Hey guys,

I've been away from the community for the past 3'ish weeks. Admittedly, I've been dealing with a good case of founder depression.
Its not the case where you want to kill yourself, but rather the one where you have no clue of what you're feeling down for / end up in bed all day long.
It had nothing to do with my professional life. Am repeatedly reaching new peaks. In academia, I had my paper acknowledged and landed 3 job offers from leading VC firms in the region I am from. I could say it has something to do with my personal life - as its been pretty much non existent for a good 3'ish years now.
This post, however has nothing to do with any of that. Its a  list of updates and a push for transparency in regards to my work on gamebet.gg

Kuro and hybridd have been consistently making excellent value additions to the system while ensuring there isn't a lack of leadership for the project in my absence and am grateful to them for the same. This is what has been going on with the project so far

-For those wondering, yes, we had a number of individuals here backing us with an internal fund raiser about 4 months back
-There will be no share-drop (as of now) - as we are yet to see the benefit of one, in capitalistic terms. I understand the socialist ideology that shared ownership leads to faster growth of the enterprise, but I am yet to see a good example of this happening.
-Our referral program is active right now. We give upto 30 percent of house income to individuals promoting the project.
-There is an on-going ICO. I'll be sharing details regarding it once I speak to our existing investors from Bitshares.
-Sports has been integrated into the project. It will be live over the coming week
-I am looking for a team of market-makers with interest in speculating on in-game items. The mark-ups on some of the items are upto 30 percent and there is a large amount of volatility
-We are soon to start our PR /Social media campaigns, so in case there is a community group where that happens - I would love to interact with the team.

I've been discussing a means to push for transparency with some of our current investors. I think it is important that I keep at least the business front of the project as open as possible. This is because, usually in the crypto-sphere, founders are left with an idea, fair amount of money and no set structure to follow. In the lack of external motivation, projects wind down to nothing and a lack of accountability leads for further destruction of share-holder value. Additionally, a large amount of time is wasted in terms of updating all stake holders of the project over time. I see myself having to either make threads or message parties in regards to the project. Often times this works against my own best interests as I would either lose out on the tiny bits and pieces of news that does need to be conveyed or focus heavily on things that dont matter to make stake holders feel progress is actually occurring. Being transparent further helps leverage the networks and skillsets of those following the project to garner growth for the enterprise.

A major malady I've seen amongst those working on the business front of such projects is a lack of accountability or results to show. When working on the product, it is easy to show a functional product and prove your work - but the same often does not apply to business functions such as networking, pitches or marketing. They could be tracked in terms of metrics, but accountability is still not proven without transparency.

Keeping these in mind, and my own desire to deliver the best for the project and its backers, I will be maintaining a public trello in regards to the project. You may feel free to criticize constructively, suggest alternative routes or add upon things I could do differently with the project. I will furthermore be using this thread as an official track record of business functions of the project. More than, solely ensuring transparency of the project, it will work as a good way for me to stay motivated in regards to work and a solid track record of the growth of the project.

The trello can be seen here : https://trello.com/b/qBYWrsZY/project-gamebet-xypher-to-do-s

Feel free to make enquiries/suggestions/changes as necessary, here.

Hey guys,

I've been reaching out to some community leaders here in regards to rebuilding the SAE.
I believe what we have ahead of us is an incredible opportunity to unite Bts, ETH and NXT under one roof - and if a single platform can be built to bring trades across the three currencies together, it'd help both investors and businesses within the ecosystem. Here is a proposal for what I believe the SAE can evolve into, in its second iteration


The first version of the SAE was a simple interface that allowed traders and business owners to interact with  each other through a plain interface that pulled asks and bids from the Nxt Asset exchange and showed it to the user. The SAE as the name suggests was largely oriented towards assets and catered to traders looking to trade upon assets listed on the Nxt Asset Exchange. It also permitted individuals to sift through assets on basis of their asset id’s, look at company descriptions and have a peek into the order books of the company. This was fairly basic but did the incredible job of giving users the ability to trade assets unlike any before. The SAE witnessed asset trades in the line of millions of Nxt during the launch of main-stream assets and was processing a couple million nxt worth transactions during the time the project was taken down. We intend to rebuild the project into three main segments


1.Cross Currency Asset Exchange
2.Instant Coin exchange
3.Cross exchange display of order books.


