[LTC] Litecoin Core Development Fundraising

[Emm29]

Hey, if you're a Litecoin developer you should be rich by now! Ha ha, but seriously, even if you were litecoin-rich, you deserve to be paid for useful work.

As of a few minutes ago I've donated 0.5 BTC to 1KD5tt1p3mdZH8DDXeEwdsJNpiwUZCfzkF. Even though I've invested much more money in Bitcoin than Litecoin, I think it's great if we can have more than just one truly successful cryptocurrency.

Cheers.

[1714024163]

1714024163

[1714024163]

1714024163

[wtogami]

Hey, if you're a Litecoin developer you should be rich by now! Ha ha, but seriously, even if you were litecoin-rich, you deserve to be paid for useful work.

As of a few minutes ago I've donated 0.5 BTC to 1KD5tt1p3mdZH8DDXeEwdsJNpiwUZCfzkF. Even though I've invested much more money in Bitcoin than Litecoin, I think it's great if we can have more than just one truly successful cryptocurrency.

Cheers.

I wrote earlier explaining this issue.
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1f0sz4/litecoin_core_development_fundraising/

Hi. I am Warren Togami, the lead developer on Litecoin-0.8.x. I am better known as the Founder of the Fedora Project, and I have worked on other open source projects like Spamassassin, K12Linux and Cyanogenmod. I spent the last two years in grad school. I need to clarify some points here.
coblee said he will not accept any of these donations for himself.
Donations first will go toward reimbursing server hosting expenses for various infrastructure that benefit the entire Litecoin community. This includes the homepage, wiki, three explorers (for redundancy), permanent testnet nodes, dnsseeds, and automated security monitoring infrastructure.
I discovered Litecoin very late (March 2013) when I began mining, so I currently have very little. My operating theory is that if I can build a meaningful stake and hold it for a long time, it enhances the personal incentive for me to fix the software and to further work on tools and clients to foster vendor integration. If I am successful with these goals, then LTC will grow in value due to its increased use as a medium of exchange in commerce. Thus it makes sense for me to hold on to it in the long-term.
In any case, these donations aren't going to a "rich developer".

[jubalix]

Hey, if you're a Litecoin developer you should be rich by now! Ha ha, but seriously, even if you were litecoin-rich, you deserve to be paid for useful work.

As of a few minutes ago I've donated 0.5 BTC to 1KD5tt1p3mdZH8DDXeEwdsJNpiwUZCfzkF. Even though I've invested much more money in Bitcoin than Litecoin, I think it's great if we can have more than just one truly successful cryptocurrency.

Cheers.

I wrote earlier explaining this issue.
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1f0sz4/litecoin_core_development_fundraising/

Hi. I am Warren Togami, the lead developer on Litecoin-0.8.x. I am better known as the Founder of the Fedora Project, and I have worked on other open source projects like Spamassassin, K12Linux and Cyanogenmod. I spent the last two years in grad school. I need to clarify some points here.
coblee said he will not accept any of these donations for himself.
Donations first will go toward reimbursing server hosting expenses for various infrastructure that benefit the entire Litecoin community. This includes the homepage, wiki, three explorers (for redundancy), permanent testnet nodes, dnsseeds, and automated security monitoring infrastructure.
I discovered Litecoin very late (March 2013) when I began mining, so I currently have very little. My operating theory is that if I can build a meaningful stake and hold it for a long time, it enhances the personal incentive for me to fix the software and to further work on tools and clients to foster vendor integration. If I am successful with these goals, then LTC will grow in value due to its increased use as a medium of exchange in commerce. Thus it makes sense for me to hold on to it in the long-term.
In any case, these donations aren't going to a "rich developer".

Hi, yeah I had heard of you before seeing you here your "wtogami" is out there and around, I thinks its really impressive that LTC can attract your level of expertise

The CCC (cryprto currency community) is probably unpleasable no matter what anyone does, but an interesting bunch. I think what some may be striking at is not the new DEVs such as yourself but the interplay between earlier DEV's and the benefit that accrues from such donation now and how that distributes.....anyhow that's just out there.

[aspect]

warren, can you tell what development has been made before I actually donate? There are a few people on this "dev" team that don't even code at all, so I'd like to see the advances being made. Atm, all I see is asking for money.

Simran, really?  You of all people?  How about you take some of that rather large round anonymous donation you have received mid last year for your projects and share that with the dev team?

Have you bothered reading other posts where Warren describes the work that has been done?

