MasterCoin: New Protocol Layer Starting From “The Exodus Address”

[klee]

I just posted the latest blog, a ton of information on there summarizing all the activities from the last week.  If I missed anything please let me know so I can include it next week.  Or if I made any errors (especially in the more technical parts) please inform me via PM.

Making History With Distributed Exchange

News for the week 43.2013.

Last week we discussed the fantastic results of the 1st code contest. Through out this week a few key exciting events took place.

J.R. Willet, the person behind the Mastercoin protocol, announced the 2nd code contest which is to enable distributed exchange transactions between two currencies (BTC <-> MSC); this ambitious contest is giving away 300 BTC and will need support not just from those who will be developing the wallet and website applications but also from those who are willing to test the developed applications, so take a look and get involved. Your contributions will be rewarded.

We also saw an important decision take place with the Bitcoin code base.  According to Gavin Andresen Bitcoin a pull request which allows for the association of up to 80 bytes of arbitrary data transactions will make it into Bitcoin’s 0.9 major release; this will enable Class C Mastercoin transactions (more information below).

Lastly, earlier this week the Mastercoin Foundation Board had its first meeting...

Read more...

http://blog.mastercoin.org/2013/10/26/making-history-with-distributed-exchange/

I share your posts here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UbiCrypt/

You got a FB page?

Maybe we could setup a fan/group in FB only for Mastercoin (if it doesn't already exists)!

[maxmint]

I wanted to ask if the guys doing the order book would publish the chart (howto) so I can have a live update here - at the moment it's just a static image placeholder (the rest of the data is dynamic though).

Here's the image tag for this chart:

Code:

<img src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApGPLGUd5ZCzdHFxbnhHQjBDSDVKamY5UHlWdkNMNWc&oid=2&zx=uckc8ewwsq7u" />

And the script tag:

Code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/static/modules/gviz/1.0/chart.js"> {"dataSourceUrl":"//docs.google.com/spreadsheet/tq?key=0ApGPLGUd5ZCzdHFxbnhHQjBDSDVKamY5UHlWdkNMNWc&transpose=0&headers=0&range=A2%3AA100&gid=1&pub=1","options":{"titleTextStyle":{"bold":true,"color":"#000","fontSize":"12"},"series":{"0":{"pointSize":2}},"curveType":"function","animation":{"duration":500},"width":2194,"lineWidth":2,"hAxis":{"title":"","useFormatFromData":true,"minValue":null,"viewWindowMode":null,"viewWindow":null,"maxValue":null},"chartArea":{"height":"","width":"","left":"","top":""},"vAxes":[{"title":"","useFormatFromData":true,"minorGridlines":{"count":"4"},"minValue":0,"viewWindowMode":"pretty","viewWindow":{"min":0,"max":null},"gridlines":{"count":"8"},"maxValue":null},{"useFormatFromData":true,"minValue":null,"viewWindow":{"min":null,"max":null},"maxValue":null}],"booleanRole":"certainty","title":"","height":1031,"interpolateNulls":false,"domainAxis":{"direction":1},"legend":"none","focusTarget":"series","annotations":{"domain":{}},"tooltip":{}},"state":{},"view":{"columns":[{"calc":"emptyString","type":"string","sourceColumn":0},0]},"isDefaultVisualization":false,"chartType":"LineChart","chartName":"Chart 1"} </script>

[zathras]

I wanted to ask if the guys doing the order book would publish the chart (howto) so I can have a live update here - at the moment it's just a static image placeholder (the rest of the data is dynamic though).

Here's the image tag for this chart:

Code:

<img src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApGPLGUd5ZCzdHFxbnhHQjBDSDVKamY5UHlWdkNMNWc&oid=2&zx=uckc8ewwsq7u" />

And the script tag:

Code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/static/modules/gviz/1.0/chart.js"> {"dataSourceUrl":"//docs.google.com/spreadsheet/tq?key=0ApGPLGUd5ZCzdHFxbnhHQjBDSDVKamY5UHlWdkNMNWc&transpose=0&headers=0&range=A2%3AA100&gid=1&pub=1","options":{"titleTextStyle":{"bold":true,"color":"#000","fontSize":"12"},"series":{"0":{"pointSize":2}},"curveType":"function","animation":{"duration":500},"width":2194,"lineWidth":2,"hAxis":{"title":"","useFormatFromData":true,"minValue":null,"viewWindowMode":null,"viewWindow":null,"maxValue":null},"chartArea":{"height":"","width":"","left":"","top":""},"vAxes":[{"title":"","useFormatFromData":true,"minorGridlines":{"count":"4"},"minValue":0,"viewWindowMode":"pretty","viewWindow":{"min":0,"max":null},"gridlines":{"count":"8"},"maxValue":null},{"useFormatFromData":true,"minValue":null,"viewWindow":{"min":null,"max":null},"maxValue":null}],"booleanRole":"certainty","title":"","height":1031,"interpolateNulls":false,"domainAxis":{"direction":1},"legend":"none","focusTarget":"series","annotations":{"domain":{}},"tooltip":{}},"state":{},"view":{"columns":[{"calc":"emptyString","type":"string","sourceColumn":0},0]},"isDefaultVisualization":false,"chartType":"LineChart","chartName":"Chart 1"} </script>

