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

[solex]

...
1) It's not market manipulation, it's a stock buy-back over a long period of time, with complete transparency
2) It doesn't make MSC more centralized, because we'll be giving this money away in bounties rather quickly

Thanks!

Makes absolute sense.

[rbdrbd]

[...]

With all due respect Bounty's work very well, but it comes as an afterthought to full time employment. Bounties foster competition and it is good for getting to see what potential candidates for a project are made of. How how about in a situation where we already know the skill and ability of said developers? Bounties in these cases become counter-intuitive because the ability of the skilled developer to produce quality work is not based on actual skill, but on actual time he can afford to give after his first priority which is the other job that puts food on the table. We seen several instances when tachikoma had to sleep and go to work.

The long term hiring works way way better for developers who we already know have the desired skill, competence and drive from a track record.  It would mean that Mastercoin is priority for developers and they already love working on mastercoin why not enable them to give their all to mastercoin? We have several of these guys from the previous bounties and I think it best to do everything to "poach" them while we can. Don't forget there are competitors and this is also a race to the top of who can achieve a network effect for success. Not only do we want to achieve a network effect, but increase the switching costs by having such rich and intuitive system that makes it hard for users of mastercoin to find any other comparable platform. And what we need right now is to  get the  devs to focus full time on developing essential mastercoin features than to worry about two things at once.   : "Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

what does everybody else think?

I think thats a well made, and considered post.
A fixed and agreed monthly/weekly wage for a given contracted dev, should not really be a problem for an organization serious about developing the benefits and claims, made for Mastercoin. Managing it is a challenge, granted, but a necessary step-up in operations to achieve current goals and expectations, i would have thought.

Fully understand the leap of faith felt, jumping out of the ability to provide for commitments consistently, into something not so known and reliable, but thats what its going to take.

Thank you Ola, this is a great post.

When you get down to it, most people are risk adverse. This includes 90% of the developers I've employed over the last 8 years. That's why they get a job with me, instead of starting their own business.

As others have mentioned, if you are employing developers, instead of entrepreneurs (which usually look for a different kind of payout with higher risk, but potentially higher reward), then a steady paycheck in fiat or possibly even BTC will do wonders. Bounty money is so nebulous and unreliable in comparison for someone that has kids and a mortgage, as zathras and Tachikoma have brought up earlier. It's great it got the project this far, but you guys may want to consider a slightly different approach moving forward as this thing gains steam.

As far as the dev team, here's my two cents:
* Start with two full time devs, then look at moving to 4 as things settle in and it makes sense (i.e. scale up once you have the basic structure and workflow in place)
* One of the devs is given the team lead role
* Pay devs in fiat/BTC, as 1099 contractors if possible (check the IRS checklist on this)
* Utilize Scrum development practices
* Sign up for sprint.ly and use that to manage your development process / product backlog...integrates directly into github, awesome interface & product (Pivotal tracker is another one -- Trello is a good tool, but not well suited for this at all...)
* Ron/JR possibly share the Scrum "product owner" role, and put items on the backlog for the devs to work off of
* Backlog and burndown chart are public, and the community can vote/influence the items on the backlog
* Bounties, etc still exist for non-core-team devs, who can run independently with their own efforts

If you do it this way, and your devs are of high enough skill, you don't need a dedicated PM role. I find that role not very useful with small, talented dev teams (your team lead will be half dev, half PM/interface anyhow).

I would still *strongly* consider at least one of these devs working on the "mastercoind" concept I outlined earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3666117#msg3666117) for the reasons I listed earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3667049#msg3667049). It just makes sense and will move this project along SO much quicker, especially in regards to enabling non-core devs to build products and tools around mastercoin....I mean, just think of what bitcoin would be like without bitcoind???

And...this probably goes without saying, but don't get too glib that Mastercoin will maintain this current front-runner position. That's the classic downfall of every front-runner...complacency. A healthy dose of paranoia is always good

[dacoinminster]

[...]

