[ANN] BYTEBALL: Totally new consensus algorithm + private untraceable payments

[CryptKeeper]

Finally, you can experience the pre-distribution linking of Byteball and Bitcoin addresses.

We are launching a new testnet, and you'll be able to get a portion of its distribution in proportion to your balance in Bitcoin testnet.

0.  Get your Bitcoin testnet wallet ready and funded.

1.  Download and install the wallet for the new Byteball testnet: https://github.com/byteball/byteball/releases
You will have two Byteball wallets - one for the old testnet that you already have, the other for the upcoming new testnet.

2.  Visit https://byteball.org and click the link to chat with the Transition Bot.  The link will open the new wallet and start a chat.  Follow the instructions of the Transition Bot to prove your Bitcoin balance.


You have two options to prove your Bitcoin balance:
a.  By making a micropayment.  The bot will see your address the payment came from, will know that it is your address, and will instruct you to move your Bitcoins to this address.  By making several micropayments, you can link several Bitcoin addresses to the same Byteball address.
b.  By signing a message (if your Bitcoin wallet supports this function).  You tell the bot your Bitcoin address and sign your Byteball address with the Bitcoin address.  After you prove one address (a typical Bitcoin wallet has dozens of them), you can either move all your coins to this single proven address or prove all other addresses in the same way -- by signing a message.

Update: to clarify, if you try to link the same Bitcoin address to multiple Byteball addresses, only the last linking counts.

If you prove by micropayment, remember to check that the Bitcoin address that the bot received the micropayment from, is indeed your address.  An attacker might see your payment on the blockchain and repeat the same micropayment from his address trying to trick you to move your funds to him.

3.  After linking, there is no use of the new wallet before the distribution, just keep it installed (backup if necessary).  It will receive the bytes on the distribution day.  If you make any Bitcoin payment, your coins will most likely be moved to a new change address.  Chat with the bot again, see the balance on your linked address(es) and move the coins back to the linked address(es) if necessary.

The linking phase will end in late November, after which we'll do the distribution for the new testnet.  Those who linked their Byteball and Bitcoin addresses will receive new test bytes in proportion to their Bitcoin testnet balances on the distribution day.

If all goes well, we'll do exactly same linking, but with real Bitcoin addresses, from early December to December 25 before the upcoming livenet launch and distribution.

Please retweet https://twitter.com/ByteballOrg/status/ ... 2935282688

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/cryptkeeperbtt/stat ... 2444683264

[CryptKeeper]

Changed the OP to reflect the latest changes in the distribution.

[vindyne8]

A few Q & A from the past week:

[vindyne8]

Byteball version 0.7.0t released: huge performance improvements and new testnet.
Get it here: https://github.com/byteball/byteball/releases

[vindyne8]

From the Byteball dev:

Starting now, you can link your Byteball and Bitcoin addresses for the upcoming distribution.

1. Download and install the wallet for Byteball live network:
Desktop: https://github.com/byteball/byteball/releases
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... all.wallet
* You will have two Byteball wallets - one for the testnet that you already have, the other for the upcoming live network.

2. Visit https://byteball.org and click the link to chat with the Transition Bot. The link will open the new wallet and start a chat. Follow the instructions of the Transition Bot to prove your Bitcoin balance.
You have two options to prove your Bitcoin balance:
a. By making a micropayment. The bot will see your address the payment came from, will know that it is your address, and will instruct you to move your Bitcoins to this address. By making several micropayments, you can link several Bitcoin addresses to the same Byteball address.
b. By signing a message (if your Bitcoin wallet supports this function). You tell the bot your Bitcoin address and sign your Byteball address with the Bitcoin address. After you prove one address (a typical Bitcoin wallet has dozens of them), you can either move all your coins to this single proven address or prove all other addresses in the same way -- by signing a message.

If you try to link the same Bitcoin address to multiple Byteball addresses, only the last linking counts. This rule might be adjusted if we see attempts to link exchange-owned addresses.

If you prove by micropayment, remember to check that the Bitcoin address that the bot received the micropayment from, is indeed your address. An attacker might see your payment on the blockchain and repeat the same micropayment from his address trying to trick you to move your funds to him.

