Consensus Research is the first independent research group going to bring formal verification to the world ofcryptocurrencies!While formal approach ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_verification ) is being widely using in hardware industry and some critical software(medical, aerospace, compilers), cryptocurrencies suffer from unproven claims, bold statements, low-quality "papers" and naive implementations, though a cost of an error could be very high (USD$ millions).ConsensusResearch group is going to improve overall quality of thinking about cryptocurrencies with:* proven open-source reference implementations code made partly at least in Coq programming language / theorem prover ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coq * executable simulations anyone can play with(to e.g. find best parameters under some assumptions)* formal but understandable papers* coins developers consultations----------In October I published two blogposts about Nxt forging algo, "Inside a Proof-of-Stake Cryptocurrency" part1 ( http://chepurnoy.org/blog/2014/10/inside-a-proof-of-stake-cryptocurrency-part-1/ ) & part2 ( http://chepurnoy.org/blog/2014/10/inside-a-proof-of-stake-cryptocurrency-part-2/ ). Later andruiman published paper on some statistical properties of Nxt forging in his Nxt forging algorithm: simulating approach ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/243341106/nxtforging-1 , scroll down to view).Right after(and pretty famous topic https://nxtforum.org/general/nxt-forging-algorithm-simulating-approach/ ) he made an impressive amount of work converting my model described in Haskell into Coq, proving some basic properties as theorems, and introducing multibranching forging for that(which could be turned into so-called Transparent Forging during implementation and also open door to Nothing-at-Stake investigation).We think that community would respect our goals and approach and therefore we offer our assets as a compromise between donations and investments. The asset mechanism lets to benefit both the developers and coins investors through the transparent model of research and core development.We've issued 10,000,000 assets with initial price of 1 Nxt each. Assets will be sold in lots corresponding to milestones. The name of the asset is "" (After voting system & 2-phased transactions inclusion into the core we'll use the features intensively. So having "consensus" tokens you will be able to drive a research. For example, you'll be able to vote on tasks priority or decide whether to pay a developer for e.g. visualization tool or not.There is a risk here for sure. Sometimes democracy is not the best way, but we think our partners are smart so it should be the essential tool of Consensus Research!1. Executable simulation tool for Nxt-like 100% Proof-of-Stake forging(with delays & transactions). Executablemultibranching forging simulation tool(to estimate properties & computational requirements of Transparent Forging).Some proofs around the code. 1 paper + 5 articles at least.Estimated duration: 2-4 weeksCorresponding lot size: 300,000 Nxt2. Research on Consensus properties of multibranch forging. In particular, Nothing-At-Stake problem will be formallydefined and analyzed after this milestone.Estimated duration: 6-8 weeksCorresponding lot size: 400,000 Nxt3. Formally proven and secure proof-of-stake forging model(with reference implementation in Haskell w. Coq)Estimated duration: 6-8 weeksCorresponding lot size: 400,000 NxtWell, further milestones will be clear after. Finally, we're looking for the cryptocurrencies networks algorithms where consensus itself would be much more profitable than forging (or mining) and we believe that our approach could demonstrate the benefits in a rational formal way.We'll publish bi-weekly reports on progress.The main commercial profit from our activity is increased trust in Nxt and/or other cryptocurrencies willing to work with us and cryptocurrency industry at whole. Also we'll consult core developers to make better products. So coin teams and whales are biggest beneficiaries, and our biggest sponsors, we hope so. We'll no pay dividends, so the asset issuance is the kind of crowdfunding.P.S. again, the name of the asset is "" (