Hello all. I've been meaning to make a post regarding the current state of the project and its future for a while. It took a bit longer than intended, but here it is. It's a long one.
First off, I want to thank Jookly and the rest of the guys for holding everything together so well while I was away. I think it says something that at the arse-end of a pretty horrific bear market, almost everyone involved in the project is still here and still involved. Plus I think we've all learned a lot over the last couple of years, so, internally at least, the project is stronger than ever.
Secondly, I'd like to apologise for the lack of communication. It was unforeseen, but I still should have dropped in or gotten word to someone. My bad. If ever I'm pulled away unexpectedly again, I'll make sure to keep everyone informed.
I'd also like to apologise to the rest of the team - a while back I suggested that we didn't need to wait for developmental targets before making an effort to build the community. Basically, I was saying while I worked on the back-end I'd be grateful if work was done on that front by others. The team have absolutely answered the call with the reopening of the MOIN Movement League and the constant additions and improvements to it, and I haven't been keeping up my end of the bargain. Again, my apologies.
So... it's time to get back to work.
THE PLATFORMThe Platform was/is (depending on what we choose) to be a content publishing platform. The wallet was to have a friendly interface allowing someone to easily create a proof-of-existence and proof-of-ownership (of a song, short film, ebook etc.) and embed it in the MOIN blockchain. It'd then give them the option of creating a magnet link if they planned on sharing the file. The wallet was also going to have a fully-featured torrent client with a simple way to send MOIN to the originator of any file(s) you had downloaded/were downloading.
I was pretty excited about it at the time. My excitement's waned a little since then, for several reasons. Several other projects have sprung up since then, some with systems pretty close to what I'd envisioned. And there are probably others that I'm not aware of. Also, with the scale that crypto projects have now reached, the original idea for The Platform seems a little less exciting. It's hard not to look around at some of the most innovative and exciting projects in the space and not have greater ambitions for MOIN.
Still, I do like the idea - and should the community decide that that's the way to go, I'll be happy to work on it.
This is the mockup of the UI crz made way back when:
I got as far as having most of the UI coded with the client handling magnet links using libtorrent.
MOIN'S FUTURE - The OptionsThe way I see it, we have 3 main options. I've been caught between them for a while, so lets make the decision together so that we can get things moving again.
1. PLATFORM ON THE CURRENT CODEBASEWith this option, we'd stick with the current chain and codebase and build The Platform upon it. The advantages are that it would take less work and would allow for The Platform to be realised more quickly.
2. THE PLATFORM ON THE PARTICL CODEBASEWith this option, we would clone and adapt the PARTICL codebase, then build The Platform upon it. The advantages are numerous: we'd inherit some of the great features the PART team have implemented, such as Cold Staking; we'd be close enough to the Bitcoin codebase to benefit from the work of the Bitcoin Core devs; we could set aside a premined amount to fund the project. I feel like the Particl team (since the transition from SDC) have shown how with canny management a huge amount can be achieved with a fairly modest (by crypto standards at least) sum of money.
3. RESEARCH PHASE & SOMETHING ENTIRELY NEWThis is by far the most radical and ambitious proposal. There are developers and engineers in this space who I admire greatly. Guys like Pieter Wuille, Gregory Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra - their knowledge and skill-levels are exceptional and are something I aspire to. Fortunately crypto has put me in a position where I have the time and means to follow my curiosity.
So this option would involve me spending some time studying mathematics, decentralised systems and the various other related fields in order to improve my general understanding, with the long-term goal of creating a system that solves at least one of the big problems in the space. It would of course take considerably more time than the above two options.
If the community chooses this option, the current project would be maintained in so far as any critical bugs would be patched. And as any future project would almost certainly involve a new chain and code base, anyone capable would be welcome to make pull requests or contact me to discuss any bigger ideas they have for the current codebase.
So, what does everyone think? If you can think of other points for or against any of the options, let me know in a reply and I can add them to the post.
PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR PREFERRED OPTION ABOVE