With all due respect Bounty's work very well, but it comes as an afterthought to full time employment. Bounties foster competition and it is good for getting to see what potential candidates for a project are made of. How how about in a situation where we already know the skill and ability of said developers? Bounties in these cases become counter-intuitive because the ability of the skilled developer to produce quality work is not based on actual skill, but on actual time he can afford to give after his first priority which is the other job that puts food on the table. We seen several instances when tachikoma had to sleep and go to work.

The long term hiring works way way better for developers who we already know have the desired skill, competence and drive from a track record.  It would mean that Mastercoin is priority for developers and they already love working on mastercoin why not enable them to give their all to mastercoin? We have several of these guys from the previous bounties and I think it best to do everything to "poach" them while we can. Don't forget there are competitors and this is also a race to the top of who can achieve a network effect for success. Not only do we want to achieve a network effect, but increase the switching costs by having such rich and intuitive system that makes it hard for users of mastercoin to find any other comparable platform. And what we need right now is to  get the  devs to focus full time on developing essential mastercoin features than to worry about two things at once.   : "Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

what does everybody else think?

I think thats a well made, and considered post.
A fixed and agreed monthly/weekly wage for a given contracted dev, should not really be a problem for an organization serious about developing the benefits and claims, made for Mastercoin. Managing it is a challenge, granted, but a necessary step-up in operations to achieve current goals and expectations, i would have thought.

Fully understand the leap of faith felt, jumping out of the ability to provide for commitments consistently, into something not so known and reliable, but thats what its going to take.

Thank you Ola, this is a great post.

When you get down to it, most people are risk adverse. This includes 90% of the developers I've employed over the last 8 years. That's why they get a job with me, instead of starting their own business.

If you are employing developers, instead of entrepreneurs (which usually look for a different kind of payout with higher risk, but potentially higher reward), then a steady paycheck in fiat or possibly even BTC will do wonders. Bounty money is so nebulous and unreliable in comparison for someone that has kids and a mortgage, as zathras and Tachikoma have brought up earlier. It's great it got the project this far, but you guys may want to consider a slightly different approach moving forward as this thing gains steam.

As far as the dev team, here's my two cents:
* Start with two or three full time devs, then look at moving to 4 if it makes sense
* One of the devs is given the team lead role
* Pay devs in fiat/BTC, as 1099 contractors if possible (check the IRS checklist on this)
* Utilize Scrum development practices
* Sign up for sprit.ly and use that to manage your development process / product backlog (Pivotal tracker is another one -- Trello is a good tool, but not well suited for this at all...)
* Ron/JR possibly share the Scrum "product owner" role, and put items on the backlog for the devs to work off of
* Backlog and burndown chart are public, and the community can vote/influence the items on the backlog
* Bounties, etc still exist for non-core-team devs, who can run independently with their own efforts

If you do it this way, and your devs are of high enough skill, you don't need a dedicated PM role. I find that role not very useful with small, talented dev teams (your team lead will be half dev, half PM/interface anyhow).

I would still *strongly* consider at least one of these devs working on the "mastercoind" concept I outlined earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3666117#msg3666117) for the reasons I listed earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3667049#msg3667049). It just makes sense and will move this project along SO much quicker, especially in regards to enabling non-core devs to build products and tools around mastercoin....I mean, just think of what bitcoin would be like without bitcoind???

And...this probably goes without saying, but don't get too glib that Mastercoin will maintain this current front-runner position. That's the classic downfall of every front-runner...complacency. A healthy dose of paranoia is always good

No kidding. I'm always telling the board how worried I am that we will screw this up somehow. We've got competitors, detractors, and a lot of work ahead of us. Complacency = death!

[Ola]

[...]

With all due respect Bounty's work very well, but it comes as an afterthought to full time employment. Bounties foster competition and it is good for getting to see what potential candidates for a project are made of. How how about in a situation where we already know the skill and ability of said developers? Bounties in these cases become counter-intuitive because the ability of the skilled developer to produce quality work is not based on actual skill, but on actual time he can afford to give after his first priority which is the other job that puts food on the table. We seen several instances when tachikoma had to sleep and go to work.

