Where is BitShares headed?

[santaclause102]

How about starting small and fixing the block explorer.  It hasn't displayed the correct value for BTS for months...  If something as simple as this can't be maintained, how is BTS ever going to be able to handle a larger and more complex project?

Also https://cryptofresh.com/charts is loading very slowly.
And the reduction in trading volume could be due to OL uptime problems -> Solution https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php/topic,23287.0.html ?

[lil_jay890]

How about starting small and fixing the block explorer.  It hasn't displayed the correct value for BTS for months...  If something as simple as this can't be maintained, how is BTS ever going to be able to handle a larger and more complex project?

[GChicken]

Sidechains:
I think side chains are important and would be a huge move forward in relation to trust in the DEX; Smartcoins are great but making the user trust a 3rd parties to make good on the UIA that they are trading will always be a sore point for a 'trustless' decentralised exchange. UIA have their place but for trading other altcoins i think sidechained assets are important  and at the moment would give us a big jump on the market.

Login for webwallets:
Aitbitz has an interesting take on this; similar to what Jonny said; make it automagically secure and convenient for the user; give them a look and feel like a normal exchange; except having keys stored in the browser and automatically backed up to private servers and if required automatically recovered.

Example (Signup)
1. User signs up with username and password
2. The Username password combination is used to derive a symmetric encryption key (high number of rounds to slow down brute force attempts (make account creation take 10-30 secodns))
3. Users keys are backed up with encryption key
4. Encrypted backup is uploaded to the cloud using a hash of the encryption key as the identifier.

Example (Login)
1. User enters username and password
2. Openledger check for the presence of client side keys
3a.  If key are present; login and uses keys from cache
3b. If keys are missing, hash encryption key and downloaded backup files from server
3b-a. install keys to cache and login

I think security issues should be considered; but what we are looking to do is not much different from what Airbitz is doing; to their users they just need to remember a username and password and can get their wallet from any device.

[JonnyB]

There is a lot of understandable confusion with the browser being your wallet.
I think a priority should be to make openledger behave more like a centralised exchange.
I mean if I just know my user name "jonnybitcoin" surely that should be enough to get to my account which is password protected. Why can't my .bin backup be stored online?
Being able to log in and out of a bitshares account on any computer like other exchanges should be our priority. 
Having your wallet stored in your cookies cache doesn't seem secure even if it is.
This feature was discussed by BM 6 months ago and I think there might have been talk that @datasecuritynode  Peerplays  project was building this feature?

GUI Market Organisation
This has very recently improved as you''ll see openledger assets no longer have the OPEN. prefix and the number of trade tabs have been reduced.

[Brekyrself]

How do we the community jump start this project?

The current state of visible development and activity around BitShares simply makes me sad.  I had become used to seeing constant development and excitement going from Protoshares > BtiShares > BitShares 2.0.  There was always something to look forward to, a roadmap, a better version etc...  Every since Dan and team departed to work on Steem we have not seen the community engagement this project deserves.

Looking around, you can see Satoshi had left Bitcoin and a world wide community has been pushing it ever since.  Glancing at Steem shows community development outside of the core team.  BitShares with it's very advanced blockchain technology should be attracting more development, what is holding this back?

Currently visible:
Xeroc always helping anyway he can.
Abitmore working on some blockchain code fixes
SVK working on the GUI
BitShares Munich with BlockPay and stealth.
Chronos working on videos
Stan always dropping interesting hints about things to come


Here is the feedback I am looking for:

1.  What developments or enhancements need to be done?  Let's prioritize a list.  (Be specific, is it a blockchain issue, gui issues, advertising issues etc...)
2.  With worker proposals at a standstill, how do we flip this around?


I'll start.

1.
GUI Browser support:
-We need an active worker to make sure this works on all major browsers.  This is significantly important and I can not see why ALL proxies would not vote to make this happen.  This alone is worth having @svk on the payroll.  SVK if this is something you can accomplish, how much do you need to make this happen?

GUI account creation:  I know this is openledger specific but that is all we have right now
-I try to monitor the chat box on openledger and often see users still do not understand the relationship between openledger and bitshares.  The comment "Your Web Browser is your Wallet" confuses people.  In the chat box they ask if this is hosted, why do they need to backup etc...  Something along the lines of "your web browser connects you to the bitshares blockchain via OpenLedger" could help clear this up.  "Your wallet never leaves your web browser" could also strengthen the security concerns.

GUI Market Organization:  I also see people confused on the now countless amount of markets available. 
-Perhaps adding a filtering option where users can only view BitAsset markets?
-Simple shapeshift style guided trades.  Have another tab at the top next to exchange, no graphs, just simple drop down boxes.  Version 1 could have simply your assets on the drop down box on the left and what you want to receive on the right if that trading pair exists.  Version 2 could automatically make multiple trades to get you what you want regardless of fee's/slippage.
-Is there a way to split the screen and have two markets open at once?  I often check liquidity in similar markets, ie BTS/Steem vs BTC/Steem to see where it makes sense to trade.

Blockchain:
-Many users are asking how to run the bitshares blockchain locally.  I see some documentation from Xeroc however is there a way we can provide pre packaged installations?  We can mimic Bitcoin with their "core" compared to other wallet options.  Windows/OSX/Linux/Raspberry PI options would be great.  https://steemit.com/bitshares/@ash/how-to-use-bitshares-via-the-interplanetary-file-system-ipfs is also interesting...


2.
-Add worker proposal creation to the GUI.  We may want to recommend posting the proposal on steemit to create synergy and a single source of information.
-Is there a way for users to get notification of new worker proposals without having to constantly check?  A toggle switch for those interested in this would help.
-Can we add a data entry field where large proxies can put a reason why they vote approve/disapprove?  A small field with a link to their reasoning?