[ANN][IPO] Spark: New codebase for a new crypto - Fund raising [3/4]

[zifcom]

interested

[1715015112]

1715015112

[1715015112]

1715015112

[1715015112]

1715015112

[1715015112]

1715015112

[boenxia]

I am very optimistic about this coin

[lounge]

interested

[yudfj]

If you invest 1btc out of a total of 100btc invested, you will indeed get 1% of all Sparks

[Spark-crypto]

https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

can we have a video/screenshot/code snippet??

We wanted to keep everything private until release / have everything be a full surprise, but it is obvious that this is not how trust is generated. Bad/naive thinking on our part. We are better developers than social engineers or communication specialists, we'll try to improve on that.


Here is a screenshot of the Windows build of the Spark wallet. We went for a minimalistic style due to being graphically impaired, but the wallet can easily be skinned over / redesigned once we're past release and people offer us better looking graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/Lg6Djwy.png


No point in giving a screenshot of our minimalistic wallet (sparkyd), as text in command line is not exactly what I'd call exciting. We'll add this screenshot to the main post.



As for the code snippet, we had a hard time finding a bit of code that fits the following requirements:
1) Does not expose any of our core working methods before release
2) Is not totally worthless, like a whole file of exception codes or config

We went with the class that handles remote calls:

Code:

# Remote call to another Spark client or node
class Remote(object):
    def __init__(self, cloudid, cloud=None, ident=None, ssf=None, maxwait=15, *args, **kwargs):
        if cloud is None: cloud = 'default'
        if ident is None: ident = ''
        if isinstance(cloudid, six.text_type): cloudid = cloudid.encode('utf-8')
        if isinstance(ident, six.text_type): ident = ident.encode('utf-8')
        if isinstance(cloud, six.text_type): cloud = cloud.encode('utf-8')
        if isinstance(ssf, six.text_type): ssf = ssf.encode('utf-8')
        super(Proxy, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.neutralizer = 0
        self.cloudid = cloudid
        self.ssf = ssf
        self.cloud = cloud
        self.ident = ident
        self.maxwait = maxwait

    def __getattr__(self, name):
        if self.ssf is not None:
            name = '.'.join([self.ssf, name])
        return self.__class__(self.cloudid, self.cloud, self.ident, name, self.maxwait)

    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if args and kwargs:
            raise ValueError(u"Should and can not encode both parameters")
        if self.ssf is None:
            raise ValueError(u"Must specify")

        self.neutralizer = (self.neutralizer+1) & 0xffffffff
        hash_ = sha1(b''.join([self.cloudid, self.ssf, self.cloud, Lint(self.neutralizer).serialize(4), time.ctime(), Lint(randrange(2**32)).serialize(4)])).digest()
        id_ = Lint.deserialize(StringIO(hash_[:4]), 4)

        sparkinfo = dumps(id_, self.ssf, kwargs or args)
        headers = {'Content-Type' : 'application/json'}
        reply = requests.post(self.cloudid, auth=(self.cloud, self.ident), data=sparkinfo, maxwait=self.maxwait)
        if reply.status_code >= 500:
            reply.raise_for_status()
        response = loads(reply.content)

        if 'id' not in response or response['id'] != id_:
            raise ResponseError(u"Unexpected reply")
        if ('error' in response and response['error'] is not None and
            'result' in response and response['result'] is not None):
            raise ResponseError(u"Can't have a response and an error at once")

        if 'error' in response and response['error'] is not None:
            raise Fault('code' in response['error'] and response['error']['code'] or -1, 'message' in response['error'] and response['error']['message'] or '', 'description' in response['error'] and response['error']['description'] or None)
        elif 'result' in response:
            return response['result']
        else:
            raise ResponseError(u"Must have at least a response or an error")

https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

How can we make sure that the BTC address is btc-asia's address? Can the escrow make any public announcement of the whole operation?

Also. btc-asia-escrow@hotmail.com? hotmail, really? There is a website btc-asia.com, is it their website? Why the hotmail then?

They try to distance themselves from direct involvement in any operations they are in. This was a major contention point between us and them, but we have just asked them to post something on their website if possible regarding the Spark IPO.

A specific email inbox for the Spark IPO is meant to be opened by them, but we're waiting for confirmation that it's operational. I added it to the main post, awaiting confirmation from them now. Timezones and family life make communication between us difficult, we will do our best. We will delete this email address until they confirm it is working.




https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

you say you will not delete criticism yet you deleted my post. If you delete it again i will report you and leave you a nice negative trust.

This was a misunderstanding, we thought that your gif was some form of advertisement, like the others we removed from the thread (namely « crypto tower », « crypto calendar », and some mining pool). You can keep your post and gif if it's just a scam accusation: as we said in the main post, we're ready to live with those. They come with the territory.




https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

One question I have for the developers is how many total coins will there be? You mention in your earlier thread that one billion will be distributed initially, which could now be outdated information. Please clarify.

