Yeah, I just tried again and you have to have the url for a faucet.  I can go find a faucet, but it obviously isn't meant for regular people to be able to use.

I never said that the delegates the wealthiest stakeholders would elect would be unproductive.  On the contrary, I think the wealthiest stakeholders would "support" business delegates which they have a vested interest in and who would maximize their investment, but at the same time, these businesses would be financed at the expense of all stakeholders.

At some point the amount of delegates will be increased. Most likely this will be as the network grows so incredibly large and valuable that adding diminishing amounts of increasing decentralization is worth the linear cost of adding extra block producing nodes. It could also be if NXT ever gets its shit together and manages to have more than 16 nodes controlling half the network. If NXT started approaching 51 block producers for half the blocks then bitshares voters will probably support doubling the amount of delegates for the sake of PR, just so BitShares continues being more decentralized than NXT.

One thing is for sure, NXT will NEVER have more independent block producers than bitshares because leased forging encourages centralization and the only way to get forgers to spread out will be by begging them to do so, the same way BTC users have to beg miners not to join GHASH and discus fish.

With bitshares you just vote for a hard fork that forces the amount of block producers to increase, and then you vote for delegates who are either old and trusted community members, who have revealed their identity, or who are blockchain employees doing quantifiable work (thus proving they are not a sockpuppet). No other blockchain even have any reliable methods to determine their degree of decentralization, which is the first step to systematically increase it in the long run. We'll never know if GHASH secretly controlled more than 51% of mining power all along, and we'll never know how many of the 16 NXT pools are controlled by the same person.

You argue that DPOS will actually evolve into a meritocracy when in fact it won't.  Those in the Communist bureaucracy that DPoS creates will maintain their power through deceit, corruption, manipulation, and quid pro quo politics.  It's a system ripe for abuse and IMO the delegates were intentionally limited to 101 because that was a number that the Bitshares' elite believed they could successful manipulate while still claiming "decentralization".  Don't ask me to rationalize how they claim "decentralization" when Bytemaster is stating that they are programming centralization into Bitshares to make it more efficient and economical.

True, if one individual had 99% of the stake, he would have tremendous power over such a system, but that is not a realistic scenario.  Why don't you support your arguments with rational examples.

What matters is not how MUCH stake any individual possesses, but how those with the most are or aren't able to disenfranchise everyone else.  All systems will evolve into 20% of the group owning 80%.  If you attempt to redistribute forging rights, regardless of the reason, you are effectively redistributing wealth and will create a system where those in power will maintain their power through manipulation and not because they earned it.  NXT is in fact the true meritocracy, not the BTSSR.

NXT allows leased forging which is like voting or pooling.  The difference is it is NOT forced on stakeholders.  Leased forging was implemented to allow stakeholders to forge safely.  The first account holds your NXT and is kept offline.  The second account is empty and is kept online.  You lease the balance from your first account to your second account.

If the network is protected by actual stake ownership (like NXT), it is impossible to attack it by creating a large network of stakeless nodes.  The number of allowed forgers in a system should be regulated by market forces and not capped at some arbitrary amount.  "Decentralization" means everyone should be allowed to participate without the consent of an authority.  I believe this is a better system and less prone to abuse.  By adding voting (delegation) to PoS, you are adding a "social contruct" which allows a hierarchical system to develop.

If you had 10 Billion participates that forged 1% of the blocks and 1 individual who forged 99% of the blocks, I'd would say that is a fair and decentralized system as long as the one individual with 99% of the stake didn't have the means to levy a tax on the smaller stakeholders.  If the one individual with 99% of the stake dropped out of the network, the remaining 1% of the stake forging would then compromise 100% of the active stake forging.  Since the amount of available stake would be reduced by 99%, it would not make the network more susceptible to attack as long as that stake didn't fall into malicious hands.  Everyone should have the right to forge in proportion to his stake.

This is of course a ridiculous example that would never develop in any natural system.

Dan believes that nodes must be limited to 101 (centralized) because he claims it is "unprofitable" to run a node.  He bases this on ridiculous cost metrics and the flawed hypothesis that nodes must ROI from forging alone.  This is wrong because running a node is simply a minor expense for businesses.  I proved it is wrong because currently even though it is less profitable to run a NXT node than a Bitshares' node there are on average over two and a half times as many NXT nodes as Bitshares' delegates!

Again, you are basing "decentralization" on percentage of blocks forged by each node, not on participants in the system.

I would argue that "true decentralization" isn't based on the percentage of blocks forged by each node, but instead based on participants in the system.  It is the right of all forgers to be allowed to forge independently and forge in equal proportion.  The goal of "decentralization" isn't to evenly redistribute forging power to a select group of individuals.

Yes, if you run the NXT wallet consistently that will count as an active node.  The average is 257 nodes online and 307 currently online.  I would imagine the mass majority of these nodes are forging.

Hahaha... nice way to avoid a real debate.  If anyone is wondering the REASON Stan won't let Dan (aka Bytemaster) come on here is because he knows he will get ripped apart.  His blog article was exaggerated to the point of absurdity.  It in NO WAY actually represents reality.  Right now, NXT marketcap is less than half of BTS and it is LESS PROFITABLE to run a NXT node than it is a Bitshares node.  BUT AMAZINGLY... THERE ARE CURRENTLY OVER TRIPLE THE AMOUNT OF NXT NODES ACTIVELY RUNNING!  Explain that Dan.

It seems like Ripple fighting back strengthens its top 3 position just a mere 1 million market cap.

If you really want to know more about BitShares/X/PTS/DNS/Vote, etc your can read: http://wiki.bitshares.org
If you like ideas look into https://bitsharestalk.org

... These distributed autonomous credit unions could rival the value of the largest banks in the world such as JP Morgan and Bank of America in just a few years. BitShares X offers a bank account where funds can be transferred in seconds anywhere in the world with more privacy and security than a Swiss bank account. Your account can never be frozen, your funds cannot be seized, and the bank can never face collapse due to loan defaults or fraud. All of this is made possible without requiring any employees, lawyers, regulatory compliance, vaults, buildings, and other infrastructure required by traditional banks. Unlike existing banks, you can hold your balance denominated in gold, silver, oil, or other commodities in addition to national currencies.

In addition to acting as a bank, BitShares X also serves as an exchange where currencies, commodities, and stock derivatives can be traded with most of the features used by professional traders including shorts and options. The bank takes a cut on every transaction and pays these transaction fees to the delegates and then shareholders by way of the Burn Rate. BitShares X can achieve this feat using the same technology that makes Bitcoin possible - irrevocable decentralized automated consensus forming. The market capitalization of shares in this new bank will exceed two times the value of all balances in gold, silver, oil, and currency accounts. This requirement allows for 200% reserve collateralizing the value of all deposits in the bank.

Someone is trying to hype aren't you?
Exactly how is this a feat when the difference between the 4th and 5th coin is less than $1M? You do realize that the market caps tend to change drastically in a short period of time. Once some altcoin overtakes LTC then that could be considered a feat.

LOOL .. anyway .. btsx has like 15% plus on the 24h price while NXT has like -8% ?!