Georgem,

Upon a node being kicked from the network due to not meeting the criteria of a productive node, will the network automatically recognize the next node "in line" with the next highest collateral? Meaning, will there be a queue of nodes bidding to get on the SN network (if for instance someone couldn't or didn't want to buy more SPR to get on the network - they merely keep their node with less than sufficient collateral running on a vps waiting for a spot to open)?

i.e. Say a node gets kicked for being a crappy node, and I have a node on a VPS with the collateral of say 995 (the highest of any other sitting on a VPS), would my node be immediately inaugurated into the service network, or would I have to do something to make it a SN after recognizing there was a spot open?

Forgive me if you have addressed this somewhere. I didn't see it in your original update - only that one could *take* a seat. Not *receive* a seat after waiting.

How realistic would it be to host a website on these nodes? Bypassing a single dedicated server?

Yea, their servers were having trouble the entire time I was futzing around with it.  

Took me like 10 tries to save new stuff!!

Edit: It's worse than it was before I put the reddit up. Looks like the new Spreadcoin reddit has so much traffic going to it that it's bogging down the servers!!  

Edit 2: Appears to be back up!

Edit 3: Populated it with some things. Keep adding  

Drumroll please!

--------------------

Here is our new reddit!! https://www.reddit.com/r/SpreadcoinOfficial/

It is pretty bare, but it shall be our new home there. Please feel free to post things that might improve it's decor. I can subsequently change it. It would be really cool to get a custom theme / interface so if anyone has some coding experience in that regard, you can make the new reddit look more awesome!

I was unable to get in touch with the previous reddit moderator, so I went ahead and made this one bc I'm impatient. If I get in touch with the previous moderator, maybe I will delete one of them. Or maybe I can make the previous one a memorial to Mr. Spread (the Hamster).

Also, I have created a small list of tasks that can be started by members of the community here: http://spreadcointalk.org/index.php?topic=754.0

Feel free to add some more things you think the community could work on, no matter how small or large!

P.S. Coins, I found your reddit from past posts, so I sent you a message to become a moderator if you so please.

Additionally, I will soon be looking to take over the old Spreadcoin reddit. Probably tonight or this weekend. I will make a new account on reddit, contact the old mod, and then hopefully gain moderator status, myself. If this is not the case, I will begin working on a new Spreadcoin reddit. I think reddit is a great place to have a community, and even if it is not used that frequently by everyone, having it updated will provide more "legitimacy" to the project

That said, I have few skills that would help in making the reddit look fancy. If anyone will want to work on making it look pretty after I make it & populate it, that would be great!

I will post the link to the new reddit when it is up (or just tell you about my acquisition of the old one).  

In fact, tonight I will make a subtopic under community projects starting a list of things I think that we as a community can start working on while Georgem works on SN's. Keep an eye out, but I will surely post the link here tonight.  

Bitcoin blocks have been pretty full recently

Thoughts on beginning a Big Data Methodology conversation on BTCT in a separate topic?

We have one on the SPR forum here: http://spreadcointalk.org/index.php?topic=749.0 , but it has rather grim amounts of traffic at the moment. Obviously, we want to get people to post in spreadcointalk more, but we are still a growing community and it may be better for productive discussion if we open the conversation up to a wider pool of people with new thoughts and ideas. I can always add important & valuable posts from here to the spreadcoin forum if some people want to explicitly contribute there.

Coins, I was hoping you might be able to direct me to a spot to open this conversation up on bitcointalk / open it up yourself in the appropriate spot, if this is thought to be a good idea. I'm woefully unfamiliar with the borderlands of BTCT!

We'll take another look at this after service nodes are released.

Rushed?

Well-motivated but needs more thought.

Spreadcoin is not a legally-constituted entity in any jurisdiction so cannot be a party to a contract.

No-one can enforce exclusive representation of Spreadcoin and no-one can legally represent Spreadcoin as a party to a contract.

No-one's permission nor agreement is required to pursue an application for MS to add SPR the list of supported alts (AIUI, it reduces to persuading someone to create and submit a Docker file for MS to add to an MS-hosted directory).

So, supplementary question - who is offering to shoulder the responsibilities of:

- development
- testing
- maintenance
- continuous integration
- technical support
- liaison with MS
- ensuring continuity

About a week's initial devops work there I reckon (for the bulk of it), about $2500 at contract rates. Plus the ongoing maintenance task, of course - well, once the paradigm is established, it would do SPR more harm than good to have a publicly broken Azure-hosted service than to not offer a service at all.

