The Official Mastercoin Foundation, Master Protocol & Mastercoin Thread

[mishax1]

What the fuck is that..

https://twitter.com/SimonEdhouse/status/550122600156778496

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[crazy_rabbit]

What the fuck is that..

https://twitter.com/SimonEdhouse/status/550122600156778496

I can only assume it's a shot in the dark- a hope to peg the value of some other crowdfunding at some MSC/BTC level like Maidsafe to pull the price up? Who knows- but that conversation is kind of funny/depressing.

[jrmg]

Look, here's the deal with all the tough love. I always felt jr had alot of class in the way he responded to critics. Hell look at peter todds initial reactions a year ago, they were pretty tough. One of the claims/ questions at the beginning of this project was what happens to MSC if someone copies it. The answer was we have the networking effect, plus will adapt or take any new tech that we need in order to stay on top. So everyone, please forgive me for trying to hold their feet to the fire.

Keep holding our feet to the fire.  We welcome it.

You ask about the advantages?

1. Master Core / Omni Core is a drop-in replacement for Bitcoin Core, which is why we have more integrators using it (such as Bitfinex, GoCoin and Expresscoin for Tether).  
2. Master Core / Omni Core, written in C++, parses the blockchain in 10 minutes (others, written in python, take over a day - ask exchanges why that’s important)
3. We have never had to turn off or rollback any features/transactions due to faults (or for any other issue).
4. Assets issued on the Master / Omni Protocol are valued higher than all assets on other technologies combined.
5. Master / Omni protocol does not charge native-token fees for core functionality.
6. 10+ person team working on many aspects of development (protocol, core, UI, web, database, dev ops, integration, QA/testing, etc).

This past year was laying the foundation - the initial investment was used for this purpose.  A few bold and innovative projects leveraged the protocol during this period.  Next year, the wide spread of back-end integrations and new issuers and sponsors will begin to show just how good the platform is.  Moving from the Mastercoin Foundation to Omni, giving the foundation and technology to the community, and showing off what a few million dollars worth of development can do is what next year is all about.

Happy New Years, everyone. Keep watching.

Craig

Craig, i am not really technical people. Can you explain me what making Omni Core better than other similiar projects like Counterparty?

You have already features what Ola offer for you few message ago?

[ejinte]

"just change the name and everything will be fine"
 

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

What the fuck is that..

https://twitter.com/SimonEdhouse/status/550122600156778496

Proof that the mastercoin and counterparty are funded by the same money. Also proof that Simon is kinda a douche.

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

And proof that jr is alive and well, and flush with cash.

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

Guys, if you want new projects then demonstrate a willingness to stand up for your project as well as engage the community more and people will flock back. Alot have been watching from the shadows.

That resonse from udecker about how good your code is went miles, we need more of stuff like that.


Edit. This comminty really loves contests, maybe some type of omni rebranding contest to get people involved. Ie: best new logo, most innovative video, most positive tweets, best article, intersting omni inspired artwork, etc

[JohnnyBTCSeed]

Also it wouldnt hurt if you put up a buy wall similar to the jl777 supernet

[udecker]

I like the idea of contests, as well.  I’d love to see some good cool videos that can explain how someone can easily create an asset out of thin air using Omni ;-)

I shared some of this on the subreddit earlier, but thought this audience would appreciate it as well.

We shifted development focus at the end of December to bring live the STO (Send-To-Owners) feature on mainnet.  This is where an issuer can send a proportional amount of their token to all holders based on amount held in a single transaction.  It was a release obligation for an issuer who will be doing their crowdsale and issuance later this month, and needed this feature live to do so.  We’ve got a few more days of testing before we tag this release (0.0.9) and send out the daemon to integrators.  This also brings the codebase in line with Bitcoin Core 0.9.3.  I’m hoping we can immediately follow this daemon release with the Windows UI build - likely first for testing and then a wider audience.  Some of us have been using it internally (in place of Bitcoin Core), and the final few bugs are getting worked out.  I really like it. :-)

Once this is done, focus will resume on two things:

