If you've been living under a rock, you may not know that we recently raised nearly 5000 BTC to build a new protocol layer on top of bitcoin. The new layer is NOT an alt-chain currency - it's built right on top of bitcoin, and is called "MasterCoin" (not to be confused with the alt-chain currency of the same name). You can read all about it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.0

A few days ago, I pre-announced that we would be doing our second major coding contest, with total prizes adding up to 300 BTC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.msg3358444#msg3358444). The goal of this contest is to implement a distributed bitcoin/mastercoin exchange. NOBODY has ever made a distributed exchange between two digital currencies, and we aim to do it first. We are also still looking for our first full-time hire, hopefully recruited from among the contestants.

This thread is devoted to the current MasterCoin contest (this thread was originally for contest #1). Following are the official rules of the current contest, subject to change if deemed necessary:

Official Rules

• ALL serious entries will win a prize (although some prizes may be very small)
• Prize money will be divvied up by myself, with input from the community and the board of the MasterCoin Foundation, based primarily on how useful and valuable your code is to accomplishing the goals of the contest
• In addition to the overall impact and value of your code, other important things will be taken under consideration:
  
  • How often you post updates in this thread. Ideally, you should post what you plan to do, and then post extremely frequent updates as you make progress.
  • Ease of use and testability. If you just dump some source code on me at the end of the contest with a bunch of grandiose claims, you may not get much. Ideally, you should be posting demos, screenshots, and/or set up a website demonstrating your code.
  • Collaboration. If you are helping other people working on MasterCoin projects, that will weigh favorably on how much you win. If you release your source code early and other people build on it, that will weigh even more favorably.
    • Note that contest contestants will give me feedback on each other, and that feedback will be heavily considered when making payouts (so be nice to each other!)
    • If somebody forks your code, and builds on it, you will get some consideration at payout time, even if you did nothing in the current contest.
  • Breaking new ground, or being redundant. Doing something new is awesome, but you will NOT be penalized for implementing the same thing as someone else. We need redundancy for cross-checking.
• Only open-source projects will be considered for a prize. You must release your source code before the end of the contest to be eligible.
• Getting the biggest prize in this contest does NOT guarantee you a job, but having some kind of entry in this contest will help your chances a lot.
• Contest ends once all acceptance criteria have been met (see below), with prizes paid out once the dust settles.
• Prizes will total 300 BTC, regardless of the current price of bitcoins
  • 200 BTC will be split up among contributing developers
  • 100 BTC will be split up among anybody who helped by doing code reviews, testing, and bug reporting (this may be the same people as the developers, or different people)
• Contestants may elect to take some or all of their prize money in MasterCoins if desired. (We'll purchase them on the open market for you, using the bitcoins we would have paid you)

Acceptance criteria:

• Minimum one PC wallet (for both Linux and Windows) which can generate simple sends and the buy/sell messages required for the distributed exchange, using agree-upon multisig format
• Minimum two websites parsing such messages, and the resulting balance transfers
• Minimum one website showing BTC/MSC price charts derived from these messages
• Minimum 10 days of real-world usage with no major problems
• High bar for usability. (Current heavy traders like maxmint, lishbtc, and buymastercoin should be happy with the final product, if at all possible)

This thread is for development-related discussion ONLY. If you want to discuss MasterCoin in ways not related to our development effort, please do so here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.0

Posts immediately below are from the first contest. Discussion regarding work on the current contest starts here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292628.msg3381794#msg3381794

Thanks, and good luck!

Important update: We'll be paying out half of this bounty early (on 1/22/2014). Details here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292628.msg4398023#msg4398023

Another important update: the remainder of this bounty will be paid out in monthly chunks until we are done. Details here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292628.msg4921986#msg4921986