The long term hiring works way way better for developers who we already know have the desired skill, competence and drive from a track record.  It would mean that Mastercoin is priority for developers and they already love working on mastercoin why not enable them to give their all to mastercoin? We have several of these guys from the previous bounties and I think it best to do everything to "poach" them while we can. Don't forget there are competitors and this is also a race to the top of who can achieve a network effect for success. Not only do we want to achieve a network effect, but increase the switching costs by having such rich and intuitive system that makes it hard for users of mastercoin to find any other comparable platform. And what we need right now is to  get the  devs to focus full time on developing essential mastercoin features than to worry about two things at once.   : "Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."

what does everybody else think?

I think thats a well made, and considered post.
A fixed and agreed monthly/weekly wage for a given contracted dev, should not really be a problem for an organization serious about developing the benefits and claims, made for Mastercoin. Managing it is a challenge, granted, but a necessary step-up in operations to achieve current goals and expectations, i would have thought.

Fully understand the leap of faith felt, jumping out of the ability to provide for commitments consistently, into something not so known and reliable, but thats what its going to take.

Thank you Ola, this is a great post.

When you get down to it, most people are risk adverse. This includes 90% of the developers I've employed over the last 8 years. That's why they get a job with me, instead of starting their own business.

If you are employing developers, instead of entrepreneurs (which usually look for a different kind of payout with higher risk, but potentially higher reward), then a steady paycheck in fiat or possibly even BTC will do wonders. Bounty money is so nebulous and unreliable in comparison for someone that has kids and a mortgage, as zathras and Tachikoma have brought up earlier. It's great it got the project this far, but you guys may want to consider a slightly different approach moving forward as this thing gains steam.

As far as the dev team, here's my two cents:
* Start with two or three full time devs, then look at moving to 4 if it makes sense
* One of the devs is given the team lead role
* Pay devs in fiat/BTC, as 1099 contractors if possible (check the IRS checklist on this)
* Utilize Scrum development practices
* Sign up for sprit.ly and use that to manage your development process / product backlog (Pivotal tracker is another one -- Trello is a good tool, but not well suited for this at all...)
* Ron/JR possibly share the Scrum "product owner" role, and put items on the backlog for the devs to work off of
* Backlog and burndown chart are public, and the community can vote/influence the items on the backlog
* Bounties, etc still exist for non-core-team devs, who can run independently with their own efforts

If you do it this way, and your devs are of high enough skill, you don't need a dedicated PM role. I find that role not very useful with small, talented dev teams (your team lead will be half dev, half PM/interface anyhow).

I would still *strongly* consider at least one of these devs working on the "mastercoind" concept I outlined earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3666117#msg3666117) for the reasons I listed earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3667049#msg3667049). It just makes sense and will move this project along SO much quicker, especially in regards to enabling non-core devs to build products and tools around mastercoin....I mean, just think of what bitcoin would be like without bitcoind???

And...this probably goes without saying, but don't get too glib that Mastercoin will maintain this current front-runner position. That's the classic downfall of every front-runner...complacency. A healthy dose of paranoia is always good

No kidding. I'm always telling the board how worried I am that we will screw this up somehow. We've got competitors, detractors, and a lot of work ahead of us. Complacency = death!

+1000 rbdrbd This is a very implementable logistic to improve productivity in no time I absolutely agree with you...and JR you have spoken like a true strategist..I think this is an urgent matter and people reading this thread should vote to make this happen as soon as possible. I don't know if this is already in the works or not. But put up a + and or echo this if you feel this needs to be approved asap. 

[ripper234]

Hi all,

I know a lot has been going on in the last few days, I am still processing my email backlog.
In the meantime I just want to post the meeting notes from our last board meeting this week.

Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

[W2014]

How about posting some of the jobs/bounties on some of the websites in this link?

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/looking-to-work-and-get-paid-in-bitcoin-here-are-six-websites-that-can-help-you/

I noticed several jobs developing for Ripple Labs, Inc. and Coinbase at Coinality:

http://coinality.com/

https://coinality.com/jobs/

[W2014]

In a perfect world, I would happily devote more time to Mastercoin, I've lived and breathed it pretty much whenever I'm not working my day job & am of course 100% behind it - there is however an issue I haven't seen discussed which for me at least is significant.

