[ANN][XCP] Counterparty - Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Finance - Official Thread

[Sourgrapes2015]

I love the counterparty project but I think Overstock and others went for colored coin because

1) They have a working wallet which is stable. Counterwallet is unstable for me

2) Colored Coin can be stored on Trezor. People want a safe way to store large amount of money!

3) There is no intermediary coin with Colored coins

4) Nasdaq will use Open Assets

I don't think much need to be done for restoring trust in XCP but the minimum is a "working" wallet + Trezor and and an efficient decentralized exchange

Good Luck guys

1) What is a stable wallet? Counterwallet is one is it not?
2) righr , that's a good point; however counterparty and counterwallet supports multisig. I think they may also be support ledger wallet in the future.. They have certainly been in discussions with the devs there..ledger is another hardware wallet, that has suffered less problems than trezor
3) you don't need any intermediary coin to register assets in counterparty either...xcp cost is for anti spam and advanced features colored coins could not recreate.

4) no wonder since they can centralize some components and keep control by using colored coins. As well as earning fees by routing tx and tracking assets

Coinprism is based on the Open Assets Protocol.
Colored coins

Uses the Bitcoin blockchain

Uses no intermediate currency

http://blog.coinprism.com/comparison-coinprism-counterparty-mastercoin/

Biased, intentionally crafted comparison table by coinprism devs to represent their developments in the best possible way whilst throwing the others under the bus. They have been message about incorrect information but refused to update it.

the following entries for example

Send to multisig address, Native Android Wallet, Other platforms , Open source, Support for unconfirmed transactions , Asset icon , Associate contract with asset, Proof of authenticity , Send assets to multiple recipients.

are ALL marked as an X in the counterparty table column (ie they claim counterparty does not support any of those features) when in fact the platform supports every one of those.

only coinprism open source? seriously?.. That's just negligent. They have purposefully left of a bunch of argument points that would paint coinprism in a less positive light an

e.g open assets doesn't support true spv, requires use of either a centralized asset tracking server or running your own server, does not allow locking of assets (their genius solution is to delete the private key   ), not compatible with vanilla bitcoin addresses, stores certain data in centralized manner, (they try and somehow push this as a benefit  )  DOES NOT HAVE DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE FUNCTIONALITY, unwieldy tracking of complex colors, opens gates for asset tracking gateways to monetize transactions - their business model (and likely some reasons nasdaq chose it )


Counterparty  has at least:

* the same functionality as colored coins (it costs 0 XCP to create an asset, only bitcoin is required)
* decentralized asset trading with automatic order matching <-- this is the reason we're here...
* assets that can pay distributions (dividends)
* assets can be customized (divisibility, callback, locked or issueable, total amount, description)
* peer-to-peer betting
* broadcasts
* contracts for difference
* smart contracts

[dexX7]

I love the counterparty project but I think Overstock and others went for colored coin because

4) Nasdaq will use Open Assets

My very best guess: the news about Nasdaq and Overstock might be connected.

I tend to believe it makes sense to use a colored coins like system for plain settlement, due to the much lower overhead, compared to global consensus systems such as XCP. It's clear that this comes with significant limitations though.

[Sourgrapes2015]

I love the counterparty project but I think Overstock and others went for colored coin because

4) Nasdaq will use Open Assets

My very best guess: the news about Nasdaq and Overstock might be connected.

I tend to believe it makes sense to use a colored coins like system for plain settlement, due to the much lower overhead, compared to global consensus systems such as XCP. It's clear that this comes with significant limitations though.

I think they want to rush to beat NASDAQ to market. They also inferred.previously they would start with vanilla bitcoin then move to other sidechains and alt ledgers as t his first bond issuance is just a subset of Medici (bridge them across I suppose). No idea whether this has since changed though, I don't place a lot of faith in their abilities to make honest and accurate forward looking statements.

[bitcoinrocks]

All the features in the world don't mean anything if nobody wants to build on them.  Just look at NXT.  So the question is, does anybody want to build on them?  It would be nice to hear from Symbiont but they aren't in the business of looking after XCP investor sentiment.

