Hiring C++ and JS programmers

[jed]

Hi I'm involved in a cryptocurrency related project and we are looking for someone that can work magic with javascript and jQuery.
We are also hiring an experienced C++ developer.

We aren't ready to release details of the project but it is very exciting.

We are funded and based in the SF bay area. We strongly prefer people local but can make exceptions for the right person.
please email jed ! open coin dot com if you are interested. Please send links to things you have done preferably outside of work/school.

[1713890753]

1713890753

[JoelKatz]

This Jed, by the way, is the original creator of Mt. Gox. And this project and offer is very real.

[jimbobway]

OpenCoin?  I hope this not a competitor to Bitcoin, but instead a complement to bitcoin.

[zoinky]

OpenCoin?  I hope this not a competitor to Bitcoin, but instead a complement to bitcoin.

Yeah I hope it isn't like http://opencoin.org/

[jed]

It isn't related to opencoin.org
We are going to change the name before making the project public.

[drcoinflip]

We aren't ready to release details of the project but it should be world changing.

Everybody thinks his project is world changing... 

[niko]

Is it a competitor of Bitcoin, or it complements it?

[minorman]

Will salary be paid in bitcoin?

[HostFat]

He is also creator and developer of the network eDonkey2000 and Overnet ( the first implementation of the serverless network based on Kademlia )

[jimbobway]

Is it a competitor of Bitcoin, or it complements it?

If it doesn't complement bitcoin this thread needs to be moved to Alternative Cryptocurrencies.

[JoelKatz]

Is it a competitor of Bitcoin, or it complements it?

If it doesn't complement bitcoin this thread needs to be moved to Alternative Cryptocurrencies.

It doesn't pigeonhole well into any of those categories.

[jed]

I would say it compliments it. One thing you can do with it is exchange bitcoins for fiat without the need of a centralized market such as mtgox. Which will be very useful for bitcoin.

[runeks]

Jed McCaleb, I presume?

[jimbobway]

I would say it compliments it. One thing you can do with it is exchange bitcoins for fiat without the need of a centralized market such as mtgox. Which will be very useful for bitcoin.

Sounds like a ripple implementation.  Maybe using Open Transactions.  We need this!

EDIT: Maybe you guys are making a new coin, sort of like MintChip which is irreversible and allows exchange of bitcoin for mintchip/CAD and thus fiat.

[lebing]

I would say it compliments it. One thing you can do with it is exchange bitcoins for fiat without the need of a centralized market such as mtgox. Which will be very useful for bitcoin.

Oh. Hell. Yes.

This is exactly what bitcoin needs right now.

[jimbobway]

So are you going to compete with Mt. Gox or are you working with them.  Seems like after you sold Mt. Gox there would be some sort of non-compete agreement.

[cypherdoc]

So are you going to compete with Mt. Gox or are you working with them.  Seems like after you sold Mt. Gox there would be some sort of non-compete agreement.

been over a year since he sold it and sounds like a new concept.  good luck Jed.

[JoelKatz]

So are you going to compete with Mt. Gox or are you working with them.  Seems like after you sold Mt. Gox there would be some sort of non-compete agreement.

Even if it succeeds as much as is imaginable, it's still not going to make exchanges obsolete, just change their business model a bit.

[marcus_of_augustus]

I would say it compliments it. One thing you can do with it is exchange bitcoins for fiat without the need of a centralized market such as mtgox. Which will be very useful for bitcoin.

jed, you better not be just teasing us! ... this would be awesome.

[jwzguy]

So are you going to compete with Mt. Gox or are you working with them.  Seems like after you sold Mt. Gox there would be some sort of non-compete agreement.

Even if it succeeds as much as is imaginable, it's still not going to make exchanges obsolete, just change their business model a bit.

Are you working on this project Joel?

[JoelKatz]

Are you working on this project Joel?

Yes.

[BIGMERVE]

Mt.Gox iPhone app?

[jwzguy]

Are you working on this project Joel?

Yes.

That's great! I'm looking forward to the release. I like the ideas I've heard very much.

