Big updates are down below. We can now announce the following:



1) The crowdsale will be January 12 with Bittrex as the lead host (70% of the crowdsale distribution) and details close to being settled with two remaining hosts (30% of the crowdsale distribution)*.


2) The "R&D involving "undisclosed features" features referenced in the "open-ended" milestone involves work toward the development of decentralised, peer-to-peer "Slack.com" functionality and decentralised "Intrade"-like event-predictions markets. We will be updating the [ANN] shortly on the major significance of these features. In some sense, much of the functionality we've mentioned publicly has been about building critical mass toward these two major objectives, particularly the event-predictions market.

3) The crowdsale target is being raised to 2800BTC* based on several factors:

• We want the means to more quickly commit R&D to developing decentralised Slack.com-like business messaging functionality and decentralised Intrade-like event-prediction markets. We had budgeted from the start for preliminary R&D work on these fronts, but really feel it is important to make this a bigger and quicker priority as it dovetails so well with the overriding goal of encouraging mainstream adoption, and we believe accelerating trends in geopolitics and business make this imperative. There are significant technical challenges and uncertainties to be overcome on both fronts, but we will explain in greater detail why decentralised solutions are also vital on these two particular fronts, and will be increasingly be seen as vital (and valuable) by a lot more people over the coming year.
• As we've expected, BTC leadership edge is waning, but BTC's market value may be weakneing even faster than we anticipated. We feel we need to hedge for the possibility it will weaken further and possibly sink well to the $200's.
• Initial response to our first-wave marketing campaign (currently focused on prominent bitcoin holders and decision makers, and soon to be focused on altcoin news media) has been much more positive than anticipated (text is here: http://nectarcoin.com/wp-content/uploads/newsletter/nect.html). We're a bit more confident that the market seriously wants and might support professional, commercial-grade alternatives that are seriously focused on real mainstream adoption, as well as crowdsales carefully structured to ensure delivery on promises and limit exchange risk to coin buyers

4) A raw, online, partial demo of our alert system is available on an invite basis. If interested, please see the form here: http://nectarcoin.com/try-out-the-altcoin-alert/



Again, the [ANN] will soon be updated for all of these new developments, including details on how the crowdsale will be structured and more detail on the previously undisclosed functionality.

Looking ahead, we want to be clear: We don't and won't have all the answers. We don't have all the right answers. No one does. Not at the outset. But that is the beauty of crypto and decentralised systems. Wisdom can be found anywhere and everywhere and discovery opens the door to the surprises that come with true innovation. So, as always, we welcome constructive criticism, feedback, suggestions and your participation in what we all hope will be a breath of fresh air for crypto.

As we say in our open letter:


We welcome anyone of good will to join us as our marketing campaign moves into full swing.



Notes:
*still being settled, but we're close to wrapping
**subject to change based on market conditions

Thank you for your interest in NectarCoin. At this point, there is only the alert system demo (which we'll provide live front-end access to within a couple days - you can sign up for an invite here: http://nectarcoin.com/try-out-the-alert/), our concepts and our plans at this point.

Placeholder wallet code will be provided around the time of the crowdsale, but this project is presented as a crowdsale proposal to be funded and paid for on a multisig-escrow / payment-upon-milestone-delivery basis. Our position here would be one of a contracted service provider hired by those who buy into the crowdsale to build this all out on a full-time basis and paid in portions only upon delivery of each milestone (that's how we roll in the real world: http://proofofdev.com/sweet-nectarcoin/ - the code CryptoAsian references here is the alcoin alert system code).

Feel free to let us know if that remains unclear -- as we try to make this clear in the [ANN] and others have asked -- or let us know if you have any other questions
Happy new year!

Thank you for your interest in Nectar. We've developed the core of the alert system, which we reported on in the [ANN] (including YouTube video). Beyond that, we've been focused on trying to set up good conditions for a successful launch.

We're pretty clear in the [ANN] and in several posts that the very purpose of the crowdfund is to cover the cost of our full-time commitment to development, marketing, legal and other costs associated with building out a commercial grade platform. We will build what the market demonstrates it's ready and willing to pay for on a full time basis when it's clear to us the support is there. This would not be a part-time, low-commitment hobby project for us.

