DNotes 2.0 - Staking, CRISP Interest, DNotes Pay

[Dyna]

Thanks MiningHabit! Now I know what I'm going to listen to as I go to sleep tonight. Working out the 'enterprise value' of an economic system is entirely different to working out the enterprise value of a business. While a business could be worth very little, many ICOs are worth in the tens of millions even though their business proposition is likely to have minimal impact. Essentially there are a hell of a lot of 'vouchers' to redeem at very small businesses out there. It's like a new launderette opening in your area, and everybody in the area buys 5 million dollars worth of vouchers before it even opens.

"It's like a new launderette opening in your area, and everybody in the area buys 5 million dollars worth of vouchers before it even opens."

That sounds crazy but not that far-out in the ICO market. The number one difference is that the "5 million dollars worth of vouchers" are instantly trade-able" - an equivalent of an instant exit strategy. One doesn't care how much it cost, but the hope that someone else pays a higher price for it.

[Dyna]

You make some really good points there TeeGee. I have never been involved in venture capital or similar before. But I had always assumed that successful venture capitalists don't just hand over money at milestones. I always thought they would boost their chance of success by providing business advice as well. But just because this would be the logical thing to do, doesn't mean it happens. So I'm interested to know how far DNotes are thinking of going above and beyond the standard, and what the current VC standard behaviour really is.

I imagine that there will be another benefit of DNotes being selective about projects with potential and then providing further guidance. If projects running with DNotes assistance are typically successful and provide a good return on investment, the DNotes brand will quickly come to signify a good investment. This is always a good thing, but in the current ICO environment where there are far more options than can be diligently analysed, a trusted brand like DNotes would be very powerful. 

It is common for VC to help their investment projects with support in some way, normally a seat on the board and their expertise depending on the size of the company, and the stage of growth it is in.

There are several components:

Business;
Venture Capitalists or investors;
Product platform;
Capital raising platform (for ICO or even standard investment);
Consulting services;

Current iterations in the market can cater for product and capital raising agent, for say, an ICO -- however we've seen that very few ICOs are successful or credible in their claims. For the ICOs out there who do have good products, there is still little chance that they will beat the low odds of long-term business success because of other prevailing factors like management, marketing, employee satisfaction, company culture etc. There are also no platforms offering the consulting services to maximize their success -- let alone any capable of doing so. I imagine this is likely because developer and ICO platforms are more product-centric, and the fees (in dollars or crypto) from consulting probably can't yield the 10,000% returns possible by with a quick ICO pump and dump. If they were thinking longer-term, they'd see that products born on their platform that reach heightened levels of acclaim will reach much larger returns, but there is a much higher personal investment involved. This approach would align the long-term interests of the platform, investors, and business.

I wouldn't be the person making any decisions on this, but I will offer my vision of how this could look several years in the future:

TimMarsh holdings is a startup that wants to enter a highly competitive market with its own take of a popular energy application, where leftover solar power collected from off-the-grid homes can be collected and then automatically sold on a peer-to-peer market place. The barebones of the application interface have been built, and the trading credit system designed, but you need 5 million dollars to expand the idea into a working platform. You could use the DNotes platform to list an 'unverified' ICO, and go it alone, procuring your own team of expert crypto advisors from LinkedIN, or blockchain "experts" who are already onto their 4th project in 18 months, but your preferred approach is to approach DNotes Global to run a verified ICO that allows access to more choosey and wealthy investors who select on quality, or even operate one in partnership with us.

DNotes Global meet you, and if you passed all preliminary checks, we would extensively review and verify all your personal details and scrupulously research your business idea, potential market, and your competitors and see if there is a viable business case that we could help you build a business plan for that we would be willing to put forward to our list of accredited investors (this list could be those accredited by US law, or a set of investors that meet our own conditions, but we will continue as though it is the former).

The ICO for example could be split into two pools:

Pre-ICO = for accredited investors, who get first right of refusal on all ICO offerings on the platform. There are benefits to having first right of refusal: always being able to purchase before soft/hard cap on ICO is reached, with spillover eating into the standard ICO token pool; the first right to any bonus tokens; and all token offerings that include attached sale of equity would be included in this round to meet securities laws. One example would be purchasing 50k of equity in the business, and also purchasing 50k of tokens used in its economy. Another would be having "mastercoins" that are issued in the pre-ICO round that stake and produce normal coins based on coin age instead of having 'investment bonuses' for early buyers, which will encourage them to not dump their holdings instantly once they hit the exchange. Just highlighting potential solutions to obvious problems in the current market.

