I'm not sure whether this project will go well when the new "curation guild" feature came, see the last sentence of https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/steem-developer-update-graphene-2-0

Great idea :D

Interesting ideas, upvoted and following @thunderwhale now :)

Absolutely fantastic idea, I will certainly be donating some of my hard earned SBD for this project. I assume that we're welcome to donate several times over the month? I would love to reach one of the donation milestones but I'll be unable to do that in one lump sum.

Hello @nonlinearone, this project seems to meet the criteria for a @steemfund campaign, we may help you raise some of the money required. If you want our help please contact me on steemit.chat (either by PM or on #steemfund channel).

Love it, upvoted, resteened, sharing until my fingers fall off! @christoph3 @mysonjosh @ballinconscious . I do have a question though, obviously it is possible to just donate a dollar per day until the 30th.. This project should easily be doable and I am excited to be part of this! Namaste~!

This is flippin ( no pun intended ) awesome !
I already follow, I upvoted and retweeted .
What would be mega awesome is if there was a $5 steem dollar upgrade fee!
Upgraded members could have the potential to earn $2.50 from referrals and $2 on the referrals that there referrals bring in ! 50 cents goes to admin.
FREE members are placed in the pool AND can earn half those amounts on referrals that upgrade ;) with the remainder (minus the 50 cents admin fee) paid as a dividend to upgraded members.  This will help us all get even more steem power...
Which supports the pool.
Thanks @nonlinearone , awasome idea !

I have a group of friends doing something similar with a mobile phone app called "groupme" They simply post a link to an instagram post and then like and comment previous pposts in the group.  There is a heart Icon to show that they have liked the post within the group.

Great idea!

Looking forward to this project.

A very good initiative. I just might work. I reblogged your article and am following both you and @thunderwhale.

So, where's the app? :))))

I will reread the post later and check the whitepaper. The idea about a decentralized app is especially attractive.

This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.


  - [This is the Official Project @thunderwhale! Account](https://steemit.com/thunderwhale/@thunderwhale/this-is-the-official-project-thunderwhale-account) by @thunderwhale


Learn more about [**linkback bot v0.4**](https://steemit.com/steem/@ontofractal/steem-linkback-bot-v0-4-released). Upvote if you want the bot to continue posting linkbacks for your posts. Flag if otherwise.

Built by @ontofractal

Exciting. Lemme try.

https://steemit.com/thunderwhale/@thunderwhale/this-is-the-official-project-thunderwhale-account

Changes in Version 0.1.2: Thank you @claudiop63 for finding this! Correct typo/mental math error in the "Effective voting power when Minnow Joe and 999 of his friends vote on different posts" (million should be billion there - note that the math was correct in Appendix A and the fundamental idea is still correct but I made the mistake of not referring to the spreadsheet when writing that section).