Thanks - added the chart image inline for the moment, should update when you change in the orderbook

[Tachikoma]

I love this thread and am really looking forward to mastercoin continuing to mature.

I think several people would be interested in a wealth analysis of mastercoin wallets, either as a one-time/ad-hoc thing or integated into mastercoin-explorer (i.e. for instance see the top balances for YaCoin over at http://yacexplorer.tk/graphs.htm#stats) ... top 25 balances would be great, or with all wallet balances, we could do a lot (statistics/analysis-wise, such as gauging wealth distribution over time to judge the "spread"/diffusion of the currency). And if someone had a csv or excel spreadsheet with this info, I wouldn't mind making a few charts, but the cats meow would be to integrate in into the explorer for day-to-day updates and historical trends.

Another useful stat would be measuring the rate of mastercoin transactions, in order to judge the 'velocity' of MSC (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_money). This could then be plotted on a graph. That would be another great look at the health of the MSC ecosystem.

Sample distribution of wealth graphs (could be created with a JS graphing library like 'flot', provided with the raw MSC data...I'd be able to lend some assistance here if needed):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Distribution_of_Wealth,_2007.jpg
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
http://thesocietypages.org/graphicsociology/files/2009/05/conley_champagne_distribution.png

I'm working on adding a permanent view into Mastercoin-explorer but because time is as always the limiting factor :/

Here is a one time off top-50.

Here is a CSV of each address and their balance. Seeing this overview I spotted a transaction that is being parsed wrong so that's worth something.

Edit: Couldn't help myself and added the top 50 to Mastercoin-explorer. It might be a tad slow since it's not being cached and the lookup is very inefficient but it works for now.

Haha beat me to it Tachikoma   I wanted to ask if the guys doing the order book would publish the chart (howto) so I can have a live update here - at the moment it's just a static image placeholder (the rest of the data is dynamic though).

Your solution is much more elegant! I just did simple hack until I find time to do it properly. I will be offline the rest of the weekend sadly so I will see you all on monday

[markm]

On Masterchest.info I see

OK then, what is Mastercoin?:
Mastercoin is a protocol layer that provides advanced cryptographic currency functions using the bitcoin network as a secure transport medium. A total of 619,478 Mastercoins exist - a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).
 
Sounds interesting, where can I find out more?
The best place to start would be at the official project tread on bitcointalk (linked here), this contains the most up-to-date information on Mastercoin along with links to the Wiki, coding contest and other relevant resources.

Two comments on that:

one: I thought Mastercoin was actually going to be minting more coins

two: s/tread/thread/

-MarkM-

[ASICSRUS]

re:

619,478 Mastercoins exist !- a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).
 



WOW this is awesome if its true! 

[HammerFist]

re:619,478 Mastercoins exist !- a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).

WOW this is awesome if its true! 

Not true.  Not good and not true. 

A system as big as Mastercoin is pretty hard to build well.  It's going to take tons more money than we have in the bank today to perfect everything.  There will be a 'B'-round of financing.  Oh, I know JR doesn't want to - but it will be very good for everyone when it comes time to raise that second round and press on with development vigorously.  This is going to take some serious coin. 

Probably, everyone will be asked to kick in a percentage of their holding in new cash.  Then, nobody gets diluted.  If you decide not to up your investment - then you get pushed down with a dilution.  This could be done without creating more coins.  But, it will probably be easier to just issue some new coins.  That is not a nightmare.  It is good for everyone involved to bring in additional development funds.  No big deal.  Let bitcoin keep their weird idealisms regarding a deflationary currency.  We can and should have an administration who can apply reason and method to fund the next stage.

[ASICSRUS]

re:619,478 Mastercoins exist !- a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).

WOW this is awesome if its true!  

Not true.  Not good and not true.  

A system as big as Mastercoin is pretty hard to build well.  It's going to take tons more money than we have in the bank today to perfect everything.  There will be a 'B'-round of financing.  Oh, I know JR doesn't want to - but it will be very good for everyone when it comes time to raise that second round and press on with development vigorously.  This is going to take some serious coin.  