After the pre-ICO, DNotes could look among your investors for those who would be able to offer their expertise in areas needed by your project (in a capacity commensurate with their investment + further pay), we could factor this self-interest into decisions we make when building an advisory team of experts in various fields from business strategy, marketing, operations etc. We could also have a network of DNotes employed professionals with skills from writing business & press releases, through to legal, accounting, economics and graphic design. The more businesses that join our network, or partner with us, the wider the number of skills within the system becomes. All of this could be done for a set fee based on hours worked, or monthly retainer, but another option for select businesses of our choosing would be to officially partner with DNotes Global, where these services are provided in exchange for an agreed amount of equity in the business / tokens. Suddenly bright people with great ideas, but no team around them to make it happen have access to a powerful network of highly skilled and highly driven business professionals to make their business idea come to life, and have a much higher chance of succeeding.

Main ICO happens = Everbody not on the verified list can invest, no securities (tokens for equity) can be exchanged here, but normal tokens can. If the TimMarsh holdings wanted, they could include a small "bonus" for early investors as is the current norm (not that I'd see the point).

DNotes then helps the business to build their application and implement it on the DNotes blockchain. We would aid in verification and validation phases, and then help them to market & manage the release of their product.

The DNotes team of assembled consultants and professionals will continue to meet / keep in touch with the ICO issuer and ensure everything is running smoothly, auditing the business where need be, and our business analysts will be looking for ways to improve process efficiency and find further opportunities for growth.

Over time, DNotes builds a reputation for successful projects, this means more promising individuals would come to DNotes to achieve their future success, and also give investors more confidence that due diligence has been done, and that the businesses long-term prospects are maximised due to DNotes Global's involvement.

**Just one way it could look in the future**

Thanks for your comprehensive response TeeGee. I have never been as excited about the future of DNotes as I am right now, as a result of your conjecture. I know it is just your perspective, but because it makes such sense, and because DNotes take care to make sensible decisions, I can't see you being too far from the mark.

My mind has been brim full of ideas since before I was old enough to express them. By eighteen years of age, I had formulated a plan to attract and incubate ideas into successful businesses. This was long before I had ever heard of venture capitalists—around 1987. Ever since then, I have had this concept lurking and developing in my idle thoughts. Then for a large part of my career, I worked designing business systems as a consultant. So you may have some sense of the excitement I feel at the idea of this being done properly.

And of course I'd like to add to it. I see great value in recognising the most suitable and best value tools for running a business with. For example, such a kit might include Slack, BaseCamp, GitLab, Trello, IFTT, Zapier, Automation Anywhere, Bizagi, and much more. It might also include more rudimentary tools like a full-stack setup that combines all business data in MySQL, sitting on a server setup, with a front end running through Joomla, or Drupal, or Wordpress and so on. Once the ultimate kit has been selected and tested, the interactions between these tools could be shared as they are developed. It is surprising how many of the core requirements of running a business efficiently are exactly the same regardless of which industry they serve.

So imagine the incredible amount of work that would not need to be duplicated for each business if they could install "The Ultimate Business Kit" on a suitable server of their choice, and then with some basic configuration, are able to scan in invoices, have them auto recognised and added to their accounting system, automatically get processed according to conditions to sit in an approval stack. At a single click they are paid, remittances are sent, cost projections updated, stock levels updated, go-ahead requests sent for processes waiting on the stock, and everything else. Then as a new component is added, e.g. employing a new staff member, all of this functionality can be rolled out to existing kits and be available in new ones. Business success is largely dependent on efficiency and effectiveness. Providing a kit like this would give businesses an incredible advantage. Many businesses running the same system would also have the advantage of bench-marking off each other to flag situations going out of control.

Another area where I see DNotes using blockchain to simplify and automate their system, is in consultant payment. If consultants can see tasks, agree with how outcomes are to be verified and the remuneration being offered, accept the task, complete it, have their outcome verified, and get paid, all through a distributed autonomous system, the overheads of managing and scaling such a huge operation would be vastly simplified. And clients would have a higher level of satisfaction because all completed tasks are verified before payment. Coding all of this into a blockchain, whether it is a functionality offered by DNotes2.0 or if some other cryptocurrency is used, would mean that detecting and paying out on verified completion could be automated. And the transaction history immutable.

