[Q&A] Counterparty Foundation Election 2015 Q&A

General Counterparty
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I’m happy to see these quality proposals.

Related to the voting process, I have several comments (anyone’s welcome to respond):

  • Should there be a third voting address for ABSTAIN? I think @FoldingCoin’s team have implemented that in their voting system. By the way, I very much like the voting system idea presented by @FoldingCoin.
  • Does anyone have a problem with the buying and selling of the voting asset? If yes, that should be cleared up before it’s issued. Personally I don’t think it’s bad, but it’d be good to know the rules up front.

I hope it’s OK to ask all candidates for their thoughts on certain issues here (or this can be split to a separate topic). I know some candidates have partially “pre-answered” some of these questions…

Q1: Your thoughts on XCP and crypto-exchanges: we all want to see XDP gain popularity on crypto-exchanges. Personally I would be relatively more interested in the possibility of getting existing exchanges tapping into the DEx than more exchanges adding XCP.
What are your thoughts on this - more exchanges or more integration with the CP DEx?

Q2: In order of your preference in terms of end user community engagement, etc. what do you think should get more attention in 2015 - Counterwallet, counterparty-gui or something else?

Q3: What do you see as the main impediment to increased adoption by developers (main reasons in order of significance)?

Q4: Features (apart from Smart Contracts, which are a big theme in 2015): what do you see as high priority features for this year - off-chain transactions, counterparty-gui plugins, mobile client support, etc.?

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Q1: Your thoughts on XCP and crypto-exchanges: we all want to see XCP gain popularity on crypto-exchanges. Personally I would be relatively more interested in the possibility of getting existing exchanges tapping into the DEX than more exchanges adding XCP.
What are your thoughts on this - more exchanges or more integration with the CP DEx?

I don’t think adding XCP to more exchanges should be a point of emphasis. If Counterparty becomes more useful to more useful, then exchanges will add it. I say let the free market work.

I think ultimately a low or zero trust exchange that has a great user experience is the best long-term solution. But so far the market has chosen to favor centralized exchanges over the DEx. Smart contracts will allow the opportunity for innovation in trustless trading of assets on Counterparty. I’m optimistic we will see some incremental steps toward more decentralization when this becomes live on mainnet.

Centralized exchanges do not have any market incentive to integrate with the DEx. So I don’t believe we will see this happen.

Q2: In order of your preference in terms of end user community engagement, etc. what do you think should get more attention in 2015 - Counterwallet, counterparty-gui or something else?

Desktop and mobile wallets are going to be key to more widespread adoption of the protocol. I think we should support 3rd party developers to implement their own wallets. We will have succeeded when Counterwallet is considered a good reference implementation, but is not the most used wallet.

I think in-depth documentation of the protocol is necessary to make this happen. And eventually the protocol should be formalized and versioned so wallet makers can update their software as needed.

Q3: What do you see as the main impediment to increased adoption by developers (main reasons in order of significance)?

  1. Lack of protocol documentation and 2) Immature software

Let me clarify #2. I think the development team is doing a great job of evolving the reference implementation of the server and wallet software. But it is moving fast and things do break often at this stage.

I believe continuing to mature the software and improving reliability of both counterparty server and counterwallet will help developer adoption in the short term.

Q4: Features (apart from Smart Contracts, which are a big theme in 2015): what do you see as high priority features for this year - off-chain transactions, counterparty-gui plugins, mobile client support, etc.?

For me, the priority list is:

  1. Smart Contracts
  2. Protocol documentation and standardization
  3. Support for 3rd Party Wallet Development
  4. Counterwallet Stabilization and Support
  5. Mobile Wallet
  6. Standalone Desktop Wallet
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Q1: What are your thoughts on this - more exchanges or more integration with the CP DEx?

I feel the DEX is a very important feature and I would like to see better solutions to reducing the latency of DEX order matching. I believe that the community can provide such features, but probably not by way of integration with existing exchanges. Such an integration would be a large project, and likely it would make sense to design such an exchange from the ground up for the sole purpose of serving our (The counterparty community’s) needs exclusively. I have absolutely no inside knowledge of what’s going on with Symbiont and Medici, but I suspect this is a model they would be inclined to pursue at some level.

