Hi yassin54, long term hodler here. I appreciate your updates, lots of exciting things happening.

Can I make a suggestion though? I find the large image in each post makes this thread really hard to read. Scrolling through, its almost all images, and it's hard to focus on the content, especially in your own posts. Can I suggest either not including images or drastically reducing their size? Thanks!

Of course, content-rich images like infographics are fine.

They decided not to snapshot the Bitcoin blockchain for initial distribution. Both BTC and ETH were accepted for the initial crowdsale.
This post (April 26) explains how, as well as announcing how you can join the hundreds of people on their email list to receive notification about the crowdsale:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1730273.msg18760865#msg18760865

According to the slackbot in the QRL slack, there were 52 million QRL tokens sold in the early crowdsale for a little over $4M USD total. The price at close was 8 cents USD.

Here's where they describe their seed investment strategy:
https://medium.com/the-quantum-resistant-ledger/seed-investment-strategy-pos-algorithm-updates-3b3854e83a4a

According to this post (May 9) 300 people had already participated by the time the first $1M was raised:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1730273.msg18942234#msg18942234

This post (May 22 - two days before the public ICO was set to start) announces that they reached the $4M cap, therefore the public ICO was cancelled:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1730273.msg19146660#msg19146660
Refreshing to see that they passed up the opportunity to raise more funds rather than oversell themselves at the beginning like so many ICOs.

I saw someone mention on the slack that about 600-650 people participated in total, but I haven't confirmed that. Based on how many people are in the slack, I'd say distribution is far greater by now.

I missed the initial crowdsale. But unlike altcoiner555 I chose not to whine about it and instead bought in after doing due diligence. I could have timed it better though, given the current price! But I'm holding, because I think it's going up in a big way long term.

I think that's referring to launching the ethereum erc20 contract for QRL tokens, which will be converted to real QRL once the QRL mainnet goes live. By "testnet" and "mainnet", I think they mean ethereum. I.e. they tested it out on the ethereum testnet before launching the contract on the mainnet. QRL mainnet is not going live until September.

There's a link to their slack on their website:
https://theqrl.org/

Disclaimer: I just bought some QRL yesterday, and I'm writing this because I'm holding long term and I want it to do well!

I noticed QRL on coinmarketcap a few days ago when every crypto was in a slump except for this, which was gaining rapidly. Its name got me curios, since quantum computing is kind of the boogieman of blockchain security. After doing a little research on the tech and the team I decided to put a decent chunk of my crypto funds into QRL, thinking that if this does gain enough traction to hit the top 20 on coinmarketcap, there will be a lot of crypto investers thinking that if it gets big, everyone else is going to want to have a percentage of their portfolio in it as a hedge against advances in quantum computing, and they'll also be thinking it's a good idea to get in ahead of the crowd. This is the kind of project that could really snowball into a huge network effect just due to the problem it's addressing and the focus of its vision, but only if it gets large enough to develop that momentum. Fear of loosing is a much more powerful psychological motivator than the opportunity to gain (that's why insurance is such a huge business), and everyone knows that everyone else is going to want to have at least some degree of quantum security, and that knowledge becomes a powerful motivator to jump in as long as you think it's moving in the right direction.

Here's an interesting thread echoing these thoughts:
http://bullionstacker.com/viewtopic.php?t=28136

So now I'm holding QRL. At this point it's still a risky investment, and I was beginning to have doubts about it today, especially since I bought near the current all-time high, but after some digging around I've decided to stick it out and hold most of my QRL for the long term.

I'm just an average crypto-interested guy, certainly not an expert, so I often base my decisions to a large degree on what is happening in the community and what others who are much smarter and more involved than me think, rather than forming a complete understanding of the tech myself. Here are some things that encourage me to hold my position.

I don't understand cryptography and quantum computing well enough to form my own opinion of the QRL tech, so I have to trust what other known quantum cryptography players think (barring any who might feel threatened by QRL). What do other experts think of QRL?

- Two former NSA cryptographers who are actively researching quantum computing cryptography solutions hosted a huge reddit discussion last month, in which they endorsed QRL as an example of "well understood hash-based solutions": and linked to an article about them. Read the first post where they introduce themselves, and then do a search for "Quantum Resistant Ledger":
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/67wsur/we_are_exnsa_cryptomathematicians_working_to_help/
They also recommended this video as an intro explanation of quantum computing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrbJYsep45E

- Someone pointed out a couple pages ago that SuperNET (creators of Komodo and other crazy blockchain tech) recently bought more than 200 BTC-worth of QRL. Their lead developer JL777 is somewhat legendary in the alt-crypto world, going back to the days when NXT was the only innovative altcoin, and he has a very strong grasp of the crypto-space. He also has a knack for picking winners to invest in, so I like to check up on the SuperNET NAV from time to time (http://old.supernet.org/nav.php). They got into Stratis, IOTA, ZCash and Waves before they went big. I know he has dabbled in quantum resistant cryptography himself (http://www.crypto777.com/), so he has enough of a grasp of the field to judge whether QRL's approach is legit. Seeing that they've acquired a decent holding of QRL makes me feel good about my own instincts.

A few things I gleaned from hanging around the QRL slack today:
- It's an active and growing community, the devs are present and responsive, and they know their stuff. They are focusing on tech before promotions, which I like.
- QRL testnet is up and running, with active alpha-testers, and the public testnet will likely launch next week. So this is not just a whitepaper and some promises, it's actually working tech.
- There is a potential partnership in the works, which will likely be announced later next week. I'm just guessing here, but it might be somehow related to the last-minute invitation QRL recieved to attend the exclusive BluYard & Google Quantum AI Labs conference in Munich (Details on the conference here: https://medium.com/@BlueYard/join-us-on-june-22nd-for-a-quantum-leap-fa7b5aa61cc6).
- The latest word is that the mainnet will launch in late September.

A few more thoughts for people who bought QRL on the rise and are wondering what's holding it back. It's still extremely early, most crypto investors haven't heard of it. It's also still only in alpha testing. I think only traders and people who are actively looking for promising (and risky) new projects in the early stages of development have heard about it. I wish I found out a few days earlier, but I'm not getting out any time soon because I think it has huge potential for growth. It's a great team with tech that seems solid, and a clear vision that tackles a very big fear in the crypto world. It's early days, so it's high risk. Don't invest anything you can't afford to lose. If you have a long-term perspective, it's easier to weather the rocky short-term rollercoaster.

Here are some good articles I found from Peter Waterland about QRL:

Good intro article presenting the need for quantum resistant ledger, and a bit about the cryptography:
https://medium.com/the-quantum-resistant-ledger/blockchain-is-here-to-stay-but-for-how-long-536336a02b03
Another good article on why retro-fitting Bitcoin and Etherium with quantum resistant signatures will still likely not be enough to protect the value of the network:
https://medium.com/the-quantum-resistant-ledger/peter-waterland-2deed7bdbf65
An article from about how QRL's PoS algorithm is made quantum resistant. I know it's in active development and testing right now, so some details may differ:
https://medium.com/the-quantum-resistant-ledger/seed-investment-strategy-pos-algorithm-updates-3b3854e83a4a