Warren has been working 24/7 non-stop for weeks porting code to 0.8.2; Fixing numerous issues, identifying and fixing various network vulnerabilities, strengthening relationship with people involved in Bitcoin development, running a plethora of tests and simulations of different fee algorithms (and eventually coming up with what I think is a genius implementation for a fee structure that will strengthen the health of the network long-term).

We all are really really lucky that Warren has taken the helm here.  I don't know how much Coblee would have been able to pull by himself.  This is a huge and a very complicated project where a single mishap can cause serious problems to everyone.

As for other people who "do not code", have you been following the scene lately?

Here are some items that come to mind:

• We redesigned http://litecoin.org with multiple languages.  Since then, out of ~4,000 visitors per day, 8% of them are from China  (site peak has been at 10k visitors/day, which IMHO is not bad)
• We migrated wiki to http://litecoin.info and implemented LitecoinCryptoPayment spam protection (http://litecoin.info/Special:CryptoPayment - you need to login to use that)
• We have developed a custom block explorer in effort to gather statistical data from the blockchain http://ltc.block-explorer.com/charts  (this platform is in beta and will be used in the future to provide additional services)
• We have implemented a p2pool scanner which allows people to find public p2pool nodes in their countries so that they can mine on p2pool without having to set anything up http://p2pool.litecointools.com  (currently under maintenance)
• We have implemented a whole bunch of custom internal tools - for example, all our sites are monitored for downtime and potential hacking attempts.
• We have established plans to develop blockchain monitoring solution similar to that ran by LukeJr which allowed him to detect the May 12th fork on bitcoin blockchain.
• During the last two weeks have found and fixed two vulnerabilities in external pool software which allowed bad miners to submit fake shares making pools think that these miners were providing much higher hash rates then they were (pooler, you rock!)
• We have been moderating forums from various scammers & spammers posting trojans etc.
• We have established contact lists for developers, supporters and major pool operators so that everyone can be reachable IRL.
• We have setup 4 DNS seeds much needed for the network, especially since IRC seeding has been removed.
• We have re-established a healthy working testnet (which is actively used for in-house testing); this also includes DNS seed servers for testnet.
• We have been working with variety of service providers discussing and supporting their integration of Litecoin.
• We have been actively providing support and responding to plethora of inquiries sent to contact@litecoin.org, handling press, redirecting users to appropriate places containing information they seek or simply helping them with their problems.
• We have been actively working with members of our community to ensure that information they publish and work they do is oriented toward the same vision.
• We have worked with p2pool developer forrestv to make appropriate modifications to the p2pool in effort to increase long-term health of the network (hence the upcoming new version of p2pool)
• I myself have put together a site to help new developers get started http://litecoindeveloper.com

I do not like to speak, but when I speak I prefer that it counts.  I hope this brief overview satisfies your criteria for donation. By donating, you ensure that the development team has resources to support the server infrastructure and to get external help in effort to implement variety of projects much needed to expand the reach of the network.

Also, if anyone is wondering, donations are strictly tracked and every expense is discussed and agreed upon by the majority of developers.

[Emm29]

Hey, if you're a Litecoin developer you should be rich by now! Ha ha, but seriously, even if you were litecoin-rich, you deserve to be paid for useful work.

As of a few minutes ago I've donated 0.5 BTC to 1KD5tt1p3mdZH8DDXeEwdsJNpiwUZCfzkF. Even though I've invested much more money in Bitcoin than Litecoin, I think it's great if we can have more than just one truly successful cryptocurrency.

Cheers.

I wrote earlier explaining this issue.
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1f0sz4/litecoin_core_development_fundraising/

Hi. I am Warren Togami,  [... text deleted for brevity's sake ...]
I discovered Litecoin very late (March 2013) when I began mining, so I currently have very little.  [...more deleted...]

Hi, yeah I had heard of your before seeing your here your wtogami is out there and around, I thinks its really impressive that LTC can attract your level.

The CCC (cryprto currency community) is probably unpleasable no matter what anyone does, but an interesting bunch. I think what some may be stikeing at is not the new DEVs such as yourself but the interplay between earlier DEV's and the benenfit that accrues from such donation now  and how that distributes.....anyhow thats just out there.

I apologize if I caused offense, Warren. If I had read this whole thread before posting, I would have been clearer that I was referring to the more senior Litecoin developers. It was only 1 year ago that the price of 1 litecoin was less than 1 cent! I'm sure a lot of us are thinking that anyone as serious about Litecoin as its developers & advocates at the time could have spared a thousand or so dollars to obtain 100000+ LTC.

And likewise, even if Gavin Andresen had thousands of BTC, I would still continue to donate to the Bitcoin Foundation. This idea is too important for envy (well, maybe just a bit of it).

