Trestor Foundation - Tech Draft / Q & A

[trestorfoundation]

Hello Fellow community members,

In recent past, we have been called a sure shot scam, Hawala, etc.

You guys have always encouraged us and supported us, so we know that it's not the broader view of the community.  

Please review our Tech-Draft here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hkkJcmazKlglFTtiWijGNsN4mXbctlbp7xO_BMEFuPE/edit?usp=sharing

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Trestor Foundation.

If you wish to speak to Kunal directly, he is available at kunal@trestor.org

Thank you once again for your continued support.

Trestor Team
@trestorconnect
www.trestor.org

[vennali]

We tried to answer this by first pointing at the obvious, that Trestor cannot be a Scam if no one got Scammed. You need at-least one victim to call someone a scam. Second, we quickly released our long pending Tech-draft, we made sure to keep the commenting option ON.

Based on your initial thread on the forum , and no replies from you guys to the question, it did and still does seem that you will end as a scam. There is no point saying a scam is a scam after it has scammed. A Potential scam is equally bad, and people should be warned about it.

Can you PM me a number, with whom I can discuss technical details with ?

[skang]

Here is just their algorithm, extracted from the tech-draft presented above : http://pastebin.com/bCs37CLb

I don't even want to comment, just read for yourself. Clearly a scamcoin.

For more jokes just read the last section of their document 'WHAT IS BITCOIN’S KILLER APP?' on page 28.

Dear Trestor,
You can still succeed if you register yourself as a 'prepaid instrument' because yes, you can be a PAYTM clone. In fact you are a good international PAYTM clone.

[dchang]

Here is just their algorithm, extracted from the tech-draft presented above : http://pastebin.com/bCs37CLb

I don't even want to comment, just read for yourself. Clearly a scamcoin

Hey @skang , for the benefit of the forum member and many newbies like me, can you explain what points on their algorithm you see are broken or scam like.

Thanks.

[skang]

Here is just their algorithm, extracted from the tech-draft presented above : http://pastebin.com/bCs37CLb

I don't even want to comment, just read for yourself. Clearly a scamcoin

Hey @skang , for the benefit of the forum member and many newbies like me, can you explain what points on their algorithm you see are broken or scam like.

Thanks.

Dear dchang,

If you understand bitcoin and read the above algorithm you will find out yourself. Except of the following 2 possibilities:
1. You want to skip understanding bitcoin as a cryptocurrency and feel Trestor is bigger and more important & must be understood before blockchain.
2. OR if you are Dipam Changede - a trestor developer and are trying to troll us 

[trestorfoundation]

Hello Vennali and Skang,

Thank you for investing your time and effort in understanding Trestor Foundation.

Vennali:

Calling out a scam is not wrong if the claim is backed by irrefutable evidence and at-least one scam victim.  On the other hand, Calling someone a scam, because they have the potential to be a scam is like calling all girls pregnant because they have the potential to conceive. Onus lies on the person "making the claim" to back their claim up with some concrete evidence and not just gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss technical details with Stephan:  stephan@trestor.org


Skang:

Would love to know why you found the last section funny.

Trestor Team
@trestorconnect
www.trestor.org

[skang]

I am just saying that the girl is going to deliver a baby because I can see she is pregnant.
Yes, I have no evidence that she is a mother.   Yet.

[vennali]

Hello Vennali and Skang,

Thank you for investing your time and effort in understanding Trestor Foundation.

Vennali:

Calling out a scam is not wrong if the claim is backed by irrefutable evidence and at-least one scam victim.  On the other hand, Calling someone a scam, because they have the potential to be a scam is like calling all girls pregnant because they have the potential to conceive. Onus lies on the person "making the claim" to back their claim up with some concrete evidence and not just gut feeling.

There is actually evidence on the thread where people claimed to have tried to ring up some of your retailers or merchant, and they had no clue about trestor or any other digital currency .

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=890008.msg10445239#msg10445239

[btc_enigma]

Ok trestor foundation.  Two simple questions

• Is this decentralized ? If yes, opensource the code and let others run a node.  If this is centralized I really don't care what algorithm you use
• You claim trestor is better than bitcoin . Why are you only posting in India forum. What are you afraid of ?Post this in Development & Technical Discussion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0 or In Altcoins https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0 . Let the community experts review your technical draft. And if its any good , congrats to you

[escrow.ms]

One more question: Who is and what is deciding trestor's value?
How trestor's are being generated and how they are distributed to retailers.?

Mahin: How Trests are generated? Like Ripple?
   
Anonymous:People pay us money and we give them trestor.

@trestorfoundation Is that written by you?

[vennali]

Ok trestor foundation.  Two simple questions

• Is this decentralized ? If yes, opensource the code and let others run a node.  If this is centralized I really don't care what algorithm you use
• You claim trestor is better than bitcoin . Why are you only posting in India forum. What are you afraid of ?Post this in Development & Technical Discussion https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0 or In Altcoins https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.0 . Let the community experts review your technical draft. And if its any good , congrats to you

I think, one option would be that someone calls Kunal and kind of test him on the technical know hows of the coin, to see how legit they are, even as an altcoin.

