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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<div class="local-toc"><p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Technology</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/graphene">Graphene</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#welcome-to-the-graphene-documentation">Welcome to the Graphene Documentation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/what_bitshares">What is BitShares?</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-2-0">BitShares 2.0</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#background">Background</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#consensus-technology">Consensus Technology</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#distributed-autonomous-companies">Distributed Autonomous Companies</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#community">Community</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/history_bitshares">The History of BitShares</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#the-history-of-bitshares-as-laid-out-by-stan-larimer">The History of BitShares as laid out by Stan Larimer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#part-one">Part One</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#part-two">Part Two</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#part-three">Part Three</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#history-of-funding">History of Funding</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#the-great-consolidation">The Great Consolidation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/dpos">Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS)</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#background">Background</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#rationale-behind-dpos">Rationale Behind DPOS</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#scalability">Scalability</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#role-of-delegates">Role of Delegates</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#voting-algorithm">Voting Algorithm</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#disincentives-for-attacks">Disincentives for Attacks</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#how-many-witnesses-are-securing-the-network">How many witnesses are securing the network</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#dpos-infographic">DPOS Infographic</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#sources-and-discussions">Sources and Discussions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/difference_bitshares">What is different BitShares</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#several-tokens">Several Tokens</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#registered-identities">Registered Identities</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#no-more-addresses">No More Addresses</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#memos">Memos</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#securing-funds">Securing Funds</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#full-nodes-and-clients">Full Nodes and Clients</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#object-ids">Object IDs</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-technology/bitshares_features">Technology - BitShares.org</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#price-stable-cryptocurrencies">Price-Stable Cryptocurrencies</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#decentralized-asset-exchange">Decentralized Asset Exchange</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#industrial-performance-and-scalability">Industrial Performance and Scalability</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#dynamic-account-permissions">Dynamic Account Permissions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#recurring-scheduled-payments">Recurring & Scheduled Payments</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#referral-rewards-program">Referral Rewards Program</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#user-issued-assets">User-Issued Assets</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#stakeholder-approved-project-funding">Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#transferable-named-accounts">Transferable Named Accounts</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus">Delegated Proof-of-Stake Consensus</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">BTS Holders</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/things_to_know">1. Things you should know</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#for-the-starter">1.1. For the Starter</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#for-the-investor">1.2. For the Investor</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens">2. Assets Tokens</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/uia">2.1. User Issued Assets (UIAs)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/mpa">2.2. Market Pegged Assets (MPAs)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/eba">2.3. Exchange Backed Assets (EBA)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/privbta">2.4. Privatized BitAssets</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/fba">2.5. Fee Backed Asset</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/tokens/pm">2.6. Prediction Markets</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/bts_governance">3. Blockchain Governance</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/community_members">4. Community Memberships</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#about-bitshares-members">4.1. About BitShares Members</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bts-holders">4.2. BTS Holders</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#committees">4.3. Committees</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#witnesses">4.4. Witnesses</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#workers-budget-items">4.5. Workers / Budget Items</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/dex">5. Decentralized Exchange (DEX)</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/dex_trading">5.1. Trading</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/dex_short">5.2. Short Selling BitAssets</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/dex_margin_mechanics">5.3. Margin call mechanics</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/investor_guide">6. Investor Guide</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#claim-your-investment">6.1. Claim your Investment</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-bts_holders/migrating_bitshares20">7. Migrating from BitShares 1.0 to BitShares 2.0</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#what-is-new-in-bitshares-2-0">7.1. What is new in BitShares 2.0</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#what-has-changed-since-bitshares-0-9">7.2. What has changed since BitShares 0.9</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#blockchain-upgrade">7.3. Blockchain Upgrade</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">User Guide</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/index_account">1. BitShares Accounts</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/bts_account">1.1. Account</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/bts_membership">1.2. Memberships</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/bts_fees">1.3. Fees</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/referral">1.4. Referral Program</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/vesting_balances">1.5. Vesting Balances</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/bts_permissions">1.6. Permissions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#public-key-and-private-key">1.7. Public Key and Private Key</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/bts_multi-sign">1.8. Multi-Signature</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/accounts/voting">1.9. Voting</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/create_account">2. Create a BitShares Wallet</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#terminology">2.1. Terminology</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#light-wallet-or-web-wallet">2.2. Light wallet or Web wallet?</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#create-an-account">2.3. Create an Account</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#login">2.4. Login</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#advanced-create-an-account">2.5. Advanced: Create an Account</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-wallet-features">2.6. BitShares Wallet Features</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/bitshares-client">3. BitShares Client and Login Mode</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-client">3.1. BitShares Client</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#login-forms">3.2. Login Forms</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#summary">3.3. Summary</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#frequently-asked-questions">3.4. Frequently asked Questions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/backup_local_wallet">4. Backups and Restore your Wallet</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#create-local-wallet-backup">4.1. Create Local Wallet Backup</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#restore-import">4.2. Restore / Import</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/fund_account">5. Fund (Send) & Transactions</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#fund-your-account">5.1. Fund your Account</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#send-transfer">5.2. Send (Transfer)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#deposit">5.3. Deposit</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#transactions">5.4. Transactions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/bridge_gateway">6. Bridge and Gateway</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bridge-and-gateway-services">6.1. Bridge and gateway services</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bridges-trust-free-model">6.2. Bridges: trust-free model</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#gateways-trust-based-model">6.3. Gateways: trust-based model</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/dex_exchange_ui">7. Exchange and Explore</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#exchange">7.1. Exchange</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#how-to-trade-in-the-dex">7.2. How to trade in the DEX</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#explore">7.3. Explore</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-user_guide/ledger_nano">8. Securing BitShares with Ledger Nano</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#requirements">8.1. Requirements</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#installation-and-setup">8.2. Installation and Setup</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#securing-a-bitshares-account-with-the-ledger-nano">8.3. Securing a BitShares Account with the Ledger Nano</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#using-the-companion-app-with-nano-bitshares-app">8.4. Using the Companion app with Nano BitShares app</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#getting-support">8.5. Getting Support</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="caption"><span class="caption-text">Resources</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-resources/info_comunities">BitShares Community</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#communities">Communities</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-blockchain">BitShares Blockchain</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-ui-wallet">BitShares UI Wallet</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#bitshares-block-exploer">Bitshares Block Exploer</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#blockchain-activity">Blockchain Activity</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#document-resources/info_external">Resources External</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#from-steemit">From steemit</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#articles">Articles</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
