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DSTRA is a cryptocurrency that implements the Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol. DSTRA strives to become the premier cryptocurrency by implementing the best aspects of current blockchain technology. Our diverse community is key in achieving our goals.
"We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water... We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves." Norbert Wiener, inventor of Cybernetics.
DSTRA is a Proof of Stake / Masternode hybrid coin that will be airdropped and is based on a simple Proof of Community system. Sense of community will be measured via a variety of indicators which will incite community participation towards the greater good of DSTRA. Bad actors who abuse the system will be permanently banned from participating in the project. DSTRA is built on the Bitcoin codebase and Masternode integration will be done via the DASH codebase.
An initial coin offering (ICO) is a means of crowdfunding centered around cryptocurrency, which can be a source of capital for startup companies. In an ICO, a quantity of the crowdfunded cryptocurrency is preallocated to investors in the form of "tokens," in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies. These tokens become functional units of currency if or when the ICO's funding goal is met and the project launches.
An undesired side-effect of starting with an ICO for a coin that uses masternode technology is that often the value and voting power of the network ends up in the hands of a select group of individuals. Usually this group is split between the friends of the developers and people with deep pockets.
DSTRA will not close off it's network to those with less disposable funds, as it would hurt our community by ignoring people from countries with developing economies. Let's embrace the opportunity to have an impact on these communities by developing a viable alternative to FIAT money together.
DSTRA values its global community over quick profits.
Instead of distributing the initial coins to our friends or wealthy partners, we decided to give the power of the masternode back to the people. Everyone, without being discriminated by race, social class, color, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity can join our community and help to develop this coin.
DSTRA will be distributed for free amongst our contributors and supporters based on their participation in the community. We hope you join us on Discord or on the web.
In this sense DSTRA truly builds upon Satoshi Nakamoto's vision1 of a peer to peer electronic currency, free from the constraints of any government body, capital restrictions, or need for sacrificing one’s privacy to store wealth or transfer it across the globe over a frictionless network.
DSTRA leverages the wisdom of its community of stakeholders to achieve this vision.
We do not believe in a group of stakeholders, that does not share a vision, and are only motivated by profit and greed. We've seen this time and again: short-term gains can lull us into long-term losses. Processes such as innovation too often lose out in favor of cost cutting, as described in the research article by Mary J. Benner and Michael Tushman2.
Theoretically, when an economy is fully competitive, the profit motive ensures that resources are being allocated efficiently. However, we believe that when systems are solely designed for the profit motive, they tend to disregard morals or public safety in the pursuit of said profits.3
We will trust our community to maintain an "open culture". This is a concept according to which knowledge should be spread freely and its growth should come from developing, altering or enriching already existing works on the basis of sharing and collaboration, without being restricted.
Creating a culture that attracts, retains and inspires talent should always be a priority.
“We owe it this new generation to respect their enthusiasm about virtual currencies with a thoughtful and balanced response, not a dismissive one.” - CFTC Chairman Giancarlo4
SEC and CFTC Give Testimonies at Senate Hearing on Virtual Currencies The DSTRA network is built upon cutting edge technology with its community as the main foundation. Our culture is by far the biggest sustainable advantage we have in business today. Competitors can copy code overnight, but culture takes energy and commitment to build.
We believe in The Wisdom of Crowds as defined by James Surowiecki5. He describes the aggregation of information in groups, resulting in decisions that, he argues, are often better than could have been made by any single member of the group.
In the opening anecdote of his book he relates his surprise that the crowd at a county fair accurately guessed the weight of an ox when their individual guesses were averaged (the average was closer to the ox's true butchered weight than the estimates of most crowd members).
As a broad community we should be well positioned to make decisions about our currency and the way we transfer value.
DSTRA uses airdrops to award the commitment of members of the community.
An airdrop is a free deposit of funds in your wallet. The amount of free tokens you will receive in your wallet depends on your BitcoinTalk activity, your Discord level, DSTRA forum rank and your contribution to the DSTRA project.
This includes tweeting, sharing, writing articles, helping out on the forums or discord channel and the creation of documentation, translations and tutorials.
Feel free to make suggestions... come over and share your ideas.
A large community will drive our market penetration, increase adoption, and access to larger exchanges. DSTRA plans to be a long-term project and our initial launch will help set our trajectory now and into the future. Get out there and encourage others to get in on DSTRA’s “Proof of Community” mining! The only special equipment required is your keyboard and your brain. Use them both and be rewarded!