Cheers

Graham

Ethereum, Factom, Emercoin and several more coins have been accepted to this platform. ....
None of them have changed any of their code, governance, licensing, funding, or anything else about their project.

A Bitcore node's direct access to the blockchain via its native bindings to Bitcoind makes Bitcore-based services 20X faster than those using JSON-RPC.
That's a significant performance improvement for services that rely on blockchain data, from payment processors and exchanges to block explorers.

We've already implemented Bitcore as the backend for our own bitcoin wallet Copay. Users can choose to connect directly to private Bitcoin nodes using our Bitcore Wallet Service,
 which includes a command line client made for business users.

Just created an account to pipe in here... I think you guys are woefully under-explaining the Microsoft thing. It's very simple: they'll offer pre-packaged SPR-enabled cloud instances if an application is submitted and the code is vetted as safe for their platform. Nothing about this "moves" the SpreadCoin network. Nothing about this changes SpreadCoin. Nothing about this forces or even persuades SPR users to start using Azure services *unless* they, of their own volition, find it convenient to assist in the operation or development of SPR-related services.

Ethereum, Factom, Emercoin and several more coins have been accepted to this platform. None of them are in a "partnership" with Microsoft. None of them have "moved" to the Microsoft network. None of them have changed any of their code, governance, licensing, funding, or anything else about their project. I honestly have no idea where the concept of moving the SpreadCoin network to a centralized partnership with overlord Microsoft comes from, but it's waaaaaaaay off the mark of what's actually been offered/implemented. Having not gone through the application myself, I can't be sure, but from what I can infer from the experiences of other projects, the vetting process seems to be self-contained to a code-safety review within Microsoft.

As for why it would be advantageous (aside from the price/investor confidence/growth), I believe this is a completely benign program to participate in that doesn't threaten decentralization, arguably increasing it through easier, immediate, and reliable end-user access to SPR services and development. If PayPal said they're accepting SpreadCoin to process payments and SPR doesn't have to change anything about themselves - would you consider that centralization? Would you be wary of such an integration? This isn't the same level, but it's similar. You have a platform with major exposure, solid support, and in this case, a particularly forward-thinking team behind it for coming from such a corporate behemoth (who else is doing Blockchain-as-a-Service, seriously?) and they've read the SPR whitepaper and would be happy to help support the SPR community and ecosystem by offering it on their experimental and forward-thinking BaaS platform.

I honestly don't see how this can be perceived as a threat or a dangerous thing. If the service sucks, no one uses it. If Azure makes no money off of BaaS, it ceases to be offered. If they offer reliable service for an attractive price, enabling developers and users to access SPR more easily or more economically, then all this is, is decentralized infrastructure (you do know what Azure is, right?) building around SpreadCoin. Frankly I'm stunned that the de facto project lead on SPR is so under-informed on his main competitors/counterparts, and what's happening in this business space. Not trying to be a dick, but you probably need some more hands on deck with various strengths and knowledge. Beyond the code. And then you need to seriously consider to their advice, the hard part.


I've been with spread since Mr. Spread launched it, btw, had an old account here that I deleted last year, used to be a "Hero" - some would probably remember me. Anyway, I stop in every month or so just to see what's happening, and I had to clarify this Microsoft misunderstanding going on. Good luck with whatever direction the project goes, still have coins in the vault and watching curiously.

Bill Gates just sent me a PM.  He wants you on a plane to Redmond, in the morning.  He said to make sure you are wearing a shirt and tie, don't be late and make sure he 'washes'.

Not you specifically...'you', as in the project.

The team seems in general agreement and the vote is indicative of a yes, too.  OK. We'll get on it and make an application.

We are Borg.

bump

Hail Hydra

Azure require you apply.

One of my customers has just signed up to move their users to Microsoft Office 365. About 30,000 people switching to the cloud. MS can do this sort of thing, switch on people by the millions onto their cloud offering. As Minerpage said, that's a lot of eyeballs looking at SPR, which is why Azure vet who goes on their platform as a recommended offering.

Does this mean we become centralized? Are you going to change the principle of one IP for every servicenode?

My best guess is that Azure will end up being too costly for servicenode operators. There are plenty of low cost cloud offerings out there that will be cheaper.

No. It's a cloud offering. You can use it as a sandbox, but its like any other cloud environment. They just vet who goes on there.

You know, the way you said you might weed out who gets to go into the decentralized block explorer.

For them, its about limiting reputation risks. 

Like I said, IOS screen who goes on the app store for the same reason, but that is mostly about preventing scammers and viruses, etc.