300 BTC Coding Contest: Distributed Exchange (MasterCoin Developer Thread)

[Tachikoma]

Hi All,

I would like to contribute something with mastercoin development. Can anyone guide me to take a way.

I would start out by reading the whitepaper followed by the various open-source implementations already available. That should give you a clear path of what to do

[Tachikoma]

Just for completeness I hereby add my second entry; a ruby implementation of a Mastercoin wallet based on the Qt Framework.

[GeekyCreeper]

I would SO ENTER THIS, but this is beyond my level of technological intelligence. I am mentally gifted, and amazing with computers, but I would have no idea how to help with the protocol layer of MasterCoin. Ugh. I would be glad to design logos or help write text for a website, but there is no way I could learn how to do this in 15 days. 

[bybitcoin]

Deleted by the Author!

[dacoinminster]

The board is asking for a summary of progress so far on this contest, but I know if I try to summarize everybody's work, I'll leave important stuff out.

Contest participants: please summarize your work so far, and I'll take your summaries to the board. Here's what Tachikoma's might look like:

• Wrote ruby library to parse MasterCoin simple-send transactions
• Used ruby library to launch MasterCoin-Explorer.com (note: not open source, and can't be considered for contest payout)
• Ported J.R.'s Python script for creating transactions to MasterCoin-Explorer, so people can create transactions without downloading custom software
• Cross-checked parsing code with implementations by grazcoin and Zathras
• Invented multi-sig approach to storing MasterCoin data, which we are now all using
• Implemented multi-sig in the ruby library (and MasterCoin-Explorer)
• Published API for accessing MasterCoin-Explorer programatically
• Used API to create proof-of-concept for thin client implentation of MasterCoin
• Answered numerous technical questions from other developers
• ??

I'm sure I left some important items off that list, but hopefully you get the idea. We'll update these lists again when the contest is over.

Thanks guys!

(I sent PM's to tachicoma, grazcoin, maraoz, and zathras about this)

[Tachikoma]

Seems you got most of my contributions right so far, I will backtrack my posts but I think you got it all.

I will be releasing the source for mastercoin-explorer as soon as I have some time to refactor a few bits and pieces and I updated the documentation on how to get it running.

[bybitcoin]

Disclaimer: I did post that scheme in general because I believe it would help to resolve the mastercoin protocol bloating the bitcoin blockchain concern.
I posted it here also because be visible for the respected developers of the project to see and use some aspect of it, if they feel workable.
There is no need to show cold feet or telling me not welcomed indirectly. I do not consider myself a coder and therefore has not any interest or intention to participate in a coding contest, dacoinminster  I just wanted to help the project in that direction, but sure I remove it away soon!

[dacoinminster]

Disclaimer: I did post that scheme in general because I believe it would help to resolve the mastercoin protocol bloating the bitcoin blockchain concern.
I posted it here also because be visible for the respected developers of the project to see and use some aspect of it, if they feel workable.
There is no need to show cold feet or telling me not welcome indirectly. I do not consider myself a coder and therefore has not any interest or intention to participate in a coding contest, dacoinminster   I just wanted to help the project in that direction, but sure I remove it away soon!

I doubt we'll do off-chain transactions anytime soon, but I'm happy to see people are thinking about how that might be done someday.

[bybitcoin]

It was a scheme where you could use your protocol in two mode, on chain and off chain, you use on chain until the bloat becomes a big concern and here you can shift to off chain mode. And it is always possible to return back to on chain mode again, just because merkele tree of accounts will be sent in a message to exudus address at any necessary moment, and that make it possible to start again from there handling on chain by taking the exudus address as the reference, juts like how things got started the first day of September 2013 recently with the list of accounts holding balances. It doesn't change your protocol but gives it an extra mode for when bloating concern becomes high priority. Also it makes your protocol, while depending on bitcoin chain, also potentially independent and always possible to separate it away and run it independently in future if needed.
But sure, no insistence, I ll try to use it for my own project, thank you!

[Tachikoma]

I just released the sourcecode for Mastercoin-explorer.com. You can find it as always on my github account.

I just want to publicly say that since everything I build was greatly bootstrapped by the excellent work of bitcoin-ruby that I will be sharing part of whatever bounty money comes my way with the author of said library, you can hold me to that.

[dacoinminster]

Wow. Dread Pirate Roberts in jail, silk road seized, bitcoin prices plummeting.

Just a reminder: the contest is for $25k, not a specific number of bitcoins. I was thinking of making the next contest for a specific number of bitcoins, but . . . maybe not.

This is a good opportunity to mention something important: once we have features which COULD be used for illegal things, all devs should make sure to have really bold and visible warnings that everyone is responsible to know the laws in their own jurisdiction, and not break them. We must never be seen as encouraging illegal activity, even though our tools can be used in that way.

[dacoinminster]

grazcoin's work summary, sent via PM:

Hey guys, please update the contest thread when you get a chance:

The board is asking for a summary of progress so far on this contest, but I know if I try to summarize everybody's work, I'll leave important stuff out.

Thanks!

