Posting here for anyone not in slack where main communication happens

"@channel Hey everybody, thank you for remaining patient in light of the lack of
communication or reports of progress. I regret to inform you that as of now,
I will no longer be able to dedicate as significant of an amount of time to the             
ATOMIC project. As many of you know, I have run into trouble with a programmer             
who was hired to complete a large and complex segment of the ATOMIC-DAC                     
project's backend code. I believe that this individual is absolutely the best               
match for the project, he has proven himself in terms of his programming /                 
computer science skill, and has released large and popular open source c++                 
projects in the past. This project became too much of a challenge to be                     
completed in any kind of timely manner with only a few developers.                         
                                                                                           
This doesn't mean that the project is completely dead, although I can absolutely           
understand that this looks like giving up. I have to eat, so I need to work                 
on other things now. People have been understandably getting more and more                 
frustrated with me, or with the project not being finished, and you deserve not             
to be confused about what is going to happen. I can't let people wait any longer           
without a clear answer. As I am unable to provide you with a release date, I               
will provide you with the truth of the situation. I do not know if/when the                 
programmer will ever finish the code, and I know that without him finishing his
part of the code, what I have so far will not be good enough to live up to my
standards and be released. I know that I have no money to hire anyone else, and
nobody has offered to help work on the code of the project. I know that interest
in the market from the cryptocurrency community is not enough to support the
project (it hasn't been since the initial fund raising we did). I know that a lot
of the code is done. It is possible still, that we will be able to release this
project to the community, but I don't know when or if that is going to happen.

I will post here and on my website if I have any other news.Sorry,

~CryptAxe"

I can definitely see where the confusion came from, I'm going to revise the UI in the next few days whenever I need a short break from coding. Exchanges will not be enabled in the beginning of alpha testing, we will be incrementally rolling out the features that we have for testers and keeping track of any issues that need to be fixed. The point of this, as criptix said in his update post, is that there are many individual parts (the escrow / multisig functionality for example) which when combined allow for the decentralized cross chain ledger that is described in our documentation. In order to properly test them, they need to be tested individually rather than as a group so that issues are easier to hunt down.

Anyone wanting to know the basics of how/what the entire project is please take a look at our website: http://atomicdac.org/ you will find documentation, links to a few news articles that have been written about ATOMIC, and you can join the mailing list to get an email update whenever something important happens with ATOMIC.

Any questions you have left after reading the documentation feel free to post again here, pm me or hunt down my email address

~CryptAxe

There is no web based block explorer yet, but there will be one available before the regular release! If you take a look at the OPAL wallet you can also get a vague idea of how the built in block explorer (in the ATOMIC client) will work

Unfortunately we can't make much use of any of the existing open-source blockchain explorers except as a reference since they aren't able to get the information from transaction scripts that is actually pertinent to our blockchain.

------

Also glad to see that BTER is back to life, this onslaught of centralized exchange issues will certainly pave the way (or give people a reason to pay attention to) decentralized exchanges.

Absolutely, thanks for taking the time to do the writeup

The link for protobuf has been changed to

https://github.com/google/protobuf/releases/download/v2.6.1/protobuf-2.6.1.tar.gz

They probably have their own stratum servers anyways, but its the closest to the old solo mining that there is

When I first contacted jl777 after hearing about his plans for the superNET, I was incredibly excited not only because I believed it needed to happen but because I was hoping that the solution to the lack of communication between blockchain technologies would be decentralized. What superNET offers is to act as the decentralized network that allows other decentralized blockchain based technologies to communicate.

Imagine that you have a big room full of instances of blockchain technologies (for example crypto-currency wallets (btc, ltc, nxt etc), storage programs like storj, or anything else that people may come up with in the future that makes use of blockchains). As it stands now, all of these technologies would be running independently of eachother (or floating as I've seen you describe it) without any means of knowing about the others, or making use of the other's technology.

The superNET may act as the messenger between these blinded and independent technologies. Right now if you want to use the features of BTCD to perform anonymous transactions, or use the staking coin storage abilities of coins like NXT, the asset trading market of NXT, domain name services of Namecoin, encrypted messaging of Opalcoin, the decentralized cross-chain ledger of  ATOMIC, etc (the list goes on and on and you probably know of even more examples of new technologies than I), then you would need to go and download, install and sync with the blockchains of all of these wallets. superNET will allow you to use all of those features in one place, without acting with central control (as all of those blockchains will remain independent) Another way to think about it would be that you have several major cities (Bitcoin, BTCD, storj) each offering their own attractions (the most secure ledger of Bitcoin, the anonymous transactions of BTCD and the storage of storj) the superNET is the system of highways that will allow people to not stay in just one city, but allow them to venture out making use of all of the attractions and  hopefully it will encourage developers to actually make useful features out of the blockchain technology, now that they are more accessible than ever.