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<div class="section" id="bitshares-documentation">
<h1>BitShares Documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#bitshares-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="_images/bitshares-logo.png"><img alt="Graphene Welcome" class="align-center" src="_images/bitshares-logo.png" style="width: 80px;" /></a>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p class="centered">
<strong><strong>Welcome to the BitShares Documentation</strong></strong></p><p>Welcome to the documentation portal for the BitShares Blockchain. The content on this page is managed by the BitShares community and is constantly improved.</p>
<p>The purpose of this site is to provide in-depth documentation about the BitShares Blockchain and make it easier for users and developers to leverage the full power of the BitShares Blockchain.</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://whitepaper.io/document/388/bitshares-whitepaper">BitShares Whitepaper</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>Development</strong><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://dev.bitshares.works/en/master/">BitShares Developers Documentation Portal</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/bitshares/bitshares-core/releases">BitShares-Core Release</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/bitshares/bitshares-ui/releases">BitShares-UI Release</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>New: SimpleGUIWallet</strong><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="index.html#ledger-nano"><span class="std std-ref">Securing BitShares with Ledger Nano</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr class="docutils" />
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<span id="document-technology/graphene"></span><div class="section" id="graphene">
<h2>Graphene<a class="headerlink" href="#graphene" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="section" id="welcome-to-the-graphene-documentation">
<h3>Welcome to the Graphene Documentation<a class="headerlink" href="#welcome-to-the-graphene-documentation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The developers of BitShares formed Cryptonomex to monetize the technology, experience, reputation and good will they accumulated during their first two years of development and operations. Much of that technology is embodied in Graphene™, an industrial strength software platform for deploying third generation cryptographically secure decentralized ledgers known as block chains.</p>
<p>Graphene based systems have orders of magnitude better performance than first-generation Bitcoin-derived systems or even the second generation “Bitcoin 2.0” systems that constitute our current closest competitors. Graphene based systems go beyond mere “checkbook” style payments to offer a broad range of financial services distinguished by their transparency and inherent incorruptibility.</p>
<p>This page documents the <a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene">Graphene</a> technology built by <a class="reference external" href="http://cryptonomex.com">Cryptonomex</a>. You can see Graphene as a toolkit for real-time blockchains. We separated the documentation into smaller parts for convenience and for the sake of easy location of relevant information.</p>
<div class="section" id="recent-updates">
<h4>Recent Updates<a class="headerlink" href="#recent-updates" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<ul class="simple">
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">17/04/04</span></code> Stress Test results available in <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/papers/index</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/06/29</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/distributed-access-hosting</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/04/07</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">Getting Started</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/03/17</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">integration/traders/index</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">integration/libraries/index</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/03/15</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/investor/index</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/investor/claim</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/migration/legacy-blockchain</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/03/02</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/referral-program</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/03/01</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/cli-wallet-usage</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/transfer-funds-cli</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/voting</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/voting</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/02/13</span></code> Huge improvements in the <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/index.html" title="(in Read the Docs v5.19.0)"><span>Public API</span></a></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/02/08</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/committee</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/committee-approve-proposal</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/vesting</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/02/01</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">integration/merchants/merchant-protocol</span>, Added search to the navigation</li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/01/19</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">testnet/index</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/pm-create-manual</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/eba</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/01/13</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/uia-update-manual</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/uia-create-manual</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/uia-create-gui</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">integration/network-setup</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">integration/tutorials/index</span></li>
<li><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">16/01/12</span></code> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/assets</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/uia-create-manual</span> <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/mpa-create-manual</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/assets-faq</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/privbta</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/publish-feed</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/user/pm</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/pm-create-manual</span>, <span class="xref std std-doc">bitshares/tutorials/pm-close-manual</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="blockchain-specific-guides">
<h4>Blockchain Specific Guides<a class="headerlink" href="#blockchain-specific-guides" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>The Graphene Technology has been applied to several blockchain already. BitShares 2.0 has been the first application of Graphene technology and you will be able to find almost everything feature implemented in BitShares 2.0. Further blockchains will be added independently.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="http://BitShares.org">BitShares 2.0</a> is a Financial Smart Contracts platform that enables trading of digital assets and has market-pegged assets that track the value of their underlying asset (e.g. bitUSD tracking the U.S. dollar).</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="document-technology/what_bitshares"></span><div class="section" id="what-is-bitshares">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1">What is BitShares?</a><a class="headerlink" href="#what-is-bitshares" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="contents topic" id="table-of-contents">
<p class="topic-title">Table of Contents</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#what-is-bitshares" id="id1">What is BitShares?</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#bitshares-2-0" id="id2">BitShares 2.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#background" id="id3">Background</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#consensus-technology" id="id4">Consensus Technology</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#distributed-autonomous-companies" id="id5">Distributed Autonomous Companies</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#community" id="id6">Community</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="bitshares-2-0">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2">BitShares 2.0</a><a class="headerlink" href="#bitshares-2-0" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>BitShares is a technology supported by next generation entrepreneurs, investors, and developers with a common interest in finding free market solutions by leveraging the power of globally decentralized consensus and decision making. Consensus technology has the power to do for economics what the internet did for information. It can harness the combined power of all humanity to coordinate the discovery and aggregation of real-time knowledge, previously unobtainable. This knowledge can be used to more effectively
coordinate the allocation of resources toward their most productive and valuable use.</p>
<p>Bitcoin is the first fully autonomous system to utilize distributed consensus technology to create a more efficient and reliable global payment network. The core innovation of Bitcoin is the Blockchain, a cryptographically secured public ledger of all accounts on the Bitcoin network that facilitates the transfer of value from one individual directly to another. For the first time in history, financial transactions over the internet no longer require a middle man to act as a trustworthy, confidential fiduciary.</p>
<p>BitShares looks to extend the innovation of the blockchain to all industries that rely upon the internet to provide their services. Whether its banking, stock exchanges, lotteries, voting, music, auctions or many others, a digital public ledger allows for the creation of distributed autonomous companies (or DACs) that provide better quality services at a fraction of the cost incurred by their more traditional, centralized counterparts. The advent of DACs ushers in a new paradigm in organizational structure in
which companies can run without any human management and under the control of an incorruptible set of business rules. These rules are encoded in publicly auditable open source software distributed across the computers of the companies’ shareholders, who effortlessly secure the company from arbitrary control.</p>
<p>BitShares does for business what bitcoin did for money by utilizing distributed consensus technology to create companies that are inherently global, transparent, trustworthy, efficient and most importantly profitable.</p>
