Hi Loree, and for everyone who is reading,


On Jun 30th, 2017, Loree and All in Bits, Inc had signed a contract to begin developing a CI tool for Tendermint.
The contract included a provision to pre-pay $20K USD, and hourly thereafter.

Meanwhile we asked Loree to join our Slack channel to communicate with the team to go over requirements.
We also gave Loree a loree@tendermint.com email address.

The initial $20K payment had issues.  First we tried Bitwala but it didn't go through.  Then we sent a check for $20K.  This process took over two months, but we weren't concerned about it because it wasn't time sensitive, and it didn't seem that Loree had started her work yet.  We figured, because:

* She never signed into our Slack as we asked
* She never signed into her loree@tendermint.com email address.

The check for $20K was sent on the week of July 24th.  It was scheduled to arrive on Thursday, but by Thursday Loree had told Matt that the check had not gone through.  Despite further communications to verify delivery of the check, on Friday and Saturday Loree had not responded.  Matt canceled the check Sunday night because it seemed like was lost in the mail.

Then on Aug 1st, Loree sent us an invoice.  The invoice we received said the following:

* Initial payment (past due): $20K
* June (past due): $21.6K
* July (past due): $27.0K
* Aug: $21.6K.

For a total of $90.2K.

So to recap, Loree charged us $90.2K while we hadn't even begun to discuss the design of thing, and she never signed into our Slack as we asked, nor even signed into her loree@tendermint.com email address.

On Aug 7th we received a letter from her lawyer (Jon) requesting payment for $23K.

Even stranger, on Oct 17th we received an email from Loree with the following body:


Despite attempts to communicate with Loree all we got were lawyers and invoices (with the exception of the unwanted deliverable on Oct 17th).  We've never had issues like this in the past with anyone.

We refuse to pay for such blatant unprofessionalism.

We will have a roadmap soon, and certainly before the fundraiser begins.  First we will complete a production version of Tendermint, tmsp-ethereum, and adapt tendermint/basecoin into an alpha version of the hub.

* github.com/tendermint/tendermint
* github.com/tendermint/basecoin (not complete)
* tmsp-ethereum will be announced soon

Cheers,
- Jae

We will pay for good translations.  If you want to apply, first try translating the introduction of this whitepaper.

https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos/blob/6a15f001eac3cbceb0765b5b03b28a998acdc41a/WHITEPAPER.md

Don't post it here, just email it to us at translations@cosmos.network with subject "Whitepaper intro translation in YOUR_LANGUAGE".

Cheers =J

It's an implementation from scratch.  I'm the one of the main devs.  We've been building http://github.com/tendermint/tendermint since 2014.  It's a high performance BFT consensus/blockchain engine written in Golang from scratch, with an eye toward good software architecture.  http://github.com/tendermint/tmsp lets us write the blockchain logic in any language.

CØSMOS

Building a internet of blockchains

Purpose

Cosmos is a project with an ambitious mission: To create a network of distributed ledgers that will solve long-standing problems in the cryptocurrency and blockchain communities.

Architecture

The Cosmos network consists of many independent, parallel blockchains, called zones, each powered by classical Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus protocols like Tendermint (already used by platforms like ErisDB). Some zones act as hubs with respect to other zones, allowing many zones to interoperate through a shared hub. The architecture is a more general application of the Bitcoin sidechains concept, using classic BFT and Proof-of-Stake algorithms, instead of Proof-of-Work (see our whitepaper for more details).

Cosmos Hub

The first blockchain in the Cosmos network is the Cosmos hub. The Cosmos hub connects to zones via the novel IBC (inter-blockchain communication) protocol and keeps a record of the total number of tokens in each zone. Because all inter-zone token transfers go through the Cosmos hub, you can transfer tokens from one zone to another, quickly and securely, without the need for a liquid exchange or a trusted third party between zones.