So keep up the good work. I've set aside another half a bitcoin for donating later on to Litecoin development.

[wtogami]

https://plus.google.com/104307324656397909502/posts/FVfADTZUQ3H

Please subscribe.  I rather not double post everything here.

[r3demon]

Hey guys, you should probably put a banner for fundraising on litecoin.org, at least a donation address somewhere, not so many people are going to find this topic.

[popete]

I think the pools should include a section donate % for litecoin core development

[bazzip]

Im new at this.  Ive only been mining for one month as of yesterday.  I still sent 2 LTC.  Ill send more in the future.  I appreciate what you guys do.

[wtogami]

I think the pools should include a section donate % for litecoin core development

This would be very much appreciated, but it would be a pain if pools send lots of little payments.  Pools should build pots with a BIG COUNTER at the top of the page and make a donation all at once, for the glory of the pool and its miners.

[Mahn]

Out of curiosity, when will you be able to reveal the identity of the big sponsor?

[wtogami]

Out of curiosity, when will you be able to reveal the identity of the big sponsor?

I can guarantee it will be sometime before the heat death of the universe.

(I don't know.)

[kingcrimson]

500 down, 4500 to go. not looking good that this is gonna happen  

[Simran]

warren, can you tell what development has been made before I actually donate? There are a few people on this "dev" team that don't even code at all, so I'd like to see the advances being made. Atm, all I see is asking for money.

Simran, really?  You of all people?  How about you take some of that rather large round anonymous donation you have received mid last year for your projects and share that with the dev team?

Have you bothered reading other posts where Warren describes the work that has been done?

Warren has been working 24/7 non-stop for weeks porting code to 0.8.2; Fixing numerous issues, identifying and fixing various network vulnerabilities, strengthening relationship with people involved in Bitcoin development, running a plethora of tests and simulations of different fee algorithms (and eventually coming up with what I think is a genius implementation for a fee structure that will strengthen the health of the network long-term).

We all are really really lucky that Warren has taken the helm here.  I don't know how much Coblee would have been able to pull by himself.  This is a huge and a very complicated project where a single mishap can cause serious problems to everyone.

As for other people who "do not code", have you been following the scene lately?

Here are some items that come to mind:

• We redesigned http://litecoin.org with multiple languages.  Since then, out of ~4,000 visitors per day, 8% of them are from China  (site peak has been at 10k visitors/day, which IMHO is not bad)
• We migrated wiki to http://litecoin.info and implemented LitecoinCryptoPayment spam protection (http://litecoin.info/Special:CryptoPayment - you need to login to use that)
• We have developed a custom block explorer in effort to gather statistical data from the blockchain http://ltc.block-explorer.com/charts  (this platform is in beta and will be used in the future to provide additional services)
• We have implemented a p2pool scanner which allows people to find public p2pool nodes in their countries so that they can mine on p2pool without having to set anything up http://p2pool.litecointools.com  (currently under maintenance)
• We have implemented a whole bunch of custom internal tools - for example, all our sites are monitored for downtime and potential hacking attempts.
• We have established plans to develop blockchain monitoring solution similar to that ran by LukeJr which allowed him to detect the May 12th fork on bitcoin blockchain.
• During the last two weeks have found and fixed two vulnerabilities in external pool software which allowed bad miners to submit fake shares making pools think that these miners were providing much higher hash rates then they were (pooler, you rock!)
• We have been moderating forums from various scammers & spammers posting trojans etc.
• We have established contact lists for developers, supporters and major pool operators so that everyone can be reachable IRL.
• We have setup 4 DNS seeds much needed for the network, especially since IRC seeding has been removed.
• We have re-established a healthy working testnet (which is actively used for in-house testing); this also includes DNS seed servers for testnet.
• We have been working with variety of service providers discussing and supporting their integration of Litecoin.
• We have been actively providing support and responding to plethora of inquiries sent to contact@litecoin.org, handling press, redirecting users to appropriate places containing information they seek or simply helping them with their problems.
• We have been actively working with members of our community to ensure that informatio "Donan they publish and work they do is oriented toward the same vision.
• We have worked with p2pool developer forrestv to make appropriate modifications to the p2pool in effort to increase long-term health of the network (hence the upcoming new version of p2pool)
• I myself have put together a site to help new developers get started http://litecoindeveloper.com

I do not like to speak, but when I speak I prefer that it counts.  I hope this brief overview satisfies your criteria for donation. By donating, you ensure that the development team has resources to support the server infrastructure and to get external help in effort to implement variety of projects much needed to expand the reach of the network.

