for a testnet to generate three genesis blocks during its run to prove that's a routine thing, it needs to go 75 hours, or three days and three hours.  

Total number of fake transactions that need to be broadcast during a NXT 3+ day pruning 1000 TPS testnet demo run are 3*1500*60*1000 = 270 million.  At 128 bytes per transaction, that's  just under 35 GB.  SO the block chain grows by say 12GB between pruning and re-genesis.   The Bitcoin blockchain is currently at just under 14 GB:  https://blockchain.info/charts/blocks-size .  

So with the proposed 1000 TPS testbed with re-genesis every 1500 blocks we are saying that when NXT gets to the current Bitcoin blockchain size, we do something about it.  They don't.  Victory NXT.  This alone make the project worth doing.

So does the requirement to let a 1000 TPS blockchain go over 1440 blocks / 10 GB in size to avoid forks mean that Raspberry Pis and smartphones are now excluded from the 1000 TPS testbed?  Or is there a trick we can use to keep them along for the ride?  Please discuss.

And somebody please tell me how you booby trap a genesis block so we've got to wait for source code release to start on this?

They would have to.  THe genesis node has got to distribute the new genesis block to the non-genesis nodes in the minute.  And while the new genesis block is being forged, no new transactions for that minute.  The transaction nodes know that a genesis node is thinking.

A requirement is a machine that can do a genesis block in under a minute from an existing blockchain so it fits in with the tick-tock once per minute pattern of block forgings.  Is this even remotely feasible for a say 5 MB blockchain?  Discuss.

500K blocks is 500,000 minutes of time and that's a blockchain pruning slightly less than once per year.  During that time it will grow by 500,000 * 128K = 3.84 TB.  We have got to forge a genesis block a LOT more often to keep the overall block chain small enough so Raspberry Pis and Smartphones can still participate in regular add-128K-of-transactions blocks (if they can - that's part of what we're testing and why they call it a testnet.  Maybe we got to Odroids.  Maybe we box ourselves in to nothing but VPSs and a few super VPSs.  We don't know.  Let's find out.)

If we can recast a genesis block every 20th block as part of the routine operation of the NXT blockchain, we have accomplished something very, very special - a self limiting blockchain that grows very slowly.  It may not be JD Bruce's mod-the-account balances every block idea come to life, but as a kluge it could give us 1000 TPS in a test net sooner rather than later.

As for clones, let's build this first and keep the high ground through innovation.

This is worth trying.  Let's do it.

OK, time for my evening rant on blockchain to go along with my morning rant here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.msg4951414#msg4951414

I've decided that as usual CfB has the last say with Yoda style wisdom:


So let's talk about taking this 1000 TPS into our own hands.  

Do we want to demonstrate 1000 TPS if it is at all possible?  Hell yes.  We have promoted NXT as a 1000+ TPS Visa killer.  By God if it can be done, then we should demonstrate it as soon as possible on a testnet.  If we succeed the price of NXT will explode.  

A 300 GB chain pruned once per month is ridiculous for a 1000 TPS system.  I take back my request to show that is possible.  Even if you show it is possible, it's not a realistic scenario that will ever happen.  Instead let's develop and demonstrate a scenario that could really happen.

I propose that we demonstrate the production of sixty 1000 TPS blocks in a testnet with sixty different NXT nodes in a one hour period.  This means that 60,000 test/fake transactions that can be generated beforehand and aimed at the appropriate node that is generating that minute's block.  These fake transactions can be spit out by a relative handful of high speed servers logged into the testnet; the number of these transaction generating servers is TBD.  

We start with whatever the real NXT chain is just before the test.  60,000 transactions at 128 bytes per transaction will add 7.32 megabytes to the blockchain during the hour of the demonstration.  This seems like a reasonable amount.

I also propose that as part of the demonstration that we do blockchain pruning three times, at 20 minutes into the test, at 40 minutes into the test, and as the last block of the test.  

Notice that if we do this right we may still be able to use smartphones and Raspberry Pis in a 1000 TPS system.  In any given minute that is NOT a genesis block recalculation / pruning event, there is a block produced that is only 128K, and it's getting added to a file that's only at most ten or so megabytes long.  That doesn't sound too bad...

But it does imply that we might need beefier servers to do the genesis block reforging.  So some subset of all nodes with more capability would be selected every 20 minutes to do the presumably bigger chore of recasting a new genesis block.  This is a modification to transparent forging : every 20 minutes, pick from a small list of genesis block reforgers.  Maybe this opens up up to a 51% attack.  We can figure out how to stop that by adding more genesis nodes, right?

We can do this ourselves to show ourselves that it works.  We can then allow the press / the VCs / our competing cryptocoins to come up with their own input spreadsheets that have their proposed transaction inputs and what they expect as their account balance outputs after one hour.  We don't know their inputs or their outputs.  We provide seven blockchains for their inspection at the end: the original starting test blockchain, plus the before and after pruning blockchains from 20, 40 and 60 minutes into the test.

If we succeed in doing this, and demonstrating it under fire by sceptics in a testnet, THEN THE PRICE OF NXT EXPLODES AND WE ARE HEROES.  AND RICH.

We MUST implement blockchain pruning.  It is not optional.  Bitcoin does not have it.  If we do, we get ENORMOUS bragging rights.  What are we waiting for?  Turing complete language bolted onto NXT is an optional bit of fun.  Blockchain bloat pruning is A VITAL ESSENTIAL MUST-DO TASK, SO WHY NOT START ON THIS TASK TODAY???

Now after this burst of enthusiasm I must admit that I am not a programmer that can jump into this task.  We have got identify these programmers from with our own ranks and we've got to bribe them with a ridiculous NXT bounty to motivate them to jump on this task and complete it.  We have also got to define and fund the infrastructure required to create and sustain this 1000 TPS testnet so that any critics that want to demo it can do so at any time.  Two things I CAN do is keep ranting so this doesn't fall through the cracks, and ask questions whose answers can perhaps guide those smarter than me towards a solution.  

And I will do these two things, because I think coming up with a 1000 TPS one-hour simulator is really, really important.  So here's my first questions:

Do we currently know enough about the format of the NXT blockchain where we can start thinking about converting an existing blockchain into a new Genesis Block?  Or is there going to be a change to the NXT blockchain between now and open source release that will require us to wait for that release?

Let's just answer the questions one at a time, and discuss what it would take to make this testnet a reality.  

Humor me.  Let's see how far we can get with this.  It's really really really important.
  
Let me hear a HELL YEAH!