Here's a great article that might help out in understanding as well: http://bitcoinmagazine.com/18167/what-is-the-supernet-jl777s-vision/

Huge storm happening in my town right now, if I go dark for a few days don't worry I'm not dead (but my electricity probably is)

~CryptAxe

Alpha testing has not yet begun, if you'd like to get an update as soon as the final call for testers goes out then please join the mailing list at atomicdac.org.

We are now finished with the process of appending transaction data via transactions scripts as described in the documentation. What we're working on right now is the proof of exchange algorithm (and the way that we will be making payments to nodes who earn rewards). I'm nearly done writing up a paper about how exactly this process will work but essentially the coinbase transactions of newly discovered blocks are going to contain a pubkey for which only the node that mined the block owns the private key. That public key will be used to create transactions whose output is only spendable by the node which own the private key. So for example, ATOMIC Node 'X' discovers a new block that can be inserted into the blockchain, their public key is inserted into the coinbase and as the POE protocol approves exchanges there will be additional rewards (in atoms) inserted into the blockchain whose output is ONLY spendable by the node that processed all of those transaction. This way, the ATOMIC network can reward 'miners' for not only appending a block to the ledger, but also for processing the transactions (the reward for processing transactions will be significantly larger than those who just mine blocks without running as a full node and processing transactions) Don't confuse this with the way that bitcoin handles transactions, we are doing it a little differently to allow more useful transactions that we can build utilities on top of.

We'll be using a very similar process for handling the dividends that will be paid out to the owners of the ATOMIC assets, they will obviously be receiving their percentage of the income generated by ATOMIC.

I actually think EVERYONE except for me should delete their bitcoins

Oh we can most certainly help with that issue! As you're a member of that community already could you please go ahead and post that I'd love to help them out and work with them in any way possible

Please go ahead and take a look at the documentation http://atomicdac.org/?page_id=11033

We are making use of the OP_RETURN segment of transaction scripts in order to store a very small amount of information (about 70 bytes right now, although we have raised the limit for testing to 200 bytes to allow us to expand in the future).

most Bitcoin transactions are around 250 bytes in size, depending on the amount of inputs in the transaction script. Therefore an ATOMIC transaction, in the worst possible scenario (large number of inputs for example) the script generated could end up being around 300 bytes in size.

If you take the 70 bytes, which as I said is more than we actually use) and multiply that by 80,000 which is a few thousand more Bitcoin transactions than there have been today, the total amount of data would be 5 megabytes per day.

http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/?input_amount=5600000&input_units=bytes¬ation=legacy

Having 80,000 transactions a day would be great, and anyone who can't handle 5 MB a day (once we get to that huge amount of transactions which has taken years for Bitcoin) is free to use the light version of the software please feel free to send me an email any time with your questions or criticisms!

One of the greatest aspects of a DAC is that I really have no control (and I don't want to) of who actually makes use of the ATOMIC API. This website could definitely make use of the ATOMIC ledger, and if they were interested in working with me I have actually already been thinking up ways in which we could handle escrow with any coin on the ATOMIC network. Did you just stumble upon this or do you know the developers? I'd love to chat with them

Update and news roundup for those of you who haven't subscribed to the mailing list
although I assume most have as the number is getting up there.

*Last call for alpha testers, we will be beginning alpha testing of our API,
ledger process, and POG in just a few days and although we do have enough testers
this is the final call for anyone else who would like to be included before we
move on to the beta stage.
This is who I have approved so far for testing, I'm only
approving about 1/4 of the people who have asked for the
alpha but the beta is going to be open to everyone:
CryptAxe
Tigew (mobile dev team)
Skitter (mobile dev team)
eureka
criptix (community manager)
visual111
nine009
mamamae

Here is what the ATOMIC desktop wallet looks like right now for the alpha testers:



As you can see, transactions arrive in a queue very similar to bitcoin, however you can
see that the transactions show the source, and destination coin (if applicable) as well
as what type of transaction occurred. Double clicking any of these transactions will bring
you to our blockchain explorer which has been modified to suit our needs and display data
appended via the Proof Of Exchange process.