3. After linking, there is no use of the new wallet before the distribution, just keep it installed (backup if necessary). It will receive the bytes on the distribution day. If you make any Bitcoin payment, your coins will most likely be moved to a new change address. Chat with the bot again, see the balance on your linked address(es) and move the coins back to the linked address(es) if necessary.

The linking phase will end on December 24 at 23:59:59 UTC, after which we'll do the distribution in proportion to Bitcoin balances in the first block timestamped after December 25 00:00:00 UTC (Christmas block). I'll announce the exact block number several hours after this block is mined (the waiting time is to exclude the slightest chance of reorg). The bytes and blackbytes will be sent out in the afternoon of December 25.

During this distribution we'll distribute 10% of the total supply of bytes and blackbytes. The remaining 88% will be distributed during subsequent distribution rounds, exact dates to be announced later. The planned distribution percentages (subject to change):

2nd round: 20%
3rd round: 30%
4th round: 38%

The rounds will be spaced 1 to 2 months.

In each subsequent distribution round, we'll take a new snapshot. The distribution rules in the 2nd and further rounds will be slightly different from the 1st. You'll show both your BTC balances (as in the 1st round) and your balance in bytes (which you received in earlier rounds or bought from other users). You have a sort of basket that consists of a mixture of BTC and bytes. To determine the weight of the basket, every 62.5 MB are counted as 1 BTC. For example, if you have 125 MB and 3 BTC, the weight is 2+3=5 BTC. The distribution of new bytes in the 2nd and subsequent phases will be proportional to the weight of your basket.

My 1% doesn't participate in the 2nd and further rounds.

The ratio 62.5 MB per 1 BTC is chosen so that the total money supply of bytes (10¹⁵) and the total number of BTC in circulation (16,000,000) are equivalent.

Earlier adopters have the opportunity to participate in greater number of distribution rounds and receive new bytes in each round by using the same BTC balance and bytes received in previous rounds. You are effectively doubling your stake in each additional round you take part in.

Please retweet https://twitter.com/ByteballOrg/status/ ... 5486467073

[CryptKeeper]

You can now check the state of the bitcoin linked here:
http://transition.byteball.org/

[CryptKeeper]

Tutorial on linking Trezor wallet to Byteball account via signing a message

Step 1: Get a NEW Trezor bitcoin address

- Initialize your Trezor
- You get a screen like this



- Click on “your_account” tab (account page), then on "Transactions" tab
- Select the "Receive" tab and click on the “More please +” button to get a NEW Trezor bitcoin address
- Check that the receiving address is truly created by your TREZOR by clicking on the "eye" icon (“Show on TREZOR” feature): the receiving address displayed must be the same on your browser AND on your Trezor device.


Step 2: Move your bitcoins to your NEW address

- On your Trezor account page, click on "Send" tab
- Enter your NEW receiving address (the one you got from step 1) in the "Destination address" field



- Put the amount you want to send (you can send the maximum possible amount by pressing the "arrow" button)



- Click on "Send"
- Enter your PIN
- Check the amount of the transaction and the destination address and confirm your transaction on your Trezor (right button)


Step 3: Install and launch Byteball wallet

- Download Byteball wallet from byteball.org (make sure it is the LIVENET version)
- Install Byteball wallet
- Open Byteball wallet
- Click on the link provided by byteball.org to launch the Transition Bot




- Click on "Insert my address" then on "Send"
- Enter your Trezor bitcoin address (the one from Step 1) and click on "Send"




Step 4: Sign a message (your Byteball address) with your Trezor Bitcoin address

- On your Trezor account page, press Sign & Verify in the top right corner



- Copy & paste your Byteball address into the "Message" field of "Sign message"
- Copy & paste your Trezor bitcoin address into the "Address" field of "Sign message"
- Click on "Sign"
- Check the message on your Trezor display and confirm
- The signature should now appear on the screen, copy it


