[ANN] SpreadCoin | Decentralize Everything (decentralized blockexplorer coming)

[georgem]

I have a few ideas in my head for gifs & memes with Spreadcoin, but have zero know-how on making them. Like this could be made into Smeagol holding the Spreadcoin symbol!



I can't think of much else for bounties because I'm under the impression they should provide some value to the community/ project (i.e. translations, branding, etc.)

I did all my memes with Adobe Flash (or Adobe Animate CC as it is now called).

You can take the gif you already have, and convert it into a PNG sequence.
Then you very easily import this PNG sequence into Flash.
You would then need to create a framebased animation where the spreadcoin logo is positioned in every frame separately,
and then you move the spreadcoin logo in its position (maybe also rotation) so that it follows the slight movement of Sméagol's fingers.
The more accurate you do this, the more realistic it will look.
Then you have to apply a mask on every frame you just created so that only half the spreadcoin logo will be visible (the lower half has to dissapear behind Sméagol's fingers).

Using Masks in Flash is 90% of the secret.  

[rhinomonkey]

I think another competition idea would be to put up a few pictures of Mr. Spread and see who can come up with the best caption (by community vote).

The other thing that I thought of was best Spreadcoin Related gif/meme... sort of like the one you made with the dude axing the door a while back.

The latter sort of doubles as great branding and thus could be deserving of a bounty.

I like this alot.
Something like best meme of the week awards?

Awesome.

I'll convert and upload a few hundred "best" pics of mr. spread to the official website, so that people have some material to work with.
In fact, I already have a "best of" folder somewhere, let me see...

Great idea!

Yea!! Perhaps there could be weekly ones for smaller awards, and then at the end of each month there could be a larger monthly prize where the top memes/gifs from each previous week of that month compete!

Also, thanks for the advice... I shall see what I can come up with lol

[coins101]

....
Your thoughts?

Don't get hung up on data = a specific person.

Put the biggest filter you can find into the system, so data doesn't equal a specific person.  Use zero knowledge proofs so that all you can tell is crypto transaction, $15, at x place and at y time. That's the most valuable part of the transaction.

Holding personal data is a headache and generates regulatory issues.  Don't want it. Don't want it. Don't want it.

I've said it many times before. Personal data: Don't want it.

People that buy this type of data don't care about tracking down individuals to sell them a can of beans.  

Roger Ver should be walking into Starbucks, right about now...quick, go there now with large pack of washing tablets and a 15% coupon....

Of the $1bn spent in Star City last month; 10% was in that area; 5% was over there outside that mall; 30% was over there between the hours of 8pm and 3am; etc.

Right, lets get our marketing strategy right so we can advertise where most people buy xyz; lets make sure we're stocked up with xyz during 8pm to 3am; etc.

See, anonymous data can be really useful and valuable.

edit

And.....it is very on point:  http://www.comsoc.org/netmag/cfp/mobile-big-data

[georgem]

Put the biggest filter you can find into the system.

The filter (or shall we say obfuscator) would have to be on the mobile device itself.
But even then, this doesn't stop the weird feeling users are going to have:

"why is this wallet asking for access to my geolocation?"

"Ah ok, my location is safe, and I'm supposedly helping bitcoin miners by allowing spreadcoin to sell my data to merchants."

"But what do I have to win from this?"

I predict that no one is going to want to participate in this scheme, just to help bitcoin miners.

People can always choose to help miners directly.

The mere act of buying bitcoin regularly is what helps miners the most. Obviously.

People are going to think that this "big data" scheme is like a (be it voluntary) taxation charity scheme,
where a middleman (spreadcoin, not related to bitcoin miners) is selling something to merchants (again, not related to bitcoin miners)
so that finally some of the profit made along the way is being shared with the poor miners.

Doesn't sit right with me, if I heard it explained to me this way.

Holding personal data is a headache and generates regulatory issues.  Don't want it. Don't want it. Don't want it.
I've said it many times before. Personal data: Don't want it.

That's the spirit!

See, anonymous data can be really useful and valuable.

Yes, that's why I still entertain the idea of decentralized big data, because I think it actually can be done in an anonymous way.
There is a way, we just have to find it.

[georgem]

Here's an idea of how I would help bitcoin miners, to contrast your proposal a little bit,
(I'm making wild assumptions along the way):

Suppose we one day make a decentralized exchange happen,
where servicenodes, combined with strong spreadcoin miners,
have decentralized control over the whole exchange process happening.
(locked amounts held in a decentralized way, automatically processed fees, etc..).

Since successful bitcoin miners are always publicly known by their address,
we could just start sending a percentage of the decentralized exchange fees to
the miners themselves, and even add a message to the tx, telling the whole world
who they have to thank.

 

Ok, you don't help "unsuccessful" bitcoin miners that way,
but this isn't supposed to be welfare anyway!

...

Anyway, I just want to emphasize that in this scenario servicenodes appear very generous
(providing a valuable service and share part of the profit with important entities we all rely on),
while in the other they appear like middlemen who are leeching off someone else's "market value".
(I'm exagerating deliberaty ofcourse...   )

BTW: Playing devil's advocate here!

[coins101]

....

People can always choose to help miners directly.
..

People can just give Mark Zuckerberg money...but they don't, they give him their most intimate personal details and he sells the stuff on to third parties. Top 10 richest person in the world, still wearing school shorts, sells data, charges zero to users.

Google. Most valuable company in the world. Doesn't charge users a single penny. Sells data instead. We could all just send Google some money because we like their search engine so much.