<p>BitShares has went through many changes and has done its best to stay on top of blockchain technology. Towards the end of 2014 some of the DACs were merged and the X was dropped from “BitShares X” to become simply BitShares (BTS).</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="background">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">Background</a><a class="headerlink" href="#background" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>BitShares X was first introduced in a White Paper titled “A Peer-to-Peer Polymorphic Digital Asset Exchange” by Daniel Larimer, Charles Hoskinson, and Stan Larimer. Shortly after authoring the White Paper, the project was founded by Daniel Larimer of Invictus Innovations after receiving funding from Chinese venture capital firm BitFund.PE. Charles Hoskinson, founder of the Bitcoin Education Project, was a co-founder of the original project but has since left the team. The BitShares X project received a lot of attention in August 2013 when it was covered by CoinDesk and subsequently announced to the the BitcoinTalk forums on August 22nd 2013 as a project announcement. The project generated a good amount of buzz around the proposal, though the original scope and timelines have since modified.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="consensus-technology">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">Consensus Technology</a><a class="headerlink" href="#consensus-technology" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Consensus is the mechanism by which organizations of people decide upon unitary rational action. While not considered technology in the traditional since, consensus “technology” is the basis of democratic governance and the coordination of free market activity first coined by Adam Smith as the “Invisible Hand.” The process of consensus decision-making allows for all participants to consent upon a resolution of action even if not the favored course of action for each individual participant. Bitcoin was the first system to integrate a fully decentralized consensus method with the modern technology of the internet and peer-to-peer networks in order to more efficiently facilitate the transfer of value through electronic communication. The proof-of-work structure that secures and maintains the Bitcoin network is one manner of organizing individuals who do not necessarily trust one another to act in the best interest of all participants of the network. The BitShares ecosystem employs Delegated Proof of Stake in order to find efficient solutions to distributed consensus decision making.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="distributed-autonomous-companies">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">Distributed Autonomous Companies</a><a class="headerlink" href="#distributed-autonomous-companies" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Distributed Autonomous Companies (DAC) run without any human involvement under the control of an incorruptible set of business rules. (That’s why they must be distributed and autonomous.) These rules are implemented as publicly auditable open source software distributed across the computers of their stakeholders. You become a stakeholder by buying “stock” in the company or being paid in that stock to provide services for the company. This stock may entitle you to a share of its “profits”, participation in its growth, and/or a say in how it is run.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="community">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">Community</a><a class="headerlink" href="#community" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The BitShares community is a global network of people who all share the same goal of creating and participating in various Distributed Autonomous Companies. The community mainly revolves around the BitShares Team and third parties who use Graphene (the toolkit that makes BitShares possible) to create their own Distributed Autonomous Companies. The main discussions in the BitShares community takes place openly at <a class="reference external" href="http://bitsharestalk.org">BitSharestalk.org</a>.</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="document-technology/history_bitshares"></span><div class="section" id="the-history-of-bitshares">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1">The History of BitShares</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-history-of-bitshares" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="contents topic" id="table-of-contents">
<p class="topic-title">Table of Contents</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-history-of-bitshares" id="id1">The History of BitShares</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-history-of-bitshares-as-laid-out-by-stan-larimer" id="id2">The History of BitShares as laid out by Stan Larimer</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#part-one" id="id3">Part One</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#part-two" id="id4">Part Two</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#part-three" id="id5">Part Three</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#december-s-innovation-tapos-and-the-end-of-mining" id="id6">December’s Innovation – TAPOS and the End of Mining</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#history-of-funding" id="id7">History of Funding</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-great-consolidation" id="id8">The Great Consolidation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-history-of-bitshares-as-laid-out-by-stan-larimer">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2">The History of BitShares as laid out by Stan Larimer</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-history-of-bitshares-as-laid-out-by-stan-larimer" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>“Here are the first parts of a planned series of blog articles that will appear on the bitshares.org website as soon as I am sufficiently pleased with them. This series is intended to be a resource for newbies and a summary of all that has been accomplished in the past year. Think of this as the Official Year One Newsletter.”</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4833.msg63464#msg63464">Part One Source</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4833.msg63678#msg63678">Part Two Source</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4833.msg64045#msg64045">Part Three Source</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="part-one">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">Part One</a><a class="headerlink" href="#part-one" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>On the second day of June 2013 is the anniversary of the invention of BitShares. That day, a rogue entrepreneur named Dan “Bytemaster” Larimer was struck on the head by a proverbial migrating coconut. When he regained consciousness, he realized that he had invented bit-USD, the key insight that makes BitShares possible. Before sundown he had reworked his original BitShares whitepaper and published the whole new concept at bitcointalk.org:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=223747.0">Creating a Fiat/Bitcoin Exchange without Fiat Deposits</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Over the next five weeks, Bytemaster engaged in a series of vigorous forum discussions defending and refining the concept. There he met Charles Hoskinson who helped to vet the idea and develop a business plan. Charles presented the plan to Li Xiaolai in China who agreed to fund the development. On American Independence Day, the Fourth of July 2013, Invictus Innovations was incorporated in the state of Virginia.</p>
<p>The next several months were spent bootstrapping the company and publishing articles, many of which may be found on the bitsharestalk.org thread at <a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=889.msg8935#msg8935">Advice, Tutorials, and General References for Newbies.</a></p>
<p>In September, the concept of a Distributed Autonomous Company (DAC) was invented and introduced to the world in two groundbreaking LetsTalkBitcoin.com articles:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://letstalkbitcoin.com/is-bitcoin-overpaying-for-false-security/#.Ui-p9WTFT7s">Overpaying for Security</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://letstalkbitcoin.com/bitcoin-and-the-three-laws-of-robotics/">Bitcoin and the Three Laws of Robotics</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Invictus introduced the BitShares Vision to the world via presentations by Hoskinson and Larimer at the Atlanta Bitcoin Conference in October 2013. It is here that the plans for Keyhotee were first introduced – an integrated multi-wallet, communication, and DAC interface application intended to defend privacy and help spread knowledge of BitShares technologies outside the crypto-currency community.</p>
<p>Hoskinson and Larimer parted company at this point. They each agreed to keep their reasons confidential and there is no bad blood from our point of view. The only official statement on the subject was made by CEO Bo Shen to end a minor forum firestorm here:</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2188.msg32672#msg32672">BitSharestalk</a></p>
<p>It is our opinion that Charles Hoskinson is the best dealmaker we have ever seen, and we miss his vision and talent for recruiting allies. No doubt he will help make his new Ethereum team very successful.</p>
<p>Despite this loss, all of this activity was beginning to create a buzz that would soon explode on the scene with a sequence of revolutionary innovations at roughly monthly intervals that continue to this very day.</p>
<p>The first was ProtoShares…</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="part-two">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">Part Two</a><a class="headerlink" href="#part-two" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>November’s Innovation – BitShares PTS</p>
<p>BitShares PTS (formerly called ProtoShares) was developed for an entirely different reason than what its paradigm-shattering role became shortly after launch. In fact, every one of the subsequent breathtaking innovations came about from reacting to opportunities and lessons learned from the previous month’s breakthroughs and, um, screw-ups. Necessity is the mother of invention. I wish we could say we had it all planned out in advance, but no business plan survives first contact with the market. We are merely blessed opportunists.</p>
<p>Initially, we were just looking for a way serve people interested in our first objective, BitShares X. A way for them to start mining and trading it early. BitShares X was first viewed as a coin backed by a built-in business that gives it more worth than the speculative value of a meme or some alternative technical implementation. In this first case, that integral unmanned business was a decentralized bank and exchange.</p>
<p>Yep. Your coins would now contain a bank, not the other way around.</p>
<p>Needless to say, this kind of second-generation crypto-company takes a lot longer to build and early adopters were growing impatient. So our plan was to just offer a plain old Bitcoin clone whose coins would be a BitShares X prototype - upgradable into BitShares X “bitshares” when it was ready to launch. We would simply initialize the first 10% of the bitshares to match all the public keys of PTS holders, giving them instant matching control of the same number of bitshares in BitShares X. This is how the concept of a protocoin was born.</p>
<p>We envisioned many exciting uses for protocoins. For example, they could be used as A way to separate investing in an idea from investing in one or more implementations of the idea. An incentive for competitors to cooperate on building an implementation because they could all be common stakeholders in the idea. A way to vet an idea and attract venture capitalists based upon prediction market evidence that the idea has value. A way for developers to invest in an idea and raise funding by generating growth from showing more and more evidence that they will successfully implement the idea in a way that benefits investors in the idea. A way for someone with a good idea but lacking the ability to implement it to share it and benefit from its ultimate implementation by somebody else. A way for an entire community to participate in “pre-mining” in a way that might be deemed fair (e.g. for unmanned businesses that must start out with enough currency to operate and enough credibility to get market depth on exchanges from Day One.) A more graceful “soft fork” way to upgrade to version two of a DAC by instantiating the new in parallel with the old and let the owners (shareholders) not just the employees (miners) decide when and if value transitions from the old to the new. A way to build a community and get them to cooperate on the implementation because they all have a stake in the idea. So you see, right off the bat we are talking about two assets: PTS and BTS. Before long, we would be talking about entire families of such assets. Second-generation crypto-currencies that we began to call crypto-equities because the coins also seemed like “shares” in the underlying unmanned business that gave the currency value - BitShares.</p>