To reiterate, this airdrop is free of cost and open to everyone willing to join our community and participate in whichever way he/she deems appropriate.
Bitcoin is a power glutton. Thanks to the coin’s proof of work distributed consensus algorithm, miners use up an estimated 29.05TWh of electricity annually. That’s 0.13% of the world’s annual energy consumption, which is more than 159 countries including nearly all of Africa.
By introducing Proof of Stake we plan to lower our carbon emissions by 99% compared to traditional mining operations. Our community respects the environment and wants to leave this planet a nice place to live for our children and their children.
Proof of stake enables anyone, rich or otherwise, to accumulate wealth by just staking the coins in their wallet. To put it simply: if you leave your coins in your wallet, you will get more coins over time.
DSTRA’s second phase will begin with the launch of Masternodes (12.000 DSTRA collateral requirement) and a reduction of the PoS interest. Masternodes will receive 50% of the block reward, provide important privacy coin functionality, and secure the network by validating transactions.
People willing to invest in the network can run a Masternode and contribute to securing the network by processing transactions. Masternodes require 12.000 DSTRA as collateral to prevent Sybil attacks. That collateral can be spent at any time, but doing so removes the associated Masternode from the network. Masternodes will be able at a future time to vote on proposals to improve the network.
Installing and operating these Masternodes is doable by moderately tech savvy users without investing in expensive hardware that depreciates in value very quickly. We see this as an optimum way to distribute the infrastructure of the network to as many people as possible.
Having a low transaction confirmation time is important. Users want to see their coins travel across the globe instantly. Since Masternodes scale in a linear way, our network has the potential to support many thousands of transactions per second.
Instead of performing useless computations to mine the next block, Masternodes use transaction locking and consensus6 to maximise the use of every watt of electricity to enhance the speed and security of the network. The result is a nearly instantaneous transaction system that does not rely on a centralized authority.
”Virtual Currencies may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.” - Ben Bernanke7, Congress address.
DSTRA will challenge the status quo of big payment processors in the competitive market of online and offline transactions.
We believe in the original vision: a cryptocurrency should perform well for all use cases. We want it to be fast, user friendly, practical, and above all, carry a low transaction cost. We need to be able to do micro-payments of a cent and big payments all the same. A study from 20118 asserts that the cost and inconveniences associated with a payment method discourage its use in online transactions.
First generation blockchains have scaling issues, making them unsuitable for many small transactions.
Privacy, both financial and personal, is a key component of life in a free society. Individuals need to have a private sphere free of government involvement, surveillance, and control. Financial privacy is essential because it can be the difference between survival and systematic suppression of opposition groups by authoritarian governments.10
Financial privacy allows people to protect their life savings when a third party tries to confiscate their wealth, whether for political, ethnic, religious, or “merely” economic reasons. Businesses need to protect their private financial information, intellectual property, and trade secrets from competitors in order to remain profitable.
'Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite.' Marlon Brando
DSTRA vows to employ many modern, tested and verified techniques to respect the privacy of it's community members. By incentivizing Masternodes we provide an off-chain path for completely private transactions. Community members can also utilise coin mixing technology to further ensure the anonymity of their transactions.
Footnotes
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Satoshi Nakamoto. "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System", published October 31st, 2008. ↩
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Mary J. Benner and Michael Tushman. "Process Management and Technological Innovation: A Longitudinal Study of the Photography and Paint Industries", First Published December 1, 2002 ↩
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"Occupy Wall Street' Protests Give Voice to Anger Over Greed, Corporate Culture." PBS.com. PBS, 5 Oct. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. ↩
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Bitcoin Magazine. "SEC and CFTC Give Testimonies at Senate Hearing on Virtual Currencies ↩
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James Surowiecki. "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations", published in 2004. ↩
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E. Duffield, H. Schinzel and F Gutierrez. "Transaction Locking and Masternode Consensus: A Mechanism for Mitigating Double Spending Attacks" , published September 22nd, 2014 ↩
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Ben Bernanke. "Letter to Congress" ↩
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Haizheng Li, Richard Ward, Han Zhang. "Risk, Convenience, Cost and Online Payment Choice: A Study of eBay Transactions", October 2011. ↩
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Source: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html ↩
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David Burton and Norbert J. Michel. "Financial Privacy in a Free Society", September 23, 2016. ↩