Version 0.1.3 to 0.1.4 diff.

~~~~
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 </center>

 <center>
-<strong>Project @thunderwhale! A decentralized curation pool application</strong><br>Bryan Gmyrek, Ph.D.<br>steemit.com/@nonlinearone<br>nonlinearoneREMOVETHIS@tuta.io<br><br><strong>Abstract</strong><br>We propose a decentralized voting pool system which automates the process of pooling votes. The votes are cast by an app which all users of the pool install on their device. To receive a vote from the pool, a vote must be from a pool member and it must have a quorum of votes by current pool members. Users are not required to share their posting key with a trusted third party.
+<strong>Project @thunderwhale! A decentralized curation pool application</strong><br>Bryan Gmyrek, Ph.D.<br>steemit.com/@nonlinearone<br>nonlinearoneREMOVETHIS@tuta.io<br><br><strong>Abstract</strong><br>We propose a decentralized voting pool system which automates the process of pooling votes. The votes are cast by an app which all users of the pool install on their device. To receive a vote from the pool, a post must be from a pool member and it must have a quorum of votes by current pool members. Users are not required to share their posting key with a trusted third party.
 </center>

 # Motivation
@@ -128,15 +128,18 @@ All pool members must be 'in good standing' to be eligible. This means they usua

 Further improvements and optimizations to these rules, including the ability of the user to approve and/or reject the upvote of a post would be desirable.

+We ask you to please leave comments with ideas and suggestions on how this might work. For example, we had some great discussions in @officialfuzzy's Beyond Bitcoin audio hangout on Friday. People seemed interested in an app which allowed for customization of the automated or semi-automated voting rules. I think these are good ideas and should be fleshed out during the initial voting perid. The goal here is not to create a monster but rather a tool which legit users of steemit can use to improve their curation by leveraging the community.
+
 #### Application

 <center>
 <a href="http://imgur.com/E61Y5ND"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/E61Y5NDl.png" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 </center>

-Mobile apps are almost ideal for this. They are usually turned on, and can be easily activated and deactivated by users. Therefore, it is possible for the mobile app itself to make a decision and upvote the post. However, it is not clear that such an app would be approved by the centralized mobile app stores. For this reason, the first version will be a desktop application.
+Mobile apps are almost ideal for this. They are usually turned on, and can be easily activated and deactivated by users. Therefore, it is possible for the mobile app itself to make a decision and upvote the post. However, it is not clear that such an app would be approved by the centralized mobile app stores. For this reason, the first version may be a desktop application (this is the subject of further research).
+Please leave feedback in the comments on which you prefer (mobile vs desktop).

-The application will be open sourced under the GNU GPL v2.
+The application will be open sourced under the GNU GPL v2.

 Please note that depending on the tools used to build the application, there may be components which are not open source - these would only be third party libraries. All code written to build Project @thunderwhale! will be open sourced.

@@ -169,7 +172,7 @@ This has the added benefit of causing your friends to learn about Project @thund
 <a href="http://imgur.com/feJ1aLM"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/feJ1aLMl.png" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 </center>

-We can build this but it won't be easy. We need your help in the form of funding. Here's how we propose the fundraising will work:
+We think we can build this but it won't be easy. We need your help in the form of funding. Here's how we propose the fundraising will work:

 1) All STEEM DOLLARS earned from this post will be transferred to the @thunderwhale account.

@@ -177,13 +180,25 @@ We can build this but it won't be easy. We need your help in the form of funding

 The fundraising period will continue through Sunday, October 30th, 2016 at 12:00 PM PST.

-All STEEM and STEEM DOLLAR amounts sent to the @thunderwhale account during this fundraising period will go towards development of the design, logic, and software for the app.
+All STEEM and STEEM DOLLAR amounts sent to the @thunderwhale account during this fundraising period may go towards research, design, evangelism, development, logic, software, and any other activities.
+
+#### Fundraising Terms Disclaimer
+
+Please note that any amounts paid in are strictly considered donations.
+We want to see this project happen more than anyone.
+However, this is a highly speculative endeavour.
+We make no promises to deliver any specific software at any specific time, or any software at all.
+If funds are lost or stolen they will not be recoverable.
+
+We've added this disclaimer as part of v0.1.4 of the document (no donations have been made to Project @thunderwhale! yet) after talking with various community members. We do of course want this to succeed, but do not want to end up in a situation where people think they are buying something with their donation or that they might want to take legal action. This is a donation, period.
+
+One thing is certain, without sufficient support, the app won't become a reality.

-Without sufficient funding, the app won't become a reality.
+If you are not OK with any of this, that's OK. Just don't donate to Project @thunderwhale! Your upvotes and resteems are still very valuable.

 ## How Much?

-Nothing like this has been attempted before. We need to raise a combined twenty five thousand STEEM DOLLARS.
+Nothing like this has been attempted before. We want to raise a combined twenty five thousand STEEM DOLLARS by October 30th.

 ## What's in it for me?

@@ -191,7 +206,25 @@ Nothing like this has been attempted before. We need to raise a combined twenty
