I do believe I have something of value even if Shen is able to resolve every flaw I might find, because there is more than one way to skin a cat and mine is I think simpler to understand. Also mine should be more generally useful, because mine can sign the transaction even to 0 outputs, e.g. a burn transaction or signing to a future of outputs that will be decided later. And there are probably other scenarios where not conflating the inputs and the outputs in the signature has some use case that Shen's can't do (other than the one I already asked him about).
Now this sparks my interest, I could see myself donating to make this kind of feature into the Monero repository one day, also, like you recognized, the work being done by Shen could result in the same as your pricey whitepaper so why someone interested in Monero would buy it? Btw I see no problem in what you are doing and I think the price could indeed be low compared to what it could unleash but the problem is I have no expertise in this area, I need to take the words of those I see wiser than me and with a proven record before (as I think most people do) throwing money at speculative assets for speculation sake, and I personally have no interest in launching a coin or owning a whitepaper I don't understand hence why you may find your prize from someone else with other motives.
Well I am saddened to read that Monero devs are in poverty.
Just lol, I hope you are being ironic as I said the Monero devs did not win lotery deving for Monero (yet), I did not said the are poor by the contrary most seem successful in their respective areas of bussiness hence why they can afford donating time and effort for Monero at this point.
I want to read that we are expanding the crypto markets and all of us are getting wealthy while improving the world.
Well thats the goal, glad to read it from you too, even when you are after quick buck (and perhaps rightfully so).
Rambling comment...
Let me clarify that it wasn't my idea to seek donations. I had always thought it was a non-optimum (almost like slavery to beg for donations) funding model (and then to have to explain to novices why your tech feature is worth the amount requested when valuation is very complex matter of futures), because only people who are vested have an incentive to give you their money. But others have tried to convince me that is a viable funding model and that fair distribution goes along with it (i.e. no ICO and no premine).
I just decided to follow their suggestion and give it a whirl and see how it goes. Then make a decision based on the feedback.
I am becoming more and more convinced from the feedback in this thread, that it is best to either launch your own coin or sell your services (and designs) to some coin that did sell an ICO or premine and thus has the funds to pay for your services. Seems the people working on Monero for bounties are getting paid only a couple $1000s for week or two of work, which basically means they are donating their time. Good programmers earn in excess of $100,000 a year. Even Google was paying $200,000 (+ stock options) for fresh college grads with no experience.
The idea is that he who can expand markets should go for his market value which can only be expressed in a two-way trading market, not in a one-way donation. So my inclination has always been that direction. I just decided to try the suggestion of others.
Perhaps Shen's can be used in Monero for free and perhaps it will good enough (or maybe even the best). That we still need to determine based on more information from Shen. I will just say that $21,000 is nothing when you are aiming for a $5m or even $50 million market cap. You would choose the algorithm that is best regardless of that small price differential for development cost. I still need to determine if Shen's algorithm is as good or better than mine. For the moment, I am thinking it lacks generality because it apparently (afaics)
forces outputs to be bundled with inputs in the same signature. Also I really can't yet determine if there might be other flaws because I haven't yet digested all the math, e.g. the "MG" sig is still an enigma to me at this moment.
Since I understand my algorithm well and do not see any such flaws or potential for such flaws, I am lean towards the odds that mine is going to be superior to Shen's. But I don't yet know that for sure. Waiting on further elucidation or for myself to have more time to go learn more about the LLW sigs and his extension to his new invention of "MG" sigs.
Well I am more in poverty than the Monero devs, so they need not feel relatively poor, lol.
About quick buck, my point is I need to decide between other projects which might pay me a good salary (assuming I can find one), or other projects I could create that are not pigeon-holed to crypto, when determining my opportunity cost of working on crypto.
But here is the kicker for me. So many (e.g. social media) projects I would like to do, require the features I wanted to build for crypto that would expand markets (e.g. 1 second microtransactions to any party, not that addon channel design on top of Bitcoin). So I have always viewed my interest in crypto as foundational to other projects I want to do that are not just crypto. If Monero or anyone else was building what I needed for my other projects, then I wouldn't have to create my own project.
We all just want success. Who is going to lead us there? Gmaxwell, smooth, SuperNet, Daniel, Ethereum, myself, Dash?
We all have our theories and vestments. Who will end up being correct. I love competition. Exciting to get out there and compete on creativity. My problem is the realities of my life became so pressingly urgent lately. So I wasn't able to just lose days upon days coding with no sure income. Any way, my gut instinct is just go back to coding my own project. But I am trying to fight that, because I am not 34 years old and healthy (or am I?).