[metacoin]

Sometimes elegant systems are preferred over feature-rich systems.

It's possible that the steps to reach the final asset are too complicated to sell to companies who wish to implement blockchain based assets.

NXT: USD -> Bitcoin -> NXT -> asset
Counterparty: USD -> Bitcoin -> XCP -> asset (?)
Color Coin: USD -> Bitcoin -> asset

?*: Is it possible to trade Bitcoin for a Counterparty asset directly?

[mmortal03]

www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38pnfl/overstock_will_issue_a_private_bond_powered_by/

Wtf?

Does anyone else feel cheated?. I stuck with counterparty all this time, promoting it, evangelizing it and even recomennding it based on ovwrstock partnership while the price slid downhill consistently. Because if the news was true as implied the potential is still there long term regardless of the price now. Byrne and co pulled a fast one on counterparty investors with earlier hyperbolic statements and never had the balls to make a clear ststatement admitting those announcements are now false and likely have been for some time. Up until not so long ago byrne and Bagley were still talking about counterparty and nl they fkat out deny any involvement.

Whatever happened to this?

https://mobile.twitter.com/OverstockCEO/status/520254771890884608

Whatever happened to counterparty devs and byrne on stage together at inside bitcoins conference?
 
I watched probably a dozen interviews and presentations where it was confirmed counterparty was being implemented in some way. Why was a formal statement never made revealing ties had now been severed??

Counterparty devs were complicit in reassuring investors the deal is still on the table. Today we find out the 'rumors' were true  all along: they did a 180 some time
ago, now we are up against them and NASDAQ. Bet insiders privvy to this were dumping whilst everyone else was excited over the hypeto. No wonder it crashed like it did despite apparent huge future promise based on earlier press releases, it was being pumped. Those relying on what they assumed were accurate and up to date public information were at a huge disadvantage and got burned big time.

Never expected this, thought this one was different from the usual dirty pump dump scheme but here we are

Um, Robby Dermody and Evan Wagner left the Medici project back in February. Did you miss that news?: http://www.coindesk.com/lead-developers-leave-overstocks-medici-project/

[creatinefer]

www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38pnfl/overstock_will_issue_a_private_bond_powered_by/

Wtf?

Does anyone else feel cheated?. I stuck with counterparty all this time, promoting it, evangelizing it and even recomennding it based on ovwrstock partnership while the price slid downhill consistently. Because if the news was true as implied the potential is still there long term regardless of the price now. Byrne and co pulled a fast one on counterparty investors with earlier hyperbolic statements and never had the balls to make a clear ststatement admitting those announcements are now false and likely have been for some time. Up until not so long ago byrne and Bagley were still talking about counterparty and nl they fkat out deny any involvement.

Whatever happened to this?

https://mobile.twitter.com/OverstockCEO/status/520254771890884608

Whatever happened to counterparty devs and byrne on stage together at inside bitcoins conference?
 
I watched probably a dozen interviews and presentations where it was confirmed counterparty was being implemented in some way. Why was a formal statement never made revealing ties had now been severed??

Counterparty devs were complicit in reassuring investors the deal is still on the table. Today we find out the 'rumors' were true  all along: they did a 180 some time
ago, now we are up against them and NASDAQ. Bet insiders privvy to this were dumping whilst everyone else was excited over the hypeto. No wonder it crashed like it did despite apparent huge future promise based on earlier press releases, it was being pumped. Those relying on what they assumed were accurate and up to date public information were at a huge disadvantage and got burned big time.

Never expected this, thought this one was different from the usual dirty pump dump scheme but here we are

Um, Robby Dermody and Evan Wagner left the Medici project back in February. Did you miss that news?: http://www.coindesk.com/lead-developers-leave-overstocks-medici-project/

Different guy but I am equally as bemused at the news. I had read that coindesk article before and did not think too much of it because it contained some positive pieces.
my background is as an OSTK investor who decided to invest also in CounterParty, as a first cryptographic currency after reading the following:

https://i.imgur.com/JyNYE6E.png

that news you linked article clearly states:

Overstock director of communications Judd Bagley indicated that the move coincides with a shift in Medici's development that will help the company build on a wider variety of protocols and blockchains in addition to Counterparty.