Probably, everyone will be asked to kick in a percentage of their holding in new cash.  Then, nobody gets diluted.  If you decide not to up your investment - then you get pushed down with a dilution.  This could be done without creating more coins.  But, it will probably be easier to just issue some new coins.  That is not a nightmare.  It is good for everyone involved to bring in additional development funds.  No big deal.  Let bitcoin keep their weird idealisms regarding a deflationary currency.  We can and should have an administration who can apply reason and method to fund the next stage.

financing for what? infrastructure or to pay developers? i can post it up Berkshire Hathaway status and get whatever but whats the on the real yo? =) thanks!

[ripper234]

I had an interesting conversation this week with Vitalik from the Bitcoin Magazine, and he suggested this cool feature:

Spending Limit

This feature would limit the rate at which a particular address can send mastercoins.

Here is how I would specify the feature: We would add two new operations SETUP_LIMITED_ACCOUNT and SET_LIMIT.

SETUP_LIMITED_ACCOUNT(priv_key_x, pub_key_y)

This operation would designate address Y as the "limiting address" of address X.
This means the owner of address Y can control the spending limits of address X.

SET_LIMIT(priv_key_y, pub_key_x, currency_ID, limit, time_period)

After a SET_LIMIT operation is transmitted (by the owner of address Y), only if there was a prior matching SETUP_LIMITED_ACCOUNT with Y's public key, then from now on outgoing transactions from address X in the specified currency are limited - for any window of blocks with length time_period, if any send operation would cause the sum of all send operations from address X within this window to cross limit, this send operation would be invalid.

The reason to use two different addresses is that we want to prevent an attacker that gained the private key of X to cheat the system by changing the send limit. You would use a more secure address Y to specify a send limit on address X (just like the Saving Account feature uses a Guardian Address (Y)).


The above is just my initial specification, we can beautify and formalize this a bit more.
I think it's a useful easy to implement feature and would love to see it in an upcoming version of the whitepaper.

Vitalik suggested another implementation. I've started a dedicated thread to discuss this feature.

[zathras]

re:619,478 Mastercoins exist !- a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).

WOW this is awesome if its true! 

Not true.  Not good and not true. 

A system as big as Mastercoin is pretty hard to build well.  It's going to take tons more money than we have in the bank today to perfect everything.  There will be a 'B'-round of financing.  Oh, I know JR doesn't want to - but it will be very good for everyone when it comes time to raise that second round and press on with development vigorously.  This is going to take some serious coin. 

Probably, everyone will be asked to kick in a percentage of their holding in new cash.  Then, nobody gets diluted.  If you decide not to up your investment - then you get pushed down with a dilution.  This could be done without creating more coins.  But, it will probably be easier to just issue some new coins.  That is not a nightmare.  It is good for everyone involved to bring in additional development funds.  No big deal.  Let bitcoin keep their weird idealisms regarding a deflationary currency.  We can and should have an administration who can apply reason and method to fund the next stage.

If I am remembering correctly, there is a coin generation method designed into the protocol that makes 1 extra MSC for every 10 MSC created in the original funding. These "extra" mastercoins are released to the exodus address over a period of time and will be used for future funding. This is calculated into the unit total of 620kish MSC, I believe. I've seen this pop up a few times. J.R., could you confirm/clarify this and post the link to where it is explained?

Exactly 619478.59338440 MSC were created and no more will ever be created.  That's not going to change, just as Bitcoin's 21 million is not going to change.

This total is broken down into 563,162.35762218 MSC held in user balances and 56,316.23576222 MSC created as reward Mastercoins.  The Exodus address can spend these reward Mastercoins at a specific rate defined in the spec, though support for this is not yet included in the various dev implementations.

two: s/tread/thread/

-MarkM-

Fixed.

Thanks guys!

[vokain]

This total is broken down into 563,162.35762218 MSC held in user balances and 56,316.23576222 MSC created as reward Mastercoins.  The Exodus address can spend these reward Mastercoins at a specific rate defined in the spec, though support for this is not yet included in the various dev implementations.

I think i misunderstood what this meant when originally explained during funding. So those early adopter reward Mastercoins are not yet accessible to those who own them, but will be released over a period of time?

This is in reference to the reward MSC for further development, not to the early-adopters' MSC. This set of reward MSC is not accessible simply because that part of the protocol that rewards MSC has not been implemented yet. I hope it is soon. It'll probably work the same way as to how the bonus early-adopter MSC for sending coins to 1exodus early worked, in that coins will be rewarded continuously based on the algorithm (reward % vested=1-(0.5^y)) rather than at arbitrarily set intervals of time (ie every day/week/etc).

