Mastercoin

The coins of the new layer have

• Additional security features to make your money much harder to steal


• Built-in support for a distributed currency exchange


• Built-in support for distributed betting (no need to trust a website to coordinate bets)


• Built-in support for “smart property” which can be used to create and transfer property such as titles, deeds, or stock in a company


• Capability to hold a stable user-defined value, such as an ounce of gold or U.S. Dollar, with no need to trust a person promising to back up that value

This is a significant improvement over anything we’ve had before, including colored coins. This protocol has been my life’s work for over two years now, and you can finally get a piece of it today!

The name of the new protocol layer is “MasterCoin” (a name I invented and published long before the alt-coin of the same name), and it is 100% message-based, meaning that it encodes all its protocol data as hidden messages in the block chain which have special meanings, such as placing a bet, or transferring MasterCoins to another address.

Once you own MasterCoins, you have the building blocks for creating GoldCoin, USDCoin, EuroCoin, and any other real-world asset you can imagine! These child currencies will then be “meta stable” (holding their values as long as they remain sufficiently backed by MasterCoins held in escrow). Their target values are maintained by protocol actions which control the available supply.

Want more details? 

• Readthe complete MasterCoin specification here: https://github.com/mastercoin-MSC/spec


• Watch this video of my explaining MasterCoin to the bitangels investor group, in which I use screen-sharing to explain MasterCoin and demonstrate what it could already do at that time (we’ve come a long way since):https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3nInaIJVqrtc3NqdkloLTZNOXM/edit?usp=sharing


• “Let’s talk Bitcoin” has an episode in which they interview me about MasterCoin: http://letstalkbitcoin.com/e37-meeting-mastercoin/  (my segment is towards the end)


• We now have a wiki with a FAQ: http://wiki.mastercoin.org/index.php?title=FAQ

About me:

• I’ve been a software engineer for over 10 years. Here’s my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jrwillett  (connect with me!)


• I’ve been pushing for new bitcoin protocol layers since 2011. Here’s a video of me as an expert panelist at the Bitcoin Conference in San Jose in May, talking about this idea (I’m the second guy from the left):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qdr_Z3hrqQ

MasterCoins are intended to be an investment opportunity on par with buying bitcoins when they first came out. However, as with bitcoins, there are a lot of risks too. Before you buy MasterCoins, please take a few minutes to read my summary of some of the ways this could go wrong and you could lose your money: https://sites.google.com/site/2ndbtcwpaper/MasterCoinRisks.pdf 

Perhaps you have heard of the Genesis Block, from which the first bitcoins were created. MasterCoins have a similar starting point in the bitcoin block chain, called the “Exodus Address” (http://blockchain.info/address/1EXoDusjGwvnjZUyKkxZ4UHEf77z6A5S4P ). MasterCoins were created by sending bitcoins to the Exodus Address during the month of August 2013. That fundraiser is now over, and anyone wishing to buy MasterCoins will have to purchase them from an early adopter. 

Bitcoins raised in the fundraiser are being used to fund the development of software implementing the MasterCoin protocol. The fundraiser was structured like a kickstarter, but it is also an investment. If we’re successful, the purchased MasterCoins could be worth a tremendous amount of money someday. Thanks to everyone who participated, helping us raise over half a million dollars worth of bitcoins. We’re tracking every every expenditure of that money in a public ledger: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtCyUJvk_IyNdGpVcnpBN2tOczFmbVRnck5TWjZuRFE&usp=sharing 

Again, the fundraiser is over, and bitcoins sent to the Exodus Address do not create MasterCoins anymore. Until we get the bitcoin/MasterCoin distributed exchange set up, you can purchase MasterCoins (using a very manual process) here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=287145.0

Do not attempt to purchase or use MasterCoins with a web wallet such as MtGox or Coinbase (YOU COULD LOSE YOUR MONEY). You must use a wallet where you can control a sending address by sending all your funds to that address first, then creating a “message” by sending funds from that address in a special format. Web wallets such as BlockChain.info will work fine, since they give you complete control over the addresses in your wallet.

Many MasterCoin functions are now available online (Note site disclaimers! There may still be bugs!): 

• http://mastercoin-explorer.com  by tachikoma


• https://masterchest.info/  by zathras


• http://masterchain.info/  by grazcoin


• http://mymastercoins.com/  by bitoy

We now have:

• Our own subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/mastercoin


• Our own website: http://www.mastercoin.org


• Master Protocol forum: http://mastercointalk.org/


• Development blog: http://blog.mastercoin.org/


• List of tasks on Trello: https://trello.com/mastercoin


• Multiple local chapters: http://wiki.mastercoin.org/index.php/List_of_Mastercoin_Foundation_Chapters


• A non-profit foundation managing project funds: http://www.mastercoinfoundation.org


• A legal / self-regulatory group (CODAP): http://www.codap.co/


• An IRC channel irc://irc.freenode.net/mastercoin

We are currently running a 300 BTC coding contest towards implementing MasterCoin’s distributed exchange feature. ALL serious entries win a prize. Details here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292628.0

source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.0

Mastercoin