Hi all,

Apologies for the delayed response and thank you for your interest.

Unfortunately I shelved the project. I don't have the capacity to take this on on my own in any reasonable timeframe and the coder pulled out.

lobbes - It seems voting is really taking off now. TalkCoin (which had dev troubles) seems to have done well implementing a chat system which could be used as an element of a voting system. The NuBits devs have incorporated a voting system too, which I recommend looking into here: nubits.com/nushares/voting-mechanics

Graham, you're right about the lack of peer review. To clarify, I had no connections to the study and was suggesting it as a possible way to verify that at least the user is human in a decentralised system.

Verification of voters is perhaps the biggest challenge in implementing a decentralised voting system which people can put their faith in. Any other ideas are welcome.

Hope this clears things up!

Hi all,

I'm writing now to announce the development of a new style of coin that would give genuine asset value stability for those holding it, without relying on giant walls.

The coin is intended to automatically adjust to movements in price to give it stability in terms of value. Like an aeroplane being returned by air to its original direction after a change in direction, market volatility would act on the coin's numerical value to return it to a stable asset value.

The concept is relatively straightforward. You have (let's call them VAL for the sake of the example) 100 VAL in your wallet. These are being traded on an exchange, and the price is volatile. With other cryptos, you would have a big bag of risk in your wallet, which you may mitigate through trading the swings. However with VAL the numerical value of the VAL in your wallet would change with these swings.

Let's say your 100 VAL have just gone up in value 20% on the exchanges VAL is traded on. Your VAL would then decline in numerical value to (100/120), so you would only have 83.333... in your wallet. Needless to say, this would be applied if VAL were to decline in value. In this example you would mitigate the inherent risk of holding crypto by keeping the same asset value equivalent of VAL in your wallet.

This is of course a simplified version of how a stable crypto would work in practice, as the currencies and cryptocurrencies VAL would be traded with would be themselves fluctuating in relation to others. For real stability, the numerical value of VAL would adjust to fluctuations in the value of the (crypto)currencies it is traded with.

Due to the time value of money, the real value of the coins in your VAL wallet would increase over time for VAL to remain a stable investment.

For logistical reasons of transferring the coin from one address to another, transfers would be carried out using equivalent values of VAL. For example, if you wanted to transfer US$100 to an address different from your own, the VAL transfer would equivalent in value to US$100 at the time of transfer.

The coin would:
- Monitor VAL value on each exchange it is traded on, requiring regular updates if it is adopted widely
- Monitor the values of currencies and cryptocurrencies traded with VAL
- Adjust in numerical value in response to these price shifts
- ? ? ?
- Profit

Please PM me if you are interested in or would like to get involved in the project.

Seeking devs and economists with good statistical background.

Supermoose

You left a great legacy. RIP

Update: Votecoin is still in development. Phase 1 is expected to be released within the coming weeks.

Project Votecoin is an open source effort to develop a secure, anonymous electronic voting system. We apply technology used in cryptocurrencies to both secure the network and ensure voting will remain free of charge. The Project is designed to be implemented over three distinct phases, with the ultimate goal of creating “democratic cryptocracy”, a secure online method of governance giving all participants a voice.

We overcome one of the greatest challenges we face by giving coins a practical application beyond use only as currency. The Project is an evolution from cryptocurrenies; we employ a decentralised network of miners help secure the anonymity of the voting network and protect it from attack, and a financial incentive to securing the network is built in to the system.

This open source project is being implemented in three phases.

The first phase establishes the financial incentive for network security by developing “Coin” as a stable cryptocurrency with a dedicated network of miners. Coin is intended to be used as a currency only, and is distributed to the miners who keep our network safe. The second phase develops the voting infrastructure by issuing a unit of “Vote” with each new wallet created. Within Votecoin software, Votes are units used to express preferences of users and are divisible. The third phase will bring in user verification to ensure an equal distribution of Votes to users of the system. We aim to implement a decentralised method of anonymous verification in this phase.


Phase 1: Votecoin developed as a stable cryptocurrency with a dedicated team of miners.

Both Coin and Vote transactions will be stored in the same blockchain, and Coin miners will be protecting the stability of “Cryptovoters”, users of Votes. We first aim for Coin to be adopted by as many users as possible, and to give it a high profile. Increasing the value of Coin is necessary at this stage to incentivise mining, thereby securing our network. A rise in price has been demonstrated to lead to an increase in network mining difficulty, which makes it harder for network security to be compromised. Encouraging more people to use and mine Coin avoids the concentration of mining power and wealth in the hands of a few. Project Votecoin uses the scrypt algorithm for network security in order to let anybody with a computer processor or graphics card to join in and mine. The most effective way to secure the network through incentivising mining at this stage is to encourage use of Coin as a currency by such activities as lobbying exchanges to introduce Coin trading.


Phase 2: A voting unit, Vote, issued with each Vote address created by users. Both Coin and Vote transactions will be recorded and distinguishable in the same blockchain. Integral to this stage is the ability to recall Votes to the user's original address.

