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

[wizzardTim]

Hi all,

I have 2 questions regarding the handling of MSC in windows, using bitcoin-qt:

1) I want to be able to send and receive MSC. My bitcoin.conf has the following:

rpcuser=XXXX
rpcpassword=XXXXXX
server=1
daemon=1
txindex=1

Can I send/receive MSC without modifying the above conf? I want the above conf due to counterparty. If I change the txindex then the whole blockchain will download again.


2) What steps are needed to be able to send/receive MSC? I mean I'd like a simple how to (eg wallet setup).


Thanks in advance

[killerstorm]

Can I send/receive MSC without modifying the above conf? I want the above conf due to counterparty.

I don't think there are any special requirements for bitcoin.conf. txindex merely allows one to get transactions by their hash, it cannot be harmful in any way. (Well, aside from eating some space on your disk and making processing a bit slower.)

If I change the txindex then the whole blockchain will download again.

No, it reindexes blockchain you already have on disk... Which takes time, yes.

[BitThink]

Hi all,

I have 2 questions regarding the handling of MSC in windows, using bitcoin-qt:

1) I want to be able to send and receive MSC. My bitcoin.conf has the following:

rpcuser=XXXX
rpcpassword=XXXXXX
server=1
daemon=1
txindex=1

Can I send/receive MSC without modifying the above conf? I want the above conf due to counterparty. If I change the txindex then the whole blockchain will download again.


2) What steps are needed to be able to send/receive MSC? I mean I'd like a simple how to (eg wallet setup).


Thanks in advance

To receive MSC, you just need to ensure you have the private key of the address. To send MSC, you need to download specific software (Jr's MSc advisor?) and better test on test net first.

[wizzardTim]

Hi all,

I have 2 questions regarding the handling of MSC in windows, using bitcoin-qt:

1) I want to be able to send and receive MSC. My bitcoin.conf has the following:

rpcuser=XXXX
rpcpassword=XXXXXX
server=1
daemon=1
txindex=1

Can I send/receive MSC without modifying the above conf? I want the above conf due to counterparty. If I change the txindex then the whole blockchain will download again.


2) What steps are needed to be able to send/receive MSC? I mean I'd like a simple how to (eg wallet setup).


Thanks in advance

To receive MSC, you just need to ensure you have the private key of the address. To send MSC, you need to download specific software (Jr's MSc advisor?) and better test on test net first.

thank you

[maxmint]

Just wanted to point to Ethereum, self titled "Next-Generation Generalized Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform".
Vitalik Buterin and Charles Hoskinson seem to be working on this. The website at http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html is down for me, but here are 2 mirrors:
http://www.tuicool.com/articles/6BnUbu
http://pastebin.com/NCGRv74u

Fundraising will be done in a Mastercoin-style way (1 'ether' ->  0.0001 BTC) and Ethereum will be running on it's own blockchain (like Protoshares).
An important part seems to be this:

Universality - it is a fundamental part of Ethereum's design philosophy that Ethereum does not have "features". Instead, Ethereum provides an internal Turing-complete scripting language which you can use to construct any smart contract or transaction type that can be mathematically defined. Want to invent your own financial derivative? With Ethereum, you can. Want to make your own currency? Set it up as an Ethereum contract. Want to set up a full-scale Daemon or Skynet? You may need to have a few thousand interlocking contracts, and be sure to feed them generously, to do that, but nothing is stopping you.

I'll be watching this closely!

[Passion_ltc]

Just wanted to point to Ethereum, self titled "Next-Generation Generalized Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform".
Vitalik Buterin and Charles Hoskinson seem to be working on this. The website at http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html is down for me, but here are 2 mirrors:
http://www.tuicool.com/articles/6BnUbu
http://pastebin.com/NCGRv74u

Fundraising will be done in a Mastercoin-style way (1 'ether' ->  0.0001 BTC) and Ethereum will be running on it's own blockchain (like Protoshares).
An important part seems to be this:

Universality - it is a fundamental part of Ethereum's design philosophy that Ethereum does not have "features". Instead, Ethereum provides an internal Turing-complete scripting language which you can use to construct any smart contract or transaction type that can be mathematically defined. Want to invent your own financial derivative? With Ethereum, you can. Want to make your own currency? Set it up as an Ethereum contract. Want to set up a full-scale Daemon or Skynet? You may need to have a few thousand interlocking contracts, and be sure to feed them generously, to do that, but nothing is stopping you.

I'll be watching this closely!

Do you know when we can buy the ethers??

