10K NXT Infographic Bounty

I'll personally pay a 10K NXT bounty to somebody with much better graphics skills than mine who can make an NXT infographic that is directly comparable to this one for bitcoin:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/img/06Bitcoin-1338412974774.jpg

If a viewer could go back and forth between the two and see similarities and differences between Bitcoin and NXT at similar locations on the infographic, so much the better.  In particular, differences in the bitcoin computer based wallet vs. the nxt brainwallet should be highlighted, along with differences between bitcoin hashing and nxt transparent forging.  I will work with you on text if you would like.

This is something I would like to see get into the NXT whitepaper.  And James, I'm still trying to work on that, slowly...just snowed under by work.

EDITED TO ADD : Salsacz has been commissioned to work on this project, so this bounty is closed for now to other graphic artists.

Initial work by Salsacz:

https://i.imgur.com/9NyS8Bx.jpg

Anybody in the United States who opens a USD/NXT gateway has a lot more than the NSA to worry about.  There is a LOT of very specific paperwork to fill out to become a Money Services Institution (not the official title, but there is one.)  Cryptsy is following this path and as soon as they have the applications approved, they are effectively an officially registered US Bank and can start selling cryptos for USD.  Anybody in the US who trys that without clearing it first with the Feds gets this happening to them:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/23/4651926/us-government-seized-5-million-from-bitcoin-behemoth-mt-gox

NXT security and user interface improvement - progress tracking thread has been established at:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=412547.new#new

The purpose of this thread is to track progress on a number of NXT security and user interface improvements. 

One such effort was initiated by rictot.  He wanted to come up with a way to avoid sending NXT to the wrong account, due to the current difficulty of typing in the current long string of numbers which represents an NXT account. 

Ricot's proposed project spawned the following discussion thread at  forums.nxtcrypto.org:

https://forums.nxtcrypto.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=524

There are a large number of other security and user interface topics facing NXT.  Please begin discussion of them below!

Uh-oh.  Jean-Luc has become Locutus.

Roger wilco.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=roger%20wilco

The ability of all nodes to be able to predict which specific node is going to forge the next block in the next 60 seconds and direct all current transaction data to that specific node for immediate processing.

There's an additive effect for you only if each client you run on your Pis are all loaded with 7000 NXT that is your baseline.  

The "dirty little secret" of NXT forging is that your ability to forge NXT is directly dependent on and directly proportional to how many NXT you have loaded on your forging rig - Raspberry, VPS, whatever- and what proportion that amount is compared to the TOTAL of all NXT on ALL forging rigs.  Somebody with millions of NXT on their forging rigs is going to get most of the blocks/transaction fees, and hit very frequently.   Somebody with only 7000 NXT is only going to forge a very few blocks/transaction fees only once in a great while (over a hundred times less often than somebody with a million NXT in their forging rig).

NXT forging for capturing transaction fees is not a democratic lottery, it is an oligarchy.  All Raspberry Pis strengthen the NXT node network; the Raspberry Pis loaded with the most NXT while providing that support are rewarded most for their network support.  With apologies to George Orwell, "All Raspberry Pis are equal, but some Raspberry Pis are more equal than others".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy

A Raspberry Pi only uses 2W at most:  400ma @ 5V.  This has to come from a power supply that has some conversion efficiency of 50-80% or so.  Let's be conservative and say we're using a 50% efficient wall plug transformer.  Then each Raspberry is using 4W of wall power to generate the 2W it actually needs to run.  Say electricity is $0.15 per kWh.  Then in a year of 365*24 = 8760 hours, a single Raspberry Pi is going to use 8760 * 4 = 35,040 watt-hours or 35 kWh per year costing 35 * 0.15 = $5.25 of electricity per year.  

Thus the power to run a Pi is thus real but pretty negligible in the overall cost picture.  You can run 25 Pis nonstop for a solid year for the same amount of juice required to leave a 100W incandescent bulb on day and night for a year.

As a reasonable estimate, a single Pi costs around $120 as capital outlay to set it up for a year of service as an NXT node:  $35 for the Pi itself; $30 more for the memory card, cables, cluster support gear, etc; $ 5 for a year's worth of power; and say $50 per year (around $4 / mo) to park it in a server farm.  A network of 300 Pis thus costs $36,00 to set up and run for a year (of which $15,000 per year or $1250 per month is "office rental" and "human tech support" and "internet bandwidth").  

If there are truly 5000 NXT per day generated in transaction fees as assumed above, that's 365*5000 = 1,825,000 NXT per year.  If you are using 300 Pis at $36,000 per year to capture ALL those transaction fees, you are spending $36,000 / 1,825,000 NXT = $0.02 per NXT or around 2 pennies per NXT to capture the NXT using Raspberry Pis.  At 0.00005 BTC/NXT and $800/BCT, a NXT is currently worth $0.04 or 4 pennies each.  