The irony is, people can just setup a few nodes and access all the personal Bitcoin blockchain data they want. No wait - there already are more than 10 crypto snooping business that do that.

[georgem]

I get the message, please change your signature back to its previous state.
It burned my eyes.

[coins101]

Bitcoin halving coming in a few months (fees up, user base muted / down)...while the blockchain is still growing at an every faster rate (node numbers down, costs going up)

We need some voodoo magic to balance the coming Bitcoin imbalance if we want crypto to thrive.

[georgem]

People can just give Mark Zuckerberg money...but they don't, they give him their most intimate personal details and he sells the stuff on to third parties. Top 10 richest person in the world, still wearing school shorts, sells data, charges zero to users.

Zuckerberg is the last guy we should ask for sound economical advice.
His success stems from a weird marriage abusive love triangle between facebook, nosy governments and a docile narcissistic population.

Google. Most valuable company in the world. Doesn't charge users a single penny. Sells data instead. We could all just send Google some money because we like their search engine so much.

But you see... google would never ever dare to openly promote you as "the product" , that's how macabre their scheming is.
In fact their marketing division spends millions to maintain this facade.
Same with facebook.

The irony is, people can just setup a few nodes and access all the personal Bitcoin blockchain data they want. No wait - there already are more than 10 crypto snooping business that do that.

Yes, but then why isn't the number of full bitcoin nodes at a more healthy level?
Obviously their snooping would be much more effective if they ran full nodes, right?

[coins101]

.....
Yes, but then why isn't the number of full bitcoin nodes at a more healthy level?
Obviously their snooping would be much more effective if they ran full nodes, right?

We already ran the numbers. Based on the Bitcoin Core devs assessment that there are only ~2,000 active full nodes, the data points to most of those being run by bitcoin blockchain data businesses (turns out blockchain data as a for profit service is profitable and one of the more successful crypto sectors that is attracting a lot of VC funding, who knew).



Why aren't there more full nodes, at healthy levels? Once ServiceNodes host Bitcoin nodes and there is a long-term series of sustainable funding models, there will be healthy levels of full Bitcoin nodes. We'll have so many, we'll crowd out the blockchain snoopers for profit that help Coinbase shut down accounts.

[georgem]

....

People can always choose to help miners directly.
..

People can just give Mark Zuckerberg money...but they don't, ...

But literally,

every miner's wet dream is that more and more people buy their currency.
Sure, during long periods of stagnation (like we are in now), mining is a very strenuous business, scarcely profitable, but it could be worse.
And there is always the hope that what happened end of 2013 will repeat again.

I'm just saying, maybe we should understand the mindset of a miner first (especially the SHA256 miner), before we try to help them.

Back when I was a bitcoin miner, if someone gave me a donation that would have allowed me to operate in the black again,
first thing I would have done is to say "thank you" and SELL my miners immediately, to now make an actual profit that wasn't possible earlier.  

I would have thanked the opportunity to get a clean exit out of a strenuous catch-22.

Yup, sometimes helping people to incentivize a certain behaviour might lead to unexpected results.

Are we actually sure that this will "help" bitcoin miners?

Thinking outside the box here.

[georgem]

We'll have so many, we'll crowd out the blockchain snoopers for profit that help Coinbase shut down accounts.

That IS a noble goal. 

[georgem]

I see the number 150 an awful lot of times in this list.

I wonder, what is the rationale behind 150 being considered the minimum required to be able to get "extensive user data"?

(Let's forget the max nr. 250 for a second, since we can assume that an upper limit is only restricted by the amount of budget available, and would at some level be of no additional use.
It's the 150 that is more important, since it's being talked about like some sort of "entry level".)

Care to elaborate?

[stonehedge]

The core update is becoming more and more critical, especially with the release of 0.12.0.

Maybe this should be a bounty?

[stonehedge]

I see the number 150 an awful lot of times in this list.

I wonder, what is the rationale behind 150 being considered the minimum required to be able to get "extensive user data"?

(Let's forget the max nr. 250 for a second, since we can assume that an upper limit is only restricted by the amount of budget available, and would at some level be of no additional use.
It's the 150 that is more important, since it's being talked about like some sort of "entry level".)

Care to elaborate?

The number of nodes operated by the companies in the list is commercially protected information.  I.e none of the companies on the list were prepared to disclose the size of their data gathering network.

However, informal conversations with contacts employed by companies that may or may not be part of that list lead us to believe that 100 to 250 full nodes is required to get a decent picture of the Bitcoin network.

[minerpage]

georgem, can you give us a REAL date for testnet launch?

[jjjordan]

georgem, can you give us a REAL date for testnet launch?

he could, but then everybody will say later:
[retarded Cartman's voice] "Hey, but you said it had to be released yesterday and you still haven't commented on my yada-yada from this morning..."

[Abou Talha]

georgem, can you give us a REAL date for testnet launch?

Soon, Miss California.

[rhinomonkey]

A time estimate would be nice, but only if it were going to be accurate. If there was a delay the natives would become more restless and perhaps resort to weird rituals to please the crypto Gods.

[coins101]

The core update is becoming more and more critical, especially with the release of 0.12.0.

Maybe this should be a bounty?

I think Georgem wants to do the update, but it's quite a lot of work so I'm all for looking to get some extra support while the focus is kept on SNs.

The update to Core 13 (yes, by the time we've updated we'll be at 13) can happen in the background and merged into SPR later this year.