[MIP-002] Updated MVP towards multi-sig, sharded social backups and a p2p exchange coordination space

Adapting the mmt MVP

Am writing this in a rush to get at least a draft out before nova wakes from her nap so that there is something up before the meeting.

TL;DR

There are things which we can work on now and extend the mmt software so that it is useful for existing participants of the crypto-circle. My gut is that if we can solve the problems listed below then we will also have a really valuable prototype to offer the Athens project for how to manage these types of things....

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Think it is important for us to gather feedback from the Crypto Circle participants. From this we can figure out what worked for folks and what didn't.

From my perspective the following things worked:

• offering folks risk-free IOUs in crypto helped to onboard people into the system who might not have otherwise have made the leap
• increase in fiat value of holdings has opened up new worlds of possibility for all participants. some really rad projects now have funding.

What did not work?

• me being responsible for peoples private keys has been a real strain / stress / risk.
• by doing so I am not sure the full ramifications of the potential of blockchain tech has had a chance to sink in for people.
• a large amount of time was needed to teach people about how to manage their private keys so that risk of loss is reduced.
• people who could not attend the workshops are left exposed to mismanagement due to not being trained. This is a strain for them but also for me (the issuer of the IOU) as it would REALLY SUCK if a person lost their private key (been there, done that, this stuff is really unforgiving)
• Turning crypto to cash has been an ongoing pain (me cashing out for people adds a lot of work for me)

Problem spaces:

• keeping private keys secure
• allowing people to be responsible and in custody of their own funds (encouraging self-sovreignty and reliance and decreasing dependent/paternalistic models)
• helping folks to leverage the social relations to help create liquidity

After many hundreds of hours of discussion with people I think that it is possible for us to shift the MVP to resolve the main downsides. I personally think that if we solve these issues there will be overlap with the experimental prototype that the athens crew are working on.

I suggest the following as a provocation for a starting point

1. I think we should come up with some questions that can be given to all crypto circle participants to gather feedback
2. I think we need to find a way to issue conditional IOUs
3. Where the responsibility of the private keys does not stay with a single person.
4. I think setting up a peer-to-peer exchange to aid coordination in exchnage of crypto for cash would be immensely useful.

Expanded:
1.
A number of our crew are academically trained in this type of research. I think this is a well defined ask that we can get help with to gather then type of info which would help us to make sure we are building something which speaks to the experiences (good and bad) of participants.

1. An idea which I have been researching and developing is the prospect of socially backed up, sharded custody of condiotionally IOUd private keys.

Example (how it used to work):
- This is how I actually did it:

• When someone agreed to an IOU I then created a new spreadsheet line (a BUY order). I set the date, the USD amount of the loan and set the crypto price in USD at time of loan issue. Based on this and the split (medium or high risk) I then assigned the number of crypto. In some cases people gave me cash, so it was noted if this was paid upfront or a loan.
• After an amount of increase in the crypto (NEO) I then sold an amount of NEO which cancelled out the initial IOU. Roughly this was when the fund had doubled in value.
• It is worth noting here that I did not send each persons crypto to a new public key. All the crypto stayed put.
• This has meant the getting people off the spreadsheet has been a lot of work of calculating (and more).

Example (how I think it SHOULD work):
- This is an idea for how it could have worked differently

• After someone has agreed to the IOU, the funds should be moved to a multi-sig wallet. 2 out of 3 signatories should be needed to move the funds.
• We need to research if it is possible to set some conditions about the movement of funds. i.e. is it possible to automate the process of being alerted when the fiat value has doubled and corresponding amount moves to a pre-determined wallet.
• Private keys should not be in any one individuals sole custody. This means we need to look into how to socially back this up so that all parties have an exncrypted back up of funds which can also be further shared securely.

3.
This is an extension of ideas about socially backed up private keys from point 2 above.

Example (how it used to work)
- This is how I actually did it:

• Someone would contact me with their public keys. I would then send them their funds.

Example (how I think it SHOULD work):
- This is an idea for how it could work differently

• People get their funds and also 5 encrypeted copies of the data (using secrets.dyne.org) which they can share with friends.
• If they lose their private key, then they can recover the data with 3 of 5 of the secrets.

1. Just what it says on the tin.

I am more and more of the opinion that we should stay as far away from banks and other such as possible. If we just write and release free software we avoid a world of pain. There are many exchnages which people can use to exchnage crypto -> fiat and visaverse. What we CAN do is help coordination of folks who know eachother to be able to connect with others in their social network who may want to sell crypto for cash or other way around.