Open letter to GLBSE operators and developers.

[LoupGaroux]

@fizzizizt- my encrypted data doesn't appear to be the same format as yours- and when I opened a new account to test it did encrypt and decrypt the data correctly... until this morning when the second account went down with the same lock-up as the first

@cablepair- agreed. And I have to believe that somewhere in the system there is record of what was owned by that scrambled or even lost private key. I believe that there is a statement by Nefario that if you can accurately describe what should have been in the account, he can recover the account. That presumes, however, that Nefario is speaking. And thanks for your comments.

All I want, and I believe a lot of other users would want- is a system that works as advertised, and has some level of responsiveness when it doesn't work as advertised.

[LoupGaroux]

Actually, the asset that is listed as GLBSE on the exchange is alleged to be a scam. There was some discussion on their forum that they might take their shares public one day, and some investors thought that when GLBSE hit the market they had done so, but the story being circulated is that was not the case, it was supposedly a scammer.

Of course, I can't get into either one of my accounts now to see if this is true or not.

I do agree that having someone engaged, active and willing to capitalize the venture would be of enormous value.

[DeaDTerra]

Actually, the asset that is listed as GLBSE on the exchange is alleged to be a scam. There was some discussion on their forum that they might take their shares public one day, and some investors thought that when GLBSE hit the market they had done so, but the story being circulated is that was not the case, it was supposedly a scammer.

Of course, I can't get into either one of my accounts now to see if this is true or not.

I do agree that having someone engaged, active and willing to capitalize the venture would be of enormous value.

Nefario himself has said that the current GLBSE is a fake one and that it's going to be removed, he hasn't removed it yet though

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=239

[ripper234]

Actually, the asset that is listed as GLBSE on the exchange is alleged to be a scam. There was some discussion on their forum that they might take their shares public one day, and some investors thought that when GLBSE hit the market they had done so, but the story being circulated is that was not the case, it was supposedly a scammer.

Of course, I can't get into either one of my accounts now to see if this is true or not.

I do agree that having someone engaged, active and willing to capitalize the venture would be of enormous value.

Nefario himself has said that the current GLBSE is a fake one and that it's going to be removed, he hasn't removed it yet though

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=239

+1 for thie entire thread. GLBSE is a great idea, but execution and support has sadly faltered in the last few weeks/months.

We need either a distributed GLBSE (possibly utilizing blockchain tech), or one with a serious organization behind it.

[btc_artist]

I'm having this same problem.  I can enter my account, but it just says "loading..." and never loads.

[DeaDTerra]

GLBSE seem to be down and has been so for the last at least 18 hours according to when I last tried to log in and not getting any information back.

[btc_artist]

GLBSE seem to be down and has been so for the last at least 18 hours according to when I last tried to log in and not getting any information back.

But it seems LoupGaroux got it to work by creating a new account and importing his data?

[sadpandatech]

  GLBSE, where are youuuuu?  

  There are many among the community, myself included that are more than willing to pay more for your services if that would help you to resolve any current issues.

  If I may, I'd like to offer up a very unorthodoxed solution to the current fradulent asset under the assumed name GLBSE.  I think you should assume control of the asset and keep it, in as far as the name is concerned. Of course, we'd expect you to offer any one that bought into it the chance to sell back their shares. But, I trust that those that did buy those shares did so because they want to invest in GLBSE. I want to invest in GLBSE. I want to see it grow and there is a definite need for its services and lots of potential to add even more traditional IPO/Stock functions.

  Monetization Idea;

  One way I see for GLBSE to better monitize from the existing platform would be to modify the cost of creating assets. The .5 BTC fee for new asset seems fine but I don't see why GLBSE should not have a share based fee as well. This could work in one of two ways.
 
      A. When an asset is created, charge a fee based on total value of shares created. I.E., a % of the total BTC value of all shares. Something small like .5%, 1% or 2%. Maybe base that fee on certain risk
           factors of the asset creator. Besides extra revenue this model will also reduce the creation of junk assets...
  