[thufir]

Sounds really cool Jed.

[davout]

Are you working on this project Joel?

Yes.

Then talk

[HostFat]

When do you expect to release the first version? 2012? 2013?

[paulie_w]

jed, good to see you here.

just a guess, but given your background, i imagine that you are working on something like localbitcoins, but as a pure p2p app, with the additional ability to "send fiat" to a country using bitcoin as a carrier/backbone?

if so, you're the man, and total disruption of fiat money transfer services is underway.

PS: i always assumed you were the real satoshi.

[HostFat]

PS: i always assumed you were the real satoshi.

Hehehe, you're not alone

[Severian]

PS: i always assumed you were the real satoshi.

Hehehe, you're not alone

Make that three.

[paulie_w]

yeah it is obvious isn't it?

jed mccaleb is one of my favorite hackers. he has the skills in writing native code, has a real p2p sensibility (edonkey/overnet), was an early 'partner' in (probably creator of) mt gox. you don't hear much from him, he doesn't gloat on the internet. i've never even been able to find a photo of him. he just does these great, world-changing works and hardly anyone ever knows he was behind them.

this is the way to do things, in my opinion. cut the noise, cut the bullshit, just act.

[JoelKatz]

i've never even been able to find a photo of him.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1217232/

[randy-waterhouse]

jed, PM sent in case you didn't see that yet.

[paulie_w]

heh yeah great picture

[Evolvex]

PS: i always assumed you were the real satoshi.

Hehehe, you're not alone

Make that three.

Just because its upto 3, I'll go 4 (and I dont know any better anway yet ).

[bitcoinBull]

yeah it is obvious isn't it?

jed mccaleb is one of my favorite hackers. he has the skills in writing native code, has a real p2p sensibility (edonkey/overnet), was an early 'partner' in (probably creator of) mt gox. you don't hear much from him, he doesn't gloat on the internet. i've never even been able to find a photo of him. he just does these great, world-changing works and hardly anyone ever knows he was behind them.

this is the way to do things, in my opinion. cut the noise, cut the bullshit, just act.

Plus he had that special account on mtgox which could assign itself unlimited coin. 

Looking forward to hearing more about this project..

[paulie_w]

how is this project coming along guys? very excited to hear about it!

[JoelKatz]

how is this project coming along guys? very excited to hear about it!

Awesome, actually. I really wish I could give details. I'll find out if I can at least disclose the name of the project.

[Severian]

I really wish I could give details.

We do too!

[lebing]

I'm wondering how much this project has in common with the colored coins project...

[jed]

We are still looking for a JS guy. I know you are out there!
There are 7 of us so far and I think we all agree that this is the coolest thing we have ever worked on.

[jtimon]

We are still looking for a JS guy. I know you are out there!
There are 7 of us so far and I think we all agree that this is the coolest thing we have ever worked on.

I wish I could "work magic with javascript and jQuery"...
But the JS I code at my painfully boring job is not really complicated and I've no experience with jquery.
Maybe as a C++ programmer?

Maybe when the project gets bigger there's a place for me, didn't know you were only 7 guys.

Good luck with this project anyway.

[Benson Samuel]

You need to get jtimon working with you'll on this.

He has a fantastic understanding and implementation of Bitcoin.

[jtimon]

You need to get jtimon working with you'll on this.

He has a fantastic understanding and implementation of Bitcoin.

Thank you for your support, Benson, but you're probably being too kind. I think I understand it well but I have no implementation of Bitcoin, I'm just slowly trying to start helping Mark with Freicoin's code.

[jimbobway]

I have extensive experience with GWT (Google Web Toolkit).  Some jQuery.

[paulie_w]

come on, guys! what is this project about?

fuck you have so many good/interesting people involved already, including probably the creator of bitcoin itself , i know it's going to change everything.

announce!

[slothbag]

Sounds very interesting.

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rippleusers/IVin3Qwrp7k

[cunicula]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

[JoelKatz]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

[AndrewK]

I know a guru in Wilmington NC (he helps graduate students in my program on thesis/captone projects)... can contact him at the link below. He does consulting...

