The development plan seems to promise so much that is almost unbelievable given that in crypto a lot of the things we are dealing with are compromises: If you fix something, you break something else (make it operate in a non-optimal way). If even half of what is promised can be delivered without compromising security, decentralization, etc, it'll be great.
The entirety of Crystallographic currency has been based on a single layer network. I think making a two tier network has opened tons of doors. That and now, using quorums to split the tasks has simply empowered an already super healthy Masternode Network possibly eventually over 1000 fold (currently, what? 660 fold?) over "traditional" ways.
So, IMO, it's not magic, it's simply harnessing ideas from other walks of technology for use in cryptographic currencies. Bitcoin hasn't done anything, really, NOTHING since I got here in December 2013. They may have cleaned up the code, made the wallet work smoother, but have introduced nothing structurally new that a person like me can see. I know you coders can appreciate whatever they did do. And I'll admit, my wallet did download in a couple of days recently rather than 3 weeks, like it took the first time I tried, but frankly that's boring.
The technology that the Dash team are introducing isn't mumbo jumbo, it isn't untested. Sure it may be untested in this type of use, but it has been tested in other uses and reviewed and shown to work so why not in this instance?
Anyway, Just saying, no magic here, only
thinking outside the box and
doing research. In other words,
hard work with
clear goals and an
abundance of intelligence and
wisdom.
Well-said, Stef. As with everything, Evan builds something, and then that paves the way for something else, and so forth. For instance:
a) He created a two-tier network with incentivized masternodes so that these nodes could host mixing sessions for Darksend
That worked out really well, and then he saw another opportunity. We already have a masternode network, so why not give them another job?
b) Evan realized that fractions of the masternode network (quorums) could agree on the validity of a transaction and "lock" it, even before the block containing the transaction was published. Due to statistics, it's impossible for anybody to attack this system without owning a majority of the masternodes and thus having an enormous stake in the currency. We call this InstantX and it's the first step on a very important journey: it's where Evan realizes that "sharding" is possible. More on this later.
Once this worked well and was solid, he then realized:
c) Masternodes could be allowed to vote on changes to the network, which would allow the devs to have a good idea of what the community wanted.
And then, taking that a step further:
d) People could submit proposals and masternodes could vote on whether to fund these proposals. These votes would be binding and the funds would be paid directly from the protocol.
Now, Evan has realized that he can take this principle of "sharding" that is already used for InstantX and take it further. He's basically doing what all online roleplaying games have done for years (Everquest, World of Warcraft, etc.). Instead of every node processing every transaction or request for service, decentralized quorums can be used to provide that functionality. This allows vastly increased transactions per second, etc.
I'm really excited about this, as well as the decentralized API and the built-in anonymity and improved masternode blinding. The future looks really impressive.
One last thing: we tend to get distracted by the trolls here and they can make it look like the whole world is skeptical. But look at what's happening in the real world--Evan has secured an invite to one of the most prestigious bitcoin conferences in the world. Real people are listening. Really important people.
P.S. Dash currently has a marketcap of around $14 million. This is literally pocket change when thinking about real world numbers. When stuff like Tender, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter, Uber, AirBnB, Facebook, etc. are worth BILLIONS...the return on our Dash investment could be beyond staggering. Ever wonder what it would have been like to get in on Bitcoin in 2010? You may very well find out in a few years.