From this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525419 : « There will be 1 000 000 000 (one billion) sparks distributed initially, with nothing at all premined or reserved for the developers »

This information has not changed since, we will stick with this number.



https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

[Gunther]

I'm going to invest. The only strange this is this sentence:

Most escrow services and private escrows turned us down, as they do not like the idea of handling this kind of business.

Why would they turn you down, but accept some random crap/clonecoins at the same time?

[dawj20]

One question I have for the developers is how many total coins will there be? You mention in your earlier thread that one billion will be distributed initially, which could now be outdated information. Please clarify.

From this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525419 : « There will be 1 000 000 000 (one billion) sparks distributed initially, with nothing at all premined or reserved for the developers »

This information has not changed since, we will stick with this number.

Yes, I saw that. It says INITIALLY. I wanted you to confirm the TOTAL lifetime amount of coins. Is the total one billion? Thank you.

[Spark-crypto]

https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

I'm going to invest. The only strange this is this sentence:

Most escrow services and private escrows turned us down, as they do not like the idea of handling this kind of business.

Why would they turn you down, but accept some random crap/clonecoins at the same time?

Here is how our escrow search went:

Step one: Finding a serious escrow that does other things than bitcoin. This was actually a very hard step, there needs to be a good index of escrows somewhere. We'd have even been ready to pay to see a detailed lists of escrows, their trust rating, and what kind of business they accept.

Step two: Having the escrow accept us. Most escrows did not want to be associated with IPOs or with people who decide to remain anonymous because they are the ones who look bad if the IPO fails or ends up being a scam. We offered a testnet wallet to prove that we were real, but all but two didn't even want it and stopped their business with us at this step.

Step three: We had only two escrow options left. One of them was not looking serious enough however. We believe that he was probably a scammer, as he was offering to do it for 0% fee and without any cost. In our eyes, this was extremely suspicious, and felt like he was just waiting for an opportunity to run away with some big money.

Step four: The escrow service we were left with is a semi-automated service. For small escrows, they have a website, but they are ready to handle big escrows like IPOs for us in exchange for 1btc in advance and a fee of 1%. We also have to keep track of investors ourselves, and tell them who to give the Sparks to. This might sound like a lot of negative things, but there is a much bigger positive with them: They were  willing to give us a real life identity and prove (through a bank payment of 0.01$) that they are the two persons they say they are.

Communication with them is not easy as they are in an asian timezone and are slow at writing english in real time chat, but when we take our time we can understand ourselves just fine. We did not even ask for the real life identity verification, they offered it themselves, and we appreciated that gesture a lot.




It seems like cryptocurrencies that are not established yet and IPOs have gained an association with scams, and when looking for an escrow you are caught in the middle of this. In their eyes, you are just like the rest, a scammer trying to make quick money. Even after offering to give them a working version of our wallet on testnet, they mostly refused and dismissed us as they do not want to be attached to something that is not big like bitcoin.




https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

One question I have for the developers is how many total coins will there be? You mention in your earlier thread that one billion will be distributed initially, which could now be outdated information. Please clarify.

From this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525419 : « There will be 1 000 000 000 (one billion) sparks distributed initially, with nothing at all premined or reserved for the developers »

This information has not changed since, we will stick with this number.

Yes, I saw that. It says INITIALLY. I wanted you to confirm the TOTAL lifetime amount of coins. Is the total one billion? Thank you.

Yes, with no mining, the number of coins can not go up.

However, as we mentioned on the original post, there is an annual 10% proof of stake inflation of the total amount of coins. This gives a small advantage to people who decide to have their Sparks in a wallet (even locked/cold storage) where they can hoard them or spend them in shops and e-commerces. The reason for this is that we want to encourage people to use wallets for their Sparks instead of keeping them on exchanges.

The PoS minting is done every day (about 0.028% inflation per day), and is the only way new Sparks can be introduced. It would not even be possible for us to insert more Sparks in the economy without making a hard fork, as only the cloud with the id 0 can contain new Sparks, and that cloud has already been generated and locked.


The stake generation will only start after a bit over one year, on the 1st of May 2015. Until then, the number of coins in circulation will be exactly one billion, not less not more.



https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif     https://i.imgur.com/rRY7MUg.gif

[dawj20]

One question I have for the developers is how many total coins will there be? You mention in your earlier thread that one billion will be distributed initially, which could now be outdated information. Please clarify.

From this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=525419 : « There will be 1 000 000 000 (one billion) sparks distributed initially, with nothing at all premined or reserved for the developers »

This information has not changed since, we will stick with this number.

Yes, I saw that. It says INITIALLY. I wanted you to confirm the TOTAL lifetime amount of coins. Is the total one billion? Thank you.

Yes, with no mining, the number of coins can not go up.