Bagley indicated that the remainder of the Medici team is still in place, with new replacements hired by Dermody and Wagner taking over as the lead developers.

Which seems fairly reassuring. but that cannot be right? They hired competitors and made the following statements afterwards?

There is a bit of confusion in the air with regards to some of the recent quotes by the Overstock CEO and the various interpretations of them.  It's arguable that they do seem to be getting progressively vague and I can see why some might get the idea this is Byrne distancing himself, while others adopt the mindset it's business as usual in the background and recent price action is just an excuse to take advantage of a price dip based on skewed info. I'd expect the developers to be under some sort of NDA preventing them from saying too much beyond what's already said so I don't think you will be able to rely on full clarifications right now.

 It's a shame to see hot/cold snippets trickle down into the news then waves of buying or selling based simply on said snippets, although it's not as if you would expect market participants to not react to them. A binary yes or no, or no news at all would be preferable. However Let's not forget CounterParty has great value potential since far before Medici was ever announced, has continued to show great promise more than a year later with incredible unexpected additions like turing complete scripting language, multisig, to name just two. Hope that we don't stay in a cycle of ups and downs with everything revolving around the currently non-existant Medici

Yes, the situation is unclear---sorry, we just can't say much at the moment. There'll be some relevant (positive) announcements very soon, though! Suffice it to say that Evan, Robby and I will all be working on Counterparty for the forseeable future.

Please explain to me how this announcement is positive.

Obviously I wasn't talking about Evan and Robby leaving Overstock. And Overstock is still using Counterparty for Medici. (This has been reaffirmed publicly very recently.) I'm advising them personally on their technical design.

Can someone explain medici?

Medici is to stocks and shares what bitcoin is to money.

edit: bitcoin with a lower case b, as both use the Bitcoin network.

So it's like asset exchange on Next? Forgive my ignorance

Counterparty has its own asset exchange. Medici brings regulatory compliance, user interfaces, professional services, off-chain stuff, etc., so that users can trade shares of public companies, e.g., (on Counterparty) legally and easily. Counterparty is the primary technological platform; Medici is an application and service. (Think Bitcoin/Coinbase.)

Surely not.? So either OSTK was hiding the truth from them or the devs here were embellishing things. Because The above quotes seems to go at odds with Judd Bagley's latest statement on reddit.

Now I'm wondering if what I assumed was a troll post here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2z5ilv/overstock_10k_during_2014_we_acquired_a_249/cpg82tn?context=3
by username MediciCTO was actually someone in a senior position at Overstock, whether there was some personal beef and as a result whether we have been looking at a story which is has been significantly embellished by developers here in order to prop up share price. Or whether the burden lies on the cloudy communication from OSTK. I think it is a disaster.  I have learned that this environment is a wild west where anybody can and will tell you anything to try and move the market so it would not surprise me. Much like penny stock markets or the dotcom boom.
some will make a killing while some will lose out. I'm very much in the latter camp now and don't see any way out of the hole unless colored coins has a fatal weakness that pushes OSTK to come back. CEO can be a hot head so if it's a personal beef the two companies had I would rule that one out permanently  

[dexX7]

MediciCTO

Oh, that one. I assumed it was a troll, too.

Now in retrospective, the post history is pretty telling:

(4 months ago) Medici is evaluating all crypto technologies.

(4 months ago) Medici is still evaluating crypto technologies. We continue discussions with Counterparty, however, we do not plan to limit our platform to a single blockchain, ledger or protocol. The long-term future of crypto securities will undoubtedly include multiple exchanges. Medici will enable trading where ever efficient and qualified exchanges can be created.

(4 months ago) Security, performance, and throughput are some of the considerations when looking at cryptoexchanges. We remain interested in technologies (including the bitcoin blockchain) that might efficiently enable transparent and distributed securities settlement.