I am relatively new to the community and bitcoin itself so I don't know what you are looking to pay/offer in equity... and I understand if this is a probono/power to the people project.

He is however, one of the most productive programmers I've ever seen and an all around awesome guy.


http://www.stepquest.com/Home

[paulie_w]

holy shit guys, you are making "Bitcoin 2" ?!

[molecular]

i've never even been able to find a photo of him.

from his linkedin profile:

[paulie_w]

guys will you be doing any kind of (crowdfunding-level) public fundraising/offering? i would like to participate with some btc.

[cunicula]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

Since you didn't really answer the question.

Is there a central server or servers? If so, who controls these servers? How is the database updated? Through the central server or servers?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a central server or servers. But there is something wrong with doublespeak.

[jtimon]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

Since you didn't really answer the question.

Is there a central server or servers? If so, who controls these servers? How is the database updated? Through the central server or servers?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a central server or servers. But there is something wrong with doublespeak.

The public database he is talking about is decentralized. In that sense the ledger is analogous to the proof of work chain. I would just call it the ledger chain to simplify things, but I'm not participating, so anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess there will be centralized seed servers or something and a centralized web providing some services, but since the protocol is going to be free software, anyone can provide the same services.

So the answer to your question is that: it will be a p2p protocol. Nice, don't you think?

[cunicula]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

Since you didn't really answer the question.

Is there a central server or servers? If so, who controls these servers? How is the database updated? Through the central server or servers?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a central server or servers. But there is something wrong with doublespeak.

The public database his talking about is decentralized. In that sense the ledger is analogous the the proof of work chain. I would just call it the ledger chain to simplify things, but I'm not participating, so anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess there will be centralized seed servers or something and a centralized web providing some services, but since the protocol is going to be free software, anyone can provide the same services.

So the answer to your question is that: it will be a p2p protocol. Nice, don't you think?

Yes. I don't have any problem with centralized at all. I don't have a problem with Ripple either (though I am skeptical that it will find users). I just want things to be straightforward and open rather than spun.

Presumably there is a central authenticating server. And then if anyone can provide server. It probably means anyone who is authorized by the central server.

It might also mean that anyone can clone the program and run their own centralized authenticating server which forks from the main program and relies on the same user database. This is better than nothing.

All of the above is true of SolidCoin too. There was nothing wrong with SolidCoin's design in theory. However, it was run by a nutjob who hid things from people and constantly rewrote the rules. Anyone could have forked SolidCoin and prevented him from controlling everything. But they didn't. Instead they just let SolidCoin happen.

If you want to avoid a SolidCoin-like user experience, it would be best to put the all the information on the table instead of hide things.

[jtimon]

You don't think it will have users? I guess you think the same about colored coins, because it's basically the same thing.

I don't know if they're working on authentication, but it would be useful for many use cases. Not all of them need it though. In any case, that can be outside of the protocol and there's no reason to fork the protocol to have a free market of "certificators".

I'm impatient about the public launch too. I'm sure they will put all the information out there when they're ready.

Not sure what solid coin is hiding because I haven't followed that project but, isn't it free software? I though bitcoin had copyleft. In any case I don't think a non backed digital currency can work without being free software. Maybe they just lack the time to document it properly.

[CIYAM]

I thought bitcoin had copyleft. In any case I don't think a non backed digital currency can work without being free software. Maybe they just lack the time to document it properly.

Bitcoin is not GNU software - it's under the MIT/X11 license which basically allows for "open slather" rather than "copy left".

[jtimon]

I thought bitcoin had copyleft. In any case I don't think a non backed digital currency can work without being free software. Maybe they just lack the time to document it properly.

Bitcoin is not GNU software - it's under the MIT/X11 license which basically allows for "open slather" rather than "copy left".

Thank you for the clarification. It's free software but without copyleft. I sometimes get lost with so many licenses.
Anyway, you can't make digital cash (and by cash I mean e-gold was credit) with secret software, accepting that would be foolish.
Solidcoin must be free software or its users are simply idiots.