First and foremost the DEx (decentralized exchange).  We’ve taken a huge amount of input from professional traders on the types of functionality that this will require so that they can use it for their needs.  Protocol wise, it’s extremely elegant - it’s a single transaction type (“I want to exchange this many of such and such for this many of such and such), and all matching is done automatically.  This means that you have the thing you bought the moment it’s matched - single confirmation exchange.  The types of calls that you can make against it are exactly what professional traders use on traditional exchanges.  We were about 90% done with verifying the matching logic before we switched over to STO, so it’s pretty close.  This is one of those things that has to work perfectly the moment it goes live - so we’re not taking any chances on it.  You can check out the testing procedures here:
https://docs.google.com/a/mastercoin.org/spreadsheets/d/1oL2jGfG3BwslURyDTYNvM6Z2p79ux46NmwcXDYleEbg

The DEx is important for many things, but the thing that excites me the most is what happens when you combine a Bitcoin-blockchain-based decentralized exchange with Tether.  For those who aren’t aware, Tether is the project (formerly called Realcoin) that provides a “fiat-surrogate” token, built on Omni, where one TetherUSD always matches one USD - where the dollars that back the token are held in reserve, used only for redemption.  When you combine a token whose value is always constant with a decentralized exchange (such as the Omni Exchange DEx), all of a sudden the entire blockchain knows the value of all the other tokens.  Once you allow the market to trade Tethers against MSC/OMNI, or trade it against BTC, a permanent record of that exchange now exists directly on the blockchain.  This enables smart contracts - because without it, no one is going to commit to pay 30 BTC over 4 years for a car if the smart contract can’t figure out how much a BTC is worth at the time of each payment.  Now the blockchain has this information, and all smart contracts can use that data to price all of the payment conditions.  For me, this is huge (not to mention that with Tether you’ll be able to withdraw your fiat balances from exchanges directly onto the blockchain as dollars!).

Happening concurrently is the new Omniwallet UI - and we’d like to have it released in time for BTC Miami.  Screenshots available here:
https://github.com/mastercoin-MSC/omniwallet/issues/1137

All the while, we’re in near-constant communication with the projects that have integrated Omni Core / Master Core, and those that are doing crowdsales or token issuances.  We’ve got a a lot of interesting projects in the pipeline, and they rely on the team’s expertise to get it done.  We’re forming solid relationships with some truly innovative individuals and groups, and I am really looking forward to what we’re going to accomplish this year.

The shift to the Omni Foundation from the Mastercoin Foundation is happening this month as well - giving the codebase back to the community that uses it.  Those who participated in the original Mastercoin crowdsale trusted this team with the funds necessary to get us to where we are today, and we have and will continue to deliver.  Integrators such as Bitfinex, Expresscoin and GoCoin have all exclaimed not only how easy it is to integrate Omni Core into their systems, but that they had no idea how powerful of a platform we had built until they plugged it in.  One exchange CEO told me “this is amazing - it does exactly what it’s supposed to do, it’s easy, and I’ve barely scratched the surface."  Now they’re looking at even more ways to use Omni.

Mastercoin was the first meta layer on the Bitcoin blockchain, and is the most widely deployed and robust environment for creating and issuing assets on top of Bitcoin, and the assets created on the platform are worth more than all of the other meta assets value combined.  I’m extremely proud of this team, and I hope that the wider community begins to appreciate what’s been created.

Craig

[ejinte]

I thought the DEx was to be release at Mars 15 2014.

Still waiting.

[dexX7]

I thought the DEx was to be release at Mars 15 2014.

Still waiting.

The token/bitcoin exchange was launched on March 15 2014, but the token/token exchange is not yet live on mainnet.

[jrmg]

Once this is done, focus will resume on two things:

First and foremost the DEx (decentralized exchange).  We’ve taken a huge amount of input from professional traders on the types of functionality that this will require so that they can use it for their needs.  Protocol wise, it’s extremely elegant - it’s a single transaction type (“I want to exchange this many of such and such for this many of such and such), and all matching is done automatically.  This means that you have the thing you bought the moment it’s matched - single confirmation exchange.  The types of calls that you can make against it are exactly what professional traders use on traditional exchanges.  We were about 90% done with verifying the matching logic before we switched over to STO, so it’s pretty close.  This is one of those things that has to work perfectly the moment it goes live - so we’re not taking any chances on it.  You can check out the testing procedures here:
https://docs.google.com/a/mastercoin.org/spreadsheets/d/1oL2jGfG3BwslURyDTYNvM6Z2p79ux46NmwcXDYleEbg

Professional traders need speed, what is your solution for BTC/assets trading or how fast that is with MSC/Omni protocol? Many professional trader want trade BTC/assets not assets/assets pairs.

