For a long time, I've been advocating for a crowd-funded protocol layer built on top of bitcoin, using messages in the block chain to represent transfers of value. I wrote a paper last year (https://sites.google.com/site/2ndbtcwpaper/2ndBitcoinWhitepaper.pdf) about how such a layer could enable distributed exchange, distributed betting markets, better security features for your "savings" wallet, and self-stabilized user-created currencies built on top of it all for representing gold, dollars, crude oil, etc.

You can see me talk about how I want to invest in such a crowd-funded effort when I was on the Bitcoin Conference 2013 panel about "Bitcoin in the Future": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qdr_Z3hrqQ

I would love to invest in something like this (by purchasing the "coins" of the new protocol layer), but so far, nobody has tried it.

Obviously, I have thought about trying to launch such a thing myself, but there are two things holding me back:

1) I don't have anyone to do it with me. I'd really like to have a co-founder (or two) to work alongside me

2) I don't know how much money the crowd-funding effort would raise, and I don't want to launch such an effort unless I'm pretty sure it will succeed.

This thread takes a shot at solving both problems. I launched a poll on the bitcoin forum to see how much investor interest is out there (sister-post and poll is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=226215.0)

Assumptions for the poll:

• Bitcoins raised for crowd-funding automatically convert to ownership in the new protocol

• Like Kickstarter, if enough funds aren't raised, everybody gets their bitcoins back

• The real identities of myself and any co-founders are known - no anonymous people who might disappear.

• The roadmap of features are laid out in advance, but not set in stone. For instance, if technical hurdles come up, the plan might change, but the goal will always be to maximize the value of the new protocol layer you funded.

• If the new protocol layer is successful, early investors become fabulously wealthy, and the value of bitcoins rises too.

For finding a co-founder, the biggest requirement is to find someone who understands what I am trying to do, and agrees with the general approach (although not necessarily agreeing on every last detail). I need someone with strong technical skills and decent inter-personal skills. If they currently hold bitcoins, they should be an investor in the crowd-funding, but they would receive a professional salary and significant equity in the organization created by the crowd-funding, in addition to the ownership stake they bought in the new protocol layer.

I myself would invest the vast majority of my bitcoins in the crowd-funding (and would thereby own a lot of the "coins" of the new protocol layer), but unfortunately that is not enough to get the kind of money we would need to pay a couple professional salaries for at least a couple years until the enterprise becomes self-sustaining. (The organization gets a small percentage of the new protocol which slowly vests over time - the organization becomes self-sustaining by selling their stake in the protocol as needed once it vests).

Please vote in my poll, and post in this thread about why YOU should be my co-founder. You can learn more about me and my bitcoin pedigree here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jrwillett (Also, please connect with me on LinkedIn!)