Step 5: Link your Byteball address with your Trezor bitcoin address

- In Byteball wallet, paste the signature (from step 4) and click on "Send"
- You should get a confirmation from the Transition Bot with your current balance on your Trezor bitcoin address



Note: If you spend your bitcoins, you will have to repeat Step 2, so that your bitcoins are always on the linked Trezor bitcoin address


This guide was created by user Hermesesus. If it was helpful, please give him a tip:
1NXoWMpvHX7FamzXDB5e9LEqQHVFY3fE7G

[piebeyb]

How ByteBall development today? What was still in the process testnet

[CryptKeeper]

How ByteBall development today? What was still in the process testnet

Testnet linking phase was successful, this is the real thing now!

[piebeyb]

How ByteBall development today? What was still in the process testnet

Testnet linking phase was successful, this is the real thing now!

yeah good news, let's look now at your yarn and get the wallet soon to test, cheers

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/vindyne8/status/806860258358554624

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/komodoplatform/stat ... 6713028608

[vindyne8]

CryptKeeper on point, bumpz anyway!

[piebeyb]

just waiting for the distribution of 25 december later, I still see the development of byteball from this thread

[defcon23]

#Byteball version 0.6.0 released. Important bugfixes https://github.com/byteball/byteball/releases

Nice work for an update, I see now for the latest version

+1 ! i absolutely agree with you keep on the good work sir !

all the best !

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/cryptkeeperbtt/stat ... 7363745793

[vindyne8]

Questions from the community, and answers from the dev, from the main BCT thread.

Question:

Hi tonych,
After this 25th snapshot, byteball and blackbytes will be distributed as per the rules you announced.
Byteball will be send to linked byteball addresses that reside on "byteball public DAG", I can understand this is completely asynchronous process..
What I cannot understand is about blackbytes distribution:
1) Is it an automatic or interactive process (need human intervention)?
2) Will byteball client with the linked keys on peoples computers need to be left running to receive these coins?
Thanks again.

Answer:

1) It is automatic.
2) Not necessary, you'll see both bytes and blackbytes as soon as you start the wallet after the coins are sent out.
- tonych

Question:

Tonych, is the model sort of proof of service? Those that relay the activity and transactions get rewarded some bytes? I read the whitepaper but still am looking for some sort of understanding of this.

Answer:

It is not a proof-of.
The collected fees are split between regular users who are first to extend the DAG and witnesses who help define the order of transactions.
-tonych

Question:

Why it is not instant? say if there are 1000 tx per second in the network, my transaction once done will be covered within a second by 50 other transactions, isn't that after 1 second my transaction will have 50 confirmations? If we put 10 confirmations as confirmed, isn't my tx is confirmed after less than 1 sec?

Answer:

Perhaps you got used to hear about N confirmations in Bitcoin. There is no such thing here, your transaction is either final or not. And getting covered advances it to being final. Getting covered by witnesses matters most (the structure of the DAG after your transaction also matters for finality). Witnesses earn fees from transactions they cover, and the more transactions per second there are in the network, the more frequently witnesses will post with positive ROI (they pay fees like everybody else).

You will never get sub-second confirmation times because of network latency.
-tonych

Question:

OK so if I got it correctly, then if the transaction are covered by more than half witnesses' transactions it will be final thus confirmed? Are witnesses always emit transactions? What if none of the witness are doing tx? my tx will never get confirmed?

Answer:

It'll do as a very rough approximation, see the white paper for the exact criteria of finality.
Witnesses are expected to always emit transactions, that's one of the factors that determines the choice of witnesses.
-tonych

Question:

This is interesting question. Suppose, each of 12 witnesses run a script which submit transactions at crazy rate, but nobody else is using the network at this time. What happens then? Do witnesses end up loosing money?

Answer:

Witnesses do post transactions automatically but do it in a bit more reasonable way https://github.com/byteball/byteball-wi ... r/start.js
-tonych

Question:

is there any way planned to increase marketing apart from the sig campaign ?

I think this project will only succeed if we have a lot of users.