Also, the MSCs will be owned by 1Exodus and whoever has control of it, and they will be used in the same manner the rest of the 1exodus fund has been used (ie proposal to board, board approval, transact & post to open ledger) for the benefit of the Mastercoin protocol.

edit:clarity

[zathras]

This total is broken down into 563,162.35762218 MSC held in user balances and 56,316.23576222 MSC created as reward Mastercoins.  The Exodus address can spend these reward Mastercoins at a specific rate defined in the spec, though support for this is not yet included in the various dev implementations.

I think i misunderstood what this meant when originally explained during funding. So those early adopter reward Mastercoins are not yet accessible to those who own them, but will be released over a period of time?

Just a quick clarification here - they're not 'early adopter' reward Mastercoins - they're to reward/fund developers working on the project and can only be spent by the Mastercoin Foundation.  

All 'early adopter' bonuses are already factored into user balances

The reward fund (and sending MSC from the Exodus address in general) have some extra complexities and fringe cases to code for and JR is (rightly so IMO) choosing to focus on other areas where the features & development effort have benefit for the whole community (not just the developers).

EDIT: Must have missed your post while typing - nail on the head Vokain

[vokain]

Okay, so I had it right the first time. Thanks for clarifying guys. Basically, Mastercoin will be self funding and these "when the 4500btc run out" discussions are null and void.

I think the opportunity is there to undertake a huge huge project when we come upon it, whatever that may be. With the way we've been spending coins, coupled with Bitcoin's (and Mastercoin's!) rate of appreciation, who knows, Bitcoin might surpass our ability to spend!

[TKeenan]

Exactly 619478.59338440 MSC were created and no more will ever be created.

When asked about it, I think Willet replied: "...well, I don't want to say 'never'"

What if you had the choice: the projects dies for lack of development resources - or - 10% dilution for all participants to reach a spectacular success? 

I'd take choice #2.

Never say never.  Or 'ever'.   

[td services]

I share your posts here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UbiCrypt/

You got a FB page?

Maybe we could setup a fan/group in FB only for Mastercoin (if it doesn't already exists)!

Please do not move discussion to Facebook. Facebook tracks user IP addresses across the internet, is a proprietary platform requiring registration with real names, and it has been compromised by the NSA.

[NewLiberty]

re:619,478 Mastercoins exist !- a fixed cap (no new Mastercoins will ever be created).

WOW this is awesome if its true!  

Not true.  Not good and not true.  

A system as big as Mastercoin is pretty hard to build well.  It's going to take tons more money than we have in the bank today to perfect everything.  There will be a 'B'-round of financing.  Oh, I know JR doesn't want to - but it will be very good for everyone when it comes time to raise that second round and press on with development vigorously.  This is going to take some serious coin.  

Probably, everyone will be asked to kick in a percentage of their holding in new cash.  Then, nobody gets diluted.  If you decide not to up your investment - then you get pushed down with a dilution.  This could be done without creating more coins.  But, it will probably be easier to just issue some new coins.  That is not a nightmare.  It is good for everyone involved to bring in additional development funds.  No big deal.  Let bitcoin keep their weird idealisms regarding a deflationary currency.  We can and should have an administration who can apply reason and method to fund the next stage.

If everyone kicked in a percentage of their mastercoin, which was then sold to fund development, it amounts to about the same thing.
Either way it is like a tax or on current holders, dilution to fund growth is like inflation, it hits everyone.  The largest holders are hit most (maybe why JR is resistant to the idea?).  Whether the value goes up from there depends entirely on how the funds are used.

Alternatively, since the development fund is bitcoin, it has increased in value as I'd predicted (here) your development fund will grow (and it has) by virtue of bitcoin price appreciation.

And so I am somewhat skeptical that taxes, or B round, are as necessary as you assume.  It may only require a moderation of development speed expectations.

[TKeenan]

  a moderation of development speed expectations.

This was the death of ColoredCoins.

[NewLiberty]

  a moderation of development speed expectations.

This was the death of ColoredCoins.

Avoid excessive moderation.  Only moderate moderation. 

[CryptCard]

If someone is interested:
The domain MasterCoin.BIZ is for SALE
Checkout the auction topic: [Domain] MasterCoin.BIZ for SALE

[killerstorm]

  a moderation of development speed expectations.

This was the death of ColoredCoins.

Colored coins are not dead, they just smell funny.

I've implemented a new client from scratch in last three weeks or so. It's not complete yet, but already can issue, send and receive colored coins.

You might ask why it wasn't done before... Well, a lot of time was spent on design and decision making. We already had several half-assed clients, so we needed to make a proper one this time.

We simply did not know how to implement it in a modular and flexible way, so if we tried to standardize what we had back then, we'd end up with one shitty kind of colored coins.

But now we have a modular architecture which allows multiple coloring schemes to co-exist, so if we'll develop a better one we can just add it to existing infrastructure.