[CIYAM]

Anyway, you can't make digital cash (and by cash I mean e-gold was credit) with secret software, accepting that would be foolish.
Solidcoin must be free software or its users are simply idiots.

Very true - AFAICT the author was not into creating anything other than a way to "get rich quick" from the work of Satoshi (so not surprisingly it has gone nowhere).

[CIYAM]

Maybe as a C++ programmer?

You might be interested in my soon to be released open source C++ web application platform - the very first application that it will support is actually a new model for funding projects with Bitcoin (think crowd-funding down to the individual git pull request merge) which will be used to help develop the platform (which already consists of around 250K lines of C++) and for which I will be injecting a significant amount of BTC to get things moving.

(send me a PM for more details if interested)

[cunicula]

You don't think it will have users? I guess you think the same about colored coins, because it's basically the same thing.

I don't know if they're working on authentication, but it would be useful for many use cases. Not all of them need it though. In any case, that can be outside of the protocol and there's no reason to fork the protocol to have a free market of "certificators".

I'm impatient about the public launch too. I'm sure they will put all the information out there when they're ready.

Not sure what solid coin is hiding because I haven't followed that project but, isn't it free software? I though bitcoin had copyleft. In any case I don't think a non backed digital currency can work without being free software. Maybe they just lack the time to document it properly.

Yes, I understand that is basically the same thing as colored coins.

My view is that most people just need a safe, secure way to send and store value. Ripple sounds like something an economist designed (a compliment). It is really clever, but it may not make sense to ordinary people. Good marketing seems really important here.

For example, look how bitcoin has appealed to all these nutty Austrian types. I care about the deflating money supply, but I feel like the a majority see it as the #1 feature. The nutty Austrian types have helped bitcoin gain a foothold.

My question is where will the Ripple draw its population of crazy fanatics from?

[2112]

Ripple sounds like something an economist designed (a compliment). It is really clever, but it may not make sense to ordinary people. Good marketing seems really important here.

It is a software re-implementation of the century-old paper credit certificates, called wechsel (in German) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsel_(Urkunde) and similar in many European languages. Vexel would the a probable Anglophone equivalent pronunciation.

Do not click on Wikipedia for English translation, because the "promisory note" is not an equivalent. It would take a longer discussion to explain why, but the root of it is in the difference between adversarial and inquisitorial law systems.

Anyway, if you know any Ashkenazi Jew who did business in Europe in the past century you can get first-hand account of the advantages and the drawbacks.

[JoelKatz]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

Since you didn't really answer the question.

Is there a central server or servers? If so, who controls these servers? How is the database updated? Through the central server or servers?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a central server or servers. But there is something wrong with doublespeak.

Sorry I didn't notice this post.

There is no central authority or choke point. Anyone who wants to can run a server. The ledger is public.

Presumably there is a central authenticating server. And then if anyone can provide server. It probably means anyone who is authorized by the central server.

No, no central server. No central authorization.

It might also mean that anyone can clone the program and run their own centralized authenticating server which forks from the main program and relies on the same user database. This is better than nothing.

Anyone can run precisely the same software if they want. It will be open source.

[cunicula]

Question: Is there a centralized double-spend database as in the documentation? Or am I misunderstanding this?

Nothing wrong with a centralized database, I'm just trying to understand the nature of the contribution here.

Double spends are prevented by a public database that contains sufficient information to prevent them. We call it the "ledger" and it is somewhat analogous to the Bitcoin block chain.

Since you didn't really answer the question.

Is there a central server or servers? If so, who controls these servers? How is the database updated? Through the central server or servers?

Again, there is nothing wrong with a central server or servers. But there is something wrong with doublespeak.

Sorry I didn't notice this post.

There is no central authority or choke point. Anyone who wants to can run a server. The ledger is public.

Presumably there is a central authenticating server. And then if anyone can provide server. It probably means anyone who is authorized by the central server.

No, no central server. No central authorization.

It might also mean that anyone can clone the program and run their own centralized authenticating server which forks from the main program and relies on the same user database. This is better than nothing.

