@deadsea + all
Honestly the development of either GR's toolchain method or the btc's Gitian cross compiling method is not really going to be anything that anyone other than a developer would notice and many developers would probably not use. I have limited time to devote to this work as my time is stretched on many projects (none of which I am asking for or getting financial compensation ---- my aim is to learn and help 'build' better things for the future).
That being said I would not be working on it if I did not think it important for the long term. Please read on.
First I suggest you read more about why the bitcoin team uses gitian and the project here
https://gitian.org/ Cryptocurrency is in essence (and I borrow this ideology from a paper written by Nick Szabo see it here
https://twitter.com/cinnamon_carter/status/547166786006040578 ) trusting the integrity of code to allow you to interact with others who are strangers and/or people you may not be able to trust over the web. Still if you read this paper it makes a lot of sense how Nick points out that the most serious threats to systems is from 'insiders'.
Thus.... iX will be a much better system (from a trust standpoint) if two, three or more developers compile wallets from source code and get the exact same output that can be verified by checksum. (for those who don't understand what checksum verification is see here please read this brief article about what it is
checksums explained) Very few users of cryptocurrency make wallets from source for personal use. They 'trust' the wallet released by the developer or development team.
If iX or any coin/system is ever going to challenge bitcoin or stand next to it I believe adding this layer of safety will help make that possible even though most users of cryptocurrency are 100% unfamiliar with these concepts.
Consider my line of thought here.......
I would never release a wallet with a payload or malicious code included but anyone who has followed the alt coin scene knows it has happend a few times before although never with iX or a major coin. Suppose others trust me, Ground Rod and Ahmed to be 100% honest and never release dishonest code. Suppose we take great care in how we build our wallets (I know I do) using several different computers, virtual machines, computers offline that have never been connected to the web and always use strong passwords and different passwords for everything we log into. Taking these precautions reduces but does not eliminate the possibility of someone compromising our own individual security. No matter how careful or good you are you can still make a mistake or be hacked. Even using virus total to screen wallets (Which i recommend everyone use google it and upload the wallet to the site everytime you upgrade any wallet) is not full protection since it can only protect users from 'known' threats.
The long term goal is to provide and establish a release process that will offer end users more 'trust'.
Don't forget trust is the only reason any coin including bitcoin has any 'value'.
An ideal system would be one that both developers and anyone from the community can compile the source code and get a perfectly matched output that is signed by a public pgp key.
Not as ideal but still very strong would be a system where developers compile releases that can be verified as identical and signed with our pgp keys.
So while everyone else is worried about what the price of iX or btc is today or tomorrow there are a few of us who are thinking ahead and actually designing, building and testing methods that will really improve the system.
Most people don't consider compromised security until something happens and damage or loss occurs. Then it is too late. I am working toward the design of systems that will ensure people like myself who are annonymous programers on the internet will be able to work together to provide open source software for everyone in the world to use and have it be safer and more 'trustworthy' than if it came from microsoft, apple, or anyone else. Anyone who wants to contribute is welcome to review the development tree of the source code of iX on github or post links to your own work on github here in the forum. There are many challenges. For example the gitian system used by the bitcoin developers by design compiles things very slowly and sometimes just fails. Getting it to work correctly or even installed is not an easy undertaking. I am still studying exactly how it works so eventually I can use it with any coin or even other software.
I will finish by saying this.
If you like cryptocurrency/bitcoin/iX and think it is cool but don't understand how it works please take my advice and read up on how the code actually works (start with the bitcoin wiki) a little.
You will be amazed at how brilliant the system is and has evolved over the last several years. I consider the source code we are working with now to be just as much a work of art as the treasures painted by the great masters in the museums of the world and the accomplishments of the best theoretical physicists. It has the potential to permanently change many things in the world and hopefully for the better.