*Information for developers and future customers of the ATOMIC DAC:
note this is all trimmed down so it will fit on the forum, full contents
as well as examples of calling from different languages available soon
at atomicdac.org
API CALLS (examples shown in c++):
    /*
     * Check the status of the ATOMIC
     * network, the API of the exchange
     * selected, and the ATOMIC API
     *
     * Any result other than 0 indicates
     * that there is an issue
     *
     * CODES:
     * 0: Good
     * 1: Connection issues
     * 2: Overloaded
     * ..... etc
     */
unsigned int status();
    
Example:
AtomicAPI api;
if (api.status > 0) {
  std::cout << "The network cannot handle a request right now\n";
  }
    /*
     * Overloaded exchange function
     * will be passed an atomic
     * object directly instead of
     * having to create one from params
     * or data from socket
     */
unsigned int atomicExchange(AtomObject *aObject);
This will be the main way that customers and developers will communicate with the
ATOMIC network. The wallet generates atomobjects for every transaction, but developers
are able to actually generate them without the wallet, so that they can be sent over
an sslsocket, or via an http request to the ATOMIC network without the developer of
software which should make use of the ATOMIC ledger having to install or configure
their own nodes or wallet.

    /*
     * Check the transaction
     * at the ID specified.
     *
     * Return -1 if does not
     * exist
     *
     * Return 0 for exist but
     * no confirms
     *
     * Anything returned above
     * 0 will be additional
     * confirmations.
     *
     * ex: -1 = does not exist
     * 0 = exists with 0 confirms
     * 10 = exists with 10 confirmations
     *
     * *Stops counting at your systems limit
     */
    int checkTX(string txid);

    /*
     * return total amount spent
     * in transaction ID
     */
    float checkTXAmount(string txid);

checkTX and checkTXAmount are self explanitory.

You may be wondering how it is that we are going to do everything that we have talked
about with such a simple API. The reason for the simplicity is that the API calls
themselves have been designed in a way which we hope will allow for minimal changes
in the future to the API itself (good for compatibility) and instead make changes
to the atomobjects which are passed.

Okay that's too much of a wall of text already, go ahead and sign up for the mailing list
for more info and you should be seeing a sneak peak of the mobile wallet as well some time
soon from the mobile dev team who are wrapping up the mobile app (Android only for now)

Already started!


The asset ID listed in the thread is the only one

I absolutely wont make a huge sell order without first alerting everyone as I did last time, seems that people would like me to release a bit more of my assets into the wild so I will consider another sell at some point in the near future if enough people would like me to!

I actually also just stumbled upon this news article as well, my Russian isn't great now but it appears to be positive!
http://www.moneynews.ru/News/19067/

Thanks to the amazing work of criptix we have now made it onto cointelegraph! I just finished reading this great article and I hope that you guys will be as happy as I am that this project is getting attention on media outlets like Coins Source and Coin Telegraph

Here's the article: http://cointelegraph.com/news/112812/atomic-a-decentralized-ledger-for-all-blockchain-based-technology

As we have been getting some media exposure in the past few days, I thought it would be worth while to take a hour or two break from coding this morning to write up a short article about some of the merchant applications of the ATOMIC network as well as answer a few questions people have been asking about how we can be assist members of the crypto-currency community, and their businesses with the ATOMIC project. You've probably also noticed that a whole lot of people have been posting in this thread announcing that they have joined the team in a position of tester. This is because we are getting close to being ready to test and release the project and anyone else who would like to join the team as a tester should send me a message or email

If you would prefer to read the following on our website here is the post:
http://atomicdac.org/?p=11076

How ATOMIC will benifit merchants
ATOMIC will have benefits for all existing and future blockchain companies

Many on bitcointalk and other forums have already figured out some of the ways that the ATOMIC network will make trade/commerce a smoother, faster and more secure process. In this post I would like to respond to many of the questions which have arose through this discourse as well as suggest what industries in crypto-currency and all other fields may be the first to adopt ATOMIC, and why. This is far from a complete list and I will be updating it regularly, I would recommend joining the mailing list to receive the latest info about the ATOMIC project.


Merchants (Online and brick/mortar)

More and more businesses will begin to accept crypto-currency payments in the future (we’ve already seen Newegg and PayPal among others finally begin to accept crypto payments just recently) and any merchant that accepts crypto-currency payments in one coin or another is by default already accepting ATOMIC payments. This has major advantages for both customers and business owners.

