I mproving Masternode protocol communication

mproving Masternode protocol communication Speeding up the unique features of our client

Implementing a challenging solution to storing Masternodes in the blockchain

Writing technology for serializing the Masternode Payments history (to improve the reference nodes accuracy)

Debugging Darksend and getting it to work 100% of the time

Keeping the core client up-to-date with upstream changes happening in Bitcoin

At Dash, our vision has always been to become a globally renowned crypto payment platform like Bitcoin and create a currency that is private, instant and capable of mass adoption. As part of this evolution, we recently announced that we’re changing our name from Darkcoin to Dash. The next stage of Dash will be to build out an infrastructure capable of mass adoption, so we’re happy to announce our first step in this direction: the Core Development Contest.This is intended to be an exciting and fun contest to find the best qualified candidates to join the Dash Core Development team and pay the winners Dash as a reward.To participate as a candidate for a core developer slot, simply email us at [email protected] and join the team, get familiar with the github and see where you can help out! Every two weeks, we will announce one winner that will occupy a slot. Slots will pay out the earnings of ten masternodes, approximately 136 DASH per month (Currently $408 worth of Dash). If the team has a positive impact on Dash and causes adoption, we can expect the price to rise giving the team members some upside. We’ll cap the earnings per slot at $1000/mo, which will be calculated monthly*.Contest winners will officially join the team and be expected to provide significant value to the project in an ongoing basis. Those that lose interest in the project, will lose their slot to other candidates.Every two weeks a new winner will be selected by eduffield and Udjinm6. The winner will immediately be added to the slot and begin receiving payments**. The next winner will be announced two weeks after that until the final slot is filled.We’re seeking highly talented software developers capable of working on the core client, which is written in C++. Participants should have a solid understanding of Bitcoin based technologies.Dash is an exciting framework to work on with technology such as the Masternodes, Darksend, IX, among other features, so we expect lots of contestants.We’re looking for one person to work full time on some integrations we have in the pipeline. This person should be skilled at web-related technologies such as NodeJS, Python, Javascript and PHP. We have many integrations in the pipeline, so this is expected to be a part-to-full time role within the core team.Are you a skill Objective C programmer? We’re looking for someone to create a mobile wallet for iPhone, please see https://github.com/voisine/breadwallet for an example of what we would like.Later on, when the technology is beyond a beta level, we will be opening up other slots for gaining adoption in our target markets, if you have another skill (Outright, PR, Web Design), check back in a few months!To fund this initiative, we are also launching a Coredev Sponsorship Program. We are looking for backers that want to redirect earnings from their active Masternodes and sponsor paid positions or slots in the core development team. We already have a few interested sponsors but we still need more.If you consider yourself an investor in the DASH project please consider backing a core developer with a monthly stipend from your Masternode earnings, this is not intended as full payment but as a token of our appreciation, so that our core developers are highly motivated and we can attract more developers to the team.The coins we hold are only as valuable as the development behind them so lets give value to our investment and support a developer. As I mentioned, each core developer slot will pay out the earnings of ten Masternodes approximately 136 DASH per month. The more developer slots we are able to fund from the sponsorship program the more developer slots we can offer in our Core Development contest and add more bandwidth to our development efforts.We are looking for sponsors that are ready to support the program for at least a year so that we have continuity in the development process.As a sponsor you can contribute with the earnings of any number of Masternodes you want, from backing a full slot with 10 MN earnings or partially funding a slot with a few or even one node. To participate as a sponsor send us an email to [email protected] or a PM in the forums to Minotaur as we need to know how many spots we have available to offer to candidate developers.Backing a developer will be easy, all you will have to do as a Sponsor is activate a flag in the masternode.conf file of your node and the network will automatically pay an sponsored dev. We are in need of serious investors if it is within your possibilities consider helping with a few nodes earnings.*Slots will not be available until v0.11.2 has been released, which is slated for release before April 14th.**As an example, if the price of Dash is $13, we’ll adjust the earnings to be as close to 76 DASH ($1000/$13)---We’ve had great interest in the sponsorship program, but many of the potential sponsors were asking for an easier way to contribute a small percentage (5%) of their masternode earnings. In order to make donations easy for everyone, the first time you start your masternode, the software will ask if you’re interested in donating. This should make it very easy for anyone to support the development of Dash, without messing with complicated configurations.Most masternode operators that reached out to us were interested in donating about 5%, which is the number we used for this feature. We’ll make it configurable later on, but for now that is the default.Thanks!