Cross Currency Asset Exchange

What we intend to do is bring together a single interface for individuals to exchange across  currencies to trade their assets . Currently the markets are largely divided and this makes it increasingly hard for investors to track their tokens or trade them as and when required. The exchange we propose would have a single interface to track and trade assets across multiple currencies making it possible for cross currency exchanges to happen in real time. This will not only bring businesses across communities together but also enable individuals to invest into offerings made across communities. In addition, this will remove the requirement to handle multiple wallets instantaneously making crypto-investments openly accessible to the masses. What we also intend to grow this is into a kickstarter/crunchbase hybrid of sorts. The platform will work towards enabling transparency by having the system be a platform for companies to post their updates and interact with investors. In addition, it can also help joint investments be made across currencies (nxt, eth, bts) . What we intend to do is take crypto investments mainstream through this platform.

Problem statement

Multiple organizations working with multiple chains in the cryptosphere often issue assets and face the issue of not being able to target communities from other chains. For instance, a business listed in the Nxt Asset exchange will have to open a seperate campaign and hancle accounts seperately for Bitshares and related user issue assets. The complexity of the problem increases ten fold when you look at the sheer number of alternate currencies and the capital access they give the average entrepreneur.
 
Eg : Obits, although launched in the Bitshares community, will have to launch specifically different campaigns for doge, PPC etc and then have the currencies handled in multiple wallets.

This means hundreds of hours in terms of accounting, wallet set up and a hassle for both the business and potential investor. Since the entry barrier is high, new investors will often hinder from buying into legitimate businesses from other chains since they are not used to utilizing other chains. We intend to create an effective solution for this.


Potential solution.

Imagine a shapeshift like experience specific to assets. Individuals being empowered with the access to multiple capital markets for the issuance of their assets and investors being able to buy the asset without having to go through an exchange.

Eg :

User 1 wants to 1 btc worth Obits
Obits is being offered only in Bts
User 1 sends 1 btc to the system
The system automatically exchanges the 1 btc at best rates across exchanges, sends the bts to Obits owner’s account
The system then transfers the asset to the BTC holder.
All this, without the hassle of setting up an account at any point of time!

2. Cross Exchange orderbooks

A major reason why individuals choose an exchange is due the deep orderbooks that are made available through them. Through an API that instantly communicates across 5+ exchanges we are able to combine the order books of all exchanges together and put it in a single UI allowing users to arbitrage without having to set up accounts across platforms. This allows the organization to garner more users and grab a tiny fee while ensuring volumes on the other exchanges. Basically - we are offering the deepest order books - anywhere!


3. On-wallet Exchange

This is is a cross platform user issued asset marketplace that allows individuals to buy assets from other crypto-currencies without having to acquire the base currency itself. For instance, an investor having a large holding in Bitshares will be able to acquire an asset that has been released on the Nxt Asset Exchange without ever having to exchange to nxt. All he would have to do is transact the BTS to a central account with his nxt account in the memo of the transaction. The system would automatically exchange his currency to Nxt, place a buy bid on the Nxt asset exchange and get him the required number of assets from the other market. The system, currnetly plugged into Ethereum, Nxt and Bts offers the average investor an opportunity to buy assets from any other platform without having to bother with an actual exchange. Since the prices obtained in the counter currency are the best , they could at the time, the system also ensures the user receives the maximum amount of nxt for the money they invest.



There were a few PM's sent in regards to MS support and now that nxtreporting.com is also going down, I think we'll need to build in features from there too into this. Is there public interest in a product like this ? I've been discussing/debating this for a while now and would like to hear public opinion in regards to this.

Note : What am proposing for, is NOT a "pure" nxt oriented project, but rather one for collaboration between BTS, ETH and NXT. My intention is to use this opportunity to unite the three communities, while ensuring the major projects within each garner their due share of attention . Synergies basically

Cross posting what I wrote at Nxt forum.
Open to critique and suggestions.

It is my pleasure to announce the alpha testing phase of Gamebet.gg, a revolutionary betting platform that combines E-sports, crypto-currencies (Bitcoin/Bitshares), and Steam in-game items.  The person with the maximum number  of game-bet Gold stands win $100 for placing the most accurate bet.