I really would like to see DNotes develop and roll out such a comprehensive system and I think it would do a great deal to improve the odds of any business' success.

“It is surprising how many of the core requirements of running a business efficiently are exactly the same regardless of which industry they serve.”

Very true, Tim. That is one of the reasons why I wrote the book. Technically it is possible to develop a very complex system with many interrelated subsystems to help manage any company more efficiently and not overlook critical steps. However, that alone is not sufficient to make a company successful. In fact, I believe that the biggest cause of business failure is ignorance of the human side of the enterprise: this includes you – the entrepreneur and leader; your employees; and your customers. They are all extremely important to achieve business success, irrespective of any systems installed.

The entrepreneur must have a viable idea, be it a service or a product that has significant potential for sustainable growth and probability if executed well. That vision must be clearly articulated to the extent that others can understand, and, be inspired to follow you and help you realize that vision. Your employees are extensions of you.  Your customer must see your solution as the best option in fulfilling their needs and wants. When a business can take care of the “human factors” well; when integrated with the management/operation system you mentioned - it could do wonders.

Business is not complicated but few recognize that it is a complex system with many interrelated subsystems or components. Being great at one or two things is not enough to make a company successful. Just like your car, it doesn’t run as well when certain components parts are not at optimum performance or failing.

Tim, you continue to amaze me. It reminded me of what George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?"

I was born with that curiosity, but must add that it is much easier to “dream” than to translate the dream into reality. Over the years I came to realize that no matter what business you get involved, somethings always held true, “it is almost always more difficult, cost more, and takes more time than you thought.” Hold that thought for my next post, scheduled for this evening. 

[Dyna]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

[DNotes]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

We are actively working on DNotes 2.0 and it is taking longer than we expected to complete. To ensure everyone can see the progress of DNotes 2.0 as work on it, we will be uploading the DNotes 2.0 source code to GitHub, and will be actively working on it online. It may take a few days before we can upload the initial code, as our lead programmer Ken for DNotes 2.0 is in the Florida area and experiencing internet problems.

In addition we will be releasing screen shots and/or partially functional wallets to review and comments. As soon as we are ready for live testing, we will upload the compiled wallet and invite everyone to work with us to test. We will also be running our internal and independent code testing in parallel with live testing to ensure the new release will be ready.

[TeeGee]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Thank you for updating the community Alan. It is much better that more time is taken to iron out all of the uncertainties and previous unknowns, than to rush a product to market. Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor.

Moving to GitHub is an excellent idea to allow people to view what has been going on, and even get started on peer-reviewing the codebase to suggest potential improvements or changes that may arise during the verification phase of testing. It will also reveal to the wider community the quality and diligence behind the project.

[DCEBrief]

Market Abuse Complaint Reportedly Filed Against JPMorgan Chase, CEO Dimon

https://dcebrief.com/market-abuse-complaint-reportedly-filed-against-jpmorgan-chase-ceo-dimon/

[Dyna]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Thank you for updating the community Alan. It is much better that more time is taken to iron out all of the uncertainties and previous unknowns, than to rush a product to market. Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor.

Moving to GitHub is an excellent idea to allow people to view what has been going on, and even get started on peer-reviewing the codebase to suggest potential improvements or changes that may arise during the verification phase of testing. It will also reveal to the wider community the quality and diligence behind the project.

Thank you TeeGee. "Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor." Well said.

I trust that when everything is said and done, it will put DNotes in a solid foundation to start a major awareness campaign.

[HORT]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Thank you for updating the community Alan. It is much better that more time is taken to iron out all of the uncertainties and previous unknowns, than to rush a product to market. Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor.

Moving to GitHub is an excellent idea to allow people to view what has been going on, and even get started on peer-reviewing the codebase to suggest potential improvements or changes that may arise during the verification phase of testing. It will also reveal to the wider community the quality and diligence behind the project.

Thank you TeeGee. "Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor." Well said.

I trust that when everything is said and done, it will put DNotes in a solid foundation to start a major awareness campaign.

