the contest is open ended now, if we get a good design that we get lots of positive votes from in our slack we will add it to the winners list.

But the submissions have slowed down because people in our slack have rejected many designs and are only voting up the highly creative or eye catching designs.

the contest will last until we launch mainnet.

I'm not concerned with my reputation.  Though I probably already have one for being a jerk to people who FUD.

Well tbh nobody knows who you are either or the quality of the comment you are making.  You could just be some random dude hating on us from another project since FUDDING is the number one job at bitcointalk.  For every negative person like you that has no patience, there's 3 smart people who can take a chill pill for a couple of months.  

There is no set date at this time.  This has been stated on every page.  Please go to our slack for more information or read through some of the questions already asked here at bitcointalk.

yup, after mainnet launch you'll be able to go to your TEC website and transfer to any wallet you want.   I don't know about import but for sure transfer will be available.

We are not saying an exact date yet as fixcrypt will determine when the network is ready for mainnet.

we are certain we will launch but exact date is unknown.

Come hang out in our slack or check out our github to see the many improvements and updates are going on right now

certainty is 100%

We won't delay again, mostly because we won't launch until it is has a baseline of functionality and security that lead dev feels comfortable with.

exchanger, well all i'll tell you is that we have at least a couple exchangers for launch and i'm sure you have heard their names before.

well there is a slight difference.  You are using the art from the movie poster even if partially and the other one is similar but not created directly by Disney or Lucas Films because the whole helmet is made up of angles from the ARK logo.

we have yet to add it.  If you are on the official bounty spreadsheet, we'll get you the bounty after mainnet has launched.

i like number 2, if you want it on shirts it would be better if you can make it also a png with a better boarder ( straight line box border not good for shirts) but yea I think it looks good.  post an update if you do one with a good one for a shirt will add this to our slack contest room

good luck!

no, we said we have more than 10 people on the team not 10 developers.  Gotta get your facts right.

If you are keeping up with us in our slack you'll see our progress is very good right now without all the distractions of the TEC, Refunds and other obligations.

ok, no problem with bounties, you'll be taken care of.

if you can send a PM to Boldninja https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=387564

he'll for sure be able to help you out with that bounty.  I'd help you out but don't have access to the document but he does and can get you verified.

hehe pretty funny,  if you can make the letters and logo look grainy like the image like it was also from the 70s would make it look better.   could be a funny mouse pad

send a PM to ARKEcosystem account here at bitcointalk  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=898031 with your information and they will update the spreadsheet with your data

Well we rented the hookers for another week and got more than enough cocaine to last us for another month sooooooooooo slight issue with your request. At least you didn't ask us about the lambos. 

launch will probably some time towards the end of this month or early next month.

We will be on exchanges on the day or shortly after we launch mainnet whenever that happens.  We'll distribute more information closer to that time.

thanks!

Yes, it has changed.  Here is the most recent update.

Weekly Update Number 6:

First, congrats to our previous design winners.
Sormin, Densmirnov, Jamiec79, mjbmonetaymetals.

This weeks design contest winner is ICONEWS.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1727068.msg17304329#msg17304329
Congrats on winning 5K ARK!  Will come your way after mainnet launch!

Now for the Technicals…

Last week we announced that the launch date would be pushed slightly to later in February. We would like to take this opportunity to talk a little bit more about why that is. With the latest testnet round, it became clear to the development team that there were a lot of underlying issues that could only be fixed by re-writing major portions of the core code.

For starters, the event management was not to our liking and could not simply be tweaked to function the way we believe is necessary or in a way we think makes sense. This requires a major rewrite to meet our standards and to make the network function how we envisioned. This is the case for several areas of the core code and is where most of our time and energy are currently focused.

Fixcrypt is completely rewriting the node management with a single point of entry that will deal with node state: (rebuilding, downloading blocks, broadcasting, forging etc…). It added a bit of work, but he is progressing well and we are seeing great results so far.

This rewrite of the legacy code will enable many improvements within the protocol.

Things in the pipeline:

Relay nodes (high level API access) and forging nodes (less API access + more security) are clearly separated.
Crazy fast rebuilding speed (because we are now able to mount the network interface only when being rebuilt…)
Broadcasting block headers only, since most of transactions are likely already received by all nodes before a block is forged.
Better block processing (no need to remove unconfirmed transactions that are included in the block).

Making changes to the protocol starting with the following:

No maximum block size
The only limitation on processing will be the # of transactions that the forging node can verify and include in less than blocktime/10

After these changes, the network will scale more directly with the power of the forging node hardware. That means when ARK mainnet launches, medium grade equipment may be good enough to run the network, but as we grow over the next year and beyond, delegates will definitely be required to run more robust hardware to keep the network going strong. More details on recommended specs will be available once we have had a chance to test the capabilities of the new code.

A new internal testnet version will be pushed out early this week. We will need a few days to monitor performance before we roll that version out to the main testnet group in our ARK slack.  Things are moving fast and a complete rewrite of a major part of the ARK core needs to be done right. We won’t release until we have conducted a thorough and productive open testnet period of all of these changes.

Rest assured FIX is 110% confident in this course of action and so are we. Here is current testnet github. https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/ark-node/commits/newtestnet

For those of you more familiar with github, we have launched the AIP(ARK Improvement Protocol) section. We encourage everyone to look into ARK on a more technical standpoint and share your ideas.

https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/AIPs

Now for all of the apple fans in the community, say hello to the official ARK testnet IOS app.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/arkdelegatetestnet/id1195404477?ls=1&mt=8

The only bad thing about ARK being on the apple store, is you have to wait for the new testnet release this week to use it.

That’s all for week 6. Stay tuned for more updates

point me in the direction of who I need to dance for.

make sure to sign up at our slack where we will announce mainnet date first. 

We have been talking with exchanges already and will continue to add more but currently we will not discuss who we have spoken with until we are closer to mainnet launch.