AskDevs (a solution to the controversy and quality problems with Devtome)

[Luckybit]

On the subject of a question/answer site: What incentive would I have to use it over well-established services, such as StackOverflow (and related stackexchange sites) or even Yahoo Answers...all of which don't cost me my DVC?

Because if your answer isn't on StackOverflow or Yahoo Answers or if the only person who can answer it is on AskDevs then you'll have to go to AskDevs. Some people in this community are the only people who can answer certain questions, in other cases the answer will be so difficult that no one is going to want to spend a hours,days, or months answering it for free on Yahoo Answers or StackOverflow.

Like if I ask the question, what is the best way to increase the market cap for PPCoin?

It's a specific question so it wont be on Yahoo Answers. It wont be on StackOverflow either. The more specific it is the less likely you'll find it there. Like if I ask: what is a viable solution for Blockchain bloat?

Even less likely we will see that on StackOverflow or Yahoo answers.

Now lets say I ask a hyper specific question like: How can we maximize the security of Netcoin network while maintaining a decentralized power structure?

Most people don't know what Netcoin is on those other sites because it's not even released yet. Most don't know much about hashing algorithms and even if they did, if we don't pay them they aren't going to invent a new hashing algorithm or a new algorithm to solve a particular problem so what I was aiming for with AskDevs was not just a site to tell stories or to ask random questions but a site to allow developers in the cryptocurrency community to in a structured fashion ask questions to the whole cryptocurrency community. To leverage the brainpower of the whole cryptocurrency community which I believe is immense and underutilized.

Zerocoin was invented to make Bitcoin more anonymous, but the question "How can we allow anonymous online transactions" could have been floating around in the community for months.  Just like the question of how to build a distributed exchange floated around for months until it was resolved. Now the questions about market cap and how to increase market cap are still floating around and because they aren't all in one place we wont even be able to find the common community asked questions, and because all the solutions aren't in one place the next coin developer (such as Tacotime who is developing Netcoin) will not easily be able to look at all the solutions  or algorithms which exist to make better coins.

This is the reason why we end up with so many cloned coins which are technologically worthless. AskDevs would act as a type of scientific journal where individuals can ask a question of unlimited complexity if the bounty is high enough to solve it. It has to be AskDevs because Stack Exchange and Yahoo Answers don't support Bitcoin and don't pay for solutions which means you're not going to get PhD level solutions from it even if some people have PhD level knowledge.

For reference: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions
see the strengths and limitations of StackExchange.

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[Unthinkingbit]

The moderated Stories and Question thread is at:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252709

Please post your story requests and questions there.

[ranlo]

Story: Secession
Minimum Length: 5,000 words
First Prize: 1,000,000 devcoins
Second Prize: 500,000 devcoins

Scenario: A group of freedom fanatics buys an island and then secedes! There's at least a hundred of em, the island has enough farmland to support them, they have lots of guns, and they have good communication equipment including cellphones and at least one satellite phone and one ham radio transmitter.

Any deadline for this? I started drafting something tonight but I have to warn you, it doesn't have a happy ending.

No deadline, whoever hits 5,000 words first gets first prize.

I started drafting something tonight but I have to warn you, it doesn't have a happy ending.

I didn't expect a happy ending, that's why I made sure they had communications equipment so their heroic sacrifice was remembered

Ding! Just finished my story. Hits on all requirements as well. Let me know what you think, .

http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=freedom_kills

Thanks!

[pb321go]

A problem with devtome/devcoin seems to be that it's a pre-mined or inventor-created internet token, like the rather notorious ripple, that the creators can attempt to flog for real money (USD, or BTC which are then sold for USD), but while the creators can try to sell whatever tokens they create, the writer-contributors only get 'leaked' devcoins at an extremely slow rate. As devcoins are sold off - and there is of course nothing else to do with them - at an ever-devaluing rate (1,000,000/BTC a short while ago, now 2,000,000/BTC) the amount that devtome writers can earn per month (around the 100,000 devcoins/day, ongoing if they keep writing at the maximum permissible level of 80,000 words per month) will get less and less in 'real money' terms. Someone starting this game will think that even if they get devcoins at a slow rate initially, if they keep writing the maximum permissible number of words per month (or rather per devcoin block), they will eventually build up a worthwhile income after many months (or devcoin blocks) of writing, but actually the steady devaluation of devcoins relative to BTC/USD means that in 'real money' terms they will never be able to earn more than a trifling amount of real money per month (or per devcoin-block) for the work they do.
A brilliant idea which I much admire, but these cryptocurrency wheezes are essentially only good for the inventors, and for a few early adopters.
By the way, I have some tulip bulbs to sell if any of you kids are interested.