Excellent. Thank you for the update. Take all the time you need.

[DNotes]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Thank you for updating the community Alan. It is much better that more time is taken to iron out all of the uncertainties and previous unknowns, than to rush a product to market. Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor.

Moving to GitHub is an excellent idea to allow people to view what has been going on, and even get started on peer-reviewing the codebase to suggest potential improvements or changes that may arise during the verification phase of testing. It will also reveal to the wider community the quality and diligence behind the project.

Thank you TeeGee. "Quality should never be sacrificed for the sake of time -- it is one of the four pillars of any successful business, and any successful business needs to consistently score highly across all its capabilities, because any shortcoming can leave space to be beaten by a competitor." Well said.

I trust that when everything is said and done, it will put DNotes in a solid foundation to start a major awareness campaign.

Excellent. Thank you for the update. Take all the time you need.

Appreciate the support HORT!

[TimMarsh]

The Velocity of Currency
This article, published in a local Australian paper from a small community, introduced me to a new financial concept:
https://www.thechronicle.com.au/news/australias-100-notes-where-did-they-all-go/3227381/

It starts by showing data that proves while the use of hard cash in Australia is steadily dropping, the number of notes being minted is steadily growing. And it asks, then answers, the question, "Where is all the cash hiding?"

It's a well written article with a strong Australian tone, using things like "I reckon", so you might enjoy it despite me giving the following spoiler: More notes are required because the velocity of the currency is slowing down. My best definition of currency velocity would be, 'The average value of transaction made in hard cash per day, over the total amount of hard cash available.' I'm sure there are better definitions out there.

I'm interested to know what this thread's will informed readers think about how currency velocity, demand for tradeable currency, and cryptocurrency intersect.

[TimMarsh]

Former US Regulator: Crypto Enthusiasts Should Take Lead on Regulation

https://dcebrief.com/former-us-regulator-crypto-industry-should-take-lead-on-regulation/

There are some good points here. I believe our industry should be promoting fair and reasonable regulation that does not inhibit the technology. It's easy to get confused when people talk about "regulating digital currency", I don't believe there is such a thing as regulating a decentralized digital currency itself, but the services provided that allow you to use them is where you need to focus.


In an opinion piece published by CNBC today, former CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton suggests that digital currency enthusiasts need to be more active in seeking regulation for their industry if they want Bitcoin to have the “bright” future that many of them envision. In the op-ed, Chilton says that there are two main reasons for the currency’s recurring problems in recent years.

His first observation is that “digital currencies like Bitcoin aren’t like stocks.” As Chilton notes, most of these cryptocurrencies have no company assets that give them intrinsic value. As a result, their value is determined solely by what buyers are willing to pay to take ownership of them.

The second reason is that they are “largely unregulated by governments. They lack the type of AML and KYC protections that banks are required to provide, and offer few customer safeguards to protect against exchange failure. On the regulatory front, there is no effective surveillance of trading, no authorized investigators, and no punitive legislation to ensure that “bad actors” are deterred from criminal activities. According to Chilton, “This all makes digital currencies exceedingly susceptible to fraud and manipulation. It's an open range for abuse.”

To remedy those apparent weaknesses, he suggests that digital currency enthusiasts shouldn’t wait for regulations to be imposed upon the industry. Instead, they should invite “appropriate regulatory oversight” and take the lead on its development.

That is likely sound advice, and it comes from a man who has spoken highly of digital currency and the blockchain in the recent past. In 2016, Chilton called for then-President Barack Obama to embrace Bitcoin and its technology to ensure that the US shared in its potential economic benefits. Moreover, Chilton seems to recognize that digitization of money is inevitable. The question is how quickly it occurs, and what form it ultimately takes.

This is a really important statement, and should be the catalyst for the cryptocurrency community to establish its own self-regulating body.

There are many benefits for industries that self-regulate. And there are plenty of examples and models to base development on. In the USA, the National Association of Realtors, the American Medical Association, in Australia and many other countries the organisation the rates movies and other media is self-regulated. And I think the best example online of successful self regulation is the W3C.

Because cryptocurrency is traded internationally, and has little relation to their countries of origin, it is also unlikely that regulation at a national level would be effective, or functionally coordinated between countries.