       B. Request that the asset creator either assign a % of the total share creation or set just an obligation to GLBSE for that % of shares. The earlier would earn GLBSE dividends from those shares and the
           later would give GLBSE the option to own or sell the value of the shares. GLBSE could offer both of these as choices and charge a lower % of shares for the assigned option than the ownership one. I.E.,
           Someone creates an asset of 10,000 shares and GLBSE would either receive .5% (50 shares) assigned or 1% and GLBSE would receive 100 shares transfered in a manner that did not assign them for
           dividend dispersements.  GLBSE would also not offer the assignment option for assets that did not have a dividend baring assignment, due to being a bond or other asset type.

  I am sure there are many other fair methods of monetization that your potential client base can support. Unfortunatly it is not an area that I am an expert in so you may not find my ideas laudible but I am just very interested in seeing GLBSE be sucessful. As I feel it is a very vital aspect of the community going forward.


   Cheers,
     Derek

[DeathAndTaxes]

+1 for thie entire thread. GLBSE is a great idea, but execution and support has sadly faltered in the last few weeks/months.
We need either a distributed GLBSE (possibly utilizing blockchain tech), or one with a serious organization behind it.

+1.  When an exchange has a known fake/scammer ticker w/ same name as the exchange and promises to remove it are not fulfilled even after months the exchange is nearly worthless.

We have seen this time and time again w/ Bitcoin type businesses.
Stage 1: Someone comes up with an idea
Stage 2: Someone tries to implement it but screws it up badly.  The site/project is just an embarrassment to the community but it is the only one which exists.
Stage 3: Someone else implements the idea properly with polished execution.

I am sure the stage 3 for the Bitcoin stock exchange will come along soon enough.

[shakaru]

+1 for thie entire thread. GLBSE is a great idea, but execution and support has sadly faltered in the last few weeks/months.
We need either a distributed GLBSE (possibly utilizing blockchain tech), or one with a serious organization behind it.

+1.  When an exchange has a known fake/scammer ticker w/ same name as the exchange and promises to remove it are not fulfilled even after months the exchange is nearly worthless.

We have seen this time and time again w/ Bitcoin type businesses.
Stage 1: Someone comes up with an idea
Stage 2: Someone tries to implement it but screws it up badly.  The site/project is just an embarrassment to the community but it is the only one which exists.
Stage 3: Someone else implements the idea properly with polished execution.

I am sure the stage 3 for the Bitcoin stock exchange will come along soon enough.

In regards to #3, care join up and do just that? Nerfario and his GLBSE has cost my company and its investors alot of money as a result of the issues within its programing. I would create an exchange at this point just to have an second option.
PS. NEFARIO! ANSEWER YOUR F*ING MESSAGES. LAST WARNING

[Red Emerald]

+1 for thie entire thread. GLBSE is a great idea, but execution and support has sadly faltered in the last few weeks/months.

We need either a distributed GLBSE (possibly utilizing blockchain tech), or one with a serious organization behind it.

I'm a web developer, and interested in assisting with building an open-source web exchange similar to GLBSE.  A block-chain based exchange would be cool, but I would be less able to assist with it.  Could we somehow use the personal namespace of namecoin?  Should we start another thread to discuss this?

EDIT: Looks like someone beat me to it. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52494.0

[k]

I don't think Nefario frequents this forum much these days so he may not be aware of this thread. His profile on here says he's gone to https://bitcoin.org.uk/forums/

Also looks like could be moving out of China and back to Europe at the moment.

https://bitcoin.org.uk/forums/index.php?app=ccs&module=articles&section=promote&post=2193

Posted 06 November 2011 - 05:14 AM
I'm flying back to Ireland later today so I'll be in communication limbo with everything regarding GLBSE for a couple of days. I'll only be in Ireland for about a week until I move to Manchester, which will become my new base of operations.

Nefario.

[cablepair]

On Behalf of BTCWebHost.com I will be happy to offer free hosting for this project, if someone actually does this.

