[ANNOUNCE] Bitcoin Testing Project

[Gavin Andresen]

Testing changes to Bitcoin-Qt continues to be a chronic problem, and as alternative implementations of Bitcoin start to mature testing to make sure that they interoperate correctly and don't harm the network will become a big problem.

Therefore, I'm creating a decentralized, transparent organization using the BetterMeans system. I'll need help from people willing to be fundraisers, testers, project managers, toolmakers, troll-catchers, etc.

I'll create and hold a secure wallet that will be used for donations (at least until the project gets mature enough to turn over that responsibility to somebody else), but we'll use the BetterMeans "Credits" system so that everybody working on the project collaboratively decides who gets what, and what the priorities aught to be.

So: it is easy to talk about stuff like this, who's willing to help make it happen?  Send me an email at gavinandresen@gmail.com if this sounds like a project you'd like to help with, describing what you think the highest priorities for the project aught to be, how you could contribute, how much time you could contribute per week, and any relevant prior experience.

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[Coinabul]

I'll help out!

I think most of what I'll be able to do is bug reporting and fundraising. Let me know when you get the donations wallet set up!

[Gavin Andresen]

I think most of what I'll be able to do is bug reporting and fundraising. Let me know when you get the donations wallet set up!

I setup the wallet this afternoon, the donation address was:  (defunct address, don't send coins...)

[Sergio_Demian_Lerner]

Great!
I can audit the security of the new source code added from now on, and try to find vulnerabilities in the source code already written. This proposal is related to the one in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79830.0

[bulanula]

What can I do ?

Are there some bounties or something ?

[Luke-Jr]

So as the maintainer of stable bitcoind/Bitcoin-Qt series (0.4.x and 0.5.x), how do I participate in getting the RCs out to testers?

My about-every-month next-test combination builds should also continue to help to bring pullreq testing to common Windows users.

[edd]

E-mail and bitcoins sent!

[marcus_of_augustus]

Good idea. Bounties for testing makes a change to the frosty reception testers have received prior ... just saying.

Edit: also proposed previously to create a #bitcoin-test irc separate to #bitcoin-dev to enable more focus, cogent threads, etc. Might be worth looking at now.

[mistfpga]

I would love to help out.  I have a specialist qa background, (automation, fuzzing, runtime analysis, etc) I also have worked in govt crypto and have manage qa departments.

I will send a more detailed email.

@luke-jr  I am sure with a coherant qa stratergy and test life cycle there is more than enough testing to go around.  it just needs to be managed. 

I have sent an email to gavin offering to help, lets see where we end up

Thank you both for your continued hardwork on this project. It is appreciated.

(btw i love testing! and the whole shebang )

cheers,
steve (not kev)

[Coinabul]

I think most of what I'll be able to do is bug reporting and fundraising. Let me know when you get the donations wallet set up!

I setup the wallet this afternoon, the donation address is:  17XvU95PkpDqXAr8ieNpYzSdRDRJL55UQ8

I sent a coin!

[mog]

Longtime lurker, this seems a worthy cause.
sending coins.

[Gavin Andresen]

@luke-jr : I don't want to start an argument, but I still think we don't have enough testing resources to support 4 releases. I think we need to establish good QA for the main Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind release before we worry about next-test or so-called-"stable" releases.

That's a good discussion for the Testing Project team to have, though, once it gets up and running a little more.

I'd also like the Testing Project to not get pigeonholed into "QA testing for Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind", but to tackle cross-implementation compatibility (which I think is the next big, critical issue).

[AlexWaters]

For those interested, check out the dashboard at https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/4180

Bettermeans looks like a really cool system, check out their videos if you're interesting in helping out / bounties / making some money.

[finway]

bump this

[Gavin Andresen]

Over 50 BTC in donations with no fundraising effort-- thanks everyone who has donated so far!
 

[adamstgBit]

Joined

this BetterMeans system is pretty cool, come check it out

https://secure.bettermeans.com/projects/4180

[marcus_of_augustus]

Over 50 BTC in donations with no fundraising effort-- thanks everyone who has donated so far!
  http://blockexplorer.com/address/17XvU95PkpDqXAr8ieNpYzSdRDRJL55UQ8

This is good. Will be interesting when the Mt. Gox, Bitcoinica, BitInstant, Intersangos, etc who are basing businesses on the bitcoin s/ware platform realise some QA and testing is essential ...

[Garr255]

I don't have the time for this now, but I'd love to help out in the future.

[Stephen Gornick]

This is good. Will be interesting when the Mt. Gox, Bitcoinica, BitInstant, Intersangos, etc who are basing businesses on the bitcoin s/ware platform realise some QA and testing is essential ...

$36K USD was issued to mining operators over the past  day, and $36K USD will be issued to them tomorrow, and the day after (more or less, depending on the exchange rate).   The $1+ million per-month mining industry is Bitcoin's biggest and most profitable, by far.  They are just as dependent on Bitcoin software succeeding as any.   An appeal to them might yield some funds.

And maybe if block chain pruning, for instance, becomes a higher priority feature (or to raise the soft per-block data size limits) perhaps SatoshiDICE might find it useful to kick in to help with that testing.  

[Icoin]

It would be great if someone would publish a ubuntu 11.10/12.04 howto for Better Means