[BitCoinDream]

@Kunal As I can see, you have shown hundreds of merchants as your partner. How many of them are actually verified. Or you plan to remove someone only when it is found that they are not verified ?

[stv]

Feel free to discuss technical details with Stephan:  stephan@trestor.org

I also do have this account here.

Ok trestor foundation.  Two simple questions

• Is this decentralized ? If yes, opensource the code and let others run a node.  If this is centralized I really don't care what algorithm you use

As you can read on our website, one of our primary goals is that all the software involved will be open source. At the moment, we are still in a very early stage of development. (Our project is not a (direct or indirect) fork of the Bitcoin software (unlike the dozens of altcoins, who did nothing but change the logo in bitcoin-qt and some parameters like block generation rate). That's why it takes some time.)

To get a first idea about how the Trestor network will work, you should take a look at our tech draft.

In a nutshell:
- Coin ownership and transactions are based on digital signatures, like in all crypto-curriencies.
- Unlike Bitcoin, there is no work-based mining, but voting among “validator” nodes.
- Unlike Ripple, voting is not based on federated trust relationships. Validator nodes are backed by deposit accounts in a proof-of-stake manner. This makes it decentralized: No validator is valued more than others.

Note that some of this is work in progress. We are sharing this information early with you in order to counter the scam accusations, which we are facing.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Best,
Stephan

[vennali]

Feel free to discuss technical details with Stephan:  stephan@trestor.org

I also do have this account here.

Ok trestor foundation.  Two simple questions

• Is this decentralized ? If yes, opensource the code and let others run a node.  If this is centralized I really don't care what algorithm you use

.....
Best,
Stephan

Care to explain how the coins will be generated and distributed ? And how will the price be decided ?
Also, should I be seeing this as a currency which will be added to an exchange, or will be have a centralized control with the founders ?

[btc_enigma]

As you can read on our website, one of our primary goals is that all the software involved will be open source. At the moment, we are still in a very early stage of development. (Our project is not a (direct or indirect) fork of the Bitcoin software (unlike the dozens of altcoins, who did nothing but change the logo in bitcoin-qt and some parameters like block generation rate). That's why it takes some time.)

This is the exact reason why you are being called a scam. Because even before revealing your source code you have 523 retail partners in 67 countries and you claim to be decentralized ? How does anyone know the money they give to you has any value  until you publish the source code, let the network run. and then let the market decide the price of your coin.

Even stupid catcoins or some other meme coins atleast publish their source. Biggger projects like ethereum which got crowdfunding also had source.

Also I repeat, why have you not posted on technical bitcoin forums , and only posting in India forum? I am going to post your whitepaper on technical discussion forum and we can see what people say about your project. Why are you afraid if you believe you have a good product.

[stv]

Care to explain how the coins will be generated and distributed ?

This is not a technical question, but I will try to answer from my tech-team perspective.

There is a fixed number of coins which in the beginning are controlled by the Foundation. This is similar to Ripple, but note the following differences:

- Trestor Foundation is a non-profit, there are no stock holders who personally own these coins.
- As the coins are more and more distributed, the Foundation's control will go down.
- Since our network is not federated, there are no “better” nodes who dictate the protocol rules. The rules are whatever the majority of nodes decides. Like in Bitcoin, they can be changed if the majority of rules decides to, including the rules about how many coins there are and how they are generated/distributed in the first place.

Comparison to Bitcoin:
- With Bitcoin, a large part of the coins is owned by early miners, nobody really knows who, while with Trestor you know that they are controled by the Foundation which is dedicated to support and promote the Trestor project.
- With Bitcoin, vast resources (hardware investments, electricity) are required in order to run a miner, while with Trestor a deposit of Trests in the ledger is required in order to run a validator node.

And how will the price be decided ?

Trests can be traded at any market place, just like any other coin.

Also, should I be seeing this as a currency which will be added to an exchange, or will be have a centralized control with the founders ?

Trests are controlled by the user via a wallet with secret keys, just like Bitcoin. He is free to trade Tests with any other person on any platform of his choice.

[escrow.ms]

There is a fixed number of coins which in the beginning are controlled by the Foundation.

Care to explain how the coins will be generated and distributed ?

This is not a technical question, but I will try to answer from my tech-team perspective.

There is a fixed number of coins which in the beginning are controlled by the Foundation. This is similar to Ripple, but note the following differences:

- Trestor Foundation is a non-profit, there are no stock holders who personally own these coins.
- As the coins are more and more distributed, the Foundation's control will go down.
- Since our network is not federated, there are no “better” nodes who dictate the protocol rules. The rules are whatever the majority of nodes decides. Like in Bitcoin, they can be changed if the majority of rules decides to, including the rules about how many coins there are and how they are generated/distributed in the first place.