[charleshoskinson]

Just wanted to point to Ethereum, self titled "Next-Generation Generalized Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform".
Vitalik Buterin and Charles Hoskinson seem to be working on this. The website at http://ethereum.org/ethereum.html is down for me, but here are 2 mirrors:
http://www.tuicool.com/articles/6BnUbu
http://pastebin.com/NCGRv74u

Fundraising will be done in a Mastercoin-style way (1 'ether' ->  0.0001 BTC) and Ethereum will be running on it's own blockchain (like Protoshares).
An important part seems to be this:

As the media seems to be picking this up, I suppose its somewhat important to get in front of the Avalanche. I am indeed working on Ethereum in a leadership and development capacity alongside Vitalik and several others. We also have collected a fairly large initial set of volunteers, developers and curious investors in this prelaunch period. In short, in terms of community our goal is to be as open and transparent as possible and also use this event as an opportunity to build the first true DAC to manage the Ethereum project. In terms of the development process, we are really focusing on having a solid architecture and a good development methodology like SCRUM that will enable us to have both a systematic process alongside more effective bounties. In terms of the protocol and its inferred ecosystem, we have four basic principles:

• Simplicity
• Universality
• Modularity
• Non-discrimination

With this model, we feel that projects like colored coins and  metacoins like mastercoin will have a much easier time building on top of Ethereum than Bitcoin. I think of your efforts like building HTTP. You need TCP/IP to have certain features to make HTTP work as promised. Similarly, Ethereum -> Colored Coins or Metacoins will work very well for your community. I look forward to the future and collaborating with you guys. Website, blog, wiki and fundraising up soon And please join us down in Miami. http://btcmiami.com/

[killerstorm]

With this model, we feel that projects like colored coins and  metacoins like mastercoin will have a much easier time building on top of Ethereum than Bitcoin.

I'm afraid you're missing the point of colored coins and mastercoin: they are supposed to extend functionality of Bitcoin.

Obviously, smart property, user currencies and decentralized exchanges can be implemented in a variety of ways, but there is a significant demand for things like this specifically from Bitcoin community: people who already own bitcoins and want to trade using bitcoins.

Decentralized exchange/smart property applications on top of Ethereum might be awesome, but it's not same thing as colored coins and matercoin.

[TraderTimm]

With this model, we feel that projects like colored coins and  metacoins like disastercoin will have a much easier time building on top of Ethereum than Bitcoin.

I'm afraid you're missing the point of colored coins and disastercoin: they are supposed to extend functionality of Bitcoin.

Obviously, smart property, user currencies and decentralized exchanges can be implemented in a variety of ways, but there is a significant demand for things like this specifically from Bitcoin community: people who already own bitcoins and want to trade using bitcoins.

Decentralized exchange/smart property applications on top of Ethereum might be awesome, but it's not same thing as colored coins and matercoin.

Yes, any alternate option of starting their own blockchain is avoided - because it would undermine their co-opting of Bitcoin's hash-power. That's the key, using other people's resources instead of having an opt-in system. You know, just like the existing financial system does. Combining that with their escrow "peg" that should just "work", it seems that the only thing they're replicating is legacy centralization tendencies found in fiat systems.

But of course, they don't see it that way, all that hashing-power is for their use! No "ifs", "ands" or "buts"! Heresy to anyone suggesting otherwise!

The cat is out of the bag, and these guys don't understand that there are better funded players nipping at their heels that don't pull the dirty tricks they are to get the functionality needed. Should be fun to watch the deployment, It'll answer the question "What if we built something and got lapped by someone else?".

[killerstorm]

Yes, any alternate option of starting their own blockchain is avoided - because it would undermine their co-opting of Bitcoin's hash-power.

It's not about hash-power, it's not that hard to make a merged-mined alt-chain which will have almost as much hash-power as Bitcoin itself.

J. R. Willett explicitly mentioned that it is important to build Mastercoin on top of Bitcoin and let them interact.

That's the key, using other people's resources

Well, if Bitcoin allows one to use other people's resource, either it is flawed, or your understanding of what it is is flawed.

The cat is out of the bag, and these guys don't understand that there are better funded players

Are you talking about something specific?

In any case, to make decentralized exchange useful, you need it to be integrated with a powerful cryptocurrency.

Let's consider an example: suppose Freimarkets got implemented overnight, and some startup offers its shares for sale through this system.

I want to invest $100k, so I buy $100k worth of freicoins... Ouch, it's not so simple: that many freicoins are simply not available on exchanges, and trying to buy them would move the price, a lot. So it isn't even funny.