There are real-world financial burdens (mortgage, bills etc) that have to be paid.  My full time earnings are in fiat - and that's a critical factor.  Cryptocurrencies are still a very new and volatile way of transferring monetary value (for example I had a fairly substantial bitcoin transaction earlier this week that was worth significantly less to the recipient in the time it took to confirm it in 6 blocks).  Consider if you will, being paid in bitcoin & mastercoin only for the next {x months/years}.  The ups and downs of these values will determine the amount of fiat you would have that month to pay the bills.  It could be fantastic and you become very wealthy.  It could also end in tears if a crash in value restricts your ability to pay said bills.  My number one priority over anything else will always be providing for my family (and stably).  

The foundation I'm sure would look at adjusting payments along with market values but just as volatility affects conversion to fiat, so does it affect the resources of the foundation.  A crash in bitcoin value is also a crash in foundation resources.  For the sake of debate, what happens if bitcoin for example crashes to $50?  How would the foundation cover it's payments to its hires?  I think that's an unlikely scenario, but unlikely enough to put 100% of your income on is the question.  My apologies if this comes across as negativity that's not my intention at all - I'm simply considering (out loud) the potential risks.

Mastercoin is a project I thoroughly support and believe is going to be something that really starts to attract 'big money' (corporate) to cryptocurrencies.  I currently spend as much time developing as I can, but I have a full time job which takes up the lion's share of my time.  I still do endeavor to be responsive to any issues with any of my Masterchest software.

As they say 'never close a door' & I'm not ruling anything out, but as nice (I'm guilty too) as it is to get swept up in the incredible growth in just our first few short months when it comes to things like employment and where your income comes from (and how reliable that income is) a longer term perspective is needed.

Thanks

Note, I'd be happy to read any info anyone can provide on a precedent for full-time work paid in cryptocurrencies.

EDIT: for clarity

The Mastercoin Foundation has 4,500 BTC. At the current market rate that's almost $4 million dollars. The Foundation could sell some BTCs and pay guaranteed, decent (but not outrageous) salaries in fiat currency on long term contracts for select lead developers. As a bonus, MSCs could be rewarded according to amount of time employed or milestones achieved for potential massive upside and motivation of the developers.

[hmmmstrange]

Trace Mayer gave a shout out to mastercoin yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TZwmgeeFB-E#t=2300

[FTWbitcoinFTW]

I never see a start-up buyback shares 2 month after "IPO"...
I dont think it's a good idea to spend all bitcoins now at this early stage of the "bubble"
Also we need to interest new brains in to the  MSC project.
BTC it's a better incentive for now
If some bounty winner want some MSC, they just can buy it at market price, like everyone
My 2 µMSC

[ninjaboon]

I never see a start-up buyback shares 2 month after "IPO"...
I dont think it's a good idea to spend all bitcoins now at this early stage of the "bubble"
Also we need to interest new brains in MSC projet.
BTC it's a better incentive for now
If some bounty winner want some MSC, they just can buy it at market price, like everyone
My 2 µMSC

do you mean: introduce new brains to the MSC project.

[ninjaboon]

Trace Mayer gave a shout out to mastercoin yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TZwmgeeFB-E#t=2300

great. will post on my FB page. thanks.

[FTWbitcoinFTW]

I never see a start-up buyback shares 2 month after "IPO"...
I dont think it's a good idea to spend all bitcoins now at this early stage of the "bubble"
Also we need to interest new brains in MSC projet.
BTC it's a better incentive for now
If some bounty winner want some MSC, they just can buy it at market price, like everyone
My 2 µMSC

do you mean: introduce new brains to the MSC project.

Yes indeed !
thanks

[Luckybit]

Let me get this straight, JR won't quit his job unless he's worth $100M,  . After btc rally last week I guess many of us here are already millionaires, real jobs are getting less and less relevant, we should be doing this for passion.

My wife doesn't care one fig about internet money which isn't in our bank account. That's the real hurdle. The other half of the problem is I don't want to sell MSC at today's prices.

I think I have found the ideal solution though, which I just posted in David's thread about project money this morning:

I think perhaps it is time to convert more of our BTC to MSC. I'd rather have MSC in a rainy day fund than BTC anyway. As you say, giving away BTC attacts people more interested in BTC, and I'd rather the foundation hold MSC than BTC.

