Bloody hell, Ian and Igmaca.....

I must confess that Igmacas posts make my head hurt a little, and I may be unfairly ignoring him because of it.
My own personal time issues don't help, either.
Does anyone have a brief summary of Igmacas idea(s), for the slow among us?

I don't see any need for debate at all right now.
If u have the skills to make something better than what we currently have, then put some work into building a prototype, even as a very rough sketch of what u intend it to be.
Show us that u have something to deliver, then the funding will come your way.

This is not aimed personally at godt, but:
I'm seeing a lot of people pitching vague plans, asking for funding for projects that are nothing more than complete vaporware.
May I suggest that u put some work in, prove that you have something useful, then put your hand out........

I just posted on the Nextcoin thread for this, I like the idea, but it's not an Infrastructure project, not even a little bit, so the Inf-Com can't help u on this.

I do think that u now have more than enough funding to get the pool/trader combo up and running, so u just need to find a pool operator who can set it up.
Don't forget that the pool will be charging fees (usually) so this fee (1-5% on most pools) will also provide a steady income for the pool operator.
I would focus the bounty on setting up the link between the pool (because a pool is a pool, easy enough to setup) and the trading/payout system.

QBTC and Fatih87SK:

I've submitted QBTCs design to the conference team. I chose it over Fatih87SKs version to stay within our current house style.
Having said that, I like Fatihs design, tho' we do need to tattoo "Gill Sans Light" somewhere on his body.

For the rest:
I'll be posting a conference info update sometime tonight.....

Utterly agree, thats sweet.

I'm going to wait another 12 hours or so, if no-one has any objections/better designs let me know, otherwise I'm going to go with QBTCs logo above.

@QBTC; thanks, mate. U r a star!

Logo search is not going all that well, found this:



I'd like to have a gold NXT with tagline....hint, hint!

Bitcoin2014 Conference Amsterdam 15-17 May Update....

I would like to request a logo and maybe a short intro text.
The conference organisers need to have a high-quality NXT logo for their conference website/guidebook/app:

http://bitcoin2014.com/
(Scroll down to "Contributing Sponsors" , 70% to bottom of page, for examples of other logos)

We already have some logo resources, and I'll post a few here soon, but if there is anything I miss, or if someone wants to create something new (keeping within our current branding material, no major changes, please) please post it and help choose the best.

A short introduction text for NXT would also be useful. 2 or 3 lines of text that completely cover what NXT is....get writing.

There are a lot of other interesting developments on the conference front, but I'll let Damelon cover the RHOS story.
My contact for speaker slot organisation wasn't available today, I'll be trying again tomorrow (thursday) to get her on the phone.
I'd like to have some more info from Damelon about RHOS, if possible, see what needs to be added to our conference package to cover their activities.

Anyway:
Logos, please....that is my current priority for the next 12-24 hours.

 

Guys/girls/things:

I'd just like to say 'Hi' to the NXT community, in my capacity as Infrastructure Committee spokescreature.

As u may remember, the Inf-Com (less typing) consists of :

marcus03, chanc3r, ferment, ChuckOne and myself.

We've been busy over the last few days since the election, setting up procedures and collaboration tools, as well as considering a few proposals that heve been submitted to us and trying to define our precise role in the further development of NXT.

Most of our work so far can be seen on:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=506757.0

I'm also going to cross post some of the above to nxtcrypto and nextcoin.org, if I find some time.

I'd like to thank all of the NXT community for their trust in us, and remind you all that we are very much open for business.
So, if you have any brilliant ideas/proposals/rantings/requests for funding, get in touch either on our main thread above, or via PM.

Important question: Is Nodecoin (new name needed) an issue for Inf-Com or TechDev-Com ?  
  

+1 Sounds good to me, avoids the competing with NXT aspect, while rewarding node providers.
Pretty much an ideal solution, and it looks fairly simple to implement.

Jumping a motorcycle on to the next point;
If E-K has a bug, he should show it to us, and rely on our natural generosity. Shit, Dr Evil showed up, shared his work with us and we just threw large piles of cash at him. Thats how we do it round here....
 

Opticalcarrier/SSL certificates.

This discussion is slightly over my pay scale...guess I'd better get used to it.

After some research:
The SSL certification seems to really only give us an extra layer of cosmetic security on some nodes, but certainly not network-wide.This could maybe give rise to confusion as to whether a particular node is secure if it lacks SSL certification, when in fact the use of https adds no extra security for NXT transactions/balances.
J-L (and I assume CfB/BCNext) seem to have no use for https, so the SSL cert seems unnecessary.

I'd like to hear chanc3r and J-L's opinions on this, but I'm 80% against SSL certification right now.