What is Gamebet.gg ?

• An E-sports betting platform
• Bitcoin, Bitshares and Steam in-game items are the depositing vehicles
• The platform is open to users from around the world
• Match winnings are distributed at the end of the match, no hold ups
• Bets may be placed on professional CS:GO, League of Legends, Dota and hearthstone matches
• Users will be able to view live streams of the matches listed on gamebet.gg

What is our Early Alpha Test ?

• Users will be given a total of 660 Gamebet Gold (the platform currency)
• The testing phase will last for one week
• Users may place bets on matches and use their winnings to bet on additional matches
• The individual with the most Gamebet Gold at the end of the testing phase will win 100 dollars worth of Bitcoin

Further information :
http://gamebet.gg/Home/Faq
http://gamebet.gg/Home/Contest

The Gamebet.gg platform consists of two types of currencies, Gamebet Gold (GG) and Steam Silver (SS). Gamebet Gold is backed by user deposits of Bitcoin made to the website and can be instantly withdrawn. Steam Silver is back by user deposits of Steam items.  These two platform currencies are treated as separate currencies and have separate betting pools on each match.  Steam Silver allows users betting with Steam items to receive the exact amount of winnings they are entitled to rather than having to round down due in game item to item betting as found on the CSGO Lounge platform.  Steam Silver may then be used to purchase items off the Gamebet item marketplace which is made up of the items deposited by users.

The alpha testing phase will be used to fine tune the system and ensure the most efficient processes.  We are looking for users interested in testing out a new E-sports betting platform and providing us with helpful information on how to better serve our users when the system goes live.

Ever since I came across crypto's I have been fascinated about the offerings it makes to the masses. When I look at the blockchain, I see a symbol of rebellion crafted in the heart of the recession of 2008, created as the ultimate weapon designed to empower the average individual to live his or her life with liberty and freedom without being subject to the manipulation of government, religion or banks. The transparency of the blockchain, the cost-effectiveness of transfers and the ease of 24/7 remittance without being independent on 3rd parties  are each indicators of the way e-commerce would be in the 21st century : Independent of a central authority and empowering to those using it. However, when we look at the past 5 or so years of crypto, the trends have not been the way the founder of Bitcoin probably envisioned it to be. To begin with, we have the constant hacks and theft from centralized exchange, then there's the block size debate that's rampant with Bitcoin as of now and amongst alt's there's the constant challenge of attaining scale and profitability while staying legal. Fundamentally, when I look at systems like NXT and Bts, post their cheap remittance prices, and quick tx times, the most beautiful aspect I see is the DEX - especially when it comes to UIA's and AE's .  This post suggests a means to garner legitimate activity on the decentralized markets while ensuring investor funds are well taken care of.


The primary challenge with a UIA  / Asset is ensuring organizations behind them stay legitimate on the long run. In a large number of cases ,investors are often aware about the happenings of the organization and possess very little control over how the money will be utilized by organization. One of the means of verifying legitimacy is by providing company details to those investing. However, this provides very little control on the company and due to the same founders  are almost free to do whatsoever they please with the funds they have. If we look at the history of crypto-oriented IPO's there have been in numerous cases where founders have almost shown zero accountability in regards to the funds raised and investors are left dumbstruck as to what's truly going on.

However, it also needs mention that the UIA / Asset exchange is a key player in how economics and capitalism itself might work in the 21st century. It decentralizes the way companies raise funds and individuals buy into organizations. If an organization seems fairly legit and largely successful then non institutional investors should be able to trade and buy into the shares of the organization without having to go through the hassle of going through funds or heavy capital requirements. As of now, most of our work is oriented towards bringing the banks and NASDAQ like organizations onto the blockchain, but what if...things weren't like that ?

What if individuals here could buy into a possible unicorn or start-up raising seed stage capital from a major accelerator ?
What if shares that are currently  only with FII's (foreign institutional investors) were made available to investors here ?
What if you could go long / short just like we've been doing with existing market pegged assets ?

This is an early stage proposal for what I think is a good direction to head in.