[udecker]

Professional traders need speed, what is your solution for BTC/assets trading or how fast that is with MSC/Omni protocol? Many professional trader want trade BTC/assets not assets/assets pairs.

For speed, Omniwallet is looking at integrations with Factom as well as other decentralized solutions (and also a couple centralized ones as well).  Professional traders looking to do BTC/assets will not have an easy time with anything on the Bitcoin blockchain - meta protocols can make tokens move, but only BTC transactions can make BTC move (and those must be explicit, unlike meta protocol transactions, which can be implicit and in reaction to other things).  However, we do see lot of interest in asset/Tether trading pairs, so that’ll be coming soon as well.  Centralized exchanges can also use the DEx as an additional liquidity source that they can couple with their own internal liquidity - and the RPC is available for them to do so.

If you want to take advantage of this market opportunity as you describe (BTC/assets), create an Omni token that stays in parity with (or is redeemable in) BTC.  Then they can trade in that directly and you can make a margin on it. ;-)  The “managed property” function in Omni used by Tether to dynamically grant and revoke tokens in response to a change in collateral gives you all the tools you need.

Craig

[gomei]

And proof that jr is alive and well, and flush with cash.

where is Jr?

[crazy_rabbit]

And proof that jr is alive and well, and flush with cash.

where is Jr?

Who even knows anymore. He doesn't bother to check in with the project or quell the disappointment.

[udecker]

And proof that jr is alive and well, and flush with cash.

where is Jr?

Who even knows anymore. He doesn't bother to check in with the project or quell the disappointment.

JR is working every day.  I am constantly on Skype calls with him (sometimes several times a day) with projects that are using Omni or are in the planning stages of a token issuance.  He is active on github for spec revisions and updates, and contributes heavily at the all-hands calls every Tuesday.  He has received a huge response from his email to interested projects and we’ve been busy speaking with these projects about how to get up and going on the platform.

Craig

[crazy_rabbit]

And proof that jr is alive and well, and flush with cash.

where is Jr?

Who even knows anymore. He doesn't bother to check in with the project or quell the disappointment.

JR is working every day.  I am constantly on Skype calls with him (sometimes several times a day) with projects that are using Omni or are in the planning stages of a token issuance.  He is active on github for spec revisions and updates, and contributes heavily at the all-hands calls every Tuesday.  He has received a huge response from his email to interested projects and we’ve been busy speaking with these projects about how to get up and going on the platform.

Craig

Thats nice to hear, because he doesn't pop up around here anymore- especially not when people really want/need to hear from him. And that email got a lot of traction on twitter as well. Although I WOULD be curious to hear if anything positive comes from it.

That said- it seems Overstock isn't working with Counterparty anymore (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=918859.msg10092334#msg10092334)

It's not explained what is going on clearly, but it seems like the Medici system won't be built on counterparty after all. This bodes badly for projects like Mastercoin as Overstock might be doing what I've suspected for awhile might happen if Bitcoin 2.0 projects don't step things up: They are probably going to fork/borrow from the open source projects what they need, and build their own proprietary system and perhaps just market that to the industry we had been expecting to service.

[udecker]

Thats nice to hear, because he doesn't pop up around here anymore- especially not when people really want/need to hear from him. And that email got a lot of traction on twitter as well. Although I WOULD be curious to hear if anything positive comes from it.

That said- it seems Overstock isn't working with Counterparty anymore (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=918859.msg10092334#msg10092334)

It's not explained what is going on clearly, but it seems like the Medici system won't be built on counterparty after all. This bodes badly for projects like Mastercoin as Overstock might be doing what I've suspected for awhile might happen if Bitcoin 2.0 projects don't step things up: They are probably going to fork/borrow from the open source projects what they need, and build their own proprietary system and perhaps just market that to the industry we had been expecting to service.