Ferment/VPS

Just going to post a quick summary here of Ferments request:
***********************************************************************************************

marcus03

How much do you need per node/VPS per months and for what is it spent? VPS hosting costs only or something else? Where do you host? Number of nodes=number of VPS?

   
ferment

marcus03 - Payment is for hosting, bandwidth, and personal time (gotta pay the bills). Servers are at Amazon, Rackspace, and Linode for both geographic and provider diversity. A node is run as a single virtual server.

   
marcus03

Thanks. Can you make a small list of planned expenses for a month for one node?

Hosting: ... NXT per month per NRS node Bandwidth: ... NXT per month per NRS node Personal time: ... NXT per month per NRS node Anything else...

 

ferment

1-2gb node with normal bandwidth charges is $25-35USD per month depending on location.

You can get much cheaper VPS options but you won't have the nice features like image cloning, international data centers, etc.

It's probably easier if I put together a proposal and submit it. I'll run the numbers and think how I could improve things and incorporate some of these brainstorming issues.

 
ChuckOne

ferment Sounds good for the start.

I would like to add that we definitely need long-term strategy for self-sustaining service providers. Any ideas on that?

   
ferment

ChuckOne One idea that I had was if you could integrate some kind of profitable PoW (distributed computing problem) then one could use the mostly idle nature of nodes to do other stuff.

For example, you could have a node do image conversions from one format to another and the node owner would get paid in NXT per unit of work completed. The work execution framework would run as an extension to NRS.

Building CPU mining pools on top of nxt nodes would be another example.

   


EvilDave wrote:

    I think it's an obvious decision, we need to have those nodes up and running, IMHO The only controversial part is whether Ferment gets a bounty for his own work on this. F; Have u recieved funding/bounty for your own workng time up til now? Do u want or expect payment for your worked hours on the VPSes?

ferment
Yes, I received sponsorships to pay for the nodes through the end of march. I've received bounties from BCNext/CFB as well for various contributions.

I'd happily run a few to support the community, but running 100+ across 10 data centers requires both time and financial commitment.

I think there are 3 approaches that could be applied to me or anyone else:

    Salary Bounty + Costs = Qualified individual gets paid on some kind of time frame to manage up to a certain amount of nodes. Committee pays hosting costs for these nodes directly. This is my least favorite, but it is what is implied when people ask about costs and time. It's highly centralized and requires trust.

    Bounties are paid per node per period of time directly to maintainer. How much time/expense is not the concern of the funding committee. The committee is only interested in the end result - a fast and resilient network. Nodes should receive bounties if they meet a clearly specified SLA regarding uptime, performance, updates, etc. This is the most common approach (sponsorships, peer explorer). In the absence of #3 below, I prefer this model, but it rewards investment in massive automation and the ability to grow on demand.

    Decentralized service providers are built on top of the nxt network. Nodes are rewarded through some kind of PoW that supports the business of the service provider. This is a long-term sustainable strategy until foraging become viable. Work processing code is distributed as "plugins" to NRS and run on nodes. Think Seti@home or CPU mining.

I'm sure there are other interesting models.

**************************************************************************************************

The above is from the INF-COM PMs and bitbucket convo, any one else want to weigh in, feel free....

Just posted the paper to BitBucket, going to spent some time tomorrow going thru it, saw chanc3rs  comments on it.

Optical: put a proposal together covering all the elements of your plan, post it here and ask us for some NXT.
Then we can have a little talk about it...

I'm with Marcus here, lets keep most of our biz here on the forum, in the public eye.

Moving on to business:

Secondleo sent me a copy of a paper on energy consumtion and efficiency compared between the BTC and NXT networks.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J8uhdshu9epGRrQHBaloGc4itdvuAHZDAUtNDjOhz-8/edit?usp=sharing

I've had a quick look thru it, and it is full of useful information, might deserve some bounty even as a stand-alone project.
But SecondLeo also has a further proposition/project to do with an efficient forging soution.
He got in contact with me via Nextcoin.org:

I am one of the authors of the recently published paper about the energy efficiency of the Nxt network.

On the basis of the work put into the paper I have plans in motion to offer a powerful and minimum effort solution for forging.
I would appreciate it if you provided a point of contact for the committee so I can present the project there and see if I can get any support.



i'd like to hear more, so I've invited secondleo to come on over and tell us everything....

In reverse order:
Press accreditation means a letter from a recognised press organisation. Here are the rules:
If your camera dude has press affiliation, he should be able to get his editor to sign off on a Letter of Assignment. AT5 will probably cover him, if they can use some of his material.
In order to get press accreditation, you have to get a friendly news organisation on board, or set one up yourself.

RaspPi will happen, gonna wait for Ebereon, unless someone else in Europe with RPSolar experience wants to jump in.
Or I'll just build it myself.......might need help with the Linux bits tho'.