However, as we mentioned on the original post, there is an annual 10% proof of stake inflation of the total amount of coins. This gives a small advantage to people who decide to have their Sparks in a wallet (even locked/cold storage) where they can hoard them or spend them in shops and e-commerces. The reason for this is that we want to encourage people to use wallets for their Sparks instead of keeping them on exchanges.

The PoS minting is done every day (about 0.028% inflation per day), and is the only way new Sparks can be introduced. It would not even be possible for us to insert more Sparks in the economy without making a hard fork, as only the cloud with the id 0 can contain new Sparks, and that cloud has already been generated and locked.


The stake generation will only start after a bit over one year, on the 1st of May 2015. Until then, the number of coins in circulation will be exactly one billion, not less not more.

Great! Thanks for clearing that up. I knew about the staking, I just wasn't clear on if the "1 000 000 000 (one billion) sparks distributed initially" was still accurate or if that information was based on your previous plan to release the coins in 10% increments. I understand fully now.

[dawj20]

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

Combined them into one image and smoothed out the jaggies a bit.

[KyLins]

I hope that the success of the project, participants can share the joy of success.

[Polycoin]

No Offense, I'm not trolling this one post, but to get money from Me for a IPO, you would need a website already for your coin, a working wallet for your coin, and all the details/specifications on that website, along with forums, AS WELL AS having your full identity in the public which includes your name date of birth and LINKEDIN profile or at least a list of places or projects youve done/worked on so users know your qualified and not scamming the shit out of them. That wiill show me that you're prepared to actually fully develop your coin until the end.

Not fully sure on what to think...

[Gunther]

Here is how our escrow search went:

Step one: Finding a serious escrow that does other things than bitcoin. This was actually a very hard step, there needs to be a good index of escrows somewhere. We'd have even been ready to pay to see a detailed lists of escrows, their trust rating, and what kind of business they accept.

Step two: Having the escrow accept us. Most escrows did not want to be associated with IPOs or with people who decide to remain anonymous because they are the ones who look bad if the IPO fails or ends up being a scam. We offered a testnet wallet to prove that we were real, but all but two didn't even want it and stopped their business with us at this step.

Step three: We had only two escrow options left. One of them was not looking serious enough however. We believe that he was probably a scammer, as he was offering to do it for 0% fee and without any cost. In our eyes, this was extremely suspicious, and felt like he was just waiting for an opportunity to run away with some big money.

Step four: The escrow service we were left with is a semi-automated service. For small escrows, they have a website, but they are ready to handle big escrows like IPOs for us in exchange for 1btc in advance and a fee of 1%. We also have to keep track of investors ourselves, and tell them who to give the Sparks to. This might sound like a lot of negative things, but there is a much bigger positive with them: They were  willing to give us a real life identity and prove (through a bank payment of 0.01$) that they are the two persons they say they are.

Communication with them is not easy as they are in an asian timezone and are slow at writing english in real time chat, but when we take our time we can understand ourselves just fine. We did not even ask for the real life identity verification, they offered it themselves, and we appreciated that gesture a lot.

Okay, well. Your answer still doesn't convince me. Why should you trust some random (?) Chinese guys? I'd rather give you my money directly, than give it to an unknown (?) Chinese company.
Sorry for being sceptic, but it's money we're talking about. I'm willing to invest 1 BTC in your project, because i do believe it has big potential, but with an escrow like that? Hmm...

Do they have references? Did other people already used their services at this board? You can always send me a PM if this is too much offtopic.

[freet0pian]

I still think its a poor choice having a self moderated topic. Is the little spamming doing harm that outweighs the fact this topic is self moderated?

I'm interested in investing but in the free world of crypto + anonymity thrown in the mix I have to be extra careful where I put my coins.

[lemfuture]

ipo tried

[dawj20]

It would be great if ninjaboon (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=64005) could post in this thread to confirm that his service (btc-asia.com) is involved in the escrow.

[wizzardTim]

It would be great if ninjaboon (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=64005) could post in this thread to confirm that his service (btc-asia.com) is involved in the escrow.

I'd like that too. I'm ready to invest.

[ninjaboon]

It would be great if ninjaboon (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=64005) could post in this thread to confirm that his service (btc-asia.com) is involved in the escrow.

I cannot confirm anything until Spark-crypto emails me with some validation or more information. my email is admin@btc-asia.com
Till now, I have yet to get any info from user = Spark-crypto.

Until then, please stay tuned.

[TomGreed]

I think you should use an escrow on bitcointalk.org.

[IUrry]

It would be great if ninjaboon (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=64005) could post in this thread to confirm that his service (btc-asia.com) is involved in the escrow.

I cannot confirm anything until Spark-crypto emails me with some validation or more information. my email is admin@btc-asia.com
Till now, I have yet to get any info from user = Spark-crypto.

Until then, please stay tuned.

Sounds interesting now.   The dev said they will use the escrow service, but the manager of escrow service didn't know about that!!!

Dev, do sth to show ur trustable!