Hey twentyseventy, have you ever considered re-launching the BDD using something like Counterparty, rather than these shitty sites which always seem to have problems, like havelock, cryptostocks.com, etc... ? I have invested a pretty good chunk into BDD, and it is really great that you have been so reliable with payments.. but the main point of failure always seems to be the host website/service. Is it not enough that there is already a huge risk in buying in to these sorts of projects, let alone the added (and sometimes worse) risk of havelock or whoever else being hacked, shut down, turning out to be a scam etc....
I also run a couple (much smaller) investment schemes using Counterparty, and they are working out pretty well. We even have private forums over at Let's Talk Bitcoin which you can only access if you can prove you own some shares/tokens (a feature of LTB that we are calling Token Controlled Access). See here:
http://blockscan.com/assetInfo/SPECULATE and here
http://blockscan.com/assetInfo/EARNFREEBTCHere is how the scheme could work on Counterparty:
Issue 2 tokens called something like BTCMINE and BTCSELL (equivalent of B.MINE and B.SELL). Set up an automated address which accepts X amount of BTC, and vends out 1 BTCMINE and 1 BTCSELL to whichever address sent the transaction. I have a automated token vending system built here
https://github.com/tokenly/xcp-gateway, just needs to be modified to vend out more than 1 type of token at a time (also, my company Tokenly is working on a dedicated service for auto-selling tokens, called SwapBot, which you can use our hosted version or set it up on your own machines... coming very soon).
All the rest of the BDD details and calculations would be the same.
When it comes to dividends, you can simply use the "pay dividend" feature in counterparty to do it all in one transaction, and every holder of BTCMINE or BTCSELL tokens would receive a payment. It does cost a small amount of XCP to create a dividend, but that is pretty cheap actually (hell, I would even donate a bunch to you if you went with this). Also, one thing to note is that if paying in pure BTC, any payment that would be below the standard BTC dust limit is simply ignored, which can make things tricky sometimes. With my own little investment tokens, I get around this by paying dividends in a "proxy" token called BITCOINEX, which is exchangeable at any time at a 1:1 rate for regular BTC, and it allows people to receive payments as low as 1 satoshi (disclaimer: I also control the BITCOINEX token, so using it means trusting me personally. you can always create your own proxy token though). Paying with a proxy token also has an added advantage of having the dividend actually recorded as a dividend on the blockchain.
As for trading, the Counterparty DEX (decentralized asset exchange) can be used. Although I admit it can be a bit clunky to use directly. There is also multiple exchanges (such as poloniex) which already accept multiple tokens built on Counterparty, so you could totally expand trading operations across multiple exchanges instead of just Havelock, and all tied to the same cryptographic token.
So, to sum up
Pros of using Counterparty:
- Eliminates the risk of Havelock shutting down, getting hacked, or going rouge or w/e
- Much more anonymous. Tokens would be tied only to addresses, not accounts w/ emails etc. like on Havelock
- More transparent - anyone would be able to see on the blockchain exactly how much has been invested, dividend history etc.
- Potential to expand trading across several exchanges instead of just 1, and the decentralized asset exchange option always being available
Cons:
- Requires a bit more technical work to set up (I can help with this, if you are interested at all)
- A little bit more expensive to run due to the fact that it costs a small amount of XCP to send out any dividends. This can be mitigated by making payments less often (e.g once a week). also note that only you as a token issuer need any amount of XCP, customers/investors and such do not.
- You might need to use a proxy token such as BITCOINEX or XBTC to pay out dividends, which isnt a big deal IMO but it is another factor, and might confuse some people. Can also pay out with something like just XCP, but I like using the "bitcoin proxy" tokens just for the fact that you don't need to deal with yet another fluctuating exchange rate.
- Until you get listed on some asset/token/altcoin exchanges such as Poloniex, trading might be pretty clunky. Hey, maybe you can convince the guys at Havelock to get with the program and start accepting Counterparty tokens?
Anyways, just thought I would throw those ideas out there, you can take it or leave it. I just feel strongly that all "crypto stocks/assets" very much need to be decoupled from the traditional exchanges and be using a token based approach instead (weather that is with Counterparty, or some other protocol - doesn't matter). Crypto asset exchange websites should require as little trust and have as little control as possible.
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