Thus a barely functioning decentralized exchange which works with bitcoins is more useful than a perfect decentralized exchange which works only with some obscure alt-coin.

[TKeenan]

We paid $18K for a fancy PR firm to promote a little publicity. They produced almost nothing as far as I can tell.  Can someone tell me how Terpin earned his money? 

Mastercoin is now faced with the indignity that is being deleted from Wikipedia.  This is a direct result of non-existent publicity that Terpin was to provide.  Here is what they have to say about the project publicity: "The Forbes.com article is an opinion piece, the USA Today thing a passing mention in some kind of tech/gossip article, the rest aren't proper WP:GNG sources at all."

Can't we do a proper Newswire press release campaign.  Mastercoin is a spectacularly cool concept which is of great interest to those who are learning about bitcoin and the future.  Don't we have any clever writers in house?  WTF?  Is this ready for a bounty Ron? 

[DGulari]

We paid $18K for a fancy PR firm to promote a little publicity. They produced almost nothing as far as I can tell.  Can someone tell me how Terpin earned his money? 

Mastercoin is now faced with the indignity that is being deleted from Wikipedia.  This is a direct result of non-existent publicity that Terpin was to provide.  Here is what they have to say about the project publicity: "The Forbes.com article is an opinion piece, the USA Today thing a passing mention in some kind of tech/gossip article, the rest aren't proper WP:GNG sources at all."

Can't we do a proper Newswire press release campaign.  Mastercoin is a spectacularly cool concept which is of great interest to those who are learning about bitcoin and the future.  Don't we have any clever writers in house?  WTF?  Is this ready for a bounty Ron? 

Stop being an asshole.  The only people who care about good PR are the pump and dump crowd.  When there is something newsworthy, the writers will find Mastercoin.  However, it doesn't make sense to me that Wiki should delete Mastercoin.  A casual look at the white paper suggests a very important (notable) concept related to bitcoin.  It definitely belongs in Wikipedia.

[superresistant]

Hello,

Can someone tell me what are the currently working / partially working features of MasterCoin ?

Especially theses :
    Additional security features to make your money much harder to steal
    Built-in support for a distributed currency exchange
    Built-in support for distributed betting (no need to trust a website to coordinate bets)
    Built-in support for "smart property" which can be used to create and transfer property such as titles, deeds, or stock in a company
    Capability to hold a stable user-defined value, such as an ounce of gold or U.S. Dollar, with no need to trust a person promising to back up that value

If not, when is going to be implemented ? Any time-schedule ?

Any comment or explanation welcome.

Thanks

[FrictionlessCoin]

We paid $18K for a fancy PR firm to promote a little publicity. They produced almost nothing as far as I can tell.  Can someone tell me how Terpin earned his money? 

Mastercoin is now faced with the indignity that is being deleted from Wikipedia.  This is a direct result of non-existent publicity that Terpin was to provide.  Here is what they have to say about the project publicity: "The Forbes.com article is an opinion piece, the USA Today thing a passing mention in some kind of tech/gossip article, the rest aren't proper WP:GNG sources at all."

Can't we do a proper Newswire press release campaign.  Mastercoin is a spectacularly cool concept which is of great interest to those who are learning about bitcoin and the future.  Don't we have any clever writers in house?  WTF?  Is this ready for a bounty Ron? 

So $18K buys you Forbes,USA Today, Coindesk and Bitcoin Magazine?

[b!z]

We paid $18K for a fancy PR firm to promote a little publicity. They produced almost nothing as far as I can tell.  Can someone tell me how Terpin earned his money? 

Mastercoin is now faced with the indignity that is being deleted from Wikipedia.  This is a direct result of non-existent publicity that Terpin was to provide.  Here is what they have to say about the project publicity: "The Forbes.com article is an opinion piece, the USA Today thing a passing mention in some kind of tech/gossip article, the rest aren't proper WP:GNG sources at all."

Can't we do a proper Newswire press release campaign.  Mastercoin is a spectacularly cool concept which is of great interest to those who are learning about bitcoin and the future.  Don't we have any clever writers in house?  WTF?  Is this ready for a bounty Ron? 

So $18K buys you Forbes,USA Today, Coindesk and Bitcoin Magazine?

Hell, even $1k is more than enough.

[BitThink]

Hello,

Can someone tell me what are the currently working / partially working features of MasterCoin ?