The key benefits for merchants who will accept ATOMIC payments (although ATOMIC will still function without support of the particular merchant, there will be benefits to running an ATOMIC node at the physical location. For example, a merchant who already accepts crypto-currency payments will automatically accept payments from the ATOMIC network, however a merchant running an ATOMIC node will be able to accept other forms of blockchain based payments, some of which already exist, and many more that haven’t been invented yet)

    Broader range of customers: In the past, a merchant would be limited by the number of wallets that they personally run, currency types/coins that their crypto payment processor accepted or even just a limited knowledge of crypto-currency lacking the thousands of crypto-currencies that have evolved since the initial release of Bitcoin. With ATOMIC payments, merchants will be able to accept absolutely any crypto-currency without any special setup besides what they already have in place to accept crypto payments (or any other blockchain based asset if they are running an ATOMIC node).
    Faster payments: ATOMIC will introduce a constant verification time for ALL crypto-currencies. We all know that making a purchase in person with BTC can go really well if the merchant is setup with a payment processor that takes on some amount of risk and instantly “verifies” transactions. However, the process can also be lengthy and frustrating with other setups which is part of what led to the big bang of altcoins with much faster verifications than Bitcoin. The ATOMIC ledger operates at the speed of the ATOMIC blockchain which means that verifications will be very fast (we are pushing for instant) for all crypto-currencies and you will always have the option to make payment in a currency like NXT or LTC which have faster transaction times if the merchant is not setup for instant verifications.
    No middle – man: With nobody to run away with all of the moolah, the decentralized approach to the ATOMIC network can assure merchants that their transactions are private, secure, and as cheap as possible. Making use of an ATOMIC node as a point of sale payment gateway will also inherently be free and require no sign up, account creation or revelation of private information and the merchant will have the additional benefits above such as being able to accept all forms of crypto payments as quickly as possible.

Mining Pools:

Mining pools are in a very unique situation in the world of crypto. They transfer a very high volume of coins between their server wallets, cold wallets, possibly hot wallets, and then finally they are withdrawn and sent to their miners. Many of the best mining pools already offer the ability to automatically exchange the conglomerate of several different kinds of mined coins into one coin (such as Bitcoin) before withdrawal so that the life of the exchange and the miner is made happier. However the process on these pools is sometimes clunky, not to mention it includes large exchange and withdraw / transfer fees if the process is handled by a third party exchange which is how many pools are doing it. Mining pools who instead make use of the ATOMIC network as either an intermediary between themselves and their miners wallets (exchanging the coins as they are withdrawn into the one coin type that is the miners wallet) or they can make it a part of their cold storage process (exchange the coins right after they are mined and then move the converted single coin type into cold storage) this will make the cold storage process and the withdrawal processes much easier.

    One coin to withdraw them all: ATOMIC will allow mining pools to automatically and cheaply exchange mined coins automatically and autonomously.
    Simplified withdrawal process: Instead of storing numerous addresses for separate wallets, miners can specify one wallet address which will then be set as the default coin to which they would like to withdraw. When it comes time for the exchange to send the miner their coins, they will be exchanged in the air and arrive at the destination wallet as the type of coin desired.
    Simplified cold storage: Instead of maintaining many cold storage wallets for each individual crypto-currency blockchain, ATOMIC will allow mining pools or anyone else that may find use in the feature, to first exchange all of their different coins into one coin type before moving them into cold storage. This will simplify the process so greatly and ATOMIC exchanges will be cheap enough that it will be well worth it for mining pools to adopt a new, more simple method of cold storage that involves less moving parts and therefore may operate more smoothly and securely.

Crypto-currency exchanges:

With recent events and historical (if you could call it that) involving crypto-currency exchanges you could see why it might be beneficial for any exchange running today to make use of the ATOMIC ledger as a way to audit and verify the contents of both hot and cold wallets. The ATOMIC network will provide a currently undisclosed (don’t want to make promises for features before they are proven) auditing mode of the POE algorithm that we have developed in order to server as a decentralized auditing system. That’s all I’m putting out there for now in regards to this but be sure to sign up for the mailing list if you would like more updates as soon as we are ready!

Please send me an email, you can find my email address on atomicdac.org on the contact page I'd love to see what approach you guys are taking, looking forward to the documentation

Welcome to the team, can't wait to start getting feedback from our testers once we enter the alpha testing phase