Regarding the interest from the conversations had with prospective issuers - a lot of these groups are relying on confidentiality so that they can be in control of their own PR, and that’s something we have to respect.  The end result may be that we don’t share good news until the issuer goes public with it, which sometimes ends up with the community wondering what’s going on the in background.  I don’t know of a good way to rectify this, but I can tell you that many of the conversations are exciting (some of the issuers have some pretty cool blockchain-related tech in the works, and we’re honored to be able to assist).  Tether, Factom, LaZooz, CryptoNext and HOPE Gold are the next big ones coming (already publicly announced), followed by a few that blew my mind that will be public in the weeks to come.

I can’t speak to Overstock’s plans, but I’m not too worried about the outcome with a launched Medici.  In the same sense that the Medici project can take whatever it wishes from open source projects (and end up closed source, from what I understand), any benefits or innovations created (and subsequently published on the blockchain) will be quickly inherited by open source platforms as well - assuming they provide some advantage over features already in production.

However, many of the “features” that Medici will likely require to become “fully compliant” (as described by Patrick Byrne in recent interviews) would be likely antithetical to those familiar with many of the benefits of cryptocurrency, such as: arbitrary callability and/or re-issuance (or outright “deletion”) of existing assets (those held in an address not controlled by the issuer), reversibility of transactions, blacklist/whitelist address tagging, etc.  It is too early to say whether these kinds of “features” being added to a cryptographic ledger-based token will be deemed “acceptable” by the current users, but they may be - and only time will tell.

Here’s an example: issuer A creates an asset on the blockchain.  Buyer B purchases the asset, and sells it to bad actor C (not necessarily knowing that C is a bad actor).  Bad actor C sells it to unknowing buyer D (let’s assume all of these exchanges occur fully decentralized).  Regulator steps in and seizes the funds from Actor C, and requires the issuer to revoke the asset from buyer D’s address.  If this is a common occurrence, why would buyers B and D ever purchase something on a decentralized exchange if the possibility of it being revoked outside of their control is possible?

There is a very fine line here - where do we draw the boundary for what an issuer can and cannot do with the assets created?  If I purchase an asset, and then lose the key to my address where it is stored, depending on what securities regulation exists, I should be able to get a new asset from the issuer.  But if I cannot prove I own that address (can’t sign with a key I’ve lost), what guarantees can I give the issuer that the asset was in fact lost?  If the asset issuer could “invalidate” the tokens in that address with a lost key, they must have the ability to invalidate the asset in *any* address.  It might be the guy I just sold it to, and I never lost the key at all.

I saw Patrick’s comments about the relationship with Counterparty, and it left me with some open questions, for sure.  For now, we’re not focusing on the idea of “securities” on the blockchain - we’re focusing on providing the benefits of a cryptographic ledger to the transfer of other-than-bitcoin assets on the Bitcoin blockchain.  We firmly believe that the features available to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies should be leveraged and improved, not watered down.  What’s the point in creating a decentralized algorithmic smart contract platform that does not require trust if you’re just going to allow the issuer to arbitrarily undo or negate those contracts?

Craig

[dacoinminster]

It seems like once a week I see a "where is J.R." question somewhere.

Every time I poke my head in here I try to emphasize - it doesn't MATTER where I am. I could be dead, and project would see very little impact. I participate in many ways, but we have so many smart people my presence is no longer critical to the success of the project.

People who keep asking where I am don't seem to be getting that message. What matters is the state of the project, not where J.R. is. I would argue that Satoshi's disappearance helped bitcoin more than hurt it. Too bad everybody knows my real name, or I could mysteriously disappear too!

The stuff with Counterparty is very . . . interesting. I didn't see it coming, but the distancing makes sense. It's too early to bet entirely on one horse (unless you are crazy like me). I doubt they are severing their relationship, but they probably did some more research and saw that there are a lot of projects which have a shot at becoming the next big thing, and didn't want to limit their options going forward.

[mishax1]

Thanks for posting. see ya next year