By self-regulating, national governments would be much more likely to accept the burden being lifted from their legislative shoulders, so long as the outcomes ensured consumer safety as effectively as possible. And by removing the motivations and justifications of government interference, the cryptocurrency industry could gain the level of stability and trust that is crucial to its early and efficient success.

So I'm openly calling for a consortium to self-organise, invite all the relevant stake holders, model itself on successful self-regulating organisations, establish a standards and certification authority, and let market forces be the ultimate consequence of failing to gain accreditation and comply with their established standards.

Then consumers can invest with confidence in projects that meet standards and have attained certification. Or they can knowingly risk their money on projects that failed to gain certification and forego their right to complain about being swindled by their greedy investments. In such an established environment, all that national governments would need to do, is monitor the consortium, and recommend that citizens avoid investing in projects that failed to gain certification by the cryptocurrency certification board.

I would like to see DNotes take a responsible position in promoting and guiding the development of such a consortium.

[sl-avik]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Please share link on git when it will created,
what is the approximate time needed for finishing all open tasks? I mean,  in October we can see some good results of such work or November?
Dnotes will go to POS and in this year Neos also go to POS may be you connecting with Neos developers and try organaze some interesting Affiliate Program if it possible
 

[Dyna]

Former US Regulator: Crypto Enthusiasts Should Take Lead on Regulation

https://dcebrief.com/former-us-regulator-crypto-industry-should-take-lead-on-regulation/

There are some good points here. I believe our industry should be promoting fair and reasonable regulation that does not inhibit the technology. It's easy to get confused when people talk about "regulating digital currency", I don't believe there is such a thing as regulating a decentralized digital currency itself, but the services provided that allow you to use them is where you need to focus.


In an opinion piece published by CNBC today, former CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton suggests that digital currency enthusiasts need to be more active in seeking regulation for their industry if they want Bitcoin to have the “bright” future that many of them envision. In the op-ed, Chilton says that there are two main reasons for the currency’s recurring problems in recent years.

His first observation is that “digital currencies like Bitcoin aren’t like stocks.” As Chilton notes, most of these cryptocurrencies have no company assets that give them intrinsic value. As a result, their value is determined solely by what buyers are willing to pay to take ownership of them.

The second reason is that they are “largely unregulated by governments. They lack the type of AML and KYC protections that banks are required to provide, and offer few customer safeguards to protect against exchange failure. On the regulatory front, there is no effective surveillance of trading, no authorized investigators, and no punitive legislation to ensure that “bad actors” are deterred from criminal activities. According to Chilton, “This all makes digital currencies exceedingly susceptible to fraud and manipulation. It's an open range for abuse.”

To remedy those apparent weaknesses, he suggests that digital currency enthusiasts shouldn’t wait for regulations to be imposed upon the industry. Instead, they should invite “appropriate regulatory oversight” and take the lead on its development.

That is likely sound advice, and it comes from a man who has spoken highly of digital currency and the blockchain in the recent past. In 2016, Chilton called for then-President Barack Obama to embrace Bitcoin and its technology to ensure that the US shared in its potential economic benefits. Moreover, Chilton seems to recognize that digitization of money is inevitable. The question is how quickly it occurs, and what form it ultimately takes.

This is a really important statement, and should be the catalyst for the cryptocurrency community to establish its own self-regulating body.

There are many benefits for industries that self-regulate. And there are plenty of examples and models to base development on. In the USA, the National Association of Realtors, the American Medical Association, in Australia and many other countries the organisation the rates movies and other media is self-regulated. And I think the best example online of successful self regulation is the W3C.

Because cryptocurrency is traded internationally, and has little relation to their countries of origin, it is also unlikely that regulation at a national level would be effective, or functionally coordinated between countries.

By self-regulating, national governments would be much more likely to accept the burden being lifted from their legislative shoulders, so long as the outcomes ensured consumer safety as effectively as possible. And by removing the motivations and justifications of government interference, the cryptocurrency industry could gain the level of stability and trust that is crucial to its early and efficient success.

So I'm openly calling for a consortium to self-organise, invite all the relevant stake holders, model itself on successful self-regulating organisations, establish a standards and certification authority, and let market forces be the ultimate consequence of failing to gain accreditation and comply with their established standards.