Once the Votecoin network has been secured, we will introduce the beta version of Vote and experiment with voting mechanisms. One Vote will be issued to each address created during this trial period, and users will be free to create these addresses. Unlike Coin transactions, each user's Vote will be used to express opinions on an issue through sending a defined unit to an address. These Vote addresses are similar to options on a ballot paper. However, rather than a central governing body creating ballot papers in a restricted vote, users are free to create as many options as they wish. We encourage creation of applications and websites to display the contents of Vote addresses in the blockchain, facilitate expression of user opinions, and support the democratic process through encouraging anonymous dialogue.

Project Votecoin contains elements of direct democracy, where a user may vote directly on an issue. This will give credence to the option or opinion associated with the address Votes are sent to. It also allows for representative democracy; a user may send their Vote to another user and delegate them to act in their interests. As any user may transfer their Vote to another user, aspects similar to an election campaign will exist to encourage users to delegate their Vote to a representative.

Votes, unlike cryptocurrencies or traditional votes, will be easily recalled by the user. The recall function allows a voter to change their mind and use their Vote differently as they see fit. A user who changes their mind about an issue may also immediately recall the Vote and vote differently on it. Additionally, a user who disagrees with the voting record of a delegate may immediately recall the Vote sent to them. Democratic cryptocracy therefore contains a much more flexible voting system than any currently used by a government.


Phase 3: User verification to ensure one user one Vote.

There are several options to verify Votecoin users, and most necessitate abandoning anonymity. While we encourage the development of voting networks, anonymity is crucial to the project and we always aim to protect users from revealing their voting records publicly. In addition, verifying users through methods ranging from fingerprinting to linking with social media accounts entrusts power in institutions not within the network, exposing us to risk.

Instead, Project Votecoin is intended to implement anonymous user verification through subconscious learning. It has been proven that our brains can remember codes of up to 30 characters in length without ever consciously knowing them (Bojinov et al., 2012). We can apply this method to memorising cryptkeys used to access Vote addresses. This approach would issue each user with a unique key code to unlock and access their Vote which they will never consciously know. Each user would learn the key through a process unique to each Vote address, and input the key code without consciously remembering it.

Research is currently being conducted by a team of volunteers. The Project Votecoin Research Fund has been established to support research into subconscious user verification through grants to individuals or institutions conducting research into relevant areas. Profits made by the Project Votecoin team are donated to the fund. We are grateful for donations of any size to the Research Fund, which may be sent to the addresses below:

BTC: 161PKgQLwfEYvmZFWtbHx1rGssAz6cpnKa

LTC: LfaHx3WqVTjm69WTvhT8TZW3fSFCDRGjJS


Bojinov et al., Neuroscience Meets Cryptography: Designing Crypto Primitives Secure Against Rubber Hose Attacks, Usenix 2012, stable URL:
http://bojinov.org/professional/usenixsec2012-rubberhose.pdf



Website:
http://votecoin.weebly.com/

Votecoin is currently in development.

Block target: 60 seconds
Coins per block: 1337
Block rate halves every 31337 blocks

Phase 2 will see "Vote" and "Coin" introduced in the same blockchain. The blockchain currently contains Coin only.

If I buy them off you, how do you feel about being Uno manager paid in Uno?

P.S. Happy New Year and keep up the good work! It should be interesting in a few weeks when ASICs may well have to switch to alts such as this to remain profitable.

Hi everyone,

Below is a genuine screenshot from eBay, taken of a BFL ASIC auction I had been watching:

http://s21.postimg.org/symhk87w7/ebay_asic_toilet_paper.jpg

The kind people at eBay had offered more chances to get what I want. However, I'm still unsure on one point. Will the 60 GH/s ASICs be single ply compatible?

Supermoose

DGC!!! I'm very enthusiastic, that must count for at least 10 votes!

Look forward to buying some! When will they be available to order?

I'm glad the coin is valuable enough already for people to think there are scammers trying to steal it!



DGy9RCaX9YS2wrfAtP6osAeVuhBP5QMgvy

Hi, it's probably a good idea to put at least one other pool in the .conf file in the same format as you're using already, with a comma between the brackets so it looks like this:
},
{

This will mean you can use the stratum or longpoll from the other pool to detect new blocks faster, so you can start solo mining them at the same time other pools see them.

Thanks for posting this, you're an inspiration and I thank you for all the work you've done. It's great to hear a story from someone who was there at the beginning. Don't worry about deciding not to leave your CPU on because the noise bothered you, I first heard about it at the start of 2010 and dismissed it entirely for three years!
Sorry to hear about the disease. You're right to be comfortable with your legacy, it's a great one.

I have to say I appreciate the way the coin was designed to prevent early adopters from mining the hell out of it at first.
Keep up the good work!

i also had trouble finding out about the restrictions, a link would be helpful

welcome

has anyone been successfully using it?

anyone using yacoin?