Anyone can run precisely the same software if they want. It will be open source.

Great. All those characteristics will make it much more attractive.

Now, can you tell me if it uses proof of work? (If you say no, I will be even happier.)

[JoelKatz]

Now, can you tell me if it uses proof of work? (If you say no, I will be even happier.)

Under normal circumstances, no proof of work is used. Under unusual circumstances, proof of work may be used on a specific connection to prevent certain types of denial of service attacks.

[cunicula]

Now, can you tell me if it uses proof of work? (If you say no, I will be even happier.)

Under normal circumstances, no proof of work is used. Under unusual circumstances, proof of work may be used on a specific connection to prevent certain types of denial of service attacks.

Okay I'm even happier, but I'm curious as to how you resolve disagreements about the database.

Do you use some algorithm for weighting trust? Care to outline the process?

[JoelKatz]

Now, can you tell me if it uses proof of work? (If you say no, I will be even happier.)

Under normal circumstances, no proof of work is used. Under unusual circumstances, proof of work may be used on a specific connection to prevent certain types of denial of service attacks.

Okay I'm even happier, but I'm curious as to how you resolve disagreements about the database.

Do you use some algorithm for weighting trust? Care to outline the process?

The original idea was posted here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10193.msg146250#msg146250
It has changed quite a bit since then though.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the number one priority of every honest system participant is that there be agreement on the database -- nothing is more important than that. So anyone trying to launch an attack that relies on some kind of ledger disagreement is going directly against the interests of every single honest participant. Worse, they either have to be willing to provably contradict themselves (in which case they would immediately lose any trust they had built) or be constrained to keep any commitments they made, which makes an attack awfully hard.

[runeks]

Now, can you tell me if it uses proof of work? (If you say no, I will be even happier.)

Under normal circumstances, no proof of work is used. Under unusual circumstances, proof of work may be used on a specific connection to prevent certain types of denial of service attacks.

Okay I'm even happier, but I'm curious as to how you resolve disagreements about the database.

Do you use some algorithm for weighting trust? Care to outline the process?

The original idea was posted here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10193.msg146250#msg146250
It has changed quite a bit since then though.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the number one priority of every honest system participant is that there be agreement on the database -- nothing is more important than that. So anyone trying to launch an attack that relies on some kind of ledger disagreement is going directly against the interests of every single honest participant. Worse, they either have to be willing to provably contradict themselves (in which case they would immediately lose any trust they had built) or be constrained to keep any commitments they made, which makes an attack awfully hard.

Interesting. I think jed makes a good point about how Bitcoin right now is very similar to just trusting a few nodes.

When do you expect to make a full specification - possibly in the form of code - available to the public?

I'd really like to see how initial distribution is taken care of as well.

[paulie_w]

just to be clear, will i be able to buy a kind of "currency" using your system? is there any early adopter advantage?

[JoelKatz]

just to be clear, will i be able to buy a kind of "currency" using your system?

One thing you can do is accept an offer to exchange any kind of currency somebody is willing to sell for anything you already have. You can also place a standing offer that others can accept.

Is there any early adopter advantage?

Since there's no mining, there isn't the early adopter mining advantage that Bitcoin had. Early adopters, however, will have the first crack at any opportunities the system does provide while later adopters will have missed at least some of them. This is, unfortunately, a dangerous area for me to comment on. (It's much the same reason Bitcoin folks can't say things like "Buy bitcoins as an investment, they're almost sure to go up".)

One possible early adopter advantage is that the system may have less liquidity in the beginning. Lower liquidity could mean larger spreads. For example, if nobody is offering to exchange a particular currency pair for a decent rate, you may find somebody who needs to exchange that currency pair to make a payment might accept an offer that's really not very good. You can easily place a number of "not very good" offers and if anyone gets desperate and liquidity is poor, that's a profit opportunity. However, there's no guarantee liquidity will be or stay poor. And you have to remember to cancel your offers if the exchange rates change. So this is purely speculative.