Then consumers can invest with confidence in projects that meet standards and have attained certification. Or they can knowingly risk their money on projects that failed to gain certification and forego their right to complain about being swindled by their greedy investments. In such an established environment, all that national governments would need to do, is monitor the consortium, and recommend that citizens avoid investing in projects that failed to gain certification by the cryptocurrency certification board.

I would like to see DNotes take a responsible position in promoting and guiding the development of such a consortium.

Thanks, Tim. I read the article and like it a lot. A self-regulating global association for our industry sounds intriguing. It would be amazing for DNotes to have the honor to the leadership role but that is a huge undertaking. It may make more sense for the current Digital Currency Council to evolve into such an organization: 

http://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/
https://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/tag/banking/

[DNotes]

The launch of DNotes 2.0 has been delayed. The learning curve has been more demanding than anticipated and the amount of customized C# coding is also more than we anticipated. As much as I am always very conservative in estimating time-line and cost, I have been down this route before. Big complex projects like DNotes 2.0 development often ended up taking longer and costing more; sometime with more problems than expected. Fortunately, in our case, there are no major known problems.

A lot of that is because of the inherent challenges in dealing with the unknows. It is even more pronounced in our decentralized open source environment. There are heaps of contributions and work-around but very time consuming to sort through. It is not uncommon to end up with incomplete solutions, with the last most difficult 10% unfinished.

I anticipate that it will take a few more months and we will update our community on any significant developments. Meanwhile, our developer will be working with his team and create a git repository on GitHub.

DNotes 2.0 is a large-scale project creating a new coin to replace DNotes with a 1:1 coin swap. We are migrating from our current Proof of Work (POW) to Proof of Stake (POS).  This is a multi-year project leading to 100% conversion to C#, along with numerous applications to best support our projects as outlined on our road-map: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1924858.0

Please share link on git when it will created,
what is the approximate time needed for finishing all open tasks? I mean,  in October we can see some good results of such work or November?
Dnotes will go to POS and in this year Neos also go to POS may be you connecting with Neos developers and try organaze some interesting Affiliate Program if it possible
 

Hi sl-avik, we certainly will. We will be actively working within github and releasing more detailed results as we work, but we will definitely be showing our progress as we go.

I'm not too familiar with Neos, I'll have to do a little research.

[Chase]

I'm afraid those within the financial industry that are content with the status-quo, may end up being left behind. Expecting government protection (calls for banning bitcoin, bailouts, etc), rather than seeing the potential of cryptocurrencies to boost shareholder returns, may leave the old-school thinkers in the 'irrelevant' category.

This industry is growing fast and a lot of it is behind closed doors until product ready. While bitcoin ETFs have not received regulatory approval yet, it is only a matter of time before the financial guru's figure out how to make financial products that can work within the guidelines. This will likely include looking at other cryptocurrencies that are not trying to dodge authority.


Bitcoin ETFs on the Horizon

http://www.barrons.com/articles/bitcoin-etfs-on-the-horizon-1506140918

[DCEBrief]

Origin Energy to Test Blockchain for Energy Trading

https://dcebrief.com/origin-energy-to-test-blockchain-for-energy-trading/

[TimMarsh]

Former US Regulator: Crypto Enthusiasts Should Take Lead on Regulation

https://dcebrief.com/former-us-regulator-crypto-industry-should-take-lead-on-regulation/

There are some good points here. I believe our industry should be promoting fair and reasonable regulation that does not inhibit the technology. It's easy to get confused when people talk about "regulating digital currency", I don't believe there is such a thing as regulating a decentralized digital currency itself, but the services provided that allow you to use them is where you need to focus.


In an opinion piece published by CNBC today, former CFTC commissioner Bart Chilton suggests that digital currency enthusiasts need to be more active in seeking regulation for their industry if they want Bitcoin to have the “bright” future that many of them envision. In the op-ed, Chilton says that there are two main reasons for the currency’s recurring problems in recent years.

His first observation is that “digital currencies like Bitcoin aren’t like stocks.” As Chilton notes, most of these cryptocurrencies have no company assets that give them intrinsic value. As a result, their value is determined solely by what buyers are willing to pay to take ownership of them.

The second reason is that they are “largely unregulated by governments. They lack the type of AML and KYC protections that banks are required to provide, and offer few customer safeguards to protect against exchange failure. On the regulatory front, there is no effective surveillance of trading, no authorized investigators, and no punitive legislation to ensure that “bad actors” are deterred from criminal activities. According to Chilton, “This all makes digital currencies exceedingly susceptible to fraud and manipulation. It's an open range for abuse.”

