Love this!  I've been hoping someone would do something like this for quite some time!

Will the Free Lakota Bank be exchanging/accepting Bitcoin?

I'm excited to present the Elqnt White Paper!

In the past two weeks, myself and another developer have conducted a number of lengthy discussions around how we might be able to leverage the existing p2p technologies I'd been developing over the past few months to actually bring about a fully decentralized + anonymous + peer-to-peer exchange for Bitcoin -- we think we've developed a way to do it and are actively developing towards the first proof-of-concept version.  

The above white paper gives a high-level overview of how the platform will function.

One of the most exciting pieces to this method of exchange is the incentivization model which rewards all peers involved in an exchange route (detailed in the white paper).  

Please give us feedback!  
We really want to hear what others are thinking, where you think things might break down, and what concerns you might have -- all feedback is welcome.

If you're interested in joining us in development, let me know -- stephen@elqnt.org -- and I'll setup a time to get you spun up on things and plugged into our git repo.

All code will be released under GPL-3.0 license and will be completely modular -- meaning, we're shooting to structure the platform in such a way that you can run it without having to setup any servers -- just run the exchange node in a browser window (or extension) from file and run the peer client on an android device and you've got yourself a mesh network for exchange.

Best,
Stephen

Indeed -- up until this point, it's been operating under the idea of an anonymous + p2p localbitcoins alternative.

Just in the past few days though, I've been working through a model that would utilize the exising Elqnt p2p framework to provide true mesh exchange.

Thus far the model has essentially been 'an anonymous + peer-to-peer localbitcoins'.  The biggest differentiator between the two of us was that our back-end was completely p2p + anonymous -- the mechanics of actually executing a localbitcoins exchange are challenging if you truly want to maintain anonymity, not to mention the price lag, and the current workflow of Elqnt wasn't going to completely solve the mechanics aspect, but did solve the anonymity aspect.  

However, just in the past few days I've been developing a new idea around mesh exchange utilizing the Elqnt p2p framework.  This is 'The Holy Grail' of Bitcoin exchange and I may have figured out how to do it.

This new track is going to pause the deploy of the exchange because it may substantially change the infrastructure, but with the result of a much better exchange.

I'll post some updates in the coming days.  

In the mean time, if anyone is a solid Android dev, I'd love to talk -- stephen@elqnt.org

Stephen

Hey everyone!

A short update on the progress of Elqnt development --

Please give me any feedback, questions, thoughts if you have any!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwgnUbU2-fw

Some of the big things I mention in the video:

1. The entirety of the exchange is going to be open source
2. I'm going to be separately open sourcing the p2p framework I've built for propagation + synchronization (not immediatly, but soon) so that others can build their own p2p + decentralized web + mobile services.  
3. The entirety of the Elqnt exchange will be free!  Individual exchangers might charge a fee/percent, but elqnt itself will be ad supported (at least for now -- exploring other revenue options that might supplement as well).
4. I still have bugs, but I'm hoping the community will help me trace and fix ones that I've not yet been able to squash.  

Again, give me any feedback, thoughts, opinions, etc. you might have!  

It kind of seems folk have grown weary of interest in the length of time it's taken to get this out there, but know that it's coming and close!  

I'm wrapping up persistent messaging and then finishing up the UI and then I'll be going live w/ the alpha!

Best,
Stephen

Elqnt Exchange Update -- 11/16/13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeB2PqI9FDY

Hey,

I recorded another update to show everybody the progress around authenticated listing propagation + synchronization.  

I want to also seriously apologize for how LONG this development cycle has been taking me.  It's honestly been requiring much more work to get it functioning the way I want than I had originally anticipated.  I'm not publicaly setting a specific date (though I have one set in my head) for the go-live, but I'm forging forward daily.  
I'll be calling this an alpha release and I explain a bit more why @ the end of the video.

Please give me any feedback if you have it and I really look forward to getting this live, open sourced, and kicking with real users!

Best,
Stephen

Thanks!  I'm super excited to get it out and it keeps me pumped hearing about others being excited. 

Awesome, can't wait to get your feedback on the codebase when it's out.

Very weird, I was able to duplicate this on my ipad.  In the immediate, watch on your laptop.  I'm digging into it. Could possibly be an issue w/ it having been recorded via hangout, as I've got the settings set for 'all platforms'. 

The simple answer, as the network stands now, is yes - it's vulnerable.  

Three ways that I'm addressing integrity around listing + messaging data right now --

1. I've built in mechanisms to handle user spoofing + spoofed edits of existing listings.
2. I'm going to be limiting the amount of listings a user can post to 1 at launch.
3. I've made the decision (since posting the video) to limit listing posts to 7 days of visibility + messages for those listings to 14 days of accessibility (purged from the network by all peers after that).