<p>Since then, we have come to prefer the inverse of this dual metaphor:</p>
<p>Bitcoin is a type of crypto-company that implements a coin not BitShares as a type of crypto-coin that implements a company.</p>
<p>Of course, BitShares are something very different than shares in a government-created and therefore government-regulated organization. We are speaking metaphorically to help people understand how they work and what gives them value. They can still be viewed as ordinary altcoins (ok, incredibly powerful ordinary altcoins) as far as their underlying technology is concerned.</p>
<p>Charles Evans explored this dual metaphor in this delightful blog article:</p>
<p>A BitRose by Any Other Name. <a class="reference external" href="http://bitshares.org/a-bitrose-by-any-other-name/">http://bitshares.org/a-bitrose-by-any-other-name/</a></p>
<p>We offered a bounty for an experienced coin designer to build the PTS protocoin for us. A developer known as FreeTrade answered the call. It took him about a month to clone it from the Bitcoin library. Then, while we were still evaluating his code, another independent entrepreneur known as Super3 downloaded the open-source from FreeTrade’s library and started it running. On November 5, 2013 Super3 went down in history as the miner of the first protocoin block in crypto-equity history!</p>
<p>POW! The rest of the world (who had been eagerly awaiting the launch based on the several months we had been writing about it) jumped on it with everything they had. It took just a few days before the competition became so intense that people had a hard time mining solo with their individual computers. They started joining pools that several enterprising businessmen quickly set up and then everyone started renting cloud computers to remain competitive. By the end of the third week, there were hundreds of thousands of mining nodes competing. Several independent coin exchanges jumped in and listed PTS, driving it immediately into the top ten of the over 100 coins listed on coinmarketcap.com at the time.</p>
<p>So you see, we really don’t own PTS. It was launched by the industry for the industry. We just described what ought to exist, and a decentralized industry of entrepreneurs produced it practically overnight.</p>
<p>Of course, that moon shot may have had something to do with one small suggestion we made literally at the last minute: we decided to recommend PTS be the basis for more than just BitShares X. PTS should also be used to initialize all of the other second-generation assets we had been writing about. Mine once for a whole family of assets. Why should you have to keep mining over and over again to get a “fair” distribution?</p>
<p>In fact, we recommended that other developers do the same thing. Suddenly BitShares PTS was backed by more than thin air. More than just one unmanned business. More than just one company’s product line of unmanned businesses. It could well become backed by a good portion of the unmanned business industry!</p>
<p>BitShares PTS was valuable because as a universal prototype it was upgradable to multiple future releases like BitShares X.</p>
<p>Just like a good deal on Microsoft Office 1.0 might get you free upgrades on Word, Excel, PowerPoint and all the rest …for as long as you both shall live!</p>
<p>To a community willing to speculate on any altcoin with a cute name, that was all it took. Now there was something tangible to speculate on. Soon crypto-currency speculators would be demanding to know every new asset’s business case.</p>
<p>Imagine that! We had almost accidentally changed the crypto-currency industry forever.</p>
<p>It was just our opening shot.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="part-three">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">Part Three</a><a class="headerlink" href="#part-three" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<div class="section" id="december-s-innovation-tapos-and-the-end-of-mining">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">December’s Innovation – TAPOS and the End of Mining</a><a class="headerlink" href="#december-s-innovation-tapos-and-the-end-of-mining" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>In the weeks that followed it became increasingly obvious that the whole paradigm of mining on which the crypto-currency industry is founded was horribly flawed. While generally billed as a “fair” lottery for wide distribution of a new currency, it was clear that the ordinary guy was still at a disadvantage. Technically savvy people could use and optimize the tools - others could not install their wallet. Wealthy individuals could rent computers by the thousands - others had no computer at all. Only a very small percentage of the general population was benefiting - sucking up the lion’s share of the coins and then reselling them on the market at a profit.</p>
<p>Now, there’s nothing wrong with using your brains or wealth to earn a profit while contributing to society (like, say, developing a new technology), but as far as the general public was concerned, this small elite group of individuals were effectively just selling the currency into existence. Most of the general population had to buy them from the market anyway!</p>
<p>And even those elite few only got to keep a small percentage of what the market was willing to pay for the currency. They were required to destroy most of what they received from the market doing the electronic equivalent of digging holes and filling them back in. The whole industry was ein bisschen poco loco.</p>
<p>“No, wait!”, the Bitcoin-trained community protested, “burning the seed capital is the price we must pay for securing the network!”</p>
<p>Except the network was not really being secured. Economies of scale dictate that hashing power will always migrate toward specialized capital-intensive organizations ultimately killing the very decentralization that mining was supposed to ensure. Today, most Bitcoin mining power is concentrated in the hands of a half-dozen individuals with just two of them controlling over 51%. And they proudly collaborate “for the good of the network.”</p>
<p>Bytemaster recognized that Bitcoin could be viewed as an unprofitable company and its coins as stock in that company. Stock value was generally rising because demand for its services (efficient private money transmission) exceeded supply. But, meanwhile it was bleeding red ink. 100% of its transaction fees were going to pay its employees (the miners). But that still wasn’t enough. It had to print more money (up to 12% annual inflation) also to pay its employees. So Bitcoin is a company with annual losses near 12%. (And the employees were only getting to keep a few percent of the money being wasted on them.)</p>
<p>He decided that eliminating those employees was a key objective that would inevitably lead to a whole new generation of profitable crypto-businesses. Assets based on destructive mining would go the way of the dinosaur, unable to compete with profitable business models of second generation assets that could afford to pay dividends and interest to their holders. It was just a matter of time.</p>
<p>So a month after the ProtoShares revolution, around December 1, Bytemaster fired his second shot heard round the world: all his future designs would replace Proof of Work mining with a Proof of Stake derivative.</p>
<p><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg11955#msg11955">Transactions as Proof of Stake (TAPOS) and the End of Mining</a> . An algorithm that was lightweight enough to run invisibly on anyone’s computer, for free! Mining was dead. Next generation crypto-assets would be profitable. They would be valuable because they returned a yield, rather than for superficial speculative reasons.</p>
<p>There were merely a few technical wrinkles to iron out…</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="history-of-funding">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">History of Funding</a><a class="headerlink" href="#history-of-funding" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Also see, Summary of Key Facts for Invictus Stakeholders</p>
<p>When Invictus of VA was formed under Charles Hoskinson’s term as CEO, our purpose was to create a company that would achieve all the objectives of Mr. Li as our primary investor.</p>
<p>(Since shortly after our founding, Mr. Li Xiaolai has held a subscription agreement that entitles him to buy 25% of our shares for a fixed price payable in increments spread out over the first year. Mr. Li also acquired an additional 1% from Charles Hoskinson in a separate purchase. This means that his total stake in Invictus is 26% of which he has completed payments on 21% as scheduled. His final payment for the last 5% is on hold pending completion of a restructuring forced by discovery of certain applicable U.S. regulations. All these shares will be equally treated.)</p>
<p>We had three nested tasks:</p>
<p>Build and launch BitShares X Build a company to Build and launch BitShares X. Build a decentralized industry in which this company could build and launch BitShares X (and many more).</p>
<p>Part of our task was to research the legal requirements to accomplish all of these goals.</p>
<p>In the process of studying the requirements in the United States we ran into a number of issues and uncertainties. In particular, there are strict rules about who can own shares of a U.S. corporation.</p>
<p>We recommended to Mr. Li that he ask an attorney he trusts to start over and create a company that would be able to meet all of the goals and honor all of his commitments. It has taken six months to work out all the details, after consulting with Li’s attorney and multiple U.S law firms.</p>
<p>We will soon be ready to release a public statement about the details, but the bottom line is that Invictus Innovations Incorporated, LTD in Hong Kong is the company we intended to create in Virginia, except with the ability to meet the needs of Asian investors better than we can here.</p>
<p>So, you can think of it as relocating the Virginia company, but legally they are two independent companies with independent management aiming to meet Mr. Li’s goals and obligations 100%.</p>
<p>The Virginia company now only handles small tasks associated with American payroll and payment processing. Further details on this decomposition into independent businesses optimized to comply with all regulations in their domains will be forthcoming.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="the-great-consolidation">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8">The Great Consolidation</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-great-consolidation" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>In the late part of 2014 it became obvious that Bytemaster had to lend his energies to other projects. People had donated AGS funds with the expectation of future DACs. With the decreasing funding due to dropping BTC prices and the requirements of Dan Larimer, the Great Consolidation occurred. Follow My Vote and DNS were merged into BTS so that all developers could be brought to work directly on one product instead of DACs all competing for users.</p>
<p>One outcome of this was also the addition of paying on the blockchain. Previously BitShares was a purely deflationary blockchain with dividends paid out by the burning of transaction fees. (Less currency in existence gives more value to those remaining.) With a pressing need to be the most innovative crypto-currency out there, it was determined that the Delegates needed to start paying. So the cap on Bitshares was raised to be slowly paid out similar to the inflation in Bitcoin. The rate was made to be kept under the current level of Bitcoin inflation, but delivering direct and meaningful value.