I try to collect the tasks I did in arbitrary order:

• First to release open source code: https://github.com/grazcoin/mastercoin-tools (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=291914)
  
  • Live update - direct "realtime" interaction with the bitcoin network
  • Light node - run also without a need for a database
  • Alternative code base - use libbitcoin instead of common "satoshi client" (diversity)
  • Send transaction directly (not "Advisor")
• Develop further bitcoin infrastructure which was needed for mastercoin-tools https://github.com/spesmilo/sx/commits?author=grazcoin (bitcoin community benefits here as well)
• Convince that block timestamps are those that count for the transactions and not blockchain.info timestamps (which means different values on exodus bootstrap).
• First to publish a full list of exodus mastercoins https://github.com/grazcoin/mastercoin-tools/blob/master/outputs/msc_per_address.csv (to be checked by Tachikoma). I think it helped him fixing some issues in his code.
  
• First to publish a snapshot of parsed list to be compared be other implementations https://github.com/grazcoin/mastercoin-tools/blob/master/outputs/tx_parse.csv
  
• Updated parse snapshot with "simple multisig" https://github.com/grazcoin/mastercoin-tools/blob/master/outputs/parse-with-multisig-simple.log
  
• Discuss multisig and suggest the "simple multisig" (now with open source encoder and parser)
  
• Answer members, and debug calculations of Tachikoma and zathras
  
• Get html5 professional to work on a front end (demo soon)

cheers,
Grazcoin

[dacoinminster]

maraoz sent me a PM bowing out:

Hi J.R.

I'm out for now, personal problems + lack of motivation. If you guys think what I did so far contributed in any way, I'll accept part of the bounty. If not, I've already considered all the invested hours lost.

Just need something from zathras now. Thanks guys!

[Bitoy]

Hi
Trying to make a client to send master coins.


I was able to create 1 transaction with 3 sends
https://blockchain.info/tx/f35f69cf20238274ffa93748637f8c9fa6316683db41cadefab531e65c287313
 1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P

Tried to send 1 test master coin to
17UbSDAXDzmxRXCgn2w43EaaHzHK3Ncx87   

The data from mastercoin adviser is
17P8JRqEBMXusNenBLgUeGixNMnJCT9o29

It didn't register in master chest or master coin explorer.

Any tips on why it didnt register is appreciated

[Tachikoma]

I tried to dive into it but it's late here so I'm a bit foggy. But I think it might be because the sequence number is off. I think it's looking for 69 but 70 is found. Does this make sense?

[Bitoy]

I tried to dive into it but it's late here so I'm a bit foggy. But I think it might be because the sequence number is off. I think it's looking for 69 but 70 is found. Does this make sense?

Thanks Tachikoma,

You are right It is probably due to the sequence. Here are the steps I took

1. generated the data address using mastercoin adviser.  
2. sent a test btc transaction. (Might have changed the sequence number of the btc address?)
3.  Sent the mastercoin transaction.

It didn't work.

But I tried again using a different address.
1. Generate the data address
2. Sent the master coin transaction.

And it registered in masterchest

https://masterchest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=17UbSDAXDzmxRXCgn2w43EaaHzHK3Ncx87

But not in mastercoin explorer.

Note the first transaction that I reported not to work is ok now at masterchest.
https://masterchest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=17UbSDAXDzmxRXCgn2w43EaaHzHK3Ncx87

 Looking  for a .net btc address to base58 module next

[Tachikoma]

I looked through it and it appears to have been a bug in my own code. So thanks for the bug report

Your transaction should show up now.

I would really urge you to don't implement address encoding at this moment though and continue straight to multisig. We should try not to create unspendable outputs.

[Bitoy]

I looked through it and it appears to have been a bug in my own code. So thanks for the bug report

Your transaction should show up now.

I would really urge you to don't implement address encoding at this moment though and continue straight to multisig. We should try not to create unspendable outputs.

Ok that's great

The transaction was sent using blockchain.info api "send many"
http://blockchain.info/api/blockchain_wallet_api

I think they will eventually support multi sig.   I'll update as soon as I learn more how to send multi sig.

(This is getting very interesting. I'm hooked

[vokain]

[zathras]

I tried to dive into it but it's late here so I'm a bit foggy. But I think it might be because the sequence number is off. I think it's looking for 69 but 70 is found. Does this make sense?

Thanks Tachikoma,

You are right It is probably due to the sequence. Here are the steps I took

1. generated the data address using mastercoin adviser.  
2. sent a test btc transaction. (Might have changed the sequence number of the btc address?)
3.  Sent the mastercoin transaction.

It didn't work.

But I tried again using a different address.
1. Generate the data address
2. Sent the master coin transaction.

And it registered in masterchest

https://masterchest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=17UbSDAXDzmxRXCgn2w43EaaHzHK3Ncx87

But not in mastercoin explorer.

Note the first transaction that I reported not to work is ok now at masterchest.
https://masterchest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=17UbSDAXDzmxRXCgn2w43EaaHzHK3Ncx87

Looking  for a .net btc address to base58 module next

My implementation thinks that tranasction is OK

Also just a quick FYI - masterchest.info currently has an average 15 minute lead time for including transactions (~10 minutes for miners to include it in a block and ~5 minutes between blockchain scans).  

The wallet is much faster and handles unconfirmed transactions (I felt this was quite important as otherwise you would be able to (attempt to, they'd be invalidated) send the same mastercoins over and over until one of the transactions was confirmed in a block.

I have an update coming to masterchest.info today that will bring the unconfirmed transaction processing code to masterchest.info & I'll also drop the scan time down to 60 secs.  I'll post when this is done but it should bring the time for transactions to show up on masterchest.info down to under a minute.

JR - crazy couple of days at work (it never rains but it pours!), I have some time today so I'll get a summary done.