Some talk going on elsewhere about forking Mastercoin or porting to alternative eg XCP Counterparty / XCH Clearinghouse or simply letting MSC die.
I can’t find any discussion here about implications for Maid / Safe coin. Maybe I missed it. Any thoughts?
Msafe (the token on mastercoin) will only last until the network is up and then swap over to safecoin. Its less an issue for us right now, but I have been watching the picture unfold though. There seems to be only a few folks talking so far, I think the msc team need to get a voice somewhere and let the community know what’s happening there. Much of the effort here is launch related so we are incredibly busy, but as I say, watching events to see how they progress.
Thanks for that.
Looking forward to launch. Absolutely amazing project. This forum is great. You guys deserve complete success.
Was just getting ready to post a thread for this.
It sounds like a coup attempt of sorts to cause panic with MSC in order to bolster CounterParty (investors rather than anyone actually involved with Counterparty) or some other kind of opportunists.
That sounds dramatic and likely is since I am not sure how they could pull anything off without Maidsafe support but I was concerned a bit when they started talking about moving tokens themselves to CounterParty…
The idea of ‘introducing’ someone to something sounds like it is bourne of opportunism…and kind of condescending.
Friends,
Many of you (including myself) during the crowdsale last August endowed the MSC Foundation with the support needed to build out the open source features of the MSC Protocol. We have come a long way since then, seeing token creation, distributed crowdsales, decentralized exchange and many amazing projects become reality on top of the protocol we envisioned together last year.
Today though, I’m here to tell you of a great transition that is coming.
Many in the community are asking: What will happen when the funds originally contributed to develop the MSC protocol are all spent? Its an important question and rather than leave people guessing, here I will outline the plan moving forward.
A Community Driven Model
The crowdsale was a great way to spark off development and get the original vision of the protocol implemented and operational. However, now that there are many projects operational on top of the protocol, it is that community which should be the one taking the lead.
The best way to accomplish this is through a model very similar to the Bitcoin Foundation, where support is gathered from those projects and community members using the protocol in their technology stacks. While this model is imperfect, it remains the best we have available for aligning the support of those using the protocol and those working to develop it.
Already some of the largest projects in our MSC eco-system have stepped up to say they want to sponsor the core developers in their work, by becoming members of a community driven Foundation. These community sponsorships will make it possible for the core developers of Omni Wallet and the Omni Core implementations to continue and expand their work on these open source projects.
New Entity New Branding – From Master to Omni
In order to fully embrace this vision of a community driven model, there has been a planned election of new board members for the MSC Foundation. However, I believe that an even further step is required. An entirely new entity. One that reflects the international nature of many of the projects building on top of the protocol. Along with this new entity comes the opportunity to move beyond the initial branding of Mastercoin / Master Protocol to a new brand that reflects the broad and inclusive goals of the new community driven Foundation. I propose that this new Foundation adopt the Omni brand. A new Omni Foundation.
Already users are associating with the Omni Wallet as there primary interface to all of their digital tokens. Lets extend that to an Omni Core, Omni Protocol, so on and so forth. Of course the ownership of the tokens (previously called MSC) will remain the same, and the objective of building great open source software on top of the existing protocol will continue.
Its worth noting this transition will take time. The websites will be updated, the international entity has to be formed, the sponsorships and new community members formalized. My expectation is this transformation will take the rest of 2014.
My goal is to launch January 1st 2015 with a new entity and a clear path forward for the community. That way there is a smooth transition from the existing Foundation to the new Omni Foundation.
Next Steps
I’ll be making more posts in the near future about the sponsors of the new Omni Foundation, filling in details and answering community questions on a Reddit AMA.
However this direction should give the community, the confidence they need to know, there is long and sustainable road ahead for them to build amazing project on.
Thanks for being part of this community, which at its heart is moving such important decentralized technology forward.
Best Regards,
David A. Johnston
Chairman of the MSC Foundation Board of Directors
MSC guys are an embarassment to the industry.
Failed IPO (unforseen loophole that saw many a truck drive through)
Failed block explorer (PSA: Masterchest.info may display incorrect information due to bugs or other issues and this service is provided purely for convenience.)
Failed Masterchest wallet (loved the broken links in the interface. choice.)
Omni webwallet still in beta (10+ months later)
New wallets were supposed to be out, and they only released a linux version
They came on these forums claiming maidsafe would be listed on more exchanges. 3 months later, MSC is on new exchanges…but maidsafe isn’t.
Needless to say…I can’t wait to swap my coins for the real deal. Ready to kick off the training wheels, ditch those fools… and ride 
Reaction from Craig Sellars (CTO of Mastercoin Foundation) on the thread:
Hello folks, Craig from Mastercoin here.
While I certainly can admit that our team’s communication with the community can be improved, the talk of forking the protocol likely takes us down the wrong path. If the issue is with JR’s holdings, remember that the bulk of the funds used in development came from JR in the form of BTC during the crowdsale last year. Those are legitimately purchased tokens. The same can be said for large NXT holders, where it appears this is less of an issue (although why large anonymous holders is better, from the community’s perspective, is a mystery to me).
With regards to the progress on the platform and protocol, including new issuers, let me provide some recent news, as it appears the really good news doesn’t get spread (all of our /r/Bitcoin links get deleted shortly after being posted….):
- Integration of Master Core with large partners is increasing rapidly. Bitfinex, Expresscoin, GoCoin, ZenBox, HolyTransactions (among others) have all integrated in the past two weeks. More wallet integrations are coming soon as well.
- The Decentralized Exchange phase II is in testing currently on testnet (sneak peek at testnet.omniwallet.org) with release before the end of the year.
- Master Core QT wallets for Linux, Windows and OS X are also in testing, and we will release a testnet version imminently (which will include DEx Phase II UI).
- Larger issuers such as Tether (of which I am involved), Factom, HopeGold, etc are only a few of the larger, announced issuers taking advantage of the protocol. The feedback we receive from major issuers (most unannounced) are that the Master Protocol (soon to be re-branded Omni), is the preferred platform due to ongoing development to the core protocol and software, and the expertise within the team.
- The move from crowdsale financed development to community sponsorship is taking hold well with these larger issuers (and several of the smaller ones).
- We have contracted with a well-known crypto firm to redesign OmniWallet UI from the ground up, and we’re in final review of this interface. It should be implemented along with the DEx Phase II release before the end of the year.
Some of the other items being discussed are which smart contract technologies to leverage going forward, and how we can coordinate interop with other technologies such as Ethereum, Sidechains, etc. Our focus is not to be an isolated island of functionality, but instead to be a bridge between complimentary technologies. The partnerships we have made are extremely strong, and as they get announced the rest of the community will see the results.
In short, adoption of the platform is growing, but most of it is occuring quietly in the background. Our progress has been dictated by making sure what we release is rock solid, as the possibility of disabling features after release due to problems is unacceptable. This may not happen as quickly as everyone would like, but it’s prudent and I firmly believe that the platform is being adopted by so many third parties because of the quality of the work in each release. We are constantly told how easy it is to complete an integration with Master Core. The same can’t be said for other platforms. As we continue to become integrated with other large partners (again, several of which are unannounced), it should become evident how strong of a platform we have.
Do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.
Craig