(2 months ago) Medici will support multiple cryptotechnologies....counterparty may eventually be one of them, but that is far from certain. Trading platforms have a very specific set of requirements and we will be using the best of the available protocols/technologies.

(2 months ago) The Medici platform is intended to support multiple blockchains/crypto-ledgers. We want to work with the solution which best fits the requirements specific to our use-cases.

It appears to be certain that Counterparty wasn't the only horse in the game, and it seems likely that OpenAssets isn't going to be the only technology used either.

[Matt Y]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38zbap/overstock_announces_cryptosecurity_exchange_and/crzfz38

Medici CTO:

I think it is a really great sign for Bitcoin that there are multiple choices for this. We obviously have worked closely with Counterparty in the past and have looked closely at number of solutions.
The short answer is we didn't need some of the more complex features for this launch.
Private debt is a relatively simple use case. We are also working on some really complex use cases that will leverage different technologies. Going to be a fun.

[Praxis]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38zbap/overstock_announces_cryptosecurity_exchange_and/crzfz38

Medici CTO:

I think it is a really great sign for Bitcoin that there are multiple choices for this. We obviously have worked closely with Counterparty in the past and have looked closely at number of solutions.
The short answer is we didn't need some of the more complex features for this launch.
Private debt is a relatively simple use case. We are also working on some really complex use cases that will leverage different technologies. Going to be a fun.

So it's just that they decided for the simplest no frills solution for the bond but when they tackle with more difficult financial instruments it's very likely they will consider CP?

[Matt Y]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38zbap/overstock_announces_cryptosecurity_exchange_and/crzfz38

Medici CTO:

I think it is a really great sign for Bitcoin that there are multiple choices for this. We obviously have worked closely with Counterparty in the past and have looked closely at number of solutions.
The short answer is we didn't need some of the more complex features for this launch.
Private debt is a relatively simple use case. We are also working on some really complex use cases that will leverage different technologies. Going to be a fun.

So it's just that they decided for the simplest no frills solution for the bond but when they tackle with more difficult financial instruments it's very likely they will consider CP?

Yeah. It seems they are working on more complex stuff already and that they are considering "different technologies" for it. There are only a couple players in the space and Counterparty is one of them. I guess it was more of a question round peg, round hole, rather than anything else.

[mmortal03]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/symbiont-smart-securities-funding-announcement-strategy-300096175.html

Symbiont 'Smart Securities™' technology secures backing by an all-star lineup of financial leaders
 
NEW YORK, June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Symbiont, a pioneer in the creation of Smart Securities on the blockchain, has secured $1.25M of seed funding from influential financial market leaders. Early investors include Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of the NYSE Euronext; Matt Andresen, founder of the Island ECN and trading head at Citadel; Getco, LLC founders Dan Tierney and Stephen Schuler through Wicklow Capital; Scott Carmilani, Chairman and CEO of Allied World Assurance Company; and Celeridem FinTech Fund. A 'Series A' round of institutional investment is expected to close in Q3 2015.

The new company is seeking to eliminate many of the inefficiencies and opaqueness that have developed on Wall Street by utilizing the speed and security of cryptographic distributed ledgers known as blockchains to enable faster markets that are more efficient, and exhibit lower costs with increased liquidity, transparency, and security.

The development of Smart Securities promises to transform the way that issuance, trading and settlement takes place in the capital markets. By making programmable versions of traditional securities available on a distributed ledger, the platform will allow institutional and retail users to issue, trade and process a range of instruments more efficiently in a single, global, decentralized and distributed peer-to-peer financial network.

"Symbiont is bridging the gap between Wall Street and the emerging blockchain ecosystem. It's an exciting, timely and much-needed development for the long-term health of the markets," said Niederauer, Managing Member of 555 Capital and a member of the Symbiont Board of Directors, for whom this is the first investment in the bitcoin ecosystem.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage this previously unimaginable technology for the greater good of investors, financial institutions, and global financial markets," said Mark Smith, co-founder and CEO of Symbiont. "The blockchain not only has the potential to democratize markets but to drive down the cost of doing business across all sectors."