Here's my crazy proposal:

1) Keep only the 1000 BTC we've already moved into offline wallets
2) Use the remainder of our BTC to purchase MSC over the next few months on the distributed exchange
3) Pay all future bounties exclusively in MSC
4) Keep half of our MSC money for a rainy day and/or future distributed bounty system
5) If our rainy day fund becomes excessive, we can always vote to lower the ratio later

I realize that this would potentially make all of our existing investors absurdly wealthy, but, well, the stated purpose of the Mastercoin Foundation is to serve the holders of Mastercoins, and I'm having a hard time seeing this course of action as anything but a huge positive for them, as long as we do it transparently and over a long enough period of time that nobody who wants to sell to us is left out.

Also, MSC prices would probably go up to the point where I'd sell 1% and quit my job to work on MSC, which I hope would also be in the best interests of our investors.

If you guys think that's a good idea, please go there and help me convince the board that:


1) It's not market manipulation, it's a stock buy-back over a long period of time, with complete transparency
2) It doesn't make MSC more centralized, because we'll be giving this money away in bounties rather quickly

Thanks!

Interesting plan to ponder upon...  I think this would have a much greater effect if there were ways for new money to get into MSC after the buyback process is over. Demand for MSC has to stay high. One mistake I think we shouldn't make is the mistake Bitcoin is making where people believe you can only buy 1 whole BTC at a time. MSC should be priced in such a way that people are most accustomed to buying fractions.

So what is the lowest unit of an MSC going to be called? We should give that lowest unit a name and price all Mastercoins in those units on all exchanges which follow the standard. The lowest unit for Bitcoin is a satoshi but the Bitcoin exchanges are making a huge mistake by pricing everything like 1.0 -> 0.0000001 when they should just say it's 100,000,000 satoshi. So if a whole Mastercoin is 100,000,000 units then we need to be selling in the hundreds of millions of units of Mastercoin for psychological purposes.

That is my suggestion and I hope people understand the importance this change could have.

[ripper234]

I still haven't had time to process everything, but wanted to give you another update:

The URL budget.mastercoin.org now redirects to the Google Spreadsheet where we manage our funds.

This will be replaced (hopefully sooner than later) by the new Budget Website. FYI the budget website will eventually be useful to any Decentralized Application running on top of Mastercoin to manage its funds, not just to us.

The new budget.mastercoin.org URL will take place shortly (DNS records need a bit of time to propagate).

[Luckybit]

Let me get this straight, JR won't quit his job unless he's worth $100M,  . After btc rally last week I guess many of us here are already millionaires, real jobs are getting less and less relevant, we should be doing this for passion.

Yeah right man lol. I wish I were one of these millionaires. I'm sure some people here have 1000 Bitcoins and good on them if they do. When 100 Mastercoins are worth 1000 Bitcoins a Mastercoin will be at 10:1 to the Bitcoin and even then I don't think most people would sell their Mastercoins.

Mastercoins are worth millions each and to sell them now would be in the most simple terms excruciatingly stupid.

[prophetx]

Let me get this straight, JR won't quit his job unless he's worth $100M,  . After btc rally last week I guess many of us here are already millionaires, real jobs are getting less and less relevant, we should be doing this for passion.

Yeah right man lol. I wish I were one of these millionaires. I'm sure some people here have 1000 Bitcoins and good on them if they do. When 100 Mastercoins are worth 1000 Bitcoins a Mastercoin will be at 10:1 to the Bitcoin and even then I don't think most people would sell their Mastercoins.

Mastercoins are worth millions each and to sell them now would be in the most simple terms excruciatingly stupid.

If you all need something to put that passion to work, head over to the Documentation Trello board

https://trello.com/b/5lolIlqc/documentation-contest-1

[ripper234]

ripper234 will this be a no brainer if at least 10 people echo this? I hope to everything we believe in Tachikoma does not think otherwise.

We do have such plans ourselves. David is forming a more detailed plan, and J.R is reaching out to all the developers to determine their availability and focus.

I fully agree that we should be able to fund development in a more orderly fashion.

I personally think this should be higher on our priorities than standardizing the way Dev MSCs are spent.
The former is a specific task - hire a few developers.
The latter is a higher order problem, and I would take some convincing before I'm satisfied with a solution there.