This project is presented to the community as a proposal to be funded - if it's escrow funded, we build it. And we don't get a dime from escrow until we hit each of the milestones.

Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.

We really appreciate the support - please spread the word. It's clear that what's gone on over the past year will require a higher level of transparency and performance from everyone to succeed. We've made clear in our [ANN] what our standards and vision are, and we will do what we can to rise to the challenge.

Bter had been one of the exchanges we were talking to about the crowdfund. We don't know all the facts, but the allegations coming out on bitcointalk and twitter about Bter and Bitbay are troubling. Our condolences to those who've been affected by what might have happened there.

This sort of thing not only damages the coinholders immediately impacted. They hurt all of us - it makes it harder for those of us who want to bring real innovation and value added to this space to get the support and confidence we need to make our project a success.  

We're new to this crypto space and for us the crowdfund has never just been about raising funds. Although that's important, the bigger function was to serve as promotional/marketing event - an introduction of our brand to a larger audience.

We want a clean launch that's seen as a clean launch. Nectar aims to be a bright light in the troubled world that is crypto today.

Needless to say, after today's allegations, we are no longer interested in having our CFC co-hosted on bter and not interested in having our coin listed there unless the allegations involving bter and Bitbay are conclusively proven false.

Judging by what we've read, that seems pretty unlikely.

To our community, we'd say this - it's darkest before the dawn. We intend on bringing a breath of fresh air to the world of altcoins as soon as we possibly can.

That's why we limited the number of coins to less than bitcoin's total supply.

Yes, and a couple others in the ANN - fixed. Thank you for pointing this out.

Yes, we've had legal counsel advising us and, yes, the distinction is between Nectar and NectarCoin. If you review our announcement post (#1), you'll see we have legal services among the list of budget items. We've tried to cover all of the bases here. We thank you for your interest in NectarCoin.

Let's just say we're working very diligently to improve the odds no one will label our funding campaign as a pump and dump. We are as disappointed as everyone else has been by what's gone on over the past year and how badly the altcoin ecosystem has been damaged by it all, which is one of the big reasons we decided to move forward with this and do so in a careful and thoughtful manner.



First of all, let's agree to be mutually respectful of one another and to keep the discussion civil.

We understand many people have been burned here. We understand there have been many bad devs and a lot of frayed nerves. We are, as we type, dealing with the consequences of that in our discussions with exchanges that are more stringent (thankfully) than they've apparently been in the past.

But where we come from, you don't accuse someone you've never met, someone who hasn't been involved in any of what's gone up to this point, and call their efforts a "scam."

Now, on your point of non-minable coins/unregistered securities. This is crowdfunding/pre-sale of an application.

You might want to look that up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

As always, we welcome any substantive questions about our proposal and thank you for your interest.



1) We're promising to deliver a desktop application including functions such as messaging, market alerts and more that include digital currency but go beyond it, as we outlined pretty thoroughly.
2) Cash up front? No, escrow up front that would be held by a trusted third party who'd released portions of the escrow as we delivered on each of the milestones. Please read the [ANN] section regarding the crowdfunding campaign. We state this very clearly several times.
3) "I just noticed a few leaked pieces of intellectual property". A vague allegation with no specifics or evidence. Our designs are all original work.

I think you're our first FUDer. Zzaap.





Thank you. We're trying to maintain a balance between being transparent and keeping the thread uncluttered. I think all FUD posters will get at least one chance to air their views, to which we'll respond. But at some point, if a particular user becomes a recurring source of redundant FUD spam, we'll remove it and all references entirely and will blacklist the user. We welcome substantive discussion and constructive criticism of NectarCoin.

Update on the crowdfunding campaign (CFC):

We're close to settling details with two of the three exchanges but have one more to go, and we're considering a fourth exchange to improve the odds of hitting our target, or getting close. Again, back-and-forth communication has been a bit slower than we expected going in. These guys are busy and, in part as a result of the many scams this past year, the vetting process appears to be more stringent than it looks like it was in the past - and that's a good thing.

Again, please note that once we're over this hump, assuming a successful CFC, the tempo of work and activity will accelerate significantly. And, as part of the CFC funding period, we're considering offering live upon-request access to our demo alert system to give people a sense of how it would work in the desktop app. We feel that this could provide a significant boost of credibility and enthusiasm during the fund raising period.

