Last night, randy-waterhouse and I were experimenting with
Bitmessage. (*smooch*!!)
Bitmessage is a p2p messaging (and broadcast subscription) protocol, based on the Bitcoin protocol.
It uses its own blockchain, but the chain only stores the last 2 or 3 days worth of messages. (It's assumed they were delivered within that time, where they are then safely stored on the recipient's inbox.)
Combining the above Bitmessage capabilities--which we already proved out experimentally--with Open-Transactions, makes possible
fully-decentralized p2p markets, as well as p2p escrow across OT federated servers, easy p2p and server-to-server wiring of funds and conversion of currencies, both within OT and also between OT and the conventional banking system.
Furthermore, this is possible with little-to-no changes inside OT itself, and will not require the issuing of credit, nor will it require any pre-mined currency.
How does it work?
-----------------------------------------------------------
A few concepts...
--- First, keep in mind the concept that Bitcoins and Colored Coins (either/both) could be issued onto an OT server,
without having to trust the server itself, through the use the multi-sig "voting pools" on the blockchain itself. I've already extensively discussed this on this board, and here's an article on how it's done:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/834/309--- Second, keep in mind that using Colored Coins instead of Bitcoins is advantageous in certain circumstances, as it allows users to buy/sell those colored coins (for the purposes of transmitting other currencies) without incurring any capital gains tax liability.
(I'm not a lawyer and that's not legal advice. The basic gist is, if you buy a colored coin for $100, and sell it for $100, there is obviously no gain or loss.)-----------------------------------------------------------
T H E H O L Y G R A I LEnter Bitmessage! (Which solves
discovery across federated OT servers.)
As I said, randy-waterhouse and I already TESTED Bitmessage last night to prove experimentally that this is possible
(and it worked.)-----------------------------------------------------------
Using Bitmessage with OT to effect server-to-server
wiring of funds: http://pastebin.com/NjQgDarx--- The wiring protocol is all about Alice trying to discover Bob so she can move her money from one server to another (and Bob trying to discover Alice so he can make a profit by moving money from one server to another.)-----------------------------------------------------------
Using Bitmessage with OT to effect
escrow-based conversion of currencies across OT federated servers:
http://pastebin.com/S1W5guAQ--- The currency conversion protocol is about Alice and Bob being able to choose a server they can agree to meet on so they can trade one currency for another inside OT. (For cases where they aren't already trading on the same OT server.)-----------------------------------------------------------
Using Bitmessage with OT and SEPA so that Alice can
p2p send any currency which Bob
receives as Euros in his Euro account:
http://pastebin.com/SsLrxVP6--- The SEPA transfer protocol is about Alice being able to send Silver Grams, which Bob receives as Euros in his Euro bank account. It's also about Jorg earning a profit in silver grams, by sending a SEPA transfer to Bob on Alice's behalf.-----------------------------------------------------------
We already knew that OT offered quite a few benefits to Bitcoin:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/2710/309But now, combined with Bitmessage,
Open-Transactions becomes a juggernaut!The above protocols can be implemented inside OT wallet GUIs, such that they are automated and transparent to users.May a million currencies bloom!