Also, if anyone is wondering, donations are strictly tracked and every expense is discussed and agreed upon by the majority of developers.

I don't understand why you took my post as an insult. I receive my donations, and I choose what I do with them, and donating to the entire dev team is not what I choose to do with them. I have donated LTC to the devs I choose to donate too. As for your post, I believe that this should be the OP, not "Donate to dev team." People want to know what you're doing in the OP. I shouldn't have the need to read the entire thread to be able to find out what's going on.

[Simran]

warren, can you tell what development has been made before I actually donate? There are a few people on this "dev" team that don't even code at all, so I'd like to see the advances being made. Atm, all I see is asking for money.

Simran, really?  You of all people?  How about you take some of that rather large round anonymous donation you have received mid last year for your projects and share that with the dev team?

Dude, donations are not your paycheck. Asking for donations should be the last thing on the dev team's mind. If I've gotten donations, it's because I contributed something. You jealous I've gotten loads more donations? Stop being greedy.

[jubalix]

Hey dunno if you guys saw this but there's a new scrypt coin out based on 0.8.2

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218851.0

Maybe you can merge in some of the source code changes those guys did.

yeah they are rubbing it in as well

"Core: Bitcoin v0.8.2 (Actually 0.8.99). No fundraiser required."


except it is likely FAKE

[wtogami]

Hey dunno if you guys saw this but there's a new scrypt coin out based on 0.8.2

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218851.0

Maybe you can merge in some of the source code changes those guys did.

It is easy to glue scrypt to Bitcoin source and launch a new coin when you don't need to care about consensus with old nodes.  It is especially easy to do when it is merely a short-term scam where you don't care about bugs.  By contrast, Litecoin needs to be exceedingly careful with the transition as many people are depending on it to go smoothly.

Pooler made a 0.8.1-based client ~2.5 months ago but the team decided it wasn't worth releasing.  It had no git history (just a tarball of source), was unaudited, and Bitcoin-0.8.1 with LevelDB at the time had too many bugs.  As 0.8.x necessitates a hardfork, we want to add more improvements to make this rare opportunity of a hardfork more worthwhile.  The 0.8.2+ based client is shaping up well, with each patch applied on Bitcoin-0.8.2 manually inspected multiple times.  We are now carefully assessing the safety of a major change that should improve the performance of Litecoin after the hardfork.

[cosurgi]

donated 200 LTC, way to go!

[aspect]

warren, can you tell what development has been made before I actually donate? There are a few people on this "dev" team that don't even code at all, so I'd like to see the advances being made. Atm, all I see is asking for money.

Simran, really?  You of all people?  How about you take some of that rather large round anonymous donation you have received mid last year for your projects and share that with the dev team?

Dude, donations are not your paycheck. Asking for donations should be the last thing on the dev team's mind. If I've gotten donations, it's because I contributed something. You jealous I've gotten loads more donations? Stop being greedy.

Sorry Simran, you clearly misunderstood what I was talking about.  I PMed you some info.  I hope you withdraw the 'greedy' argument.

Asking for donations is the second thing on developer minds. First one is ensuring proper development of the reference client and health of the network. Donations are merely a tool provided by the community to support the development of the infrastructure around the network and help us grow it.

The development team is comprised of software developers with 10-20+ years of experience in software development. Please don't tell us what should be or should not be first on our minds.

As for the list of things I made earlier, they are _nothing_, merely a drop in an ocean of the actual work and efforts that go into research and development of the reference client which is currently a core system that maintains the Litecoin blockchain. I don't even consider what I listed as work or projects comparing to the real development that goes on behind the scenes.

Also, please keep in mind that everything Warren says, he says on behalf of the development team. So I don't know to which developers you have chosen to donate in the past, but if you don't want to donate to the development fund organized by the team managed by Coblee (who has created this network), it is your business and I have nothing to say to you anymore.

[efx]

Okay.... Let's move on to something else that stuck out rather clearly...

"My operating theory is that if I can build a meaningful stake and hold it for a long time, it enhances the personal incentive for me to fix the software and to further work on tools and clients to foster vendor integration. If I am successful with these goals..."


^ Does not inspire confidence. 'invest in me as I am unwilling to invest in myself'?

Maybe you guys should talk about what you're going to say before you say it.

Not here to troll, merely mildly concerned with the behavior I've been noting of late. Also, I wasn't being entirely honest when I made that comment about github (page #1), I found the answers to potential LTC users (along with responses to those who are just trying to help) rather dismissive and alienating.


Think about your presentation, please.