Rough ballpark estimate: Capturing NXT with Raspberry Pis could double your money in a year at current NXT prices.  The Raspberry cost is fixed; the return-on-investment ROI gets better and better the higher and higher NXT goes.

http://coen.boisestate.edu/ece/files/2013/05/Creating.a.Raspberry.Pi-Based.Beowulf.Cluster_v2.pdf

I seem to recall that people are setting up VPSs for around $20 per month or $240 per year, which is double the cost of setting up a Raspberry Pi for a year as outlined above.  Thus while NXT is at its current $0.04 each, capturing NXT with VPSs is a break-even proposition.

These are actually great numbers.  The return-on-investment or ROI for forging NXT is positive NOW and will be even more profitable when NXT coins become more valuable.  Thus even with NXT as a Proof-of-Stake coin without mining, there is STILL financial motivation for people to run the nodes required to keep the NXT system going.  For a pre-mined coin, that is a remarkable statement.

Oh and the daily cost of the NXT support web running on 300 Raspberry Pi nodes is $36,000 / 365 = $98.63 per day, call it $100 per day.  Do it on 300 VPSs instead, and the daily NXT support web cost is around $200 per day.

I have been researching Bitcoin over the past few days as a prerequisite for saying something intelligent in the NXT whitepaper.  I think the NXT whitepaper needs an initial 3-4 pages outlining Bitcoin and its weaknesses to show how NXT is innovative and solves those problems.  Regarding the 51% attack / 33% attack / whatever% attack scenarios, I came across this must read article on Bitcoin written just a few days ago:

http://qz.com/165273/the-existential-threat-to-bitcoin-its-boosters-said-was-impossible-is-now-at-hand/

Roger.  Will look at it later tonite after my tablet and I finish supper.

Africa is actually leading the way here on cellphone micropayments and there is much to learn on current efforts - or perhaps strategic partnering.  Maybe just like the out of Africa migration theory, the path for NXT to conquer the world starts in Africa before trekking out to the rest of the planet...

http://www.zaypay.com/outpayment/South%20Africa
http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/23803/google-bebapay-set-compete-m-pesa
http://www.paygol.com/country/ZA
http://www.microdinero.com/index.php/english/nota/5212/smartphone-apps-to-track-micro-payments-in-africa
http://www.technologybanker.com/mobile/micropayments-mobile-bankers-lower-transaction-limits
http://www.sv4.net/internet-services/sms-micropayments-worldwide-free/
http://www.usaid.gov/div/portfolio/angaza
http://www.msdf.org/blog/2013/01/microfinance-in-india-mobile-micropayments/

Yes and yes and yes, that guy is still not the average joe buying a candy bar.  The medallion scheme I mentioned above is a first cut at trying to figure out how to get the 99% of the people in the world can use NXT on cellphones.  If we limit ourselves only to people who use the NXT client in a desktop computer cut and paste environment, we haven't yet conquered the world.

You ether have your account wide open and running all the time on a cellphone (a major security risk), or you stand there and type in a 50 character secure passcode (a major hassle).

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.msg4448761#msg4448761

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD94dVu8lqQ

Welcome to the party, pal.  

(My favorite Bruce Willis line from my favorite Bruce Willis movie, Die Hard)

As long as we are establishing some standardized user-friendly methodology here for the non-geek common man or woman, I'd like to go ahead and document in the forum another idea I've had along this line.  

If NXT is going to succeed, it is going to succeed because the average person worldwide starts using NXT via their cellphone.  

Let me say that again.

If NXT is going to succeed, it is going to succeed because the average person worldwide starts using NXT via their cellphone.

The last thing a person with a cellphone is going to do is sit there and type in a 50 digit uppercase-lowercase password to buy a candy bar with NXT.  

Let me say that again.

The last thing a person with a cellphone is going to do is sit there and type in a 50 digit uppercase-lowercase password to buy a candy bar with NXT.  

So at some point between the geeks dreaming this stuff up and the average joe using it, there is going to be the creation of a user-friendly surrogate password method that is easier to use, just like the user-friendly surrogate account number method being brilliantly addressed by this Reed Solomon thread.

My proposed solution is a centralized (gasp - ha ha ha) trusted authority (just like the centralized trusted authority that manufactures and mails credit cards today) that manufactures sets of matching metal medallions sold in a tamperproof blister pack to everyday average people.  They can buy them at the convenience store next to the cigarettes and the condoms.   Heck, we might even give them away for free.  Opening this blister pack lets them instantly create a NXT account on their cellphone.

As an aside, this person has just opened an NXT bank account at the same time he bought those condoms.  Opening a bank account is a big deal and getting harder and harder for more and more people to do.   Bank accounts in a box for the lower middle class are a booming business - see "Bluebird" from AmEx and Walmart here in America: https://www.bluebird.com/?SOLID=BBSEMITS .  There's still time for NXT to get in this game on the ground level...

Anyway, on these NXT metal medallions are QR codes purchasers scan with their phone.

Scanning the first medallion QR brings up an NXT client install package from Google Play or the Apple App store.  The user runs this.

Once the client is installed on the phone, the user runs the NXT client for the first time and scans the second metal medallion QR.  This loads the fresh client with a user account code - the same 20 character user code discussed above, which is also stamped on the back of the second medallion in human readable form.