Comparison to Bitcoin:
- With Bitcoin, a large part of the coins is owned by early miners, nobody really knows who, while with Trestor you know that they are controled by the Foundation which is dedicated to support and promote the Trestor project.
- With Bitcoin, vast resources (hardware investments, electricity) are required in order to run a miner, while with Trestor a deposit of Trests in the ledger is required in order to run a validator node.

And how will the price be decided ?

Trests can be traded at any market place, just like any other coin.

Also, should I be seeing this as a currency which will be added to an exchange, or will be have a centralized control with the founders ?

Trests are controlled by the user via a wallet with secret keys, just like Bitcoin. He is free to trade Tests with any other person on any platform of his choice.

What you will do with the donation money?
- As the coins are more and more distributed, the Foundation's control will go down.
- Since our network is not federated, there are no “better” nodes who dictate the protocol rules. The rules are whatever the majority of nodes decides. Like in Bitcoin, they can be changed if the majority of rules decides to, including the rules about how many coins there are and how they are generated/distributed in the first place.

If your

Comparison to Bitcoin:
- With Bitcoin, a large part of the coins is owned by early miners, nobody really knows who, while with Trestor you know that they are controled by the Foundation which is dedicated to support and promote the Trestor project.
- With Bitcoin, vast resources (hardware investments, electricity) are required in order to run a miner, while with Trestor a deposit of Trests in the ledger is required in order to run a validator node.

Trests can be traded at any market place, just like any other coin.

and who's is going to decide initial market value?

Also, should I be seeing this as a currency which will be added to an exchange, or will be have a centralized control with the founders ?

Trests are controlled by the user via a wallet with secret keys, just like Bitcoin. He is free to trade Tests with any other person on any platform of his choice.
[/quote]

1. What is the fixed number of coins?
2. Your foundation's registration number or certificate?
3. What you will do with the donation money?
4. Your foundation is not even registered in India, so how will you be accepting donations through your Indian retail partners?
5. You are comparing trestor with bitcoins on your site, articles, tech draft and everywhere then why are you accepting bitcoins?
6. As btc_enigma said why are you posting in just Indian sub forum? Isn't that's a worldwide currency?
7. You have made so many retailers in India yet your mobile app only supports USD.
9. Who is going to decide Initial price of trestor?

[trestorfoundation]

Hello Escrow.MS.,


1. What is the fixed number of coins?
9. Who is going to decide Initial price of trestor?


Trestor looks forward to sharing details of our plans with the world as the project matures, it would be unjust on our part to answer these questions without going into details of the underlying rationale, we appreciate your enthusiasm and you guys we would certainly release details about Trestor protocol before our 2nd anniversary, which is on 1st July 2015.
  

2. Your foundation's registration number or certificate?

Image uploaded for your convenience:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzuzOKeV6qgxNkZVdnVkZUlrcGM/view?usp=sharing

In addition to Panama, we have started our registration process with Belize, Singapore and Dubai.


3. What you will do with the donation money?

Donations will help us scale up our ongoing crypto-economic research and development and market making activities.    
 

4. Your foundation is not even registered in India, so how will you be accepting donations through your Indian retail partners?

Being a banking and compliance professional, It would be nice if you could you point us to any regulation which prohibits an Indian resident to make a donation to an International non-profit.


5. You are comparing Trestor with bitcoins on your site, articles, tech draft and everywhere then why are you accepting bitcoins?

Please don't get us wrong, we have a great deal of respect for the bitcoin protocol, it was the first to show us that crypto-economic models can really work. Trestor also respects bitcoin community members like Benson Samuel who were here early and stood for the protocol when others were calling bitcoin a scam, or even drug money. Guys like Benson kept nurturing and educating new community members despite all the negativity.


6. As btc_enigma said why are you posting in just Indian sub forum? Isn't that's a worldwide currency?

At Trestor, our full focus is on achieving our developmental targets before we become too active on forums,  We are pretty inactive on  reddit, twitter and facebook as well. You will see us getting more active  as we release more information and source code.  

We have been called a "Confirmed scam" only in India sub-forum therefore It makes sense to reply in the same sub-forum.  


7. You have made so many retailers in India yet your mobile app only supports USD.

Our mobile app only supports 'Trest' our internal unit of account. Prices in USD are for a user's convenience, We will certainly be adding more currencies soon.

[polynesia]

There is a fixed number of coins which in the beginning are controlled by the Foundation. This is similar to Ripple, but note the following differences:

- Trestor Foundation is a non-profit, there are no stock holders who personally own these coins.
- As the coins are more and more distributed, the Foundation's control will go down.

This argument doesn't wash, since
- You could have just transferred some on the initial coins to your associates, who will profit a great deal, even if the Foundation is non-profit
- Since the number of total coins is not disclosed, nothing prevents the Foundation from increasing the number and short-changing people who got in early.

[escrow.ms]

@polynesia can you please change the name from escrow.ms to stv to avoid confusion as he was the one who wrote that post.

Thanks