Q2: What do you think should get more attention in 2015 - Counterwallet, counterparty-gui or something else?

Integration into 3rd party mobile wallets. We should be pursuing those companies and providing resources to assist them in integrating our protocol.

Q3: What do you see as the main impediment to increased adoption by developers (main reasons in order of significance)?

Distractions on worthless blockchains. These include (In no particular order): Ethereum, Bitshares, Eris Industries, Nxt, etc.

Q4: What do you see as high priority features for this year…?

All of the above sound great :slight_smile: But really, VC-spending on companies in the counterparty space would be my number one high-priority feature :slight_smile:

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Really happy to see quality people throwing their hats into the ring for this election.

If the candidates would be so kind as to answer the following questions :

1.) How much XCP do you hold personally?

2.) What is your view on the XCP price? Should it go up? stay low? why?

Thank You,
J-Dog

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I am about to answer the questions, however, does everyone here think it would be better to post all questions from the runners in a separate forum? Reason being, is because if more people decide to run, then their information about their candidacy will be much lower then the first three that submitted applications on this forum. Perhaps we start a question forum in which the XCP community can ask questions on that forum. Then maybe we get an individual forum for each candidate so that way there is more organization here (or maybe link google docs for each candidate).

Anyone have thoughts on this? I just dont want this forum to get cluttered with conversations that will not be organized well.

Q1: Your thoughts on XCP and crypto-exchanges: we all want to see XDP gain popularity on crypto-exchanges. Personally I would be relatively more interested in the possibility of getting existing exchanges tapping into the DEx than more exchanges adding XCP. What are your thoughts on this - more exchanges or more integration with the CP DEx?

Exchanges will add XCP as they see fit. Poloniex and Bittrex have already added XCP and Cryptsy (from what I have heard) has been working on it as well. Crypto trading has never really been a high interest of mine as the markets are 100% unpredictable (even those that claim they are market experts have a hard time grasping exactly why the crypto markets go up and down when they do). At this point it is almost all speculation. So I would not focus on trying to get more exchanges on board because the ones that are already looking at it (or have it) are the most popular exchanges out there. So no work really needs to be done here.

The DEX is a great solution to things like high frequency trading and servers being hacked. So making the DEX a more user friendly experience I think is an important thing rather then having exchanges integrate with the DEX. Integrating with the DEX is kind of against the business model of exchanges as it would limit high frequency trading.

Q2: In order of your preference in terms of end user community engagement, etc. what do you think should get more attention in 2015 - Counterwallet, counterparty-gui or something else?

From my experience at FoldingCoin, almost every donor on our platform asks me “When is a desktop wallet going to be available?”. Mobile would be nice, but before working on mobile wallets, a desktop client is essential to user adoption. FoldingCoin brings many traditional altcoin miners who are used to things like QT wallets. Many of them hate the counterwallet so much that their folding addresses are simply their Poloniex deposit address. Since Counterwallet is buggy, they have no intentions of hanging on to Counterparty assets.

Q3: What do you see as the main impediment to increased adoption by developers (main reasons in order of significance)?

Though many developers grasp the Counterparty software, companies like Masterxchange have had such issues with it, that at points their exchange could not do withdrawals for 4 weeks. Software development is not my expertise, but from the feedback I have received from other developers is:

  1. Lack of documentation
  2. Buggy
  3. Lack of Support

Q4: Features (apart from Smart Contracts, which are a big theme in 2015): what do you see as high priority features for this year - off-chain transactions, counterparty-gui plugins, mobile client support, etc.?

  1. Stabilize Counterwallet
  2. Create better documentation for developers
  3. Desktop Wallet
  4. Mobile Wallet
  5. Smart Contracts
  6. Make DEX more user friendly
  7. Public Google hang outs from the dev team
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1.) How much XCP do you hold personally?

I hold about 150 XCP among 4 addresses. I spent a lot (well a lot for me) on around 100 assets that I own. Many of these assets are future grid computing platform names such as SETI and BOINC in case FoldingCoin can ever do something with that program. I would have more, but much of my spending money has gone into developing FoldingCoin

2.) What is your view on the XCP price? Should it go up? stay low? why?

