I am a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion. This has motivated me to generate the following:
********* BEGIN COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7) ************
What follows is a summary of organizational activity which has occurred during the first five days of the NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0 . It was begun as a spinoff by the participants of the 1500+ page Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT) at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345619.31800 (where all the kewl NXT kids hang out).
The motivation for the NCNTTFC thread is that there are currently 9M of unclaimed NXT left over from the Genesis Block that are currently under control of Come-from-Beyond. He has stated he will destroy these unclaimed 9M NXT funds on April 3 (by "sending them back to the Genesis Block")
unless the NXT community organizes a community funding committee structure that can accept and use them for the betterment of NXT.
So far activity on this thread has had the following activity, in roughly chronological order. If somebody thinks I have left out or misrepresented something of significance, let me know and I will come back and edit this post accordingly.
SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE MEMBER NOMINATIONS:
Jean_Luc was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Come_from_Beyond was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later declined to serve)
Joefox was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing committee)
rickyjames was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (and later requested membership on the infrastructure committee)
salsacz was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing committee)
Nifty was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing committee)
Anon136 was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata for the tech / dev committee)
Klee was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
opticalcarrier was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture (later recommended by Landomata to the infrastructure committee)
msin was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
pinarello was first nominated to a committee by Utopianfuture
Pouncer was first nominated to a committee by Landomata
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Allwelder was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz
Uniqueorn was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing committee)
VanBreuk was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve as unqualified)
EvilDave was first nominated to a committee by Salsacz (and later declined to serve unless truly needed)
Damelon was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
Passion_ltc was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
l8orre was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles
jl777 was first nominated to a committee by Jack Needles (and later requested membership on the tech/dev committee)
buybitcoinscanada was first nominated by EvilDave (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing committee)
brooklynbtc was first nominated by brooklynbtc (later recommended by Landomata to the marketing committee)
jefdiesel was first nominated by brooklynbtc
bitcoinpaul was first nominated by NxtChg.com (who later declined)
2Kool4Skewl was first nominated by LiQio
nexetrn was first nominated by fmiboy
smaragda was first nominated by Coinonaer
landomata was first nominated by Coinonaer
PeercoinEnthusiast was first nominated by Coinonaer (later recommended by gs02xzz to the marketing committee)
Davetrouser was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
Wesleyh was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
laowai80 was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
ferment was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the infrastructure committee)
Tai Zen was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
Utopianfuture was first nominated to a committee by Landomata (specifically, the marketing committee)
EmoneyRu was first nominated to a committee by EmoneyRu (specifically, the tech / dev committee)
mww was first nominated to a committee by rickyjames (specifically, the marketing committee)
Utopianfuture also received a vote of no confidence from Uniqueorn (because Uf is working on a clone)
SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE STRUCTURE PROPOSALS:
The structure for the proposed committee(s) themselves have evolved during discussion from:
a single group of 5 or 7 receiving all 9M unclaimed coins; to
two groups of 5 or 7 : marketing and development with a 6M / 3M split of unclaimed coins (assumed by NxtChg.com); to
three groups of 5 or 7: marketing / development / infrastructure with a proposed 5M / 3M / 1M of unclaimed funds (first proposed by James - jl777)
SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE TREASURER SELECTION:
Further discussion on committee structure / funding levels was shelved after the above consensus reached (primarily by no challenge to James' proposal except by Nxt.Chg). Attention turned on selecting committee treasurers for the proposed so CfB could go ahead and transfer the unclaimed 9M NXT to them, as he has pledged to destroy them on April 3 if no accounts had been set up to receive them.
These Treasurers will have no vote on committee decisions and will disburse finds as directed by their committees. They exist as a safeguard to provide centralized accounting of a committee's expenditures. They have been deemed high-trust individuals and will have sole access to their committee's funds. Identification and verification of real-world identities has been proposed but not agree upon.
By general consensus the following committee treasurers have been selected. Come-from-Beyond has expressed a willingness to transfer the outstanding 9M in unclaimed NXT to these individuals as soon as all committee treasury account numbers are available:
Fund: NXTmarketingfund
Treasurer: neer.g
Account: pending
Ledger: pending
Fund: NXTtechdevfund
Treasurer: Pouncer
Account: 10979837763882063
Ledger: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoE8nAOEMIa7dFFnWjRNYTM4RkhsN3dRRXFBaTBiaHc#gid=5
Fund: NXTinfrastructurefund
Treasurer: kLee
Account: 1218278327871973459
Ledger: pending
********* END COMMITTEE ORGANIZATION THREAD SUMMARY THRU POST #143 (Feb 2 - Feb 7) ************
Above was a summary of historical activity. What follows are my personal proposals and personal opinions based on where we are at so far in this committee organization process.
RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 1 - All treasurers should prepare paper backup copies of their account passwords, place these in stamped postal envelopes addressed to other treasurers, and place these backup envelopes at a safe off-site location such as a bank deposit box.
Rationale: I implemented this voluntarily when designated as treasurer of the NXTcommunityfund, and my envelope is currently addressed to James / jl777. This proposal is just plain and simple a good idea, because you never know when....
RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 2 - The 610,019 NXT currently in NXT Marketing Account 2037401990853753795 should be voluntarily surrendered immediately by account owner (I think Salsacz) to neer.g, the Marketing Committee Treasurer.
Rationale: NXT Marketing account transfers can be viewed at http://87.230.14.1/nxt/nxt.cgi?action=3000&acc=2037401990853753795&offset=1&filter=1. Spreadsheet documenting the transfers to and from this account is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgAGADgnQcrtdHRrV3V3Z1lzOXVEMWtqdElUaEtqV1E#gid=15 . They don't match, and in particular the spreadsheet does not meet GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) standards.
There have been 1,118,709 total NXT donated to the marketing account, yet it appears the spreadsheet only documents 1,012,710 NXT being donated to NXT marketing - a difference of 105,999 NXT. This difference between actual and recorded donations (almost a 10% shortfall) is unacceptable. Organization of the spreadsheet only confuses rather than highlights where the NXT has gone. Further disbursements from this account should not be made by people actively generating marketing materials and involved in marketing activities. Auditing should be undertaken to determine where the 105,999 NXT unaccounted for by the spreadsheet has gone.
RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 3 - Unclaimed 9M NXT should be divided equally between marketing / tech-development / infrastructure committees at 3M each
Rationale: OK, I admit it, this is a personal plug for something I feel is important - bumping up the funding for NXT infrastructure. In the discussion on the committee thread, this started at zero and was bumped up to 1M NXT by James to Nxt.Chg's surprise. I think infrastructure is just as important and needs just as much funding as marketing / further software development and here's why.
(1) We already have a lot of newbies getting the shock of realization that PoS means low amounts of NXT aren't going to forge get-rich-quick amounts of NXT on cheap Raspberry Pis instead of expensive ASIC rigs.
(2) Discussion on this thread is casting into doubt the ability of Raspberry Pi and smartphones to participate in NXT forging anyway as the transaction rate gets higher and the blockchain gets bigger.
(3) We have voted to drop the NXT transaction fee by a factor of ten, which is supposed to be the main motivator and financial incentive to set up infrastructure nodes in the first place.
(4) We are getting increasing reports from the Good Samaritans who went all-in on NXT during the December DDoS attacks and set up lots of VPNs that their expenses - especially bandwidth expenses - are WAY more than they had bargained for or can maintain as a personal commitment to NXT.
All of these factor point towards a total rethink about what infrastructure is needed to support NXT and just how much it is going to keep it running FOREVER. People are not being motivated by forging to add personal nodes to the network, and cheap nodes are looking more and more unlikely. Both the infrastructure and the finances required to keep NXT going are going to end up being larger than we think now, only three months in with a tiny active network. And yes, I admit I want to be on the infrastructure committee as a voting member and push for a 1000 TPS network (the original NXT spec!!!) if that is all possible alongside our main network. That's more infrastructure expense, but if we succeed, it is EXACTLY what will make people sit up and notice NXT. And send the price to the moon.
RICKYJAMES PROPOSAL 4 - Voters on funding committee nominations should not be limited to the endless Bitcointalk thread participants, but should instead be open to all nxtcoin.org forum members, with an active effort made to include them in these deliberations and consider them for committee seats.
Rationale: This is in response to a proposal made several times by
landomata in the "Funding Committee" thread :
"FINAL OPEN POLL TO PICK MEMBERS WILL TAKE PLACE ON NEXTCOIN.ORG & NXTCRYPTO.ORG. YOU CAN SIGNUP ON EITHER NEXTCOIN or NXTCRYPTO before the poll start date BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE POSTED ON THE NXT :: descendant of Bitcoin - Updated Information THREAD BEFORE FEBRUARY 2nd.2014"
I (rickyjames) have a little heartburn with the implications of this, and think the committee seats (and votes for them) should be open to anybody that wants to try and get one. The goal should be to get the people that are best for the job regardless of where they come from in the NXT community. I believe we should not limit the pool of funding committee candidates to the relative handful of OCD (
) people like me that endlessly surf the "Updated information" thread or as I call it, the Ridiculously Long NXT Pub Crawl Thread (RLNPCT). In particular I think we should allow others to join the committees in the future as new and brilliant people join NXT that haven't even heard of it yet. We are not trying to set up an oligarchy; we want to be open to new people and new ideas as time goes on.
In that spirit, I am cross posting this post in the endless "updated info" thread, the 8-page-because-nobody-is-paying-arrention-to-it "committee nominations" thread, and a completely new post over on nxtcoin.org. Just call me a pot-stirrer. One who is a great believer in transparency, sunshine, accurate information, and inclusion.
And I am posting polls on my proposals above. Please vote!!!
Rickyjames Proposal 1:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454420
Rickyjames Proposal 2:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454372
Rickyjames Proposal 3: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454327
Rickyjames Proposal 4: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=454320
NXT continues to develop at an incredible pace. If you've read this far, it's because you care about NXT. Consider applying for a committee seat to help take it further.
NXT Community Nominations To The Funding Committee (NCNTTFC) thread :
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=445209.0