As always,we welcome everyone's thoughts on this or any other aspect of our proposals.

Update on the crowdfunding campaign (CFC):

We're aiming for a 2- or 3-exchange CFC to improve the odds of hitting our target. We're close to settling details with one exchange and working on two others - back-and-forth communication is a bit slower than we expected. There's some ambivalence within the team about this approach though since, for one thing, it's taking longer than any of us would like and at least one of the exchanges is becoming increasingly associated with pump-and-dumps - which is something we do not want this coin associated with. We welcome everyone's thoughts and suggestions on this as we get close to wrapping this up and moving to the next stage.

Note that once we're over this hump, assuming a successful CFC, the tempo of work and activity will accelerate significantly. We are raring to go on our plans as soon as the funding to support them are in place. We thank everyone again for your interest and apologise for the delay in getting started - not completely within our control, unfortunately.

Thank you very much for your interest in Nectar. Just a few points, some of which have been previously addressed:
--a bicycle and a motorcycle have similar features (steering, two wheels, a seat, pedals, etc.), but they that offer very different user experiences. A lot of messenger programs were offering Skype-like features before Skype offered a unique and compelling execution that really stoked user interest and adoption.
--this is the beginning of our feature set, not the end. A lot of what we have planned has been kept confidential for post-launch. You should see what we're offering as a new, dynamic platform with a specific vision focused on user adoption, not as a fixed set of features.
--This is indeed a challenging time for altcoins. The bad is that people have grown sick of the flood of altcoins and trading volume is low. The good is that people have grown sick of the flood of altcoins and are hungry for something that will break from the pack. There are altcoins. Then there's our coin. We think different - very different. How different will become clearer in the weeks to come.
--we think the world of altcoins is in a lot of flux. We think bitcoin itself is vulnerable and that this entire ecosystem is fair game for the one coin (dev team + community + vision) that acts with integrity, humility and vision and gets it right. We intend to disrupt. This would be designed for popular use - we're aiming for a market and demographic much wider than crypto enthusiasts, including people who've never heard of crypto, or bitcoin for that matter. People who will respond to a much more user-friendly interface than most Qt coin wallets currently out there.

Sorry we had to delete your original post since it advertised other coins - we edited out those references and hope we've been faithful to the core of your remarks and have addressed them fully. We thank you again for your interest and suggestions.




We appreciate that, but we're not sure that counts. We have to earn it.

So if your wow comes after we release one of the future milestones, we'll gratefully tally that as a "wow". Thanks so much for your strong interest in the project - we will work hard to earn those wow's.

Please see: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=812124.msg9642307#msg9642307
We'll have an update as soon as the details are finalized. Thank you very much for your interest.

We really appreciate the interest. The negotiations with multiple exchanges is ongoing. We're tentatively expecting a listing next month. We will update everyone as soon as details are confirmed.

Just a message thread policy reminder:
Please do not advertise other coins in our message thread (we had to delete one such reference today), which is for the discussion, criticism, feedback, etc. of NectarCoin. We don't do that to other threads and expect others to pay us the same courtesy. If not, zzzap.

Just some updates:
* we've sharply flattened the crowdfunding campaign (CFC) price schedule, reduced the rate of increase to 8% per step and the number of steps from 7 to 5 to address the excellent points that were made about that.
* we're in talks with the top US altcoin exchanges for listing the crowdfunding campaign.
* We are seeking a reliable, well-connected China-based partner (could be native Chinese or expat) who can assist us with communication, promotion and high-level engagements in China. We are also considering bounties for specific objectives in Asia generally. Please PM us for more details.
* We intend to have a number of other bounties revolving around promotion/adoption efforts worldwide. There'll be more details on this ahead of and after the CFC.

We will take every good idea, every serious piece of feedback and every dose of constructive criticism seriously. Every one on bitcointalk should consider this a "demilitarized zone". We are new here. As such, we do not come with the historical/emotional baggage of whatever has transpired here in the past. We do not come with the arrogance that we know best on everything. And we *do* come with the hope that we can be part of what turns things around by, for starters, setting a good example, a new paradigm, of mutual respect and constructive dialogue that ultimately benefits everyone. tldr: keep the good ideas coming.






