Mumble Session Highlights
I tried to post this a few hours ago but the forum was offline.
On 10/18/2014 bytemaster started this thread: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=10148.msg132495#msg132495 (https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=10148.msg132495#msg132495) relating his initial proposal for a merger. Two days later Ander started this thread: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=10214.msg133796#msg133796 (https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=10214.msg133796#msg133796) to summarize the merger discussion as of 10/22/2014.
At the end of the mumble session today I offered to document what I perceive is the majority consensus on some of the issues, but it is by no means a comprehensive summary of all of the points discussed in the session. Gamey always does an excellent job of that. My primary objective is to help document what appears to be points of consensus concerning the proposed merger. Upon reflection and a second listen of the entire session, I don't believe I have much of a consensus to document. Nevertheless, perhaps this post may help clarify some points for someone.
Translation of Existing Stakes Into BTS Shares
From what I have seen in the forums this week, the issues around what position each stakeholder of [AGS | BTSX | DNS | PTS | VOTE | MUSIC | etc.] will have in the new BTS ecosystem constitutes the majority of the contention and concern. No surprise there.
I was quite surprised however that no discussion of this took place in the mumble session. My personal take, given the large number of forum posts discussing this is:
- Either the majority of the community is satisfied and thus has reached a consensus
- None of those dissatisfied were present in the mumble session
- Those who were dissatisfied and present chose not to raise their concerns
As I think through the issues I read on the forum, I realize there are several aspects of the merger besides how a given stake will transform into BTS shares, such as how PTS will vest in BTS over time, will those vehicles continue to exist after the merger and how will they be represented on the exchanges, what market caps will be used to calculate investment values and issues about liquidity.
Since none of this was discussed at all in the mumble session, I tried to go back through the forum posts to come up with a concise position transformation formula, but I cannot, there is too many discussions and too many elements to factor in, at least for me.
Although much discussion was posted about the relative portions of AGS, BTSX, DNS & PTS etc to BTS It's not exactly clear to me when I see a statement like "7% AGS, 7% PTS, 3% VOTE, 3% DNS and 80% BTSX" what that even means. Percentage of what? If I have 1000 shares of PTS does that mean I get 70 shares of BTS? Is it a percentage of each funds market cap or of BTSX's market cap? It's very difficult to understand these discussions when so many elements are assumed or scattered on different threads.
Bytemaster was asked if DNS would be the same after the merger or if it would be a bitAsset. He said BTS would allow auctioning the domain names for bitUSD, but did not know the auction specifics.
Bytemaster also stated that PTS and AGS would not end but will continue on; they are not bought out or retired, contrary to his original proposal. Though PTS and AGS will continue to exist, he will no longer have any interest in them to divide his time and loyalties. But when asked if AGS would only be used for BTS "because they were bought out", he said yes. He also said that it's up to the shareholders of Music or Vote or other DAC team to decide whether to be a part of BTS or operate on their own separate blockchain, it wasn't his decision to make.
A summary of the current proposal should be stated for each of the entities in this ecosystem without ambiguity. Issues such as the vesting schedule and market cap should also be stated. But you'll have to wait for someone more capable than I at summarizing the forum discussions. When I asked Bytemaster when a more formal merger description would be forthcoming he tentatively said next week.
Chinese Community
There was considerable time given to address issues from the Chinese community, as well as discussion about marketing efforts to them. Concerns were raised that individual efforts from the Chinese community were not being recognized or compensated. Bytemaster said he trusts in Bo Chen but would like to see more transparency and disclosure of how the funds he has provided are being spent.
It was stated early on in the session that we should all be aware of the language barrier and difficulty the Chinese community has in participating in the session, and to make an effort to speak more slowly. There were several people present helping with the translation in real time.
Some questions were posed by the Chinese community about the metrics for evaluating performance. Bytemaster responded by discussing what Brian Page was working on and the difficult position he is in. He related how pleased he is about the new, unified BTS and how Brian had been asking for it for quite awhile now. He said Brian's pay and that of the entire marketing staff are dependent on market cap growth, as it doubles.
They would get 10 - 20 million BTS shares if they are able to bring BTS' market cap up to match bitcoin's.
Bytemaster was asked about the model of how new developers would be added. He responded by saying anyone wishing to become a BTS developer should demonstrate their value, how they will work with the team by fixing bugs or implementing new features. He feels it would be bad to hire someone with unproven skills.
The BTS Roadmap
After the merger a BTS marketing push slated for this December with a rebranded client, everything merged in with their vesting stake a working voting application or voting booth. IN early 2015 "KeyGraph" will be an important focus (aimed at vote validation / certification). After that the long term plan is to create a scripting app to compete with Etherium. The goal is to be able to create any other DACs without the need for continual hard forks. After that the focus will become specific appliations such as auctions and others TBA.
BTS DAC Structure
A number of questions related to the company structure and accountability to shareholders were raised, and bytemaster responded by saying the future direction would be to migrate developers into elected delegate positions and have their work rewarded by that model as opposed to being paid through I3. He emphasized that AGS funds would be invested into the growth of the BTS "superDAC" and it's staff.
When asked about revealing individual staff member pay bytemaster said they have avoided doing that to protect privacy, but salaries as a group will continue to be reported for I3. Bytemaster said that tying delegate pay to bitUSD would be very complicated.
Give credit where it is due. This is the type of stuff I have been waiting to see...because people like Thom are really starting to use the server as an open source means of reporting to the community. These are the types of actions that produce the "network effect" we are looking to produce.
We are all able to bring so much value to this ecosystem. Thom gave his opinions and as such I am going to link his original thread as well. +5%
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=10526.0