[LoupGaroux]

GLBSE seem to be down and has been so for the last at least 18 hours according to when I last tried to log in and not getting any information back.

But it seems LoupGaroux got it to work by creating a new account and importing his data?

Nope, my second account died the same death this morning. I am now locked out of two accounts and counting.

[N12]

Have you guys seen the following posts yet? Seems like you can recover your accounts now if they’re locked.

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=252&p=842#p842

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=254&p=844#p844

[fizzisist]

Have you guys seen the following posts yet? Seems like you can recover your accounts now if they’re locked.

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=252&p=842#p842

https://glbse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=254&p=844#p844

Yay, thanks for letting us know! Very glad to hear that Nefario is back in action again.

[LoupGaroux]

Happy to report I have gotten a communication from Doc Nefario as well, and the fix is begun.

[Nefario]

Hello everyone, I'm back, back in the west and back to my old self again.

It's pretty late right now and I'll be up in a few hours, I'm heading to Manchester today which is where I'll be from now on(well I'll be back in Ireland for Christmas and the new year). Please forgive spelling mistakes or any lack of clarity.

In regards to my "lack of presence" these last few months the best I was capable of was to keep GLBSE just about running, and even at times I'd not managed that too well. But it's the best I could do, I'm not going to go into details as it's personal. But that doesn't matter. I'm sorry for not doing better.

Now onto GLBSE.

Communication: I'll try to be as in touch as possible, including frequenting this forum, irc, and any other communication channel I can.

I believe GLBSE to be something of a slight failure, but one that is not unsalvageable.

In my attempt to provide a web application that was as secure as possible (mission achieved, no breakins) I have learned some hard lessons.

Sometimes security is not the most important, the public/private key methods of authentication are very secure, but very difficult to use. It put all the responsibility to look after those keys on the user, which has proven to be something of a mistake. Bruce Schneier has said that key management is the real barrier to mass adoption of cryptography and he's right, it's really hard. And that's what that issue was, key management.

After choosing this authentication method I had to improve usability (who still uses the command line client? How much easier is the web based one?). But I'm not a Javascript expert, I can play a little but building something this complicated (cryptography in JavaScript) was well above my level of ability(we had to implement some of the most basic cryptographic building blocks to get this working). So I managed to find an excellent developer in the states, paid him very well, and he built the web interface that you now know.

Then he stopped, was no longer interested in getting paid it seemed and stopped developing, eventually stopped answering me. I tried but failed to find an alternative developer. As a result client side development on GLBSE came to a standstill. It was during this time that I tried to go to the states(you all know the result of that). Not long after returning my personal issues got in the way.

I was the lead dev on this project, and I brought development in a direction that I could not personally do, relying on another developer that was hard to replace, and eventually let me down. Essentially I lead this project down an evolutionary dead-end.

The next big mistake was to have EVERYTHING as anonymous, normal users fine but even having people who issue shares be anonymous has turned out to be a recipe for disaster. There were a number of reasons for this choice though. First was privacy, which I believed everyone should have, and still do(with exceptions, I'll get to that later). The second was simply logistical, we were trying to run a market, not spend our time verifying whether someone is who they say they are.

The combination of the new authentication method (which has proven secure but hard to use) and total; pure anonymity, combined with bad timing for events in my personal life was GLBSE's downfall.

With regards the fraudulent GLBSE listing, I'll find out just what was lost and attempt to re-imburse investors who had bought shares with my own funds (it really depends on how much, I'm pretty skint/poor at the moment).


The future of GLBSE

Does GLBSE have a future? The sad answer to that questions is no, certainly not in it's current form, and not in this direction of development. So it's here that I'm going to outline where we're going.

I'm not sure whether to drop webkeys and the whole public/private key authentication system entirely or just build a normal web-based front end onto it (what do you think? opinions below). I don't want to throw away something that others have built on.

Whatever  the choice we will have:
A traditional web based interface with full market functionality
Normal username/password + traditional account recovery methods for authentication
Simple json over https web service for people using the market
Privately developed charts specifically developed for GLBSE
Streaming quotes over websockets

Identity authentication for anyone who wants to list (i.e. they'll need to prove they are who they say they are), I understand that the bitcoin police are already working/finished this, if not then I'll ensure it's developed.