The user puts the third NXT metal medallion on their keychain along with their key to their house / apartment and the key to their car.  (Or in Africa, the padlock to their bicycle.  Whatever).  This medallion has a QR code containing the 50 character passcode for the account they've loaded in their cellphone.  When they want to buy that candy bar, they scan the vendor's account medallion QR, then they scan their passcode medallion QR on their keychain.  Boom.  They've bought a candy bar, NXT has conquered the world.

They lose their cellphone, no problem, the passcode medallion is still on their keychain and their NXT is safe.  When they get a new cellphone, they rescan their original two medallions and they are back back up and running as an NXT user.

They lose their keys, or a purse containing both their cellphone and their keys, they've got a problem.  Whoever finds the keychain can use the medallion on the keychain to empty their NXT account once they read / decode its QR code and get to a desktop computer with a NXT client - or enter a home they're not supposed to be in, or steal a vehicle, or run up a tab on a stolen credit card.  Hey, it's a bitch to lose your keys or purse.

This is why when they bought the original blister pack in the convenience store, there was a second passcode medallion in it.  They have stored this second passcode medallion along with the user account number medallion in the safety of a home hiding place.   If they lose their keychain or purse, along with changing the locks on their home or canceling their credit card, they have to go to the convenience store and buy another NXT blister pack with a new set of NXT medallions.   They run the "emergency total funds transfer" option on their cellphone client by scanning first the original spare passcode medallion, then the replacement user account medallion.  As long as they do this before a bandit finds and uses their lost keychain passcode medallion, they're OK.  Hey, that's better than losing the cash in their purse - it's gone instantly!  Use NXT instead of cash, common folks, it's cheaper than a credit card (psst - "cash back" is a total scam!!!) and unlike cash you've got a shot at transferring NXT to safety if it's lost or stolen!

People will buy into this scenario because it so closely matches what their current situation is on using and protecting their credit cards, which is a widely understood protocol.  The big difference is that credit card companies will not hold them liable for losses on a stolen credit card - those losses are passed on to all credit card users in the form of higher fees and interest rates.  With NXT, you are all on your own, and nothing can change that.  Better hope you scan a new medallion to transfer your funds to safety before somebody else scans your lost or stolen medallion and takes all your NXT.

This whole scenario depends on a centralized (boo! hiss!) trusted source of the metal medallions - jut like there is currently a central trusted authority that manufactures and mails valid credit cards that get activated over the phone.  That manufacturer has got to have iron clad security ensuring that only one set of medallions are produced that go into one blister pack, with no duplicates or records of what passcodes were generated.   And for this scheme to work, people buying the blister packs on the street (the 50-90% of people in the world who aren't going to sit down in front of a computer and generate their own 50 character passcode in a random and secure manner) have got to trust that.

Which leads to the whole subject of scammers counterfeiting the blister packs and monitoring accounts they've created until somebody loads it with NXT for them to steal.   I don't have all the answers, here.  I think the correct answer is that the success and utility and usefulness of the mobile phone NXT system is so great overcomes the distraction of the inevitable but hopefully small vultures that prey on its outskirts and perimeter.  [EDITED TO ADD: I guess an obvious measure to counterfeiting medallions would be for an offical client downloaded from a trusted source like Apple APP Store or Google Play to verify that a loaded user account number was on a pre-authorized list coordinated with the medallion manufacturer.  Then you "only" have to monitor the App Store or Google Play to see that no rouge clients got uploaded as part of a fake medallion scam...]

So - metal NXT medallions sold in blisterpacks to the 50-90% of the world with a cellphone who will never sit down at a computer and create their own 50 character passcode securely and randomly.  That's my concept.  If you think it's unworkable, then I ask you:

How can people with cellphones buy a candy bar with NXT?

I absolutely cast my vote for using a standardized Reed Solomon NXT account number all beginning with N containing the characters 2-9, A-Z while dropping the use of 0 and O and 1 and I. Adding just an N in front to denote "NXT" is a half measure. I think we should go for bold branding and have the first three characters of every address always be "NXT" so non-users recognize it and eventually become converts. This would bring the total length to exactly 20 characters, which can be either four groups of five separated by dashes, or five groups of four. I personally prefer the latter.  It isolates the RS correction data as the last block.

NXT

LOL Thanks for sharing.  I fee like Dog the Bounty Hunter.  On the down side, I'm not in beautiful Hawaii.  On the up side,  I do have a beautiful  wife. 

I am very interested in contributing to this, may I get edit access please?.  I just signed up a wiki account as rickyjames.  

A decade ago I fancied myself an amateur science journalist and made lots of "explain hard concepts in simple ways" posts for a science news blog I ran for a couple of years.   I eventually gave it over to David Bradley, who is a "real" science journalist in the UK.  He has sort of retired the site but keeps it online so access to the previous stories are available.  Head over to sciscoop.com and search on "rickyjames" to see around 1100 articles I wrote over a three year period from 2003-2005.  Well, I didn't write all of them - as time went on I was cutting and pasting more and more from press releases I thought were key and caught my eye...  

A random example I found walking down memory lane over at sciscoop a minute ago...

http://www.sciscoop.com/2003-6-29-19957-8264.html