Devcoin

[Unthinkingbit]

I've made a design for possible buttons following the style of my logo proposal.



I prefer the negative version (the first option). Here is in high res: https://i.imgur.com/KMUG4O0.png

Do you like them?

Marticps is awarded the second 3/5 share button bounty:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg1450786#msg1450786

There is now one 3/5 share award remaining.

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[twobits]

BTW, the windows bounty for an installer is for the wrong thing.  The bootstrapping issue is currently in all three platforms, not just windows.   I should have something working in a day or so.  Anyone want to test, if so pm me, and for what platform(s).

Ok.   at this point I have made some changes that can allow a fresh install to bootstrap itself, with no receiver_ files.   
However it is fragile.. for example,  earlier today I was getting https://www.box.com/s/3v8jahr8ge29dcfjvomb as the receive_0.csv from the github url.   I have not yet been able to determine what http status code github is giving when
this happens, nor can I get it to happen often enough to catch it with the command line curl yet.   If anyone can capture
that status headers for this result it would help.   The code current can never recover once this happens.   It also has other
points that it will either never recover or 'attack' the host by trying to fetch the url many times a second when things fail
to fetch cleanly the first time.   There is also an odd bug that a space in the path to the receiver files gets stripped when
the directory is first made, but not later when it tries to write to that locations, so it then fails again.  What I have works much better then what the current release does but it still needs more error recovery and robustness...   however no ones is interested anyway,  I got zero replies or pms and people are more interested in writing and banners it seems then a sound fundamental client.

I any case the code I have fails still in odd ways, but regression testing shows the original code failed the same way as well, so I am pretty sure what I have is better but still not great

Edit:  To see what is in the csv file, download it and rename it to end in .html and load it in your browser.
Basically it is a fail that says "This page is taking way too long to load.

Sorry about that. Please try refreshing and contact us if the problem persists."

[metazilla]

What is the reason that all these receiver files are stored externally? Would it not be possible to store them directly in the block chain?

There was a method to do this with the bitcoin blockchain (see here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47283.0) and it seems to be a problem already solved by Namecoin (you can link 1023 bytes of data to a certain name).

It seems like getting all of these receiver files is big stumbling block for setting up the Devcoin wallet (I gave up setting mine after a few attempts, and just made one on devda.ch), and ideally it seems like it'd be better to have a solution that isn't dependent on people hosting the files.

Thoughts?

[jasinlee]

There is a bounty to correct this a couple pages back it was discussed.

[twobits]

What is the reason that all these receiver files are stored externally? Would it not be possible to store them directly in the block chain?

There was a method to do this with the bitcoin blockchain (see here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47283.0) and it seems to be a problem already solved by Namecoin (you can link 1023 bytes of data to a certain name).

It seems like getting all of these receiver files is big stumbling block for setting up the Devcoin wallet (I gave up setting mine after a few attempts, and just made one on devda.ch), and ideally it seems like it'd be better to have a solution that isn't dependent on people hosting the files.

Thoughts?

It would probably take a forking change to get them into the blockchain at this point?  Even if you did so,  I think the program
needs the files to validate the existing blockchain and there is no way to go back and insert it.  So, since I don't think we would want to do a relaunch, we are stuck with needing the information to bootstrap.   I do think the way it is being done is way too fragile.   Everything is dependant on github to bootstrap and that is failing right now.  Also the irc that is used has ben failing alot lately.  After not running the client for some months, it has been a real pain to be able to get it working again. I think the folks that have been running it all along, do not realize how fragile the current bootstrapping is right now.  All the seed nodes are gone,  the IRC is flakely, and the fetching of the receiver_0 will not work in the existing code at all. Fixing that you still often get failure due to that error from github I was showing.   This process needs more recovery and robustness.  I would even say we should use DNS txt records to not be stuck on only a hardcoded github url for bootstrapping.

So, either way, this code needs to be improved, and once it is, I am not sure there is enough to gain from them putting it in the blockchain?
 