   1. A hedge fund is set up with investors from the community
   2. AML/KYC requirements are taken care of via 3rd party integrations (Jumio ? )
   3. The fund manager speaks with FII's and Accelerators about purchasing shares with money from the hedge fund
   4. Shares are listed on the DEX for purchase.
   5. Prices fluctuate depending on PR / announcements of the start-ups.
   6. As more individual investors buy in - to buy into Unicorn start-ups, the underlying currency appreciates in value.


My proposed solution definitely has its flaws. To begin with , here are some


   1. The hedge fund could go rogue and run away with people's money
   2. Untimely setting up of deals with FII's and accelerators could cause issues
   3. The FII and the hedge fund could go rogue with insider trading
   4. Market crashes are a given (Imagine ever note shares being on the DEX now)
   5. Whales will hold on to their cash to see it appreciate in value
   6. Trading fees could be an issue (but hey there's FBA)
   7. Anonymity will not always be possible
   8. Professionalism of the highest order will be needed from the hedge fund manager.




What am proposing is a means to buy into start-ups that range from seed to pre-ipo - depending on the amount of capital available.
I will soon be in talks with accelerators and FII's in regards to investigating the legalities and possibilities in this direction.
In case you'd like to make a joint effort, please do ping me via PM or e-mail xypher@null.net


P.s - I understand this is a very flawed "napkin" concept as of now - and will take atleast 3 months to come into something that's solid / viable. This thread is solely for discussing the challenges and possibilities involved.

Hey guys,

This might be the wrong section, if it is, do let me know.
I've been wanting to play Rise of Nations for a while and I was wondering if fellow members would like to join in.
For those who don't know what the game is about, its basically a strategy oriented game, similar to Age of Empires or .. chess in a very graphic form.
In case you don't have the game, I'd be willing to buy it for you if you can pay in Bts.
Currently, the game is on 75 percent off sale and costs about 3 USD
http://store.steampowered.com/app/287450/

We can have teams of 2 each (me and Kuro on one side) - and 2 on the other.
Bets will be at 2500 BTS for each participant, with winning group taking all.
If we see more participation, we can have larger pools.

P.s - Had some spare time and I've been missing the game. Thought this will be a fun thing to do.
Ignore if you'd rather do something else

Regards

I am happy to announce that we are launching a new initiative at Freebie LLC. We are fronting the first ever Bitshares E-Sports tournament in the first month of January. In order to help attain the goal of garnering more users into the Bitshares Ecosystem we are working towards :


    * Opening a tournament with Bitshares as prizes
    * Setting up of an intuitive wallet within the tournament sign up system
    * Establishment of our E-sports venture's early marketing campaign done via UIA's issued on Bitshares.


We are also fronting a new wallet - with absolute basic systems (send, receive and history) to avoid confusing the end users with pointless functionality that does not appeal to them. In the current variation its a trustless system and we store the information encrypted with AES and the information cannot be decrypted without knowledge of the users password which we do not store. We are looking to have our tournament attracting around 16-32 teams with around 5 members in each team. We will be working via marketing channels such as twitch and forums to garner the crowds. A key reason why we had delayed this promotion for so long was the fact that we were waiting for key pieces such as the sharebot and our e-sports venture falling in place. Now that we are looking to go all in, with promotions.  The  tournament we are hosting for Bitshares is the first of many projects we are looking to launch in the months to come. We intend to launch 2 key projects that have been in the works for months in the months to come.


This is quintessential to the Bitshares eco-system as this is the first time an organization is running an operation of scale into a demographic as diverse as that of gaming. We will be using a plugin to automatically transfer winnings to the users and utilizing UIA's for active marketing of the project. In addition, users will be directly interacting with the Bitshares blockchain, without having to go through the pain of setting up a wallet - or utilizing the overly confusing UI of the existing wallet.This is just the beginning and we are looking forward to doing lots more for the community. I'll be following up in the thread with rules, updates and on-going promotions.


Endorsements & Funding

Although we intend to bear a large part of the tournament's expenses through the financial backing provided by the aforementioned community member, we are open to taking donations from individuals and organizations in regards to the marketing campaign. Brands , start-ups and teams looking for endorsements of their products and product integrations into our eco-system may contact me via pm to discuss further possibilities. Currently, we are looking  for individuals looking to give away prizes, sponsor ranked teams and twitch streamers and back us financially for the marketing campaign.