Timeline of BitShares by forum announcements</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Momentum Proof of Work Introduced on BTT - October 18 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=313479.0">https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=313479.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://static.squarespace.com/static/51fb043ee4b0608e46483caf/t/52654716e4b01acd1ac8a085/1382369046208/MomentumProofOfWork.pdf">http://static.squarespace.com/static/51fb043ee4b0608e46483caf/t/52654716e4b01acd1ac8a085/1382369046208/MomentumProofOfWork.pdf</a> (White Paper)</li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=962.msg9752#msg9752">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=962.msg9752#msg9752</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Keyhotee ID Preorder - November 3, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2.msg2#msg2">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2.msg2#msg2</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Mining of Bitshares PTS (Protoshares) - November 5, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4.msg4#msg4">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4.msg4#msg4</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Transactions as Proof of Stake - November 30, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg12010#msg12010">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg12010#msg12010</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="http://the-iland.net/static/downloads/TransactionsAsProofOfStake.pdf">http://the-iland.net/static/downloads/TransactionsAsProofOfStake.pdf</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg11968#msg11968">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg11968#msg11968</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg12967#msg12967">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg12967#msg12967</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Consensus + TaPoS<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg29905#msg29905">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg29905#msg29905</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=3588.msg45119#msg45119">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=3588.msg45119#msg45119</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Inception of DPOS - December 8, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg13602#msg13602">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg13602#msg13602</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg14784#msg14784">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1138.msg14784#msg14784</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>The Inception of AGS - December 14, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1397.msg14794#msg14794">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=1397.msg14794#msg14794</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Official AGS Announcement - December 25, 2013<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2644.msg32817#msg32817">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2644.msg32817#msg32817</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>February 28 Snapshot Announced - January 26, 2014<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2591.45">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=2591.45</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Bitshares X Whitepaper - February 14th, 2014<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RLcjSXWuU9vBJzzqLEXVACSCdn8zXKTTJRN_LfoCjNY/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RLcjSXWuU9vBJzzqLEXVACSCdn8zXKTTJRN_LfoCjNY/edit</a>?pli=1#</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>TaPos with a Trustee - March 28, 2014<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=3865.msg48605#msg48605">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=3865.msg48605#msg48605</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>BitShares X released by DACsunlimited, July 19th, 2014<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5750.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5750.0</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition there are numerous threads discussing The Great Consolidation.</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="document-technology/dpos"></span><div class="section" id="delegated-proof-of-stake-dpos">
<h2>Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS)<a class="headerlink" href="#delegated-proof-of-stake-dpos" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) is a new method of securing a crypto-currency’s network. DPOS attempts to solve the problems of both Bitcoin’s traditional Proof of Work system, and the Proof of Stake system of Peercoin and NXT. DPOS implements a layer of technological democracy to offset the negative effects of centralization.</p>
<div class="contents local topic" id="table-of-contents">
<p class="topic-title">Table of Contents</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#background" id="id1">Background</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rationale-behind-dpos" id="id2">Rationale Behind DPOS</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#shareholders-are-in-control" id="id3">Shareholders are in Control</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#pooled-mining-as-delegated-proof-of-work" id="id4">Pooled Mining as Delegated Proof of Work</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#reasons-to-not-randomly-select-representatives-from-all-users" id="id5">Reasons to not randomly select representatives from all users</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#scalability" id="id6">Scalability</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#role-of-delegates" id="id7">Role of Delegates</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#voting-algorithm" id="id8">Voting Algorithm</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-do-i-get-votes" id="id9">How do I get “votes?”</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#why-use-only-upvotes" id="id10">Why use only upvotes?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-are-votes-counted" id="id11">How are ‘votes’ counted?</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#is-there-an-anti-vote" id="id12">Is there an anti-vote?</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#disincentives-for-attacks" id="id13">Disincentives for Attacks</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-many-witnesses-are-securing-the-network" id="id14">How many witnesses are securing the network</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#dpos-infographic" id="id15">DPOS Infographic</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#sources-and-discussions" id="id16">Sources and Discussions</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="background">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1">Background</a><a class="headerlink" href="#background" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Delegated proof of stake mitigates the potential negative impacts of centralization through the use of witnesses (formally called <em>delegates</em>). A total of <cite>N</cite> witnesses sign the blocks and are voted on by those using the network with every transaction that gets made. By using a decentralized voting process, DPOS is by design more democratic than comparable systems. Rather than eliminating the need for trust all together, DPOS has safeguards in place the ensure that those trusted with signing blocks on behalf of the network are doing so correctly and without bias. Additionally, each block signed must have a verification that the block before it was signed by a trusted node. DPOS eliminates the need to wait until a certain number of untrusted nodes have verified a transaction before it can be confirmed.</p>
<p>This reduced need for confirmation produces an increase in speed of transaction times. By intentionally placing trust with the most trustworthy of potential block signers, as decided by the network, no artificial encumbrance need be imposed to slow down the block signing process. DPOS allows for many more transactions to be included in a block than either proof of work or proof of stake systems. DPOS technology allows cryptocurrency technology to transact at a level where it can compete with the centralized clearinghouses like Visa and Mastercard. Such clearinghouses administer the most popular forms of electronic payment systems in the world.</p>
<p>In a delegated proof of stake system centralization still occurs, but it is controlled. Unlike other methods of securing cryptocurrency networks, every client in a DPOS system has the ability to decide who is trusted rather than trust concentrating in the hands of those with the most resources. DPOS allows the network to reap some of the major advantages of centralization, while still maintaining some calculated measure of decentralization. This system is enforced by a fair election process where anyone could potentially become a delegated representative of the majority of users.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="rationale-behind-dpos">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2">Rationale Behind DPOS</a><a class="headerlink" href="#rationale-behind-dpos" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Give shareholders a way to delegate their vote to a key (one that doesn’t control coins ‘so they can mine’)</li>
<li>Maximize the dividends shareholders earn</li>
<li>Minimize the amount paid to secure the network</li>
<li>Maximize the performance of the network</li>
<li>Minimize the cost of running the network (bandwidth, CPU, etc)</li>
</ul>
<div class="section" id="shareholders-are-in-control">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">Shareholders are in Control</a><a class="headerlink" href="#shareholders-are-in-control" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>The fundamental feature of DPOS is that shareholders remain in control. If they remain in control then it is decentralized. As flawed as voting can be, when it comes to shared ownership of a company it is the only viable way. Fortunately if you do not like who is running the company you can sell and this market feedback causes shareholders to vote more rationally than citizens.</p>