David & J.R - to your attention.

[ripper234]

Warning - long post ahead.

I was wondering if/how/when it would be possible to implement a currency on a private website. Something like "Gold", which can be transferred between users of the site as well as outside, is safe, and leaves no worries for the developers. Can MSC do this yet?

The spec supports it via Smart Property.
None of the existing tools or libraries have implemented it yet though.

This feature lead for this is Taariq Lewis (you can find him on bitcointalk), feel free to discuss your specific needs with him.

Great presentation Ron. Well articulated my friend. I'll post the recording once it is uploaded.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cosfuleudovf9bbitllefb93874

I enjoyed it as well. I was a bit sad though that none of the slides mentioned anything developed by me or the other developers. We all worked very hard to make Mastercoin more then an idea, to create something tangible. People who watched the presentation might have the idea that there is nothing yet.

Sorry Tachikoma and everyone, my sincere apologies

I has 1.5 days to build it (while doing a million other things), and you're right that a slide or a few showing the various existing tools would have been most appropriate. I'll definitely include it the next time I give a talk about Mastercoin.

Well then if takichoma wants an awesome offer, give takichoma an awesome offer ! we really need people like him working on this full time

+1

David and J.R. - I'm counting on you for this!
David in particular has WAY more experience than me ... I am not ashamed to admit that I never hired anyone in my life. I'm super thrilled to have been offered the role of Executive Director, but I rely on David to give Takichoma and others terrific "can't refuse" offers.

I vote for 4 dedicated developers with a project manager or scrum master-like entity to get this organized into a focused effort and interface between the devs and yourself, while you focus your efforts on overall strategy  and this is very important. Maybe you too should consider taking up a similar offer to work on this full time too?...This type of minimal business organization will definitely increase the efficiency of the full time staff several multitudes over. Also I think the main developers should get the awesome offers they are asking for...that is how you get awesome talent to leave and join new companies and we definitely want the best...what happens if tachikoma and others gets a promotion at his job with more responsibilities?

+1 here.
FYI we have a standing job offer for a Project Manager for some time now.
I would like this PM to coordinate Dev work, and publish a "daily status" blog post on a dedicated statusblog.mastercoin.org blog.

There are real-world financial burdens (mortgage, bills etc) that have to be paid.  My full time earnings are in fiat - and that's a critical factor.

We can pay you in MSC, BTC, USD, "MSC-based USD", or whatever you prefer (FYI we recently acquired a bank account that can hold good old-fashioned paper dollars). You can choose your preferred means of payment depending on your needs and risk aversion (note that we will pay under market salary because we assume you hold or get paid in MSC).

Would the Mastercoin Foundation be willing to pay developers in fiat?

Yes, see above.

Let me get this straight, JR won't quit his job unless he's worth $100M,  . After btc rally last week I guess many of us here are already millionaires, real jobs are getting less and less relevant, we should be doing this for passion.

Yeah. Everybody can set their own financial goals and preferences. We want people to be in this for the passion, while also having their desired level of comfort and financial stability. The end result - the sum of money (in whatever currency) we award should always be less than market value e.g. as a contractor, and for some people that might not be suitable - and that's perfectly fine.

I want everyone working on this project to know they are getting paid a nice (although not Google/Facebook style) salaries, while having the option to stock up on MSC and becomes true owners of their creation.

Let me get this straight, JR won't quit his job unless he's worth $100M,  . After btc rally last week I guess many of us here are already millionaires, real jobs are getting less and less relevant, we should be doing this for passion.

My wife doesn't care one fig about internet money which isn't in our bank account. That's the real hurdle. The other half of the problem is I don't want to sell MSC at today's prices.

I think I have found the ideal solution though, which I just posted in David's thread about project money this morning:

I think perhaps it is time to convert more of our BTC to MSC. I'd rather have MSC in a rainy day fund than BTC anyway. As you say, giving away BTC attacts people more interested in BTC, and I'd rather the foundation hold MSC than BTC.

