I've not been very active on Steemit since I returned from Anarchapulco, busy with witness upgrades and paying more attention (it is a limited supply :) to BitShares.
Onceuponatime has mentioned VIVA to me and posted about it, but I haven't had the time required to dig into a new blockchain project. Steem & BitShares (and perhaps some Dash) account for a lot of my time reading and keeping abreast of changes.
I decided this morning to invest the time to read this article and at least start the learning process on VIVA. I hope by the time I can devote the serious attention to it that any blockchain project requires (to understand it enough to assess its worthiness as an investment or justify additional investment of time) I won't be saying, "Dang, missed the boat on that one too".
Yet that is only the money / personal gain talking. When it comes to why I'm involved in any of these projects longer term objectives and principles are also a significant factor for me. Maybe that's the other side of the coin talking, the altruistic side, opposite of personal gain. Will my involvement help to make the world a better place long after I'm gone? Even if my contribution is not hugely significant, the answer is important to me, but not to the exclusion of my personal gain. Like so much in life, it's a matter of appropriate balance.
As for comments about this article I am one of the few that has never watched a single episode of GoT, so for me that connection had no value. On the positive side I don't believe knowledge of the GoT series was crucial; I may have missed some subtle implications but the main points still came through.
It will take some time to digest the finer details, but you did a marvelous job of explaining the key differences between PoW, PoS & DPoS and how they relate to consensus. I've always disliked the "He who has the gold makes the rules" aspect of PoS, as well as DPoS and understanding how VIVA works to address that will be on my mind as I study it.
I also really liked your perspective of money as a "game" and tool for power and control, and the role consensus plays in it in contrast to blockchain projects.
You mention the concept of "proof of authority". As a very strong advocate of Larken Rose, this raises my eyebrow. Could you point me to material that explains this concept in detail? What manor of authority (expertise, experience or "do what I say") is this proof? Is it similar to stake weighted PoS, or is it more of a representation of consensus?
All in all this is some great writing and I look forward to learning more about what makes VIVA different from other blockchain projects.
Ok these are excellent observations.
It's got it's similarities at least superficially. But where it differs is that key parameters of the VIVA economy are set by people who own a separate business layer coin called "VIVA Crowns".
These coins give you the "authority" to mint a fixed percentage of the new VIVA to be minted for the entire time you hold said crowns. This right is assignable in contracts that run 90 days. The contracts called "Treasury Rights", are "executed under the authority of" the crown holder that generated them.
This means that if said contract manages to mint a negative amount of coins that the crown holder who authorized it, is on the hook to take active steps to remedy the debt situation as soon as possible. Until he or she does this, their "authority" is no longer recognized by the network.
More details are here...
https://steemit.com/vivacoin/@cryptomancer/my-entry-in-the-viva-whitepaper-contest
https://steemit.com/vivacoin/@cryptomancer/my-entry-in-the-viva-whitepaper-contest-part-2