<p>Every shareholder gets to vote for someone to sign blocks in their stead (a representative if you will). Anyone who can gain 1% or more of the votes can join the board. The representatives become a “board of directors” which take turns in a round-robin manner, signing blocks. If one of the directors misses their turn, clients will automatically switch their vote away from them. Eventually these directors will be voted off the board and someone else will join. Board members are paid a small token to make it worth their time ensuring uptime and an incentive to campaign. They also post a small bond equal to 100x the average pay they receive for producing a single block. To make a profit a director must have greater than 99% uptime.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="pooled-mining-as-delegated-proof-of-work">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">Pooled Mining as Delegated Proof of Work</a><a class="headerlink" href="#pooled-mining-as-delegated-proof-of-work" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>So how is this different than Bitcoin? With Bitcoin, users must pick a mining pool and each pool generally has 10% or more of the hash power. The operator of these pools is like a representative of the clients pointed at the pool. Bitcoin expects the users to switch pools to keep power from becoming too centralized, but collectively five major pools control the network and manual user intervention is expected if one of the pools is compromised. If a pool goes down then the block production rate slows proportionally until it comes back up. Which pool one mines with becomes a matter of politics.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reasons-to-not-randomly-select-representatives-from-all-users">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">Reasons to not randomly select representatives from all users</a><a class="headerlink" href="#reasons-to-not-randomly-select-representatives-from-all-users" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<ul class="simple">
<li>High probability they are not online.</li>
<li>Attackers would gain control proportional to their stake, without any peer review.</li>
<li>Without any mining at all, the generation of a random number in a decentralized manner is impossible and thus an attacker could control the random number generation.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="scalability">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">Scalability</a><a class="headerlink" href="#scalability" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Assuming a fixed validation cost per transaction and a fixed fee per transaction, there is a limit to the amount of decentralization that can take place. Assuming the validation cost exactly equals the fee, a network is completely centralized and can only afford one validator. Assuming the fee is 100x the cost of validation, the network can support 100 validators.</p>
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="_images/Scalability.png"><img alt="Green is Income, Yellow is Profit, Blue is Cost" class="align-center" src="_images/Scalability.png" style="width: 660px;" /></a>
<p>Systems like Nxt and Peercoin will have excessive fees if they intend to allow everyone to be a validator and earn fees at scale. What this means for Nxt and Peercoin is that anyone with less than 1% stake cannot validate profitably unless their fees are higher than our DPOS chain. If these chains assume 100 delegates is too centralized and start promoting they have 1000 validators, then their fees must be 10x those of DPOS. If such a chain grew to be the size of Bitcoin ($10 B) then only those with $1M worth of coin could validate profitably and most would consider that an elite club. If they reduce the minimum stake to be a validator to $1000, then their fees would be 10,000 times higher than DPOS.</p>
<p>Developers of DPOS assume that everyone with less than the amount required to validate won’t participate. Also assumed is a “reasonable” distribution of wealth. It’s clear that unless alternate chains have unusually high fees, there will only be a handful of people with enough stake to validate profitably.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the only way for POS to work efficiently is to delegate. In the case of Nxt, they can pool their stake by some means and ultimately this will end up like DPOS prior to approval voting with a variable number of delegates. Delegates wouldn’t actually receive any income as with mining pools because the validation expenses will consume the vast majority of the transaction fees.</p>
<p>The end result is that decentralization has a cost proportional to the number of validators and that costs do not disappear. At scale, these costs will centralize any system that does not support delegation. This kind of centralization should be designed as part of the system from the beginning so that it can be properly managed and controlled by the users, instead of evolving in some ad hoc manner as an unintended consequence.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="role-of-delegates">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">Role of Delegates</a><a class="headerlink" href="#role-of-delegates" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>A witness is an authority that is allowed to produce and broadcast blocks.</li>
<li>Producing a block consists of collecting transactions of the P2P network and signing it with the witness’ signing private key.</li>
<li>A witness’ spot in the round is assigned randomly at the end of the previous block</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="voting-algorithm">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8">Voting Algorithm</a><a class="headerlink" href="#voting-algorithm" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<div class="section" id="how-do-i-get-votes">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9">How do I get “votes?”</a><a class="headerlink" href="#how-do-i-get-votes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Persuade others to give upvotes to your witness</li>
<li>When another user gives an upvote to your (and possibly other) delegates</li>
<li>A user can give an upvote for more than one witness. As a result all upvoted witnesses get a vote</li>
<li>Convince proxies (that vote on behalf of their followers) to vote for you</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="why-use-only-upvotes">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10">Why use only upvotes?</a><a class="headerlink" href="#why-use-only-upvotes" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Giving only upvotes, and allowing multiple votes per share, is called <strong>Approval Voting</strong>, and comes with several advantages over the old <em>delegation</em> voting.</li>
<li>No downvotes are needed, which not only simplifies usability but also reduces code and complexity.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="how-are-votes-counted">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11">How are ‘votes’ counted?</a><a class="headerlink" href="#how-are-votes-counted" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>Once every <em>maintenance interval</em>, all votes are recounted and the corresponding result takes effect.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="is-there-an-anti-vote">
<h4><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12">Is there an anti-vote?</a><a class="headerlink" href="#is-there-an-anti-vote" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h4>
<p>Not any more. After discovering <a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5164.msg67657#msg67657">emski’s attack</a> the developers decided to use <strong>Approval Voting</strong>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="disincentives-for-attacks">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13">Disincentives for Attacks</a><a class="headerlink" href="#disincentives-for-attacks" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>By choosing not to produce a block, a witness risks getting fired and they lose guaranteed profits in the future.</li>
<li>A dishonest delegate would only fail to produce a block if they were sure to win something from it</li>
<li>If a lottery only payed out 50% to a jackpot (giving the other 50% to charity) then the most this dishonest delegate could do is break even.</li>
<li>Witnesses can’t sign invalid blocks as the block needs confirmation by the other witnesses as well</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="how-many-witnesses-are-securing-the-network">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14">How many witnesses are securing the network</a><a class="headerlink" href="#how-many-witnesses-are-securing-the-network" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>This is totally in the hands of the shareholders. If the majority votes for 50 witnesses, then 50 witnesses will be used. If the shareholders only vote for 20, so be it. The minimum possible witness count is 11.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="dpos-infographic">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15">DPOS Infographic</a><a class="headerlink" href="#dpos-infographic" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<a class="reference internal image-reference" href="_images/DPOS-infographic.jpg"><img alt="Green is Income, Yellow is Profit, Blue is Cost" class="align-center" src="_images/DPOS-infographic.jpg" style="width: 660px;" /></a>
</div>
<div class="section" id="sources-and-discussions">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16">Sources and Discussions</a><a class="headerlink" href="#sources-and-discussions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5164.msg67657#msg67657">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5164.msg67657#msg67657</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5205.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=5205.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://github.com/BitShares/bitshares_toolkit/wiki/Delegated-Proof-of-Stake">https://github.com/BitShares/bitshares_toolkit/wiki/Delegated-Proof-of-Stake</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4984.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4984.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4927.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4927.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4869.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4869.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4853.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4853.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4836.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4836.0</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4714.0">https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=4714.0</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="document-technology/difference_bitshares"></span><div class="section" id="what-is-different-bitshares">
<h2>What is different BitShares<a class="headerlink" href="#what-is-different-bitshares" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Here we give a brief overview of what is different in BitShares 2.0 when compared to satoshi-based blockchains such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc.. from the perspective of an exchange.</p>
<div class="contents local topic" id="table-of-contents">