My opinion on the crypto market is often disagreed with, but here goes: This space is so unknown that at this point currently, I think it would be absurd if anyone claimed to be a crypto market expert. The markets are so crazy because in comparison to the NYSE and other world markets, there is very little liquidity. Think about this, with the exception of BTC, if I had 1 million dollars, I could potentially pump and/or crash any coin that I want (once again except BTC). And if I decided not to trade with the top ten crypto’s, I could pump and crash all the rest of the crypto markets with ease with only 1 million dollars. The space is still the wild west, but it is so exciting and has so much potential.

To sum that up, I do agree that the price of XCP and other CP assets is of course important. I myself since getting involved in crypto have lost half of my investment due to crashes, which is not good. However the markets are extremely unstable right now. Take a look at SWARM just over yesterday and today http://coinmarketcap.com/assets/swarm/ with under $100 in trade volume the price dropped the market cap to around $500,000 yesterday, and now its back to $1.3 million. XCP only has had $1,500 in 24 hour volume, imagine what I could do to the price with just $5,000 if I was an Ethereum fan? Price is not in a position to matter at this point until adoption has been meet. Without adoption sadly XCP stays only as a speculative market.

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1.) How much XCP do you hold personally?

Around 350 XCP. The majority of my XCP is in my public proof of stake address.

2.) What is your view on the XCP price? Should it go up? stay low? why?

I don’t think XCP price should be a focus of the foundation.

Our focus should be supporting the community of Counterparty developers and users. If we do that, I believe we will see great things emerge built on Counterparty. And if that happens the price will rise simply because XCP will be more useful to more people. This is especially true with smart contracts.

So what should the price do? Well, if Counterparty gains mass adoption, it should go up. But there are no guarantees that this will happen and the timeframe very well might be longer than we hope.

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@FoldingCoin I placed the Q&A posts here for now. If it gets crowded we can organize them into separate topics.

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I’m pretty sure I’ve answered @jdog’s questions already in my candidacy announcement, so unless anyone disagrees I’ll not take up space by writing out my answers again.

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You have my vote. I have been listening to LetsTalkBitcoin podcast twice a week every week for the past year. Having someone like you in the foundation will be of exceptional value. I’m going to go buy some more xcp right now so I have a lot of votes I can send you when the time comes :wink:

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Q1: Your thoughts on XCP and crypto-exchanges: we all want to see XDP gain popularity on crypto-exchanges. Personally I would be relatively more interested in the possibility of getting existing exchanges tapping into the DEx than more exchanges adding XCP.
What are your thoughts on this - more exchanges or more integration with the CP DEx?

First priority : Get XCP-BTC vending machine(s) up and running.This will make it a lot more convenient to get XCP.
Second priority : Get XCP listed on major fiat exchange(s). This adds credibility and makes Counterparty mainstream.
Third priority : Educate people that the DEX is a niche exchange. It is here to stay, but it’s not an alternative to traditional exchanges.
Fourth priority : Encourage a centralized exchange to automatically support all Counterparty assets. It may be integrated with the DEX. There are several possibilities:
Idea: Centralized Market on top of DEx
How about an Auction DEX?
How about a Semi-Decentralized Exchange?

Q2: In order of your preference in terms of end user community engagement, etc. what do you think should get more attention in 2015 - Counterwallet, counterparty-gui or something else?

Counterwallet needs a few cosmetic face-lifts such as removing inner scroll bars and formatting tables better. Other than that I’d focus 100% on the GUI wallet. The GUI wallet will support plugins, which will be of great value to third party developers as well as end-users.

Q3: What do you see as the main impediment to increased adoption by developers (main reasons in order of significance)?

  1. Small community (can and should increase since every Bitcoin user is a potential CP user)
  2. Lack of knowledge (like, ehmm, isn’t Counterparty a fork of Colored Coins …)
  3. Uncertainty to whether and when smart contracts will go live

Q4: Features (apart from Smart Contracts, which are a big theme in 2015): what do you see as high priority features for this year - off-chain transactions, counterparty-gui plugins, mobile client support, etc.?

1 Smart contracts
2. GUI wallet

Get these live asap. Once these are live I believe the platform will grow exponentially. Then it’s all about maturing the code, documenting, encouraging and supporting the pioneers of peer-to-peer finance.