Answer:

Any suggestions are welcome.
We have sig campaign, twitter campaign, and a recent press release which resulted in a few publications.
-tonych

Question:

Quick Question; can we link multiple BTC addresses to our one Byteball address by sending the micro transaction from each BTC address, and do we have to run the Transition Bot each time?

Answer:

You can (if you can control which address the payment is sent from, this is an advanced feature). You just send the same micro-amount to the same address.
-tonych

Reply:

Incidentally, I finished developing our trustless exchange bot a day ago, just when you started this discussion. How did you know?
It will exchange only internal assets, not a replacement for poloniex etc.
-tonych

Question:

Please provide some more details? how to use it? what internal assets you meant? Is it blackbyte? I don't see any other internal assets...

Answer:

I'll release it in a few days, need to make a few changes to the wallet too.
This version of the exchange will work with public assets only, blackbytes are private.
tonych

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/cryptkeeperbtt/stat ... 5697197056

[CryptKeeper]

Announcement from the Byteball developer:

Based on the progress of address linking that we've seen so far, I have to make a few adjustments to the future distribution plan. Nothing changes for the first round (December 25) but the rules for further rounds are optimized to maximize the long-term value of your bytes.

For the 2nd round:
- for every 1 BTC of proven balance you receive 62.5 MB
- for every 1 byte, you receive 0.1 new bytes

We no longer commit to distributing exactly 20% in the second round, we'll distribute as much as is linked and calculated by the above rules. After the price of byte is established in the markets, the rules make it significantly simpler for new users to estimate how much they get by linking their Bitcoins or by buying bytes. Hopefully, this will encourage much more people to join.

Compared with the previous rules, the weight of bytes in the basket is decreased. This still encourages byteholders to hold in order to receive more bytes in the future rounds, while giving more weight to the newly linked BTC. We do need to be more attractive to new users, who are going to eventually link much much more BTC than we see in the current round, otherwise they might feel like a huge chunk of the second distribution will go to the participants of the first distribution, while new users are significantly disadvantaged. If it is not quite clear, this is the math:

Under the old rules, for the basket weight calculation, 62.5 MB were accepted as 1 BTC. 1014 bytes are distributed in the first round, the total weight of these bytes is 1,600,000 BTC. This seems huge compared with the amount of BTC the second-rounders are going to realistically link, based on current progress. Therefore, under the old rules, the vast majority of new bytes are going to be distributed to the first-rounders, which scares new users off and contradicts my plans of creating the widest possible distribution and increasing value through network effects (which are proportional to square of the number of users). To give new users better chance, the total weight of bytes distributed in the first round is reduced to 160,000 BTC under the new rules.

We will probably distribute less than 20% in the 2nd round, this means we'll have more rounds before all bytes are distributed, more opportunity to multiply your holdings in each round, more incentive to hold.

The 3rd and subsequent rounds will follow similar rules, but the relative weight of bytes vs. BTC in the 3rd and further rounds will change and will gradually increase back to 1 BTC=62.5 MB. It will be selected to maximize the value of bytes and keep the speed of distribution in sync with the growth of user base and the actual use of the network.

The date of the 2nd round is not decided yet, rough estimate is mid-February.

[CryptKeeper]

Two news for today: version 0.8.0t is released and trustless exchange is launched.

Both are for testnet.
Download the new version from https://github.com/byteball/byteball/releases, Android should auto-update, and the link to the exchange is at https://byteball.org.  Only the new version will work with the exchange.

The exchange allows to exchange public assets issued on Byteball platform, including bytes.  Blackbytes are not covered as they are a private asset.

The exchange is not built-in (as in Nxt, Ripple, and Bitshares), it is an application built on smart contracts.  It is the first application on our network that uses smart contracts.  By keeping the exchange out of the core, we achieve that we don't have to add complexity to the core, as well as greater flexibility in how the exchange can work.

