I think  the following thing should consider
1.decentralied
      BTC is much decentralied if all miner mine btc by p2p , but actually the top 5 mine pool can decide any thing of bts ,if they unite,
but why less people think btc is decentralied, because no upper limit of mine pool
 so it is not a good idea to set a low upper limit of witnesses ,
2.efficiency and cost
      as a exchange and payment system , we need high efficiency and low cost ,  if the the amount of actual witnesses is  too larger , it would influence
      efficiency , since there is one witness is working for producing block  any time .
3....

so I suggest that  set a larger upper limit of  witnesses, like  35 or 51, but actual witnesses is not too much , eg 17 or 21 
there is a mechanism to make there is a small amount of actual witnesses to keep high efficiency .
is it a trick of this mechanism?  No. this is not , the high upper limit of witnessed is to keep the safety when there is  attack
 

I'll attend this conference too (if everything works out with the visa) ..

Too bad Dan can't be there (it seems) .. but I hope to have some nice chat with Stan ..

I am in shanghai , welcome

We are preparing a new test network that will be a dry-run for the actual BTS 2.0 launch process.   This means the following:

1. It will have 3 second blocks
2. It will have 1 real computer per witness (but we will control all initial witnesses)
3. There will only be 11 initial witnesses, and we will VOTE in more
4.  We will have 1 hour maintenance intervals, this should increase reindexing time by a factor 12
5.  We will have lower transfer fees for testing purposes
6.  We will be producing price feeds for bitassets
7.  We will be producing a Mac / Windows GUI distribution
8. There will be a new genesis file from a recent snapshot.

The GUI distributions will be available next week.  This week we are focusing on our infrastructure.

Before we can launch this test network we are putting in some scheduled minor hard-forking changes that have built up over the past several weeks of the last test network. 

Our goal for this network is to pretend it is the real launch and to have it go as smoothly as possible.

happy to hear this 

With the 2.0 launch we should make reddit a more active place. Like it or not, alot of people go reddit to find out information first because they are usually already in reddit. I know I become a lot more active in Bitcoin initially because of reddit.

reddit is a good gate for many new people

MineBitshares (5/7 (!) 100% delegates!)
I have added MineBitshares to my personal unvoting list. Why? Because it has 5 (!!) 100% delegates  in the Top 101 and 2 more 100% percent delegates at 102 and 104. I think Jonathan is a good guy with many talents but the total of 7 100% delegates we are talking about here is A LOT OF DILUTION for an unproven marketing effort! See

yes  I think so  ,
MinerBitshares  is a good thing for BTS system ,
but 7 delegates is too much , it would make BTS become 7/36=20% POW coin ,

现在已经很少中国人关注,算是好事吧

does I have the old translation history ?

         I have something to achieve 0 delayed conformation, I wish I can  describe clearly

1. Dishonest witness would loss more than he gain.
           Delay pay witness income  , the locked payment is the trust of this witness. if there is dishonest evidence of witness fire he can confiscate his locked payment .
2.Witness could been trust lowly
           because witness has locked payment ,so witness can been trust lowly ,    the follow step would explain how to achieve 0 delayed conformation
          2.1  active_ witness sign a new type operation include  tx ( he receive from network) + index ( index in the block will been produce by him)+ the block No.  by using witness private key.  sign( tx+index +No.) , active_witness declare he will include this tx in next block by broadcasting  sign( tx+index +No.)
          and mean time other witness ( tx with small amount need next 5 witness support ,and larger amount tx need all witness support) also can sign  support information to this tx. and broadcast
          2.2 each node record this sign in local ,  sender and receiver can consider this tx is confirmed though this tx is not include in any block. if value of this tx is not big. because the witness had
declare he will include this tx in next block by his private key .
          2.3 if this witness is a honest one he must include this tx in next block with right index . if this witness is dishonest ,he does`t include this tx in block, each node can broadcast a new fire operation include sign( tx+index +No.).  this is the evidence of dishonest witness. to fire this witness and confiscate his locked payment. and next witness and others would refuse this dishonest block. because all node had record this evidence.
          2.4 if happen to this witness miss block (dishonest witness can miss block intentionally). the next witness can include the tx in block in he produce ,because he sign the support information