Especially theses :
    Additional security features to make your money much harder to steal
    Built-in support for a distributed currency exchange
    Built-in support for distributed betting (no need to trust a website to coordinate bets)
    Built-in support for "smart property" which can be used to create and transfer property such as titles, deeds, or stock in a company
    Capability to hold a stable user-defined value, such as an ounce of gold or U.S. Dollar, with no need to trust a person promising to back up that value

If not, when is going to be implemented ? Any time-schedule ?

Any comment or explanation welcome.

Thanks

Currently only a mastercoind and a distributed exchange is under development. The other features are not under development yet as far as I know.

[marcelus]

We paid $18K for a fancy PR firm to promote a little publicity. They produced almost nothing as far as I can tell.  Can someone tell me how Terpin earned his money? 

Mastercoin is now faced with the indignity that is being deleted from Wikipedia.  This is a direct result of non-existent publicity that Terpin was to provide.  Here is what they have to say about the project publicity: "The Forbes.com article is an opinion piece, the USA Today thing a passing mention in some kind of tech/gossip article, the rest aren't proper WP:GNG sources at all."

Can't we do a proper Newswire press release campaign.  Mastercoin is a spectacularly cool concept which is of great interest to those who are learning about bitcoin and the future.  Don't we have any clever writers in house?  WTF?  Is this ready for a bounty Ron? 

Chill the fuck out, let the developers do their work and do yourself a favour and forget about your investment for a while. There's little to promote at the moment. What's the point in throwing money away?

[jeroenn13]

Hello,

Can someone tell me what are the currently working / partially working features of MasterCoin ?

Especially theses :
    Additional security features to make your money much harder to steal
    Built-in support for a distributed currency exchange
    Built-in support for distributed betting (no need to trust a website to coordinate bets)
    Built-in support for "smart property" which can be used to create and transfer property such as titles, deeds, or stock in a company
    Capability to hold a stable user-defined value, such as an ounce of gold or U.S. Dollar, with no need to trust a person promising to back up that value

If not, when is going to be implemented ? Any time-schedule ?

Any comment or explanation welcome.

Thanks

Currently only a mastercoind and a distributed exchange is under development. The other features are not under development yet as far as I know.

Smart property will take a few months after the launch of the Distributed exchange.

[wizzardTim]

Hi all,

is there a simple guide or how-to for mastercoin-advisor with bitcoin-qt?


I run the advisor, following this: http://wiki.mastercoin.org/index.php/FAQ#Mastercoin_Advisor

but the instructions are not for qt.


can someone help me?


EDIT: My bitcoin-qt wallet is empty. A friend wants to send me some MSC and then I want to send them somewhere else. Do I need any amount of BTC for this?

[TKeenan]

Hi all,

is there a simple guide or how-to for mastercoin-advisor with bitcoin-qt?


I run the advisor, following this: http://wiki.mastercoin.org/index.php/FAQ#Mastercoin_Advisor

but the instructions are not for qt.


can someone help me?


EDIT: My bitcoin-qt wallet is empty. A friend wants to send me some MSC and then I want to send them somewhere else. Do I need any amount of BTC for this?

Yes.  Put .00018BTC plus miner fee on the address you will use to send MSC.  So if the minor fee is .0002 then you need a total of .00038 for example.  Your transaction will send: .00006 to ExodusAddress, .00006 to the receiving address, and another .00006 to some weird made up bitcoin address which carries information for the Mastercoin parsers.  The Mastercoin parsers will understand that address and use it to interpret what it is you want to send i.e. currency type, amount, et cetera.  You'll get that weird made up address by using MastercoinAdvisor.  Finally, .0002 will go to the miners for the bitcoin transaction fee.  So a total of .00038 is needed.  Of course, you could go with a miner fee of .0001 or .0005 or anything else you like.

Therefore, when bitcoin is worth $1000 like today, a single Mastercoin transaction will cost about 38 cents.  You can get by with a lower miner fee, but sometimes this causes uncomfortable delay.  I prefer to pay the 38 cents and get a faster result.

Don't fret about losing 38 cents - it isn't all lost!  6 cents will land on the address you are sending to and you can reuse that later.  6 cents will end up on the Exodus address and JR can sell that later to buy nice things for his wife.  However, like other things in life, not all news is good.  6 cents is lost forever and will never be recovered.  The .00006 BTC which goes to the 'made up' address will disappear forever into the bitcoin ether.  Soon, when Mastercoin adopts the new bitcoin protocol version .9, they may do away with that scheme and rely upon one which doesn't necessitate loss of any money.  It further has the advantage that the new scheme won't pollute the UTXO.  If you don't know what that is - don't worry.  It is not very important for most users.  Gavin has to worry about that.