[Unthinkingbit]

Ok.   at this point I have made some changes that can allow a fresh install to bootstrap itself, with no receiver_ files.   
However it is fragile.. for example,  earlier today I was getting https://www.box.com/s/3v8jahr8ge29dcfjvomb as the receive_0.csv from the github url.   I have not yet been able to determine what http status code github is giving when
this happens, nor can I get it to happen often enough to catch it with the command line curl yet.   If anyone can capture that status headers for this result it would help.   The code current can never recover once this happens.   It also has other points that it will either never recover or 'attack' the host by trying to fetch the url many times a second when things fail to fetch cleanly the first time.   There is also an odd bug that a space in the path to the receiver files gets stripped when the directory is first made, but not later when it tries to write to that locations, so it then fails again.

Thanks for all the work.

To All,

I suggest a 6 share bounty for this work, this is besides the windows bounty, which is still active. Any objections, or should any changes be made.

What I have works much better then what the current release does but it still needs more error recovery and robustness...

I suggest once the error recovery and robustness is improved, another 6 share bounty be awarded.

[twobits]

There is a bounty to correct this a couple pages back it was discussed.

The bounty for the windows installer?

You know I really need to write up a bounties considered harmful.  I already commented that the bounty is even hunting the wrong target, not to mention the other problems with this type of bounty even if it was going after the right target.

[twobits]

Ok...  as a work around for the github server too busy message getting stored sometimes as receiver_0.csv which then borks
that installation until it is deleted I propose that I make the following two changes to the logic:


1: Only write out a fetched file that starts with the line 'Format,pluribusunum'.

2:  Add some logic to not keep retrying the same url more often them some time period so we don't then try to DDoS github when
everyones client hits this type of result.

I am not sure this will be enough for it to recover yet, but it at least gives it a chance to do so on the next restart.

[Unthinkingbit]

The bounty for the windows installer?

You know I really need to write up a bounties considered harmful.  I already commented that the bounty is even hunting the wrong target, not to mention the other problems with this type of bounty even if it was going after the right target.

Even after downloading the receiver files is improved, it would still be useful to make a windows installer that installs devcoin-qt, and devcoind with one click.

[twobits]

The bounty for the windows installer?

You know I really need to write up a bounties considered harmful.  I already commented that the bounty is even hunting the wrong target, not to mention the other problems with this type of bounty even if it was going after the right target.

Even after downloading the receiver files is improved, it would still be useful to make a windows installer that installs devcoin-qt, and devcoind with one click.

Oh, I was not saying some people may not want an installer.  It however looked like it was being pushed as the solution to the bootstrapping issues though.  I was saying it was the wrong place to fix that.

[Unthinkingbit]

..
All the seed nodes are gone

We used to have a bounty for seed nodes, but it was closed because we thought there were enough seed nodes. Since there aren't I suggest a bounty of 1/5 of a share ongoing, for the next ten seed nodes (it used to be five, but was boosted to ten to protect against a ddos or some other problem).

the IRC is flakely

What could be done to fix that?

and the fetching of the receiver_0 will not work in the existing code at all. Fixing that you still often get failure due to that error from github I was showing.

Github has been flaky lately, so we'll switch away from github for at least receiver_0.


Edit; four seed node bounties have been awarded, six remain:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg1936384#msg1936384
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg1937955#msg1937955
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=34586.msg2128556#msg2128556 (Jasin and Mark)

[12gaFacelift]

if you need a "node" always online then pm me, i can setup one node to stay 24/24 online

[Unthinkingbit]

if you need a "node" always online then pm me, i can setup one node to stay 24/24 online

Please make one, you'll get devcoins for it for as long as you maintain it. If you have any questions about what is required, ask Mark.

[jasinlee]

if you need a "node" always online then pm me, i can setup one node to stay 24/24 online

Please make one, you'll get devcoins for it for as long as you maintain it. If you have any questions about what is required, ask Mark.