<p class="topic-title">Table of Contents</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#several-tokens" id="id1">Several Tokens</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#registered-identities" id="id2">Registered Identities</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#no-more-addresses" id="id3">No More Addresses</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#memos" id="id4">Memos</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#securing-funds" id="id5">Securing Funds</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#full-nodes-and-clients" id="id6">Full Nodes and Clients</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#object-ids" id="id7">Object IDs</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="several-tokens">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id1">Several Tokens</a><a class="headerlink" href="#several-tokens" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>In contrast to all satoshi-based clients, BitShares 2.0 offers a variety of blockchain tokens. There is not just the BTS (core token) but many others. Hence, as an exchange you need to distinguish different assets, either by their id (1.3.0 (BTS), 1.3.1 (USD), …) or by there symbol.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="registered-identities">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id2">Registered Identities</a><a class="headerlink" href="#registered-identities" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>All participants in BitShares 2.0 are required to have a registered unique name. This is similar to mail addresses and are used to address recipients for transfers. As an exchange you will only ever need to tell your customers your BitShares account name and they will be able to send you funds.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="no-more-addresses">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3">No More Addresses</a><a class="headerlink" href="#no-more-addresses" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>In BitShares 2.0, we have separated the permissions from the identity. Hence, as an exchange you don’t need to ever deal with addresses again. In fact, you actually cannot possibly use an address because they only define so called <em>authorities</em> that can control the funds (or the account name). This should greatly simplify integration as you don’t need to store thousands of addresses and their corresponding private keys.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="memos">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4">Memos</a><a class="headerlink" href="#memos" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>In order to distinguish customers, we make use of so called <em>memos</em> similar to BitShares 1, which are encrypted. In contrast to BitShares 1.0, we now have a separated memo key that is only capable of decoding your memo and cannot spend funds. Hence, in order to monitor deposits to the exchange you no longer need to expose the private key to an internet connected machine. Instead you only decode the memo and leave the funds where they are.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="securing-funds">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5">Securing Funds</a><a class="headerlink" href="#securing-funds" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Funds can be secured by <em>hierarchical cooperate accounts</em>. In practice, they are (Threshold) Multi-Signature accounts from which funds can only be spend if several signatures are valid. In contrast to mostly every other crypto currency, you can propose a transaction on the blockchain and don’t need other means of communications to add your approval to a certain transactions. You can find more details about these account types in</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><span class="xref std std-ref">account-membership</span></li>
<li><span class="xref std std-ref">securing-funds</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="full-nodes-and-clients">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">Full Nodes and Clients</a><a class="headerlink" href="#full-nodes-and-clients" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>We have rewritten the core components from scratch and separated the core P2P and blockchain components from the wallet. Hence, you can run a full node without a wallet and connect your wallet to any public (or non-public) full-node (executable <cite>witness_node</cite>). The communication can be established securely but the private keys never leave the wallet.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="object-ids">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">Object IDs</a><a class="headerlink" href="#object-ids" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Since BitShares 2.0 offers a variety of features to its users that are different in many ways, we have decided to address them using <em>object ids</em>.</p>
<p>For instance:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="32%" />
<col width="0%" />
<col width="68%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head" colspan="3">Object ID | translates to</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td colspan="2"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.3.1</span></code></td>
<td>asset USD</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td colspan="2"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.3.0</span></code></td>
<td>asset BTS</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td colspan="2"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.2.<id></span></code></td>
<td>user with id <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre"><id></span></code></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td colspan="2"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.6.<id></span></code></td>
<td>block signer <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre"><id></span></code></td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td colspan="2"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">1.11.<id></span></code></td>
<td>operation with id <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre"><id></span></code></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="document-technology/bitshares_features"></span><div class="section" id="technology-bitshares-org">
<h2>Technology - BitShares.org<a class="headerlink" href="#technology-bitshares-org" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/">https://bitshares.org/</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The BitShares platform itself is run and maintained by the BitShares community an open consortium of individuals and organizations committed to providing universal access to the power of smart contracts.</p>
<p>Working together, this community has designed and developed the BitShares platform to include numerous innovative features which are not found elsewhere within the smart contract industry:</p>
<div class="contents local topic" id="table-of-contents">
<p class="topic-title">Table of Contents</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#price-stable-cryptocurrencies" id="id10">Price-Stable Cryptocurrencies</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#decentralized-asset-exchange" id="id11">Decentralized Asset Exchange</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#industrial-performance-and-scalability" id="id12">Industrial Performance and Scalability</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#dynamic-account-permissions" id="id13">Dynamic Account Permissions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#recurring-scheduled-payments" id="id14">Recurring & Scheduled Payments</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#referral-rewards-program" id="id15">Referral Rewards Program</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#user-issued-assets" id="id16">User-Issued Assets</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#stakeholder-approved-project-funding" id="id17">Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#transferable-named-accounts" id="id18">Transferable Named Accounts</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus" id="id19">Delegated Proof-of-Stake Consensus</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<hr class="docutils" />
<div class="section" id="price-stable-cryptocurrencies">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10">Price-Stable Cryptocurrencies</a><a class="headerlink" href="#price-stable-cryptocurrencies" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>SmartCoins provide the freedom of cryptocurrency with the stability of the dollar</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>A SmartCoin is a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to that of another asset, such as the US Dollar or gold. SmartCoins always have 100% or more of their value backed by the BitShares core currency, BTS, to which they can be converted at any time at an exchange rate set by a trustworthy price feed. In all but the most extreme market conditions, SmartCoins are guaranteed to be worth at least their face value (and perhaps more, in some circumstances). Like any other cryptocurrency, SmartCoins are fungible, divisible, and free from any restrictions. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/price-stable-cryptocurrencies">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="section" id="decentralized-asset-exchange">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11">Decentralized Asset Exchange</a><a class="headerlink" href="#decentralized-asset-exchange" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>BitShares provides a built in high-performance decentralized exchange - “DEX”</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>BitShares provides a high-performance decentralized exchange, with all the features you would expect in a trading platform. It can handle the trading volume of the NASDAQ, while settling orders the second you submit them. With this kind of performance on a decentralized exchange, who needs risky centralized exchanges? (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/decentralized-asset-exchange">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="industrial-performance-and-scalability">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12">Industrial Performance and Scalability</a><a class="headerlink" href="#industrial-performance-and-scalability" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>BitShares is capable of 100,000 TPS with proper industrial-grade setup</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>High performance blockchain technology is necessary for cryptocurrencies and smart contract platforms to provide a viable alternative to existing financial platforms. BitShares is designed from the ground up to process more transactions every second than VISA and MasterCard combined. With Delegated Proof of Stake, the BitShares network can confirm transactions in an average of just 1 second, limited only by the speed of light. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/industrial-performance-and-scalability">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="dynamic-account-permissions">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13">Dynamic Account Permissions</a><a class="headerlink" href="#dynamic-account-permissions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>On-the-fly management, risk prevention, authority assignments and much more for corporate environments</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>BitShares designs permissions around people, rather than around cryptography, making it easy to use. Every account can be controlled by any weighted combination of other accounts and private keys. This creates a hierarchical structure that reflects how permissions are organized in real life, and makes multi-user control over funds easier than ever. Multi-user control is the single biggest contributor to security, and, when used properly, it can virtually eliminate the risk of theft due to hacking. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/dynamic-account-permissions">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="recurring-scheduled-payments">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14">Recurring & Scheduled Payments</a><a class="headerlink" href="#recurring-scheduled-payments" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Flexible withdrawal permissions, subscriptions and bills</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>BitShares is the first smart contract platform with built-in support for recurring payments and subscription payments. This feature allows users to authorize third parties to make withdrawals from their accounts within certain limits. This is a convenient way to “set it and forget it” for monthly bills and subscriptions. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/recurring-scheduled-payments">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="referral-rewards-program">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15">Referral Rewards Program</a><a class="headerlink" href="#referral-rewards-program" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Network growth through adoption rewards and single-level referrals</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>BitShares has an advanced referral program built directly into its software. Financial networks derive their value primarily from their network effect: more people on the same network increases the value of that network for everyone. BitShares capitalizes on this by rewarding those who sign up new users, and does so in a fully transparent and automated way. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/referral-rewards-program">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="user-issued-assets">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16">User-Issued Assets</a><a class="headerlink" href="#user-issued-assets" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Regulation-compatible crypto-assets from the Token Factory.</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>The BitShares platform provides a feature known as “user-issued assets” to help facilitate profitable business models for certain types of services. The term refers to a type of custom token registered on the platform, which users can hold and trade within certain restrictions. The creator of such an asset publically names, describes, and distributes its tokens, and can specify customized requirements, such as an approved whitelist of accounts permitted to hold the tokens, or the associated trading and transfer fees. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/user-issued-assets">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="stakeholder-approved-project-funding">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id17">Stakeholder-Approved Project Funding</a><a class="headerlink" href="#stakeholder-approved-project-funding" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Built in dApps powered by a core utility token</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>BitShares is designed to be self funding and self-sustaining by giving the stakeholders the power to direct where blockchain reserves are spent. BitShares has a reserve pool of 1.2 billion BTS (about $8 million dollars) that automatically grows as transaction fees are collected and the share price rises. Each day, the blockchain is authorized to spend up to 432,000 BTS (about $77,000 per month), which is enough to hire a small team to maintain the network for years, even with no price appreciation. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/stakeholder-approved-funding">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="transferable-named-accounts">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id18">Transferable Named Accounts</a><a class="headerlink" href="#transferable-named-accounts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Human-readable account names registered in the blockchain</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>Named accounts enable users to easily remember and communicate their account information. We don’t use IP addresses to browse the internet or numbers to identify our email, so why shouldn’t we have human-friendly account names for our financial transactions? (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/named-accounts">Read more..</a> )</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus">
<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19">Delegated Proof-of-Stake Consensus</a><a class="headerlink" href="#delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>A robust and flexible consensus protocol</li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<p>Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) is the fastest, most efficient, most decentralized, and most flexible consensus model available. DPOS leverages the power of stakeholder approval voting to resolve consensus issues in a fair and democratic way. All network parameters, from fee schedules to block intervals and transaction sizes, can be tuned via elected delegates. Deterministic selection of block producers allows transactions to be confirmed in an average of just 1 second. Perhaps most importantly, the consensus protocol is designed to protect all participants against unwanted regulatory interference. (<a class="reference external" href="https://bitshares.org/technology/delegated-proof-of-stake-consensus">Read more..</a> )</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr class="docutils" />
<div class="toctree-wrapper compound">
<span id="document-bts_holders/things_to_know"></span><div class="section" id="things-you-should-know">
<h2>Things you should know<a class="headerlink" href="#things-you-should-know" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<div class="section" id="for-the-starter">
<h3>For the Starter<a class="headerlink" href="#for-the-starter" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>Security and Control over accounts and funds</strong>:
No one can access your funds unless you let them, intentionally, or unintentionally. With the power to be independent from 3rd parties, comes the responsibility to protect what belongs to you.</li>
<li><strong>Can interact with people directly</strong>:
With BitShares it becomes possible to interact with people directly without needing to go through a middleman. Hence, BitShares is a platform of free speech that implements a payment platform and exchange for digital goods.</li>
<li><strong>Fast</strong>:
Transactions in BitShares are verified and irrevocable in only a few seconds time.</li>
<li><strong>Decentralized Committee</strong>:
Decisions that can effect the BitShares ecosystem are made using a on-chain committee voted upon by shareholders. Hence, no single entity can change the deal retroactively.</li>
<li><strong>Flexible</strong>:
Protocol upgrades (formerly known as <em>hard forks</em>) can be implemented and executed to improve the BitShares business over time and allow to react on.</li>
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<h3>For the Investor<a class="headerlink" href="#for-the-investor" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
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<li><strong>Become BTS Holder</strong>:
If you buy <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">BTS</span></code> either from a partner exchange or from the DEX, you become a BTS Holder of the BitShares decentralized business and as such can take a cut of its profits and participate in votes for future directions.</li>
<li><strong>Expenses</strong>:
Vote for expenses of the business and hire workers to do important tasks for BitShares.</li>
<li><strong>Leaders</strong>:
Participate in political decisions by voting for committee members that represent your views!</li>
<li><strong>Protocol upgrades</strong>:
Improve the technology, integrate new features and adept legal and regulative changes by voting for upgrades.</li>
<li><strong>Decision making for a profit</strong>:
Take part in decision finding about fair pricing models for transaction fees to a) increase growth and b) make BitShares profitable for its shareholders</li>
</ul>
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<span id="document-bts_holders/tokens"></span><div class="section" id="assets-tokens">
<h2>Assets Tokens<a class="headerlink" href="#assets-tokens" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p><strong>User Issued Assets (UIAs)</strong></p>
<p>Freely traded tokens created by individuals used for a variety of use-cases, such as stock, miles, event tickets or reputation points.</p>
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<span id="document-bts_holders/tokens/uia"></span><div class="section" id="user-issued-assets-uias">
<span id="uia"></span><h3>User Issued Assets (UIAs)<a class="headerlink" href="#user-issued-assets-uias" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>BitShares allows individuals and companies to create and issue their own tokens for anything they can imagine. The potential use cases for so called user-issued assets (UIA) are innumerable. On the one hand, UIAs can be used as simple event tickets deposited on the customers mobile phone to pass the entrance of a concert. On the other hand, they can be used for crowd funding, ownership tracking or even to sell equity of a company in form of stock.</p>
<p>All you need to do is click in order to create a new UIA is a few mouse clicks, define your preferred parameters for your coin, such as supply, precision, symbol, description and see your coin’s birth after only a few seconds. From that point on, you can issue some of your coins to whomever you want, sell them and see them instantly <strong>traded against any other existing coin</strong> on BitShares.</p>
<p>Unless you want some restriction. As the issuer, you have certain privileges over your coin, for instance, you can allow trading only in certain market pairs and define who actually is allowed to hold your coin by using white- and blacklists. Of course, an issuer can opt-out of his privileges indefinitely for the sake of trust and reputation.</p>
<p>As the owner of that coin, you don’t need to take care of all the technical details of blockchain technology, such as distributed