We are also looking to upgrade our Bitshares account (gamebet-gg) - upgraded to Lifetime.
All Donations made to the account will be utilized for marketing the ecosystem here and further enhancing the Bitshares brand amongst gamer demographic.



If you can contribute beyond solely funding - and wish to help in terms of marketing, man-power, server administration or any other role, feel free to message me and I'd be glad to sit down and work along with you.

People keep talking about the “killer” app for Bitcoin being developed by teams with millions of dollars in backing, yet we fail to find the one solution that strikes it right with the retail markets. Talk about alt currencies with your average internet consumer and there is no way in hell you would possibly have him acquire a coin, without having to go through the nuances of transferring currency to the bank, acquiring bitcoin, then sending it to an alt-coin exchange, then paying for the currency itself. Throughout this process, there’s the painful aspect of fluctuating prices which would further lead to disappointments in the end consumer’s mind. In addition, for the “price” conscious consumer, this is an added paingpoint as he’ll have to usually set up accounts in multiple exchanges to garner the best rates while battling it out against a barrage of bots set up by individuals with years of experience in these scary markets. In such a scenario, creating something that is easy and intuitive enough for your grandma to use, yet complicated enough to battle it out with the smartest bots in the industry becomes a challenge. Yet , this is a challenge we rise up to every single day in the multitudes of businesses we’ve engaged in. Today, we are glad to formally announce yet another product into the ecosystem, built with the intent of providing a no-nonsense exchange without unwanted fee involvements.

Being individuals that routinely accept payments in alt’s we’ve had to spend hours just ensuring we get the best rates on our coins while ensuring the markets don’t crash due to any swift movements. In addition, maintaining accounts at multiple exchanges adds to the pain points. In order to tackle this, we created an API that converses with multiple exchanges in real time, places optimal buy and sell orders and reverts in a matter of minutes. We then interlinked user provided payout addresses to ensure users can garner the service without having to repeatedly copy paste their wallet id’s. What would this mean for the average user ?

We just created a system that does exchanges for you, without you ever having to visit the exchange or the gate way. Send money to a  wallet id, and the system exchanges and sends BTC to you right away.


So what would this truly mean for the end user?


It means we’ve made acquiring alt’s at the fastest rate possible, as easy as checking out from Amazon. Just a matter of copying the wallet id, sending in the bitcoin and well, you’re pretty much done. Since the  system reserves your wallet id for future transactions, you will not need to repeatedly copy paste transactions like you’d do at Shapeshi(f)t.  In addition, if you are a freelancer looking to take payments either in Bitcoin or Bitshares, you can simply send either of your wallet id’s and the system automatically sends you the other currency without you ever having to either reveal your holding currency nor having to spend time exchanging it, ever.

Take that for mass consumption!




FAQ’s

1. Is this decentralized ?


No, this is not decentralized in the true sense of the word. Users are still to send funds to our system, which is then dispersed across exchanges. What this does mean though, is that our system cannot be taken down, by solely taking down electrons.io. Since funds are sent to exchanges in real time, we don’t hold anyone’s funds for too long and the question of a potential loss during a hack is non existent. Similarly, users will be able to directly send cash to a bts wallet id (currently electron-io) and receive bitcoin without viisiting the site at all.

2. How does a user experience his coin ?


In order to exchange your currency, you are not required to visit the site at all. Simply send the BTS to electron-io with your bitcoin wallet id as a memo

3. What kind of volumes can this exchange?

Since this is purely experimental and the amount of market support for Bitshares is low, we recommend you to experiment with small batches. While we are able to track large payments, we are not able to gaurantee market support. Exchanges over 100,000 can have substantial impact on the prices and due to the same you are expected to exchange in batches






Note : No fancy fundraisers, no share-drops, no equity splits. This is a product released by Freebie LLC in the best interests of the community. We take no fee (for now). For corporate enquiries e-mail xypher@mail.com

Hey guys,

We've been working behind the scenes on a few things and are looking for ten beta testers to come try things out.
I am not in a state to give much specifics. However, if you are someone that

1. Trades crypto every day
2. Knows how to use Web API's
3. Would like to see changes made in the way currencies are exchanged currently

Then reach out to me via your skype id.
I am looking for feedback on a new system from a small focus group of 15 people before I  take the product public