A full dvc node?

[twobits]

...

We used to have a bounty for seed nodes, but it was closed because we thought there were enough seed nodes. Since there aren't I suggest a bounty of 1/5 of a share ongoing, for the next five seed nodes.

I have set up one at 174.34.170.240

It may be a bit flakey for the next few days as I am also using it for testing so stopping and restarting it often.  It will however
get hardcoded into the client as part of my changes and run 24/7 at that point.

How much is 1/5 of a share anyway in terms of coins right now?

the IRC is flakely

What could be done to fix that?

Not sure off hand.  Just having working seed nodes will at least stop that from being a showstopper.  Long term,  either
add some more peer discovery methods and/or find another irc to use.

and the fetching of the receiver_0 will not work in the existing code at all. Fixing that you still often get failure due to that error from github I was showing.

Github has been flaky lately, so we'll switch away from github for at least receiver_0.

Ok..

[twobits]

if you need a "node" always online then pm me, i can setup one node to stay 24/24 online

Please make one, you'll get devcoins for it for as long as you maintain it. If you have any questions about what is required, ask Mark.

If someone is going to do this as a fresh install of devcoins, please pm me for my changes to help test it.   It already has Mark's node coded in as a seed now, so it can run without irc on, which can be useful as a lot of places ban the use of IRC in their AUP.

[12gaFacelift]

im testing a fresh install then in morning(20:30 here at the moment) i will see how that thing turn from here

¤¿¤

[markm]

I have a 24/7 node running at 198.154.60.183 with incoming port open. I am in fact running merged mining there, it has my p2pool and all the merge-able chains all running.

We distributed the old receiver files with the program, that is why we never did get around to going back and correcting the old files where they make mention of a site that long ago went offline - an administrator who faded away or quit or something.

We discussed going back over all the files replacing mention of that no longer existing site with some other site, but figured since packaging all current receiver files with the client makes it never need to go get those old files it wasn't necessary, plus as we only had three admins we'd just have to do it all again if one quit again.

Now we have five (or more) admins maybe we should go back and remove references to the dead site.

It certainly sounds from this talk of bootstrapping that you are talking about depending on github if there are no receiver files present at all thus it has to guess where it might find some?

GitHub has indeed started being unreliable, we should replace it with some server that does not do that "too busy" stuff all the time.

I have two dedicated servers now, I only run devcoind on one of them because both are on the same class C (sub)net so people would not connect to both even if both were listed as seed nodes. These are over and above the purely web-hosting site where I currently host my copies of the receiver files. (They are also at the same provider so not maybe very indepdendently down or up, if one is down maybe both will be, depending why/how it gets to be down.) I do not even run webservers on them yet but I on at least one of them if it were necessary. So far I have not because I already have a purely-webhost hosting I use for web stuff.

We should also find out how DNS seeds work and set some up. We have various devcoin and devtome domains plus I have knotwork.com domain.

-MarkM-

[Unthinkingbit]

..
I have set up one at 174.34.170.240

It may be a bit flakey for the next few days as I am also using it for testing so stopping and restarting it often.  It will however
get hardcoded into the client as part of my changes and run 24/7 at that point.

Thanks, please post or message me your devcoin address and I'll add you to the bounty list.

How much is 1/5 of a share anyway in terms of coins right now?

That varies according to how many shares are sent out. A share is expected to be probably more than 150$ for the next few months, so 1/5 of a share is expected to be more than 30$:
http://www.devtome.com/doku.php?id=earn_devcoins_by_writing#generation_share

[emfox]

if you need a "node" always online then pm me, i can setup one node to stay 24/24 online

Please make one, you'll get devcoins for it for as long as you maintain it. If you have any questions about what is required, ask Mark.

Hello, I have a linode 1024 vps, is it qualified for running a node? if ok, I could set one node. please tell me how to do it, just running a devcoind or anything more? a link explain it is helpful.