We need to do a better job of producing One Thread To Rule Them All for Newbies.
We hope members will post better (shorter) tutorial explanations here.
But until then, here are some sources of general explanations where you have at least some hope of getting a coherent explanation without browsing endless conversation threads. Enjoy![/b]
You can get a lot of brochure-level information at bitshares.org.
There are a number of key threads in this forum that can give you some background.
BitShares Forum »Development »ProtoShares »What is ProtoShares? (http://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5.0)
BitShares Forum »Development »ProtoShares »The Intrinsic Value of Protoshares (http://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=531.0) (Update from Bytemaster)
BitShares Forum »Development »Keyhotee »Connecting Keyhotee and Protoshares (http://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=399.0)
A Distributed Autonomous Company (DAC) is just another name for a cypto-currency backed by the services it performs. It is an unmanned company that has been released into the wild by its developers and is now owned by its stakeholders - those that hold its stock-based currency and provide the distributed processing resources that perform its services. You can view it as a currency or a company depending on how you prefer to think of it.
ProtoShares (now Bitshares PTS) is a DAC for bootstrapping other DACs.
FREQUENTLY APPEARING ANSWERS TO FAQS
1. Holding ProtoShares is not holding stock in Invictus but it does give you access to revenue streams from every DAC we release into the wild. You may wind up owning shares in our DACs not shares in Invictus.
2. Each DAC has its own business model. BitShares is a family of exchanges that let you do typical trading operations on between classes of crypto assets. Our first lets you trade exposure to various common currencies.
3. Each trade has a transaction fee which is split among all BitShareholders in the form of dividends, just like any corporation splits its profits with its shareholdes. To the extent the Bitshares has value in the marketplace, you can convert your dividends into other crypto or fiat currencies.
4. Customers are anyone who would like to save or trade without leaving crypto-space and incurring various costs associated with travel between "free space" and "fiat space".
5. It will cost you a little of your stock as a fee to make a transaction and you get more stock when others pay similar fees. Value is generated inside the DAC from the services it performs which people are willing to pay some of their hard earned or purchased shares to obtain.
6. DACs are by definition crypto currencies backed by the services they perform. Even Bitcoin is a DAC performing the service of efficient money transmission.
7. Transaction fees are the profits -- for services performed of value to its customers.
8. As long as you are inside the DAC, the currency of the land is that DACs shares. The more valuable the services it performs, the more desirable it is to hold that currency in order to obtain those services.
9. Dividends are small if profits are small and large if profits are large. Each DAC publishes its distribution rules, which distribute some of the transaction fees to the shareholders (owners) and the rest to miners (workers).
10. There are several components that drive the market assessment of the expected value ProtoShares:
- An assessment of the predicted value of the idea/business model of the services it will provide
- An assessment of the developer(s) ability to implement the idea.
- An assessment of the likelihood that the developer (or somebody else) will honor the social contract
- The summation of the above expected value across all DACs currently in the pipeline.
Its up to the developers to convince the market that the above factors sum to great value. To the extent that they do convince the collective community of experts, ProtoShares will increase in value and so will each DAC according to its established value proposition in the arena of ideas.
REFERENCES
Listen to videos and interviews from Daniel (bytemaster), then read the articles by Stan (Stan) starting with the original Three Laws of Robotics. These tend to target a more general audience.
YouTube Videos
A New Approach to BTC Exchanges (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnNPX8wc1tc) - Charles Hoskinson
Introduction to BitShares (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BV55IrZi7g) - Daniel Larimer (an expanded version of Charles' overview above.)
Introduction to Keyhotee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZaTdEtK-8) - Daniel Larimer
Interviews
E57 - Protoshares and Selfish Mining (https://soundcloud.com/mindtomatter/e57-protoshares-and-selfish) - Adam Levine interviews Dan Larimer
E44 - I've Seen Better Days (https://soundcloud.com/mindtomatter/e44-ive-seen-better-days-lets) - Adam Levine interviews Dan Larimer
Keep One Eye on ProtoShares - Sovryn Tech Ep. 0048
Articles
Bitcoin and the Three Laws of Robotics (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/bitcoin-and-the-three-laws-of-robotics/#.UjsIXWTFT7s) by Stan Larimer in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
DACs that Spawn DACs? (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/dacs-that-spawn-dacs/#.Uo9ZZ9KkoX9) by Stan Larimer in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
Bookie Bob's Solution to Bitcoin Volatility (http://invictus-innovations.com/bookie-bob) by Stan Larimer
DACs Revisited (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/dac-revisited/#.Uo9ZpNKkoX9) by Dan Larimer in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
BitShares as a Distributed Autonomous Bank (http://invictus-innovations.com/bitshares-as-dac-bank) by Daniel Larimer
A case study of The Associated Press, DAC (http://invictus-innovations.com/dacs-whats-in-a-name) by Daniel Larimer
Also The DAC Associated Press (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/the-dac-associated-press/#.Uo9cV9KkoX9), in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
Is Bitcoin Overpaying for Security? (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-overpaying-for-false-security/#.Ui-p9WTFT7s) by Daniel Larimer in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
Bootstrapping DACs - 1 (http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7050/bootstrapping-a-decentralized-autonomous-corporation-part-i/) by Vitalik Buterin in Bitcoin Magazine
Bootstrapping DACs - 2 (http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7119/bootstrapping-an-autonomous-decentralized-corporation-part-2-interacting-with-the-world/) by Vitalik Buterin in Bitcoin Magazine
Bootstrapping DACS - 3 (http://bitcoinmagazine.com/7235/bootstrapping-a-decentralized-autonomous-corporation-part-3-identity-corp/) by Vitalik Buterin in Bitcoin Magazine
Own your own Identity with BitShares (http://letstalkbitcoin.com/own-your-identity-with-bitshares/#.UkD9PGTFT7t) by Daniel Larimer in LetsTalkBitcoin.com
BitShares P2P trading platform to offer dividends on bitcoin (http://www.coindesk.com/bitshares-p2p-trading-platform-to-offer-dividends-on-bitcoins/) by Danny Bradbury in CoinDesk
Bitcoin is the new Napster (http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/bitcoin-is-the-new-napster-and-thats-a-good-thing) by Dan Steinhart at Casey Research
White Papers
Momentum Proof of Work White Paper (http://static.squarespace.com/static/51fb043ee4b0608e46483caf/t/52654716e4b01acd1ac8a085/1382369046208/MomentumProofOfWork.pdf) by Daniel Larimer
Bitcoin Classic White Paper #1 (http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf) by Satoshi Nakamoto
BitShares Classic White Paper #1 (http://static.squarespace.com/static/51fb043ee4b0608e46483caf/t/521f54b0e4b05eac92eff809/1377785008699/BitShares%20White%20Paper%20(2).pdf) by Daniel Larimer, Charles Hoskinson and Stan Larimer