Here's my crazy proposal:

1) Keep only the 1000 BTC we've already moved into offline wallets
2) Use the remainder of our BTC to purchase MSC over the next few months on the distributed exchange
3) Pay all future bounties exclusively in MSC
4) Keep half of our MSC money for a rainy day and/or future distributed bounty system
5) If our rainy day fund becomes excessive, we can always vote to lower the ratio later

I realize that this would potentially make all of our existing investors absurdly wealthy, but, well, the stated purpose of the Mastercoin Foundation is to serve the holders of Mastercoins, and I'm having a hard time seeing this course of action as anything but a huge positive for them, as long as we do it transparently and over a long enough period of time that nobody who wants to sell to us is left out.

Also, MSC prices would probably go up to the point where I'd sell 1% and quit my job to work on MSC, which I hope would also be in the best interests of our investors.

If you guys think that's a good idea, please go there and help me convince the board that:


1) It's not market manipulation, it's a stock buy-back over a long period of time, with complete transparency
2) It doesn't make MSC more centralized, because we'll be giving this money away in bounties rather quickly

Thanks!

I don't think this is right (see my reply there).

1. You can always choose to convert BTC/MSC into fiat or realestate. It is your choice that is holding back your full time Mastercoin dedication, nothing more. Note I am not passing judgement here.
2. I think your cryptocurrency risk profile is insane, and that you should liquidate that 1% of your MSC quite early, and work on liquidating some crypto to other assets for stability (what if some Quantum Computer steals all of our crypto?)
3. I would very much love for you to get more involved with the project, but I wouldn't use that as an excuse to do what I believe would be a risky financial decision on our part (converting a lot of BTC to MSC). Certainly this would have to be discussed, rediscussed, and reviewed by financial professional / risk analyzers before I would feel comfortable with this plan. I would hope that you decide to follow #1 and #2 above sooner than that, but it's your personal decision to make.

I would still *strongly* consider at least one of these devs working on the "mastercoind" concept I outlined earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3666117#msg3666117) for the reasons I listed earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3667049#msg3667049). It just makes sense and will move this project along SO much quicker, especially in regards to enabling non-core devs to build products and tools around mastercoin....I mean, just think of what bitcoin would be like without bitcoind???

And...this probably goes without saying, but don't get too glib that Mastercoin will maintain this current front-runner position. That's the classic downfall of every front-runner...complacency. A healthy dose of paranoia is always good

Indeed. I am constantly looking for ways to speed up.
The mastercoind proposal might be a solid one, but I'm not the one developing this, I think a discussion among the current developers would be useful to decide whether and how much to push this. Can you start a dedicated thread and send it to info@mastercoin.org ?

How about posting some of the jobs/bounties on some of the websites in this link?

http://bitcoinexaminer.org/looking-to-work-and-get-paid-in-bitcoin-here-are-six-websites-that-can-help-you/

I noticed several jobs developing for Ripple Labs, Inc. and Coinbase at Coinality:

http://coinality.com/

https://coinality.com/jobs/

Can you help us by doing this yourself?

I will email our PR company directly and ask them whether they can help advertising our specific jobs / bounties and not just the project in general.

[rbdrbd]

I would still *strongly* consider at least one of these devs working on the "mastercoind" concept I outlined earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3666117#msg3666117) for the reasons I listed earlier (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3667049#msg3667049). It just makes sense and will move this project along SO much quicker, especially in regards to enabling non-core devs to build products and tools around mastercoin....I mean, just think of what bitcoin would be like without bitcoind???

And...this probably goes without saying, but don't get too glib that Mastercoin will maintain this current front-runner position. That's the classic downfall of every front-runner...complacency. A healthy dose of paranoia is always good

Indeed. I am constantly looking for ways to speed up.
The mastercoind proposal might be a solid one, but I'm not the one developing this, I think a discussion among the current developers would be useful to decide whether and how much to push this. Can you start a dedicated thread and send it to info@mastercoin.org ?

Sure thing, do you want me to send the thread text to info@mastercoin.org, or start a thread on bitcointalk and send the link to info@mastercoin.org?

[ripper234]

Sure thing, do you want me to send the thread text to info@mastercoin.org, or start a thread on bitcointalk and send the link to info@mastercoin.org?

The latter - thanks!