ChromaWallet (colored coins): issue and trade private currencies/stocks/bonds/..

[killerstorm]

New version of client includes these things:

• manage color definitions
• issue new colored coins
• import color definitions via colorid

It's currently available via github, but you need to build if yourself. If you want Windows build please PM me.

New feature use examples:

There is new "Hallucinate" menu item.

1. Download color definition:
You can enter color id, for example

c03e572bc2c8520112194a95a29b24c7e99fc87e

and it will download and install color definition from server.
Presumably these ids can be posted on forum etc.
E.g. if you want my FooCoins you install my definition with id above.
After installing definition you need to restart client.

2. Manage color definitions:
Allows you to check colorid for definitions you have (e.g. you can get
it there and share it), see balance (it is displayed correctly here,
in units), publish definitions on server, delete them. (Restart is
required.)

3. Issue colored coins:
Enter name and modify parameters as you need. It can be automatically
published on server.
Color id will be displayed so you can use it to refer to others to your coins.

(Obviously you need enough uncolored coins in this wallet.)

[killerstorm]

New version correctly displays units in most places. E.g. when you issue a coin where one unit is 10 satoshi, 123 satoshi will be displayed as 12.3, not as 0.00000123.

There are many places where currency amounts are displayed and I was not able to convert all of them. However, all places which actually matter likely display units correctly.

• when you change color via dropdown it changes units being used
• if it says 'units', it is in units (likely)
• if it says 'BTC', it is in BTC (likely), no matter what is selected in dropdown
• if it doesn't say anything, it is likely in units, particularly:
• global ledger table and wallet balance is in units
• but if you view a concrete transaction it is in BTC (because there are both colored and uncolored inputs we cannot display everything with units)

Also global ledger table often displays bullshit transaction value, do not trust values it shows.

[killerstorm]

Windows binaries available: http://killerstorm.xen.prgmr.com/alex/ArmoryCC-0.2.3.zip

The purpose of this release is to allow people to play with colored coins and identify possible problems. However, it's nearly fully functional. But I recommend to be cautious. (See below.)

To run it you need to be running Bitcoin-Qt or bitcoind. You need to complete synchronization before you launch Armory.

Simply unpack it and launch. It requires about 1 GB of RAM in addition to what you need to run Bitcoin-Qt. Also it takes ~10 minutes to launch since it performs full blockchain scan. (Twice!)

There are two differences from normal Armory client: drop down which lets you to choose color and 'Hallucinate' menu section. Also some functions were disabled.

It comes with color definition TESTcc. But obviously you have no coins.

You can issue your own: send some coins to wallet you've created in armory, then go to menu Hallucinate -> Issue colored coins. Enter name, change parameters if you want and it will create coins for you.

Before you send those coins to other you need them to install this color definition (and obviously they should be using color-aware client), otherwise coins will be lost.

Simplest way to install color definition is to fetch it by ColorID from a color definition registry. So you can simply note ColorID of your freshly issued coins, then post it to forum/blog/IRC channel, like

Hi, I've issued FooCoins, color ID c03e572bc2c8520112194a95a29b24c7e99fc87e. I'm going to sell each on for 0.1 BTC and buy them back month later for 0.11 BTC per pieces

.

Then people who are interested in these bonds can download color definition (Hallucinate -> Download color definition -> enter color ID) and accept them from you.

Alternatively you can get color definition file (~/.armory/colordefs/c03e572bc2c8520112194a95a29b24c7e99fc87e.colordef) and host in on your server. Then people can download it via URL, say http://example.com/c03e572bc2c8520112194a95a29b24c7e99fc87e.colordef

In that case you do not depend on color definition registry server availability. (For the record, I manage color definition registry which is used by this build of client, code is available here: https://github.com/killerstorm/colored-coin-tools/tree/master/web )

Currently you can trade colored coins OTC, e.g. #colored-coins-otc channel on freenode.

 But auto-trade (which would allow to buy/sell coins automatically) is almost ready, and we are making progress on p2p exchange.

Warning:

• All colors mode is dangerous, you will lose your precious colored coins if you send coins from it. I'll likely disable it in next release
• Only functionality which is tested is plain and simple sending/accepting coins. Fancy stuff like offline transactions and payment URIs is not tested and might not work
• Be careful with units, check twice
• Global ledger is somewhat broken, but it gives you a general idea
• You need 1 confirmation to see colored coins, so coins can 'disappear' when you've made a transaction, that's OK

[jtimon]

I think implementing a colored definition registry to automate things from the beginning was a good choice.

Thank you for your efforts!

[killerstorm]

I've implemented coloring for zero-confirmations transactions in
 Armory, so now effect is seen immediately, and there are no weird
 problems with disappearing coins which Ron reported.
 At the same time I've fixed a bug with lack of coloring of
 double-spend transaction after blockchain reorg.

Also there are some minor improvements in GUI:

• uncolored is now default
• you cannot send coins in 'all colors' mode
• sum in 'select wallet' dialog is now in units

New build: http://killerstorm.xen.prgmr.com/alex/ArmoryX-0.2.4.zip

Is there a need for Linux builds? I guess that Debian/Ubuntu users
 should have no problems building it themselves because it is easy to
 install all dependencies.
 So I think there is no need.

[killerstorm]

p2p exchange is almost complete: we now have all components in place so now we can try to run it and fix problems until it works.

Here's exchange peer agent code for the curious: https://github.com/killerstorm/BitcoinArmory/blob/color/p2ptrade.py

And web chat used for message exchange: https://github.com/killerstorm/BitcoinArmory/blob/color/app.py

I also made a more flexible version of autotrade, it probably even works.