The exchange is centralized and trustless.  Centralized means that there can be many centralized exchanges competing with each other and trying to deliver better product.  Centralized also means that it is run as a business and can be properly managed and marketed.  Trustlessness means that the exchange operator can't steal customer's money, nor can he lose it if the exchange is hacked or mismanaged.  This is achieved by very simple smart contracts that every user can see and verify, and he doesn't need to be a developer to understand them:

To create an order to exchange asset A to asset B, a customer sends his asset A to an address that can be spent:
- by the customer himself after a timeout, or
- by the exchange operator if the same transaction simultaneously sends asset B to the customer (in the specified amount)

The first clause allows the customer to cancel the order and take his money back.  The 2nd clause doesn't give the operator arbitrary control over asset A: the operator can use asset A only if he simultaneously pays asset B to the customer.  This is the key difference from conventional trustful exchanges -- the operator is bound by the contract.

The operator then matches this order with a reverse order from another customer and signs for both sides of the deal simultaneously.

This is what a typical dialog with exchange operator looks like (yes, it is a chatbot, you've already got used to):



Before paying, the customer is presented with a user readable description of the contract:

HXY5... is the asset we are buying (chips).
W272... is the exchange address (actually, it doesn't matter who owns this address as long as the asset is sent to us).

Before the order is executed, the customer can see everything about this smart contract address in his wallet -- its balance and history, and can spend from this address (after the timeout specified in the contract).  The address is presented as a subwallet, it is easy to navigate to and from.

For those who have experience with conventional exchanges, there are a few differences that may seem odd.  Due to how the smart contracts work, there is no partial matching of orders.  To overcome this, orders are split into a small number of standard sized orders.  The standard lot sizes are powers of 2, which allows to match equal-sized orders, as well as some common combinations thereof, such as one large order against two half-sized orders (e.g. 32=16+16).  (Instead of powers of 2, we could also use Fibonacci numbers as standard lot sizes because each size would be equal to the sum of two smaller sizes, e.g. 13=8+5).  That's why when you create an order you usually pay to several addresses.  These sub-orders can match at different time and you'll receive your assets in several standard-sized portions.  Also, placing an order is not instant, you have to wait that the transaction that funds it becomes final.  Obviously, there is no margin trading, and there are no charts in chat.  So, if you are a day trader, it is not for you.  If you need to occasionally buy or sell assets, I think this tool is quite good for you.

Try it for yourself, the new UI is available after upgrading to 0.8.0t, and the link to start a chat with the exchange bot is at https://byteball.org.  Remember, this will work with testnet wallet only.

Please retweet https://twitter.com/ByteballOrg/status/ ... 5148572672

[vindyne8]

Less than 2 days left to link your btc address, don't miss out!

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/Vindyne8/status/812659039704412161

[CryptKeeper]

There is a slack channel #trading, please go there if you want to buy, sell, exchange Bytes and Blackbytes or want to speculate about the price!

Please keep this in mind for your own safety:

Little guide for Byteball trading

This slack channel is for discussing Byteball trading and for organizing such trades. Please be aware that at the moment, the only way to trade safely is through a reputable escrow middleman! Even if you think you know the guy who you want to trade with, you should better trade through an escrow! We've already seen lots of scammers who try to impersonate well-known community members. So proceed with due diligence and always make sure that you are dealing with the right person, especially your escrow middleman. Only use registered escrow services and compare the usernames and bitcoin addresses carefully before you send someone your precious coins!

Registered escrow services:

@yassinnxt
Registered escrow bitcoin address: 153tSmxbKfby652LUyYdYEZhoxY9RzHYrz
Fee: 1% in BTC (from Byteball buyer)
(approx. 2700 BTC escrowed so far)

@seccour
Registered escrow bitcoin address: 1Hx3kxKbYyNgGyqzLB5Qw8BA8dZbuu1Xjn
Fee: none (tips accepted)
(over 500 BTC escrowed so far)


Get your slack invite here: http://slack.byteball.org/

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/cryptkeeperbtt/stat ... 3533922304

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/vindyne8/status/813558377183936516

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/vindyne8/status/813789041288245248

[CryptKeeper]

Byteball is traded OTC via slack #trading channel or on exchange https://cryptox.pl !

BTC BTC BTC

[CryptKeeper]

https://twitter.com/cryptkeeperbtt/stat ... 9205958656

[CryptKeeper]

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