Interest in the use of blockchain technology is growing rapidly with the realization of its importance in the creation of trusted networks to more rapidly and cost-efficiently trade and process financial transactions.

Symbiont was formed as a combination of MathMoney (fx) and Counterparty, creator of the Counterwallet deterministic web wallet, which was founded in 2013. Smith is joined at Symbiont by co-founders Robbie Dermody (President); Evan Wagner (MD, Operations); and Adam Krellenstein (CTO).

The issuance of the first Smart Securities is expected later in 2015.

About Symbiont
Symbiont is bridging the gap between the emerging blockchain ecosystem and Wall Street. They are developing a platform that allows financial market participants to create programmable versions of traditional securities that take the form of SMART SECURITIESTM: self-executing digital contracts that are stored in a distributed ledger called a "blockchain". The platform will allow users to issue, manage, locate, and trade smart securities™ efficiently in a single, global, peer-to-peer financial network.

SOURCE Symbiont

[nakaone]

so can we get a clear statement if xcp is used as fuel in the newly created ecosystem? it would be most helpful by one of the members of the core development.

despite that great development

[ShapeShift.io]

ShapeShift.io has released the first-ever cryptocurrency exchange app for iPhone. Buy or sell Counterparty XCP instantly and on-the-go with the ShapeShift App.

Download the app: http://apple.co/1FU6Njm

Learn about the app in this Forbes article: http://onforb.es/1dtZqVX

NOTE: ShapeShift will be adding their Android app soon. Stay tuned!

[bitcoinrocks]

What is stopping me from modifying the Counterparty installation on my system to provide all of the same functionality without burning XCP?

The network effect. It would be a one person party that's implementing updates from the real dev team.

I'm still not clear on this.  Let's say I'm a company that wants to create an interface for smart contracts.  Why can't I modify the counterpartyd instance running on my server to execute smart contracts without burning XCP?

[ghosthardware]

What is stopping me from modifying the Counterparty installation on my system to provide all of the same functionality without burning XCP?

The network effect. It would be a one person party that's implementing updates from the real dev team.

I'm still not clear on this.  Let's say I'm a company that wants to create an interface for smart contracts.  Why can't I modify the counterpartyd instance running on my server to execute smart contracts without burning XCP?

As already answered: Network effect.

The question is akin to asking why you can't modify the bitcoind instance running on your server to process transactions without debiting BTC, whilst you CAN do it, you will need to convince the super majority of users to agree that that's a good idea.

XCP acts as a anti-spam token, and an economic reward, if you tried to create your fork you would really just end up switching it to an XCP alternative token to fulflll those functions. Your newly created tokens properties (distribution, adoption, upside potential of continuing to hold or hoard) would have to match or usurp the previous

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/symbiont-smart-securities-funding-announcement-strategy-300096175.html

Symbiont 'Smart Securities™' technology secures backing by an all-star lineup of financial leaders
 
NEW YORK, June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Symbiont, a pioneer in the creation of Smart Securities on the blockchain, has secured $1.25M of seed funding from influential financial market leaders. Early investors include Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of the NYSE Euronext; Matt Andresen, founder of the Island ECN and trading head at Citadel; Getco, LLC founders Dan Tierney and Stephen Schuler through Wicklow Capital; Scott Carmilani, Chairman and CEO of Allied World Assurance Company; and Celeridem FinTech Fund. A 'Series A' round of institutional investment is expected to close in Q3 2015.

The new company is seeking to eliminate many of the inefficiencies and opaqueness that have developed on Wall Street by utilizing the speed and security of cryptographic distributed ledgers known as blockchains to enable faster markets that are more efficient, and exhibit lower costs with increased liquidity, transparency, and security.

The development of Smart Securities promises to transform the way that issuance, trading and settlement takes place in the capital markets. By making programmable versions of traditional securities available on a distributed ledger, the platform will allow institutional and retail users to issue, trade and process a range of instruments more efficiently in a single, global, decentralized and distributed peer-to-peer financial network.