[cunicula]

just to be clear, will i be able to buy a kind of "currency" using your system?

One thing you can do is accept an offer to exchange any kind of currency somebody is willing to sell for anything you already have. You can also place a standing offer that others can accept.

Is there any early adopter advantage?

Since there's no mining, there isn't the early adopter mining advantage that Bitcoin had. Early adopters, however, will have the first crack at any opportunities the system does provide while later adopters will have missed at least some of them. This is, unfortunately, a dangerous area for me to comment on. (It's much the same reason Bitcoin folks can't say things like "Buy bitcoins as an investment, they're almost sure to go up".)

One possible early adopter advantage is that the system may have less liquidity in the beginning. Lower liquidity could mean larger spreads. For example, if nobody is offering to exchange a particular currency pair for a decent rate, you may find somebody who needs to exchange that currency pair to make a payment might accept an offer that's really not very good. You can easily place a number of "not very good" offers and if anyone gets desperate and liquidity is poor, that's a profit opportunity. However, there's no guarantee liquidity will be or stay poor. And you have to remember to cancel your offers if the exchange rates change. So this is purely speculative.

Could you use some sort of pyramidal marketing scheme to create early adopter advantage or are you trying to avoid that entirely? Early adopter advantage is very good for getting something off the ground. It provides the reason to initially adopt a network technology and thus partially solves the chicken and egg problem. Most economic models of network technologies suggest doing something like this to bootstrap a network. My view is that bitcoin could not have gotten off the ground without early adopter speculation.

[paulie_w]

are you guys going to offer the bitcoin community in particular early access?

how big of a role does bitcoin play in your overall plan?

[JoelKatz]

are you guys going to offer the bitcoin community in particular early access?

The bitcoin community is the first to start following what we're doing and I expect members of that community to be the first to "get" what we're doing.

how big of a role does bitcoin play in your overall plan?

One of the things Ripple does is it gives fiat currencies a lot of the behavior of bitcoins -- easily traded over long distances, no chargebacks, and so on. This removes a significant barrier from the use of Bitcoins -- that of having to adapt to fiat currencies that don't match it very well. Using Ripple to exchange Bitcoins for fiat currency is a key use case.

Ripple also gives a more uniform model for handling both Bitcoins and fiat. For example, you can set prices in dollars in our system and people can pay you with dollars, Bitcoins, Euros, or any other currency for which a path is available. So every company that adopts Ripple will be another company you can pay with Bitcoins and, we hope, with reduced exchange fees on either or both ends.

[jtimon]

My question is where will the Ripple draw its population of crazy fanatics from?

Sorry, I didn't answer to this and it was directed to me.
Community and complementary currencies people will have a great system to create lots of them. Also the kind of people that get inspiration from E.C. Riegel (like Paul Grignon, creator of the "Money as debt" documentary series) may also find the software appealing.

And, of course, many Bitcoin users will like it as Joel says.

[Meatpile]

Is this using Open Transactions? Or another completely proprietary implementation?

[JoelKatz]

Is this using Open Transactions? Or another completely proprietary implementation?

It doesn't use open transactions. The big downside to open transactions is that in order to perform a transaction, each issuer must actively participate in that transaction. Our implementation is quasi-proprietary at the moment. But the documentation and implementation will be made public.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Joel, do not want to hijack the thread but the below statement is incorrect or you might be not be saying what you are meaning.

The big downside to open transactions is that in order to perform a transaction, each issuer must actively participate in that transaction.

There are many ways in Open Transactions to perform transactions that do not involve the issuers. Many transaction types involve the client and server but some can be purely client-client and the password protected blinded tokens can be exchanged completely out of band, involving neither client, server or issuer.

[JoelKatz]

There are many ways in Open Transactions to perform transactions that do not involve the issuers. Many transaction types involve the client and server but some can be purely client-client and the password protected blinded tokens can be exchanged completely out of band, involving neither client, server or issuer.

That didn't come out quite right. Basically, we chose a model (like Bitcoin's) where transactions are processed against a public state database and can be validated by anyone. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.