Chanc3r: It's great that he's stepped up. Adds much needed technical depth to the team. I (or someone, but we are in the INF-COM together)  should have a chat with him soon, find out what he would like to do (keynote speech, panel, q+A ) , get some background info and then get on to the BTC Foundation to get him on the program.

This is pretty close to being as bad as bad publicity can get.

At least AlvinLee has acknowledged her (?) role in the loss, but losing 20% in one pop......ouch.
Anyone want to give her some compensation and a copy of Wesleys shiny, more secure, client when it comes out?

Damelon:
Shit happens and some people are just plain unreliable.
I could trot out another line of cliches about success versus failure, but I won't.
Except to say that failure is just part of business, and all we've lost is some of your time. Sorry....

Still, we do already have pretty good and almost coherent branding. Maybe it could do with a little tidying up?
Sounds like a good project for a newly elected marketing committee......or:


Conference is looking good, though:

Is our speaker completely confirmed, Damelon?

I've sent the stand billing to Salsacz, but how many more passes do we need?

Looking into RaspPi building, Ebereon will help, but is AFK for the next 10 days or so.

Need to get promo material. Do we recycle stuff from Berlin and Texas or make our own?

If Damelons camera dude can get press accreditation, we can get him in on a media pass for free.
I could also try to get an extra media pass by engaging evil, sneaky mode.

I'm off back to INF.....

+1

I'm with u here, some stakeholders, (Klee and Pouncer spring to mind immediately, 747..... and others) have done a lot for NXT.
Others have done nothing so far, but may well step in later if needed (like the mysterious 747....)

It looks like we have enough funding for the short term, and I totally agree that we need to prioritise spending those funds on useful projects to get NXT further down the road to world domination  .
Lets concentrate on the positive, get some useful work done, and not be distracted by something that is not that much of an issue.
I vote that we put stakeholder bitching on the ignore list for now.


Next couple of steps for the committees:

Pick a spokesperson. Guess who is the spokesthing for Infrastructure?......
Organise and publish an 'application for funds' process.
Define which committee is responsible for certain NXT components: for example, are clients Infrastructure or TechDev ?

Good morning , bro...!


Unique is being blunt as fuck here, but he does have a point. More big stakeholders opening their wallets would be good, even if only to show that they do give a fuck. But we've down this road before without much results, we can't force people to fund NXT even if it is in their own best interest to do so. So lets put selfish stakeholders on the list of things to ignore, for the moment.

 

I hate dictators and charismatic leaders....but we do seem to need some pushing to get shit done. Look at RJ and the committee elections.


Password security integration stuff looks promising, guys, lets make it happen. Which committee has responsibilty for clients?

Got to run, brb in an hour or 2.

Yes, the billing is in BTC. There's no real rush to pay it, I'll send u a copy of the invoice soon.

We will need to decide soon how many registrations we want. We have one included with the stand......but how many others do we need ?
Early tickets (til March 15) are €370, after that €415.

Media passes are fairly tight, but free:

My 'caught up with 30 pages of this thread' thoughts for today:


Community became a victim of bitching each other up like a bunch of school kids as far as I can see.
I've just plowed thru 30+ pages of whining and bitchery (with far too much eMule in it) and I am not bloody happy.

If this is how we as a community react to delays and setbacks, we might as well go home now.
NXT is a big project. Every big project is going to hit problems, miss deadlines and generally be a pain in the arse for the people who are putting in the work on it.
We need to rise to the challenge and get working on making NXT the best it can be, not getting all butt hurt because we aren't millionaires yet (well, most of us).
Play nice, kids, we are all on roughly the same side.

Committees: good thing.
Thx for the votes, btw, happy to serve. (i'm on Infrastructure....)



+1

I was going to suggest that we invite one/both of the Cointropolis guys to act as extra members on the Marketing committee.....but that seems to have ended in tears. Pity, I hated SoL, but they did seem to have some really good input otherwise, loved the Star Trek convention currency idea. Is that still happening ?

Need to wrap this up and get in bed......I'm going to put this semi-random list of priorities here, if we can get this lot done in the next few weeks,we'll have done well:

 Get the White Paper and Audit done.

 Integrate Wesleys client to NRS, audit it, release to a grateful world in a one click package with some form of password security enforcement.

 Figure out our current TPS, make a plan to hit a realistic TPS target that gives close to instant transactions, even if it's not the   promised 1000TPS.

 Get AE up and running, with at least a handful of gateways for other cryptos/Fiat.

 Nodecoin!

 Make a simple payment module for the Web. Get merchants on board, sell/buy stuff with NXT as a first gen currency.

 Think more about marketing. The crypto market is maturing, we need branding to succeed and achieve mass adoption. (I hate to say it....but I think it's true)

 Give EvilDave lots of NXT for being such a nice guy, and to pay for the A'dam conference.

Anything I missed, lets add it to the list.....