Code: https://github.com/killerstorm/BitcoinArmory/blob/color/autotrade.py

https://github.com/killerstorm/BitcoinArmory/blob/color/extras/autotrade-test.py

But I think now that we can complete p2p exchange we don't really need autotrade much.

[killerstorm]

First transaction created using p2ptrade.py: http://paste.lisp.org/display/134280

So it works, kind of.

[meowmeowbrowncow]

First transaction created using p2ptrade.py: http://paste.lisp.org/display/134280

So it works, kind of.

Nice. 

[sron]

I'm testing the client.

I get this error message



I don't know why exactly.

-Bitcoin-QT is up and running
-Bitcoin-QT is synchronized with the network

Let me know if you know how to get the armory client started properly (not in offline mode).

If it has something to do with main/test network, let me know how to configure the Bitcoin client properly.

SRON

[chrisrico]

Let me know if you know how to get the armory client started properly (not in offline mode).

If it has something to do with main/test network, let me know how to configure the Bitcoin client properly.

SRON

Are you running Bitcoin-Qt through a proxy or with any non-standard options? Is it's data directory in a non-standard location?

[jtimon]

I've written this, in case someone's interested on issuing freicoin colored coins to enable a p2p atomic btc/frc market:

https://github.com/freicoin/freicoin/wiki/Freicoin-colored-coins

Here's another related thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133968.0

[killerstorm]

-Bitcoin-QT is up and running
-Bitcoin-QT is synchronized with the network

Let me know if you know how to get the armory client started properly (not in offline mode).

Well, just a couple of ideas of what could go wrong:

• firewall might somehow prevent Armory from connecting to Bitcoin-Qt
• you have non-standard Bitcoin-Qt configuration, particularly something in bitcoin.conf
• you're using Bitcoin-Qt version 0.8, while it works only with older versions like 0.7

Aside from trying to find a problem in configuration, you can try:

• try run non-modified Armory
• send me armorylog.txt
• check that bitcoin-qt is listening on port 8333 using netstat or telnet/netcat

[chrisrico]

you're using Bitcoin-Qt version 0.8, while it works only with older versions like 0.7

Would it be difficult for you to merge the changes from the development branch of Armory? It works perfectly with 0.8, and has a bunch of new features. I was going to try your branch, but didn't want to keep around two separate version of armory with different home directories/wallets.

[killerstorm]

Would it be difficult for you to merge the changes from the development branch of Armory? It works perfectly with 0.8, and has a bunch of new features.

Not very difficult, but not top priority: I want to release a demonstrable version of p2p market first.

I was going to try your branch, but didn't want to keep around two separate version of armory with different home directories/wallets.

I wouldn't recommend to use ArmoryX for anything serious, it is even more experimental than Armory.

I hope there is no way for ArmoryX to destroy your wallet (although, technically speaking, there might be some memory corruption in C++ code; as you probably know, Armory itself isn't completely safe in that way either), but, for example, I had to re-implement some parts of send functionality, and it's just much less tested than baseline Armory. Also I removed some features because I had no time to implement them properly.

So I was thinking to rename home directory from .armory to .armoryx to avoid conflicts with baseline Armory.

Is it a problem to have two? It doubles memory requirements if you want to run them at the same time, but otherwise I don't see how that's a problem, assuming that you'll probably want to keep wallets separate anyway.

[killerstorm]

I've connected p2ptrade implementation to networking. First transaction produced by p2ptrade is in testnet3 blockchain: block 47099, txhash 325b805df315a73ceaf2852004ce842b1a12601cbc8edfad6943f800f428c5d0.

I believe backend is now more-or-less ready. (It totally lacks anti-spam/anti-DoS features, but as long as nobody tries to abuse it, it should work fine.)

I'm now working on GUI. Some parts are already complete, e.g. it can show offers, submit orders...

[sron]

Welcome to the colored coins decentralized stock exchange.

This is a test.

CCDSE: http://jsbin.com/azehen/2
CCDSE Bitcoin thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=136044.0
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Entrances/CCDSE

[killerstorm]

Wow, cool! I guess technically this is the first colored coin stock exchange.

Note that in a couple of days (like, on Monday) I will release p2ptrade GUI which would make trade drastically simpler and safer.

I also envision a stock exchange client with more features: it should be able to browse listing of a particular exchange making manual color definition download unnecessary.

A couple of suggestions for CCDSE:

• better color scheme
• It is really important to explain how to use it, particularly how that color definition must be installed (and ArmoryX should be restarted) BEFORE purchase. Also that receiving address must come from ArmoryX
• You might want to host color definitions on your exchange site since availability of color definition server shouldn't be taken for granted

[sron]

Wow, cool! I guess technically this is the first colored coin stock exchange.

Note that in a couple of days (like, on Monday) I will release p2ptrade GUI which would make trade drastically simpler and safer.

I also envision a stock exchange client with more features: it should be able to browse listing of a particular exchange making manual color definition download unnecessary.

A couple of suggestions for CCDSE:

• better color scheme
• It is really important to explain how to use it, particularly how that color definition must be installed (and ArmoryX should be restarted) BEFORE purchase. Also that receiving address must come from ArmoryX
• You might want to host color definitions on your exchange site since availability of color definition server shouldn't be taken for granted

Looking forward to your next release, feel free to edit the source code of CCDSE on GitHub if you have a better suggestion.

[killerstorm]

p2ptrade GUI screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/hjd0T.png

I've made a couple of successful trades between clients running in Linux, but something went awry with Windows client, so I'm investigating.

There is a number of known problems like sell/buy confusion in messages, but otherwise you can already try it on Linux, code is in my github repo.

[sron]

Wow, that could be the financial services software product of the century, would be happy to do some testing of the Windows version.