"Symbiont is bridging the gap between Wall Street and the emerging blockchain ecosystem. It's an exciting, timely and much-needed development for the long-term health of the markets," said Niederauer, Managing Member of 555 Capital and a member of the Symbiont Board of Directors, for whom this is the first investment in the bitcoin ecosystem.

"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to leverage this previously unimaginable technology for the greater good of investors, financial institutions, and global financial markets," said Mark Smith, co-founder and CEO of Symbiont. "The blockchain not only has the potential to democratize markets but to drive down the cost of doing business across all sectors."

Interest in the use of blockchain technology is growing rapidly with the realization of its importance in the creation of trusted networks to more rapidly and cost-efficiently trade and process financial transactions.

Symbiont was formed as a combination of MathMoney (fx) and Counterparty, creator of the Counterwallet deterministic web wallet, which was founded in 2013. Smith is joined at Symbiont by co-founders Robbie Dermody (President); Evan Wagner (MD, Operations); and Adam Krellenstein (CTO).

The issuance of the first Smart Securities is expected later in 2015.

About Symbiont
Symbiont is bridging the gap between the emerging blockchain ecosystem and Wall Street. They are developing a platform that allows financial market participants to create programmable versions of traditional securities that take the form of SMART SECURITIESTM: self-executing digital contracts that are stored in a distributed ledger called a "blockchain". The platform will allow users to issue, manage, locate, and trade smart securities™ efficiently in a single, global, peer-to-peer financial network.

SOURCE Symbiont

Great news on the seed funding. It's reassuring to see devs working diligently in the background moving forwards on true 2.0 tech despite some of the recent perceived setbacks. CounterParty team never rests on their laurels or tries to take the easy route.

The magnitude of the potential of this technology is hard to grasp for a layman. On a zoomed out view once you see where the trends are inevitably going pieces start falling into place. I'm Excited to follow the progress of the formal A funding round and also very pleased to see the first issuance should also happen this year

For those that don't know Symbiosis (from Greek σύν "together" and βίωσις "living") is close and often long-term interaction between two or more different biological species. The aptly named Symbiont seems to strategically place itself as a bridge between emerging novel 2.0 superstars. CounterParty is one of the chief foundation/building blocks where it makes total sense to use as smart contract vehicle, asset registration system for private debt, kickstarter fundraising and more.

CounterParty adopters are in the minority of altcoin market particpants following a mature project which pushes the envelope whilst many dinosaur coins are still cloning litecoin source, coming up with a story about how their coin will be the next bitcoin with a marketing campaign and calling it a day. IMO that was the teenager phase. CounterParty is clearly in adulthood and targeting big-boy markets. It means we might well be in it for the long haul but as this is new ground with previously unattainable market share the potential rewards are far greater. Smart contracting and p2p marketplaces could revolutionize finance as we know today and counterparty is right now one of the premier candiates to take advantage of it's prime position. On a long term view a market cap of $2.5 million dollars for this ecosystem is peanuts.  It reminds me of bitcoin at dollar parity, and I can't help comparing it to a deflated air-ship- there is so much room to grow it's not even funny.  A recent article sums up the direction well.

"We're aiming for a generic platform that is agnostic to underlying distributed technology, so not only Bitcoin but Ripple, Ethereum, Hyperledger, and a proprietary stack built around Counterparty are all in play," he says. "We're also working on private blockchains and 'known' networks, as we think that might be a better application of the technology for some institutions. The idea with smart securities is that the battery comes included: to create contracts that can act on the blockchain autonomously, from issuance and corporate actions to decentralized secondary trading, clearing, settlement and transfer."
Smith says the early target is illiquid securities and funding activities — including both traditional venture-capital and crowdfunded private-equity transactions, as well as other applications like merchant banking, intercompany funding, and syndicated loans. The firm is already integrated into multiple tier-one banks' development programs and blockchain pilots. Many are focused on smaller use cases that don't already have processing intermediation in place, relying instead on spreadsheets and fax, and at least a few should be implemented by year's end.
Symbiont aren't alone, with many others in the space crossing over to blockchain work now, but Smith argues there are "maybe three or fewer firms" in the industry that have both the financial understanding and technical expertise to do it right.
"Most people entering now are trying to execute on things like how to 'tokenize' a security, on that plane of the learning curve, which we were doing two years ago," he says. "Though that's an interesting process, to us, the real value proposition in convincing an institution to rip out systems, and change protocols, must go well beyond that."

