Here is a set of updates in no particular order:
[1] I was always extremely interested in the possibilities of a fully developed smart contract platform. I only got seriously involved in Bitcoin/Blockchain after I read the Ethereum whitepaper and wrote several whitepapers immediately following, including this (
https://github.com/fractastical/distributed-governance). I also co-ran the EtherCasts channel (
https://www.youtube.com/user/EtherCasts) which continues to be active. I've advised several Ethereum related projects and always believe that the ultimate "swarm" would require some sort of smart contract capable platform.
[2] Although I initially made the decision to adopt Counterparty, I've been rather seriously disappointed with Counterparty as an option at several points in the history of our project. Although I created and curated several of the main channels, including both the main Skype and Dev skype channel and partially bootstrapped the Counterparty developer community via my own efforts, I was pretty disappointed with decisions made internally.
The primary problems we've had along these lines have been:
(a) Too much downtime and breaking changes released into the core protocol
(b) No consistently reliable APIs
(c) Weird decisions made re: initial Counterparty Foundation board
(d) Not enough efforts made to cultivate a positive developer community / too much hostility
Consequently, I decided not to run for the Counterparty board and I removed myself from the Counterparty promotional channels I created.
[3] I think in general we've had a larger problem with the legal sphere, particularly in the United States. In general, the crowdfunding projects we've been most excited about have been the most legally problematic, and we've spent a lot of time working on our own internal legal details around this DCO model. This has taken an enormous amount of time and been very frustrating. Among other things, we've had very favorable responses from other countries but have had an incredibly difficult time figuring out what we can do in the U.S.
[4] Although we've stayed away from the traditional venture pathways, we've started working with incubators that are very progressive on the blockchain front. These folks are taking an active interest in pushing together a better version of the software that is cross-chain compatible. To do so, we have had to innovate on several layers:
(a) permissioned blockchains
(b) crosschain compatible identity systems
(c) distributed reputational systems
Due to the inherent technical difficulties, I think it's probably a 6-8 month timeframe before this next wave of innovation is fully complete and release ready, but there should be interesting things to test out along the way.
[5] We've also implemented the fullness of our new DCO legal model internally, which has led to the provisional appointment of several delegates which ostensibly represent the will of the members of the Swarm and decide what to do with the funds and IP generated by the Swarm. These delegates have been working hard to expand our developer team and make sure that there are more regular updates.
[6] The Swarm Fund, which we've setup in order to take stakes in projects and apply the "wisdom of the crowd," has been running in alpha status. The main barriers here are regulatory but they are moving forward slowly.
[7] In general, I will let Thomas post the specific near-term development updates since he is basically managing progress on that end and has promised weekly updates. We had some setbacks here due to the sickness of one developer who was in the middle of refactoring some key services, but my understanding is that he is going to have that ready soon.