We do hear you. There are many excellent Indian coders - among the top are those who are now doing a major chunk of world's development of software that runs the websites and internals of the world's top multinational banks and other Fortune 500 companies. Yet, there are also many not so great Indian coders. Many.... It's a big country. We are part of the IT services world "in the real world" and an unusually large number of our clients are those who've come to us, despite our higher rates, after experiences with much cheaper coders abroad. We have heard many horror stories. We've seen a lot of bad code. We have the highest regard for Indian culture and what India has achieved over the past decade, as well as what Indians have achieved in many countries worldwide. But our clients' experiences frame our perspective. We'll leave it at that. You mention Eastern Europe - our group has personnel throughout Europe, east and west.






To each his own, but our primary goal is to build a quality product, develop a great following and build a great long-term reputation in crypto. Not a quick fling with champagne, supermodels and a Lambo (again, to each his own, but I think many of us would be embarassed to drive one). That stuff eventually fades. A good reputations lasts and pays dividends for a long, long time. Basically, we want to do what we feel is best for our customers, our careers and our families over the long run.






We again do have a pre-crowdfunding campaign and post-crowdfunding campaign strategy in place. We see the CFC as a branding event that launches the brand reputation of our coin. We also have a very strong perspective of looking out for our customers and treating everyone who buys into the CFC as a valued customer. So we consider it vital that the CFC does well and is perceived widely as a big success and will do everything we can in that regard to make it so. We'll leave it at that for now.

We welcome both.






Many thanks for the compliments and again for your time in checking things out. We hear you regarding the pictures, except they're pretty central to the vision we have and the brand image we want to convey. We realise a lot of people have grown cynical and skeptical about "plans", but not everyone, we think. And by posting them now - and delivering on the promises -- people will have a reference point to trust other (bigger) plan we plan to unveil and deliver on in the future. We understand building street cred is not easy in this environment, but we're committed to doing it steadily.






No way. Full stop. Our early reputation in crypto will be riding on how well we do with Nectar. Nectar will be a secure, vetted, commercial-grade application built in Europe - not a... well, we'll just leave it at that.






We'd rather run that risk than cut corners and deliver something second-rate we can not vouch for 100%. That's how we roll in our work in the "real world" and in the long run, customers benefit and appreciate our adherence to standards and looking out for their long-term interest (even if they might not have at the start). Also, we have a pre- and post-crowdfunding campaign strategy that will be in place around the time of the CFC.







We're not familiar with all the details about Bitbay except that their CFC boom seemed heavily reliant on news of the license agreement with Mr. David Zimbeck. Beyond that, I don't think anyone knows anything about the group behind it. We think that might be a big factor behind whatever weakness they might be experiencing now. But we don't know the full details of what's going on out there - just our initial impressions were when they came out of virtually nowhere.






Well, let's just say it's wait-and-see, and we don't want to end up like Neos. We're staying open to all platforms, including Coinblab. For now at least. And FUD phasers on stun.

Please note today's Q&A will be followed by a couple minor updates.

We hear you - we're actually not wedded to this price schedule - only to the fundraising target and the idea that there should be price staggering, of  at least three or four steps, to award early buyers and give people an incentive to buy sooner rather than later to improve the odds the crowdfunding campaign hits its target within the fixed timeframe. We'll look into compressing the schedule and welcome any suggestions along those lines that meet the two conditions.



You know, that's exactly what we suspected might be going on over there, and if that's the case (we have no idea), we agree: we don't want that. An open forum with honest discourse, constructive criticism and mutual respect is all we ask for.





It's pretty depressing - even bitcoin is sickly these days - but we see a new generation of serious projects emerging, including the exciting blockchain 2.0 developments with Ethereum and CounterParty, and we hope to be part of that sea change.

At the risk of mixing metaphors, it's darkest before the dawn.





Thank you for your interest in the project. There's no alpha, just a raw prototype of the altmarket alert system component (which we previously posted a video of), conceptual designs of the key screens and a basic outline of how we'd build everything out - all put together during our spare time outside of our full-time work in the "real world".

We're seeking funding to be able to devote ourselves full time to building everything out, including an alpha, beta and final version. We need to be clear on this: this is a crowdfunding campaign to build out the software, support it and promote it. And we don't get a dime from it until we deliver on each of the major components.

Feel free to let us know if you have any other questions, and thank you again for your interest.