The Cosmos hub can connect to many different kinds of zones, as long as each zone speaks IBC. As a result, Cosmos can support a variety of currencies and scripting languages like those found in Bitcoin, Ethereum, ZeroCash, CryptoNote, and more.


  

Interoperability

Cosmos can interoperate with multiple other applications and cryptocurrencies, something other blockchains can’t do well. By creating a new zone, you can plug any blockchain system into the Cosmos hub and pass tokens back and forth between those zones, without the need for an intermediary.

For example, if you wanted to trade bitcoins for ether today, you would have to sell your bitcoins for a fiat currency on an open exchange and then use that fiat currency to buy ether on another exchange. The problem is, many of our exchanges today are plagued by hacks, theft, and cons. Two prime examples are what happened at Mt. Gox and more recently Bitfinex.


  

Scalability

Scaling is another open issue for blockchains. Both Ethereum and Bitcoin support only a fraction of the transactions seen daily on payment networks like Visa or Mastercard. In contrast, zones allow Cosmos to scale out indefinitely. If your transaction speed slows in one zone because too many people are using it, you simply add another zone to the hub and direct half the users over that zone, thereby doubling your transaction speed. Meanwhile, the Cosmos hub ensures that any zones connected to it remain in sync.


  

Upgradability

Another problem blockchains run into is how to handle upgrades when new versions come out. Getting all of the validators (“miners” in the case of Bitcoin) to upgrade to a new version of a blockchain simultaneously is tricky, and could lead to hard forks. This is exactly what happened when Ethereum hard-forked into ETH and ETC due to political/governance issues surrounding the DAO hack. With Cosmos, upgrading is not an issue. You simply plug a new zone into the Cosmos hub, and invite users to move their funds over to it at their leisure.


  

Decentralization

One of the great tragedies of cryptocurrencies today has been their failure to interoperate with existing systems — and each other. Cosmos offers a way to link them together, but without creating a new centralized clearinghouse or exchange.

Cosmos is built on principles of cryptography, sound economics, consensus theory, transparency, and accountability to serve as a new foundation for our future financial systems.

You can use Cosmos as a testing ground for a new cryptocurrency design, an upgrade to an existing cryptocurrency, as a means for decentralized exchange, or as a platform for scalable smart contracts.

Cosmos is not just a single distributed ledger, and the Cosmos hub isn't a walled garden or the center of its universe — anyone can use this protocol to create their own hub to compete with Cosmos in a free market of blockchains

The only question is, what will you build on Cosmos?

Contact

Site - http://cosmos.network
Twitter - http://twitter.com/cosmos_hq
Slack - http://forum.tendermint.com:3000/
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ytzLX-2EE

Announcements

Watch the Cosmos video!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-ytzLX-2EE

Not yet, uh, fartbags.  But there will be a testnet up soon.

Hi delulo,

There are many options possible at this point, so my plan now is to create a consensus as to what to do next.  I can't do it on my own.  So I think it's best to get community involvement at the early stages before making any further design decisions.  The immediate purpose of publishing the (draft) whitepaper and prototype implementation was to prove competency and find birds of a feather.  I hope I did the former and it looks like the latter is happening.

Come join the forum!

http://forum.tendermint.com/t/the-apps-category/20

Let's call it PoV (proof of validation), which is a type of PoS, for now anyways.  There are aspects of the protocol that work together as a gestalt, and labeling it as proof-of-X is an oversimplification.

In terms of deployment, there will be.  But lets go to http://forum.tendermint.com/t/the-apps-category/20 to discuss ways to move forward before deciding on a particular application.  The consensus logic is already implemented so it's just a matter of deciding which application is more exciting.

Distribution and consensus are separate problems that mining lumps into one.  With Tenderment (or PoV, I like that) the distribution is left to the implementer while it solves the consensus aspect.  You could tack on an initial mining distribution phase that fades out quickly, or require a proof of burn with SPV built into the protocol as a one way peg, or handle it manually.

