There are tons of impromptu Q&A sessions live on Slack lately - I will post them here as well for the sake of record-keeping and to give a bit more info to people who aren't following all of our channels.
Regarding FLO supernodes/masternodes AKA Alexandria micro-work service providersshagda [10:06 AM]: any word on how many FLO will be required for a "master node"?
shagda [10:09]: any ETA on when the Flo master nodes will be available?
devonjames [12:53 PM]:
@shagda there is no such thing as a FLO master node. that term was used as an analogy, but its an imperfect one. with master nodes users just set aside a certain balance and then earn income because they did so. with OIP, users will do various kinds of “micro-work” for the network, and then earn income proportional to the work they provide.
the first one is called *Autominer* - users start with a balance (in BTC), which is used to rent mining hardware based on market conditions, and then the Flo that their miners earn are then automatically traded for BTC to the publishers who need tokens to upload their content. the trade price is determined automatically based on the Autominer’s actual costs plus a margin which is determined based on the real world market conditions at the time of the mining.
the Autominer node application will be getting beta-tested soon, so if you want to try that out early make sure you sign up for our beta-testers list
http://www.alexandria.io/newsletterOther types of microwork that end users will be able to do for the overall network are:
*Promoters* - kinda like Amazon Affiliates, promoters simply share links to content around the web and on social media platforms. if their shares result in commercial activity (paid views, purchases), they can earn a cut
*Retailers* - host a front end for Open Index Protocol content and you can earn a cut of the commercial activity you generate. can be super simple, just an interface for all content, or can be specialized for a niche media type or audience, or can create suggestion/discovery algorithms to help end users find the kind of content they’re likely to enjoy
*Filecoin Miners* - put your unused hard drive space to work, supporting the storage and bandwidth requirements of the OIP network while getting paid to do it - this one is entirely dependent on the protocollabs team releasing Filecoin, which is a token and a decentralized market for exchanging the tokens for storing and distributing files, about 1 year out according to their team.
and we’ll also have another type of worker who’s focused on processor specific work - for various tasks like archiving and transcoding media files - that gets a bit deeper into the weeds, but it’ll be something that users can use to basically lease out their unused CPU cycles, and in some cases GPU cycles.
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Regarding Privacy in AlexandriaStevo [4:19 AM]: Quest for staff... Will there be any sort of "Private Library" functionality?
Stevo [4:24 AM]: Eg private collections of artifacts, accessible via customizable user access rules. Pay subscription and authorised users have unlimited access.
rtaylor [5:15 AM]:
Because the publishers of content are paid directly, in the amount that they determine, the closest we can get to a paid subscription is a wallet that can be filled and set to auto-pay under certain conditions. So, if you want to spend $5/month on music then you are free to browse through the library and not be faced with paywalls, as long as the total monthly cost is under the $5 per month that you set. Maximum cost for an artifact could also be set so you don't blow the full $5 on one track.
This will be a feature of the Alexandria browser plugin and can work on any website or social network where OIP content is posted. Likewise, another front-end could build a similar feature directly into their site/application.
These are functions of the application layer and not part of the Open Index Protocol itself.
So I can only speak to what we are planning/developing for the Alexandria front-end (web and standalone) whereas other front-end retailers (like Tokenly) can and will build their own solutions to getting artifacts to their users.
Stevo [5:27 AM]: Thanks. I was thinking more along the lines of private content, eg family videos & photos
With a custom front-end, could artifacts be stored privately like that?
rtaylor [5:31 AM]:
Not really. The protocol is being designed to share content, not to store it privately. Something like MaidSafe would be better suited for those needs. Private content shouldn't use a blockchain, in any case.
Mostly, in my opinion, for reasons of scaling.
Stevo [5:32 AM]: All good. This works for one idea I have, but not another.
rtaylor [5:33 AM]:
But also for privacy. Whereas something like Zcash can do encrypted private messages and you _could_ store an IPFS or BitTorrent file location hash in a transaction comment on that blockchain. But that's not a very efficient way to store private files.
And you would want the files themselves to be encrypted as well. It could all be done but it's not our focus with the Open Index Protocol.
Stevo [5:35 AM]: I will definitely take a look at MaidSafe.
rtaylor [5:35 AM]: Fun fact: Florincoin actually inspired the comment field in Zcash transactions.