Those three measures prevent the majority of attacks in the form of corruption / manipulation and, to an extent, flooding / spamming.

Going forward --

Reputation is the next big functionality that I'm going to be building in after launch.
This will allow us to much more effectively address DDOS + spamming potential in that:
1. Peers can automatically reject messages from peers deemed to be spamming even before any decryption is necessary
2. The peer server can auto-kick users from the network who are spamming

This is an ongoing thought process for me as I continue to engineer the network.  Would love any feedback on the above and/or other thoughts.

Best,
Stephen

Hey all,

I wanted to share a quick video I made walking through the state of development on the exchange.  

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

I'd love feedback and I'm pushing hard to get this last set of functionality wrapped up so you can get your hands on it.  

I'm also looking to find some folk interested in jumping in on the project as well.  I'm thinking of structuring it as a rev share between whomever joins in.  If you'd be interested, shoot me a message.

Best,
Stephen

We ordered a unit back in February, shipped yesterday, hopefully receiving this week.  I'll hold my tongue until I've had a chance to test the unit myself.  Customer service, the one time I did have contact, was fine and responsive. 

Fantastic!  Congrats on getting this out there. 

Hey all,

Quick update on my end --

Elqnt is now going to be hosted out of a data center here in SF -- still on our own hardware.  I was able to find space (and the proper bandwidth) to accommodate the loads I'm hoping to be able to handle. 

I'd been capitulating to the idea of cloud hosting over this past week due to the in-house setup not measuring up to what I'd hoped -- not to mention the provider was not reliable enough -- but finding this space keeps things solid in the track of managing and hosting everything on our own hardware for additional control/access.

I'm really pushing to wrap up development in the next few days -- the timestamp on this should be an indication of the long hours   Getting all of the hardware setup in the data center this week set me back a couple days, but is a huge step up in stability + bandwidth. 

Anyways, I'll keep everyone posted as I get ready to push it live!

Stephen

Hey all,

A quick update on things:

It's not looking like I'm going to be able to push the service live today.  I'm super bummed, but it's honestly for the best.  You'd hate the experience if I pushed it live today.

Reasons:

• I want the experience to be very good when it goes live -- it's not there yet.
• P2P Messaging + Listings are working great, but getting persistence of both of those is taking a lot of time to get right -- but it is very close.
• The in-house mapping server didn't pan out.  I simply don't have the optimal hardware for it and I couldn't reach parity w/ other open street map options such as Mapquest.  This didn't delay things persay, but I'm bummed.  In order to do this, it would require another server specifically designed for high IO -- which costs quite a lot.

I also have one other major feature (sort-of) that I've not yet announced (and had hoped to today!), but it will have to wait until Elqnt goes live  

Best,
Stephen

Thanks!  We've set the go-live date for Oct 29th on this new version.

This version is essentially a complete re-write from the beta with some serious refactoring to much of the back-end due to continued thought around security + efficiency. 

With all that re-working, it's taken quite a bit longer than expected -- we apologize for that -- but we felt we couldn't go live with this next version without a solid base set of functionality from which we could build. 

As the date gets closer, I'll update this post with an outline of the full set of functionality (some items are still in the works and might not quite make it in before we lock in). 

Best,
Stephen

Indeed, partially what's taking a while -- it's been a unique challenge to maintain anonymity while affording persistent messaging.

That's for the feedback -- The landing page will be cross-browser in the upcoming deploy, so the 'too cool for school' page will be going away -- It was actually a really quick late-night capability test until we got the next round of functionality out.  

With the new landing page in place, users should have a solid idea of what the service is all about and how it works.

Thanks!  

Pushing hard to get this next group of functionality deployed.  There is some tricky back-end work w/ the peer-to-peer encryption that is holding things up (along with the mapping server).  

v1.1 deployed - minor release

Here is a summary of the items included in this release --
note: this ended up mostly being a minor release in preparation for the subsequent major release next week

- Substantial Back-End Refactoring In Preparation for Major Functionality Inclusions
- Analytics Opt-Out
- Mobile UI Improvements (Will come into play more as mobile Chrome supports WebRTC)

Would love feedback to help make this thing what everybody really wants and would use in an anonymous p2p exchange.  
Lists, written critique, or snapshots are all appreciated!  Anything you can provide in the way of feedback will help shape this platform and make it more awesome.

Best,
Stephen

Good point, we'll put that in the backlog for implementation ahead of the brief downtime tonight.