Regarding J-Dog’s questions about XCP; this text from October should be a sufficient answer.

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To keep the nomination post clean, here is my response to @fractastical_o’s post here https://forums.counterparty.io/t/counterparty-foundation-election-2015-march-19th-april-16th/951/11

You start your post by saying the number one thing Counterparty needs is excited developers building on the platform yet you end your post by saying you won’t open source anything you’ve developed. This is counterproductive. While I understand you have a business to consider, in the end, you’re only holding yourself and the community back by remained closed source. The value in software should come from the developers that continually support it and not from keeping the source code secret.

You also seem to have a very narrow view as to the potential uses of the Counterparty protocol. Equity is just one application. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to make sense of the market cap day to day, especially with the extremely low trading volume of XCP. It is not a function of the usefulness of the protocol.

The biggest difference between protocols that utilize the bitcoin blockchain and those that don’t is exactly that: the security and immutability of the bitcoin blockchain. If you understand this, then you understand that Counterparty cannot “fail” as long as bitcoin doesn’t fail.

What exactly has disappointed you in regard to Counterparty? The core devs have given us a protocol, a free, open-source software suite to utilize it, and in my experience have always responded promptly to any questions sent their way.

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I think what’s frustrating him is that if there was only one company using the protocol to offer say “crypto equity” then SWARM would probably get a lot more business. He is comparing counterparty to Ethereum which actually makes no sense because we don’t really know how much ether will sell for on an open exchange after it launches, it would (just like xcp) grow or lessen in value (I don’t even think ether will be treated as a coin to be traded) based on the sort of companies that build on top of said protocol. Right now all of the top company’s using counterparty are nascent and new. We don’t even really know the full scope of Symbiont yet. I feel like the argument of why are there so many companys currently running on counterparty with similar sounding business models is only about as valid as asking why are there so many social network websites using tcp/ip.

As far as comparing it to nxt and mastercoin, well the people backing those protocols are very outspoken and always releasing more public content and they know how to hype but I’d say the company’s building the most important products to the crypto world are already on Counterparty.
I think at the end of the day every company has a fair shot at coming out on top and even if your business suffers because a competitor has began operations using the same protocol as you I don’t see why this would in any way reflect badly on the protocol itself…

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@fractastical_o Im sorry as it is not clear in your post on the nomination board, are you running?

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@ivana Hello candidates! @deweller @FoldingCoin @brighton36 @JPJA @fractastical_o I have talked with Dogecoin Radio and they would love to host a debate on April 3rd. This radio show will take place at 10 pm EDT on April 3rd. http://dogecoindark.net/radio/

@ivana would it be a problem to put this in the OP so that way all candidates know that this is going on? I think this would be a great way for us all to discus what exactly we would bring to the table. Rick is the host there, and this would be out of his normal format. So I have started a google doc in which the community can edit the document. I am going to be giving owner rights to Rick exclusively so he is the third party non bias person who will be asking the questions and doing the format, so he will have final say on this. Using google docs for those of you who dont know, you can edit anything you would like on this document and Rick has the chance to confirm or deny the changes. So feel free to edit away!

Here is the link https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ACNJaOAgX3dApZ_LAiwcBa9XVxZJfJmbO5AIVe3qSWU/edit?usp=sharing please begin editing this document with questions you would like answered or the format in which this debate should follow

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@FoldingCoin that’s sounds great! I’ll add this to the main post and announce it in the Counterparty newsletter next week.

So if I understand it correctly, other candidates (should there be any) are welcomed to join the debate as well?

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@fractastical_o - I’d like to see that document. I’m guessing this election pitch isn’t going to win you many votes, but who knows. :smirk: There’s a lot of item-by-item responses I would make to your concerns, but I think the single response that tackles most of them, would be this : http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4f967b9469bedd6828000031/success-sketch.png

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That’s 5 AM in Latvia… so I promise an awesome sunrise in the background. Count me in! :smile:

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I think a debate is a great idea. But I’m committed to a family activity that night and weekend and we will be most likely out of cell phone range at that time.

I’m bummed that I’m going to miss it. I would enjoy participating.