Any news on the snapshot date? I've only read September somewhere in this thread and in the bounty campaign thread, that the end date of the campaign is September 30th. Has an exact date been set yet?

There's a good chance many people will dump their SPR right after the HLM snapshot, so dumpers will need to be quick off the mark. It's therefore going to be exciting to see whether price continues to climb towards the end of month (snapshot), or if people will dump a couple days before to ensure a nice profit (but forfeiting their HLM claim). Hodling both can of course be worthwhile too. There are many ways to play this game. Nonetheless, I am excited to run a master node for the first time. 

SPR Masternodes don't exisit as far as i know. At least not on Mainnet, only in Testnet (since 2015..). So there is not way to earn "real" SPR via Masternodes.

I knew they were on testnet, I just didn't realize for 2 years. So I may dump after the snapshot as well lol.

spreadcoin will be worthless after snapshot

Has Helium provided any details on how service nodes will work?  I might be a little out of date but the last I heard, Dash were struggling with Proof of Service themselves.

Is there going to be a testnet that is accessible to the public before launch in September? 

Finally, has the service node model been submitted for academic review, even if the details are being kept private for now?

Just buy spreadcoin and wait for the next updated instructions.

 Helium will be Dash based, not forked from Spreadcoin. But since the founder of Helium was a Spreadcoin developer, they are giving Spreadcoin holders a 1:1 ratio for Helium. At the moment, you can either hold in a Spreadcoin wallet or on an exchange. Personally, I don't like holding on my PC, even with a wallet backup. They will announce if Bittrex will give Spreadcoin holders their Helium before the snapshot. So you have to stay tuned to find out that part.

There is a bounty thread here: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/2104006.0

Not a whole lot of Helium being given away but it will be a very limited distribution so I expect Helium to have a decent price at launch.

My English not very good. What is Proof of Service?

I like the sound of that. Sounds, interesting.

The service node model is a service provision network which is covered in the white paper.

Essentially, if a service provider doesn't provide a service, you stop paying them and move on to another service provider. That's where the Uber or TripAdvisor style ratings model helps. Both parties to a service transaction can rate each other. Bad actors on both sides get weeded out of the network.

The trick with our service node model will be the Service Node provider setting up an encrypted channel so that a user can access their nodes securely. The area of more detailed effort on our part will be adding a hardware component so that the user can generate private keys locally thus avoiding having to trust the Service Node provider.

Did you have a particular academic in mind to send the paper to? Drop me an email, I'd be more than up for sending it for review or giving access to a PhD candidate.

Wow. My English got better the more I typed.

Not 100% clear what you are asking.

Let's take a corporate company like an electricity utility.

If they want to run a blockchain so that they could communicate and transact with their supply chain, they may not want their internal users or their supply chains to run full nodes on their own networks.

Many corporate businesses have really congested networks - and in our example - electricity utility businesses are huge targets for cyber attacks. So running many full nodes would potentially add congestion and also create many challenges and problems for business users.

You also have many businesses using remote desktops systems as well as placing limits on who can run applications.

The easy option for infrastructure businesses like this would be to outsource their full nodes (to our Service Nodes for example) and give local users access via SPVs.

SME's have a slightly different dynamic, but need the same service provision model for different reasons. For SMEs, it's about accessing B2B payment tools to avoid bank fees and also have the capability to trade internationally, but they are already busy running their own business, they don't want the headache of having to run their own full nodes.

SME's would be at the lower end of our market pricing (Service Nodes actually set prices themselves, well that's one of our preferred models) but would generate more volume and sales as we would have greater numbers of customers who are more price aware and more likely to shop around for the lowest price provider.

This is essentially a cloud service model, a big growth area. Microsoft has bet the farm on the cloud services provision model.