ShapeShift.io has released the first-ever cryptocurrency exchange app for iPhone. Buy or sell Counterparty XCP instantly and on-the-go with the ShapeShift App.

Download the app: http://apple.co/1FU6Njm

Learn about the app in this Forbes article: /1dtZqVX]http://[Suspicious link removed]/1dtZqVX

NOTE: ShapeShift will be adding their Android app soon. Stay tuned!

https://i.imgur.com/MxVBuMjl.png

Thank you. Made a purchase today using it! Works extremely smoothly. Even stored the XCP directly on the phone like BTC before moving to counterwallet -
which you can't do with some of the other coins as there is no iOS wallet yet
Was waiting for something like this

[bitcoinrocks]

What is stopping me from modifying the Counterparty installation on my system to provide all of the same functionality without burning XCP?

The network effect. It would be a one person party that's implementing updates from the real dev team.

I'm still not clear on this.  Let's say I'm a company that wants to create an interface for smart contracts.  Why can't I modify the counterpartyd instance running on my server to execute smart contracts without burning XCP?

As already answered: Network effect.

The question is akin to asking why you can't modify the bitcoind instance running on your server to process transactions without debiting BTC, whilst you CAN do it, you will need to convince the super majority of users to agree that that's a good idea.

XCP acts as a anti-spam token, and an economic reward, if you tried to create your fork you would really just end up switching it to an XCP alternative token to fulflll those functions. Your newly created tokens properties (distribution, adoption, upside potential of continuing to hold or hoard) would have to match or usurp the previous

I can see how you would want to take advantage of the network effect with tokens since you might want to move them to a different instance of Counterwallet or to another Counterparty wallet, but would the same be true of smart contracts?  Wouldn't all of my smart contracts execute on my server's instance of counterpartyd?

"We're aiming for a generic platform that is agnostic to underlying distributed technology, so not only Bitcoin but Ripple, Ethereum, Hyperledger, and a proprietary stack built around Counterparty are all in play," he says. "We're also working on private blockchains and 'known' networks, as we think that might be a better application of the technology for some institutions. The idea with smart securities is that the battery comes included: to create contracts that can act on the blockchain autonomously, from issuance and corporate actions to decentralized secondary trading, clearing, settlement and transfer."
Smith says the early target is illiquid securities and funding activities — including both traditional venture-capital and crowdfunded private-equity transactions, as well as other applications like merchant banking, intercompany funding, and syndicated loans. The firm is already integrated into multiple tier-one banks' development programs and blockchain pilots. Many are focused on smaller use cases that don't already have processing intermediation in place, relying instead on spreadsheets and fax, and at least a few should be implemented by year's end.
Symbiont aren't alone, with many others in the space crossing over to blockchain work now, but Smith argues there are "maybe three or fewer firms" in the industry that have both the financial understanding and technical expertise to do it right.
"Most people entering now are trying to execute on things like how to 'tokenize' a security, on that plane of the learning curve, which we were doing two years ago," he says. "Though that's an interesting process, to us, the real value proposition in convincing an institution to rip out systems, and change protocols, must go well beyond that."

I can't find this article online.  Can you point me to it?

[BldSwtTrs]

Any identifiable cause for the price spike? Is it a public info or a still private one?

[Matt Y]

Any identifiable cause for the price spike? Is it a public info or a still private one?

Well, an ex NYSE CEO did invest (publicly) in Symbiont...

[Praxis]

Definitely connected to the Symbiont news...




https://twitter.com/SymbiontIO/status/608337051885387776