To remedy those apparent weaknesses, he suggests that digital currency enthusiasts shouldn’t wait for regulations to be imposed upon the industry. Instead, they should invite “appropriate regulatory oversight” and take the lead on its development.

That is likely sound advice, and it comes from a man who has spoken highly of digital currency and the blockchain in the recent past. In 2016, Chilton called for then-President Barack Obama to embrace Bitcoin and its technology to ensure that the US shared in its potential economic benefits. Moreover, Chilton seems to recognize that digitization of money is inevitable. The question is how quickly it occurs, and what form it ultimately takes.

This is a really important statement, and should be the catalyst for the cryptocurrency community to establish its own self-regulating body.

There are many benefits for industries that self-regulate. And there are plenty of examples and models to base development on. In the USA, the National Association of Realtors, the American Medical Association, in Australia and many other countries the organisation the rates movies and other media is self-regulated. And I think the best example online of successful self regulation is the W3C.

Because cryptocurrency is traded internationally, and has little relation to their countries of origin, it is also unlikely that regulation at a national level would be effective, or functionally coordinated between countries.

By self-regulating, national governments would be much more likely to accept the burden being lifted from their legislative shoulders, so long as the outcomes ensured consumer safety as effectively as possible. And by removing the motivations and justifications of government interference, the cryptocurrency industry could gain the level of stability and trust that is crucial to its early and efficient success.

So I'm openly calling for a consortium to self-organise, invite all the relevant stake holders, model itself on successful self-regulating organisations, establish a standards and certification authority, and let market forces be the ultimate consequence of failing to gain accreditation and comply with their established standards.

Then consumers can invest with confidence in projects that meet standards and have attained certification. Or they can knowingly risk their money on projects that failed to gain certification and forego their right to complain about being swindled by their greedy investments. In such an established environment, all that national governments would need to do, is monitor the consortium, and recommend that citizens avoid investing in projects that failed to gain certification by the cryptocurrency certification board.

I would like to see DNotes take a responsible position in promoting and guiding the development of such a consortium.

Thanks, Tim. I read the article and like it a lot. A self-regulating global association for our industry sounds intriguing. It would be amazing for DNotes to have the honor to the leadership role but that is a huge undertaking. It may make more sense for the current Digital Currency Council to evolve into such an organization: 

http://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/
https://www.digitalcurrencycouncil.com/tag/banking/

Yes Alan, I quite agree that taking a leadership role in establishing a self-regulating body would be a huge undertaking. DNotes has it's own mission and it would not be wise to dilute its energy by taking on such responsibility. By a 'responsible position' I was intending something more like a stakeholder or advisory role. I see DNotes as a long term player who genuinely has the best interests of the cryptocurrency industry at heart. When many other voices might want outcomes that favour short-term gains, it is important that the stable players with extensive business experience also get heard.

Thanks for providing the links. I see the Digital Currency Council as a great contender for such a role. If not, the people it has attracted are certainly the pool of talent that should be encouraged to move in this direction. I see that they already provide certification services for recognising professional skills. So clearly they have some understanding of the structures required for a self-regulating body. I do hope you bring it up with them.

[TeeGee]

I think one crucial thing that everybody who is knowledgeable in the space of cryptocurrency does is engage with regulators and assist them in having all the most appropriate information and perspectives while they study the industry. This is important because absent our participation, or proper understanding of the new business model that cryptocurrencies and ICOs have brought forward, the regulators could regulate in a heavy handed manner -- which won't work to the benefit of anybody. I've seen a lot of industry experts, including some in the Chicago area like Matthew Roszak stating this on LinkedIN and other forums. Over time, cross-sector institutions may take a leading role in assisting governments and the industry to work together and provide the appropriate framework for industry health.

[DNotes]

https://dcebrief.com/the-pot-of-gold-in-the-canadian-fbc-bitcoin-trust/

[TeeGee]

Great article Cindy.

It seems an interesting product for Canadians to get involved with, but it remains disappointing to see that the 'gatekeepers' of venture funding and other financial products are making sure that only the most wealthy people in society can have a turn with it.