I think in general you want to curate the initial seed set of validators.  Otherwise you get the kind of problem that Stellar had where somebody figures out a way to game the system with mechanical Turk or other.  Get a list of people who want to participate in bootstrapping, let them prove somewhat that they're real unique people by ideally posting their pseudonymous online identity (eg bitcointalk identities with minimum number of posts), challenge them to run a node reliably with good uptime, and then they can be part of the bootstrapping team.

That's a valid concern, though one that isn't impossible to fix with proper technology.  A modification to the protocol could be made to only destroy a fraction of the bonded coins (and the guaranteed security would likewise be reduced), but I don't mention that in the whitepaper because it doesn't help clarify the algorithm.

Yes.

It's much like a PoS coin but with a lot of coins actually at stake in the case of a "short range" fork.

There is nothing that stops a "long range" fork.  You could let transactions include the last block-hash and measure the economic activity to determine the honest chain, but that's just a heuristic.  The solution is to simply stay in sync with the network.  You are invulnerable to forks as long as you sync with the network periodically.  If the unbonding period is (say) longer than a year, then you just need to sync every year.

Tendermint is a secure cryptocurrency consensus protocol that requires no proof-of-work mining.

It is an adaptation of an existing Byzantine consensus algorithm from academic literature (specifically the DLS protocol http://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm88.pdf).
It solves the "nothing at stake" short range forking problem by requiring validators to post a bond deposit.

* Whitepaper http://tendermint.com/docs/tendermint.pdf
* Forum http://forum.tendermint.com/
* Github http://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/

For more information on the motivations behind its design, check out my first blog post, http://tendermint.com/posts/security-of-cryptocurrency-protocols/.

There is no official testnet yet, but I'll set one up soon.
In the meantime please follow this thread or subscribe to the newsletter on the website for new announcements.

This is not a presale or launch of a currency.  This is a call for developer and general interest.

Hi SlipperySlope,

You have two links of mine on the original post, but the first (Venetian Bankers Problem) is deprecated in favor of TenderMint.
Also, the TenderMint link is broken due to a trailing slash.  The link should be: http://tendermint.com/docs/tendermint_v04.pdf

I noticed in my bank statement that my USD wire transfers from BitStamp originate from UNICREDIT BANKA SLOVENIJA, but the "sending bank" is JPMORGAN CHASE BANK.

This is a bit alarming because JPMorgan has a publicly negative stance toward Bitcoins, so should they corner the market in USD withdrawals, they will be able to pull the carpet suddenly & cause quite a bit of headache for Bitcoin users.

What do other people see in their bank statements when performing withdrawals? E.g. from Coinbase, or merchants using Bitpay, or other exchanges?

-- Update --

To clarify, this will require looking at your bank statement for the wire transfer.

Economics is a lot like physics.

Probably no theory will ever be able model the economy in its entirety, considering that the economy is grounded on our physical reality.

It's also worth considering that economics is probably less advanced than our understanding of physics. The General Theory of Economics is a lot like Newtonian physics. I suppose Hayek's theories are much more "relativistic", but we have so much more to discover.

Economics is in a way more difficult than physics because you can't throw money and scientists at the problem to create controlled experiments.

In the future we might see more advanced economic model simulators that can predict the outcome of different models. But without the advanced software or hindsight, economic theories are all educated guesses that probably don't fit reality.

The answer to future advancements in economic theory is in simulation software and grand scale experiments. Bitcoin is a grand scale experiment.

One property of money that divides classical economists & Bitcoin enthusiasts is the significance of the deflationary spiral.

While Keynesians argue that a currency needs to be managed to sustain economic activity, Bitcoin enthusiasts lack a strong response.

I wondered about this for a bit and wrote a blog post just now. Any feedback would be appreciated.

http://jaekwon.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/the-supernova-theory-of-deflationary-currency/

done

Do I owe 0.25btc to EP?

That doesn't explain the Mtgox/other-exchange parity. Mtgox is at most x% higher than other exchanges like btc-e.

I'm adding 0.25btc to the bounty as well.