Re: [ANN][XCP] Counterparty - Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Finance

Could anyone explain what Counterparty's purpose/future are given Symbiont? What is it planning to do/be that Symbiont isn't planning to do/be?

Symbiont is using the Counterparty protocol to execute its model of "building the first issuance and trading platform for smart securities on blockchain technology." Symbiont will be one of what will eventually be many front ends to Counterparty's back end.

So there's no overlap between what Symbiont is/plans-to-be and what Counterparty is/plans-to-be?

No, beyond the fact that Symbiont is essentially financially backing future Counterparty open source development, by employing most of the core team and enabling them to spend some of their time working on the extant Counterparty codebase. Symbiont is a business with a commercial business model, Counterparty is an open source technology project with no commercial business model. (And yes, the foundation does take donations, but I don't consider that a business model

Appreciate the responses - is there anyone, any moderator, from Counterparty here that could speak to this and confirm the relationship (lack of overlap) between Counterparty and Symbiont?

So, when Symbiont is up and running as a decentralised exchange - it'll be powered by the XCP network? In other words, all Symbiont transactions will run through XCP?

I don't get how that would happen - I understand the transaction-speed/bandwidth(?) of the bitcoin network is too slow to accommodate the demands of the financial markets. Am I something here?

Yes, it will be powered by Counterparty/XCP.

Apparently the founders of Counterparty/Symbiont disagree with your assessment of transaction speed being too slow. Perhaps it's because a clearing house will be built into Symbiont that will allow faster settlement, or something (maybe the Ripple link helps answer your question?). Unfortunately, I don't have a great answer for you.

The Bitcoin network will not have to instantly have the bandwidth to accommodate the entire financial markets right away. It will be a process and its performance can be improved with time. At least that's my understanding of it.

Really appreciate the responses - is there anyone from counterparty, a moderator perhaps, that could speak to this and confirm that there's no overlap between Symbiont and Counterparty functions and that Symbiont processes will run entirely (be powered by) Counterparty's system?

Counterparty and Symbiont co-founder here. Unlike Counterparty, Symbiont is a private business. We cannot discuss our business plans publicly at this point, but as Robby (aka xnova) pointed out: Symbiont is personally funding Counterparty's development, having hired several of Counterparty's full-time developers.

Thanks for understanding.

Appreciate the response, but this could mean that it's entirely possible that Symbiont will overlap/displace part or all of Counterparty's functions - or not - and that any dev funding may be simply for use of Counterparty as an unffocial R&D testbed, or not. No one essentially knows or those who do know unwilling to say?

You've already gotten that answer you're looking for from two Counterparty founders. They will not overlap. One is a business, one does not have a profit model. There is no reason to assume that Symbiont will copy Counterparty and do everything themselves on that side of things when it's already free to use Counterparty. What would the point be? What would happen to Symbiont's dev team and trust in the community if Symbiont did something like that, assuming it's even possible? They would be gone, that's what. Any everyone that's part of the Symbiont team has built incredible trust either in or out of the crypto community and in some cases, both.

Not to belabor the point, but I wasn't talking about the business model - I was talking about functionality. Basically, whether Counterparty's exchange functionality is going to remain relevant and be integrated into what Symbiont is doing -- will Symbiont be powered by Counterparty's exchange functionality -- or is there going to be complete or partial overlap between Counterparty's exchange funcitonality and whatever functionality Symbiont is putting together.

The obvious concern for any XCP holder is whether Counterparty is on its way to being made irrelevant by whatever Symbiont is doing. Basically, is Symbiont going to be of long-term benefit to Counterparty beyond some payments to XCP developers?

I assume that question/uncertainty is one of the factors (certainly not the only factor) that's been dragging down the XCP price and has kept it from recovering.

I don't think I've yet gotten a straight answer to a highly relevant question for XCP holders, but if I'm missing something here feel free to point it out.