I will be GLBSE's first full time employee.

In terms of funding GLBSE has at it's disposal over 1000BTC, which is OK but not much for a startup. But from reading many of the posts on here it seems that many many others want to, not so much invest but want to be a part of this and make it something great.

I will push to make GLBSE (as ticker symbol BG, I'll take back the symbol GLBSE from the fraudsters)  a publicly held share on the market, so that everyone can own it, invest in it, profit from it, and have a say over it. This will take a little time.

I also need help:
Developers (Ruby)
Marketing, Design
Support, Documentation
Servers/Bandwidth
Funding

With the exception of ColdHardMetal who's been doing a great job on accounts I've been doing all the above. This is not charity, I won't ask for help for nothing, you'll get a share in the company so that your success is tied up with it's success.

[ripper234]

Hi Nefario, glad to see you rise from the dead ... I hope your personal situation/problems are over, and was sorry to hear about them.

As I see it, GLBSE has a few issues right now:

1. Lack of support, and single point of failure. You, being the sole owner and the only one able to support GLBSE, is simply not good enough for a business that aims to be "the global stock exchange".
2. Stagnation of development, both in terms of website/usability, and in terms of "project development" - bringing actual legitimate investments into GLBSE.
3. You are still trying to run GLBSE anonymously. It's a barrier for GLBSE to become really huge, because if at any point it is huge, you can take a lot of money and run away with it.
4. If there can be a decentralized stock exchange, there should be one ... it's a matter of time. Take a look at this initial proposal by Meni Rosenfeld.

These issues can be resolved. I think that if you want to push GLBSE, in addition to taking investor funds, you really need to find a good co-founder. There shouldn't be a single point of failure in such a business, and another mind to bash ideas against is a must have for a successful business. For the issues above:

1. Once you have more people that are aligned with your vision (and later ... are on your payroll), this shouldn't be a problem.
2. If you suddenly had 10,000 or 50,000 BTC, I believe you would be able to fund development, and make a real effort to attract business by various means. I suggest as a co-founder you get a non-technical type, but rather a business type, that can make the necessary connection and close deals, to attract real world business to raise money via GLBSE.
3. I believe you should really consider coming forth with a real proof of identity for yourself, and other people heavily involved with GLBSE such as the above co-founder. Credability is what's sorely missing in a lot of Bitcoin business these days. While I get and support the right to remain anonymous, it's hard to except people to trust an anonymous online identity to manage a lot of money.
4. You can develop a backend for GLBSE that will be completely decentralized and open source. Being the market leader, or actually sole player, you have a huge lead. If you publish a real P2P backend for trading stocks, with GLBSE as its frontend, you could score major points and trust, even while remaining anonymous.

One more point - I believe people who submit assets should not be required to identify, but rather all those who identify properly will be presented as "verified assets". Market forces will dictate whether the unverified assets vanish completely, or will remain a marginal portion of the market.

Good luck, and good health!

[Nefario]

Hey Ripper,
On the issue of me being anonymous, I'm not. If you check the people page of GLBSE.com my real names there( hint it starts with J, and ends with ames McCarthy). Later this month I'll be heading to Birmingham to meet up with Vladimir (runs bitcoin.org.uk) and he'll be able to identify me to the community. It's been out there for some time. Besides I think I've managed not to run off up to this point so far 

On GLBSE development it had stalled for two reasons:
1) My own personal issues
2) My main developer was gone and I couldn't push it forward using the current methods(JavaScript development)

So, personal issues are now aside and once I've taken care of the main support issues (locked accounts and constant downtime) I'll start bringing it forward once again but in a different development direction.

I'll ensure that support is not going to be a problem again. I've already taken care of a good few ones (including the OP's issues).

I'll take a co-founder if I can find one. I'll also start bringing more funding onboard to make things happen.

Nefario.