 <a href="http://imgur.com/NbyeRz4"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/NbyeRz4l.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 </center>

-By upvoting and contributing STEEM DOLLARS and/or STEEM, you are making this project possible. Without support, it will not happen and it will not be possible to take advantage of such a system. Furthermore, donors will receive priority access to alpha and beta versions of the software. Also, you will be acknowledged by the official Project @thunderwhale! account in a future post. Finally, if you donate over 100 STEEM DOLLARS, your username will be included in the footer of every post made by the official Project @thunderwhale! Your sponsorship will be recognized in the following levels: 100 SD = Bronze Level, 1,000 SD = Silver Level, 10,000+ SD = Gold Level.
+By upvoting and contributing STEEM DOLLARS and/or STEEM, you are making this project possible. Without support, it will not happen and it will not be possible to take advantage of such a system. Furthermore, donors will receive priority access to alpha and beta versions of the software.
+
+If you make any donation, you will be acknowledged by the official Project @thunderwhale! account in a future post.
+
+If you make donations of a certain size, you will receive more recognition in terms of future "Official Announcements" on the @thunderwhale account. (Please note that this does not of course include comments made by that account, or any posts that need to be kept short - for example if many clients will be parsing the posts for example.)
+
+If you donate over 100 STEEM DOLLARS, your username will be included in the footer of every post made by the official Project @thunderwhale!
+
+Your sponsorship will be recognized in the following levels:
+
+100 SD+ = Bronze Level Donor
+
+500 SD+ = Silver Level Donor
+
+1000 SD+ = Gold Level Donor
+
+5000 SD+ = Platinum Level Donor
+
+10000 SD+ = Diamond Level Donor

 ## What's in it for steemit?

@@ -220,7 +253,7 @@ This project was inspired by my observations as a steemit.com user for over two

 #### Appendix C: Request for Comments

-In a hat-top to the classic style of internet RFCs, I consider this initial whitepaper/post a request for comments. Please let us know if this is all wrong, if you think certain items need to be changed, etc.
+In a hat-tip to the classic style of internet RFCs, I consider this initial whitepaper/post a request for comments. Please let us know if this is all wrong, if you think certain items need to be changed, etc.

 #### Appendix D: Versioning on steemit.com

@@ -230,6 +263,10 @@ I named the original version of the whitepaper version 0.1. This way as changes

 Version 0.1.2: Thank you @claudiop63 for finding this! Correct typo/mental math error in the "Effective voting power when Minnow Joe and 999 of his friends vote on different posts" (million should be billion there - note that the math was correct in Appendix A and the fundamental idea is still correct but I made the mistake of not referring to the spreadsheet when writing that section).

+Version 0.1.3: Change a typo in the abstract - in one place it said vote where it should have said post.
+
+Version 0.1.4: Several changes, mostly to information around funding. I added many disclaimers because where I'm at - I'd rather not even raise funding if it means people will be lined up with pitchforks and torches if this thing takes longer to build than you think it should. If you decide to support this thing at all, it's a donation plain and simple and you should expect no specific item in return.
+
 #### References

 [1] Steem: An incentivized, blockchain-based social media platform. Daniel Larimer, Ned Scott, Valentine Zavgorodnev, Benjamin Johnson, James Calfee, and Michael Vandeberg. March 2016. https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
@@ -252,12 +289,11 @@ All whale images are from pixabay.com
   <p>

   <a href="https://bryangmyrek.com/">Bryan Gmyrek</a> is a <a href=
-  "http://linkedin.com/in/physics">full time software developer</a> and lives in sunny Arizona with his beautiful wife, three sons and two golden puppies. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Arizona based on the particle physics research he did at the world famous DZero Experiment at the <a href="http://www.fnal.gov/">Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory</a>. He has been online since 1993, into cryptocurrencies since 2013, won prizes at three Bitcoin hackathons, and co-organizes the highly technical <a href="http://meetup.com/blockchaintech">Blockchain Meetup</a> in Phoenix Arizona for over a year. Many of his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGOvx143IGXMLCl1Hijvjig">videos are popular on YouTube</a>, including his <a href=
+  "http://linkedin.com/in/physics">full time software developer</a> and lives in sunny Arizona with his beautiful wife, three sons and two golden puppies. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Arizona based on the particle physics research he did at the world famous DZero Experiment at the <a href="http://www.fnal.gov/">Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory</a>. He has been online since 1993, into cryptocurrencies since 2013, won prizes at three Bitcoin hackathons, and has co-organized the highly technical <a href="http://meetup.com/blockchaintech">Blockchain Meetup</a> in Phoenix Arizona for over a year. Many of his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGOvx143IGXMLCl1Hijvjig">videos are popular on YouTube</a>, including his <a href=
   "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-4itQTWNRM">recent SteemIt technical talk</a>. He also blogs about nature photography, dogs, national parks and hiking. Pay no attention to that Tardis. <a href=
   "https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@nonlinearone/hello-world-physics-ph-d-with-a-love-for-particle-physics-code-hiking-and-blockchains-here">Read more in my top 50 introduceyourself post</a>
 </p>

-
  #thunderwhale #steemit #minnowsunite #beyondbitcoin #lessthankrill

 <center>
 ~~~~

Version 0.1.5 diff:
~~~~
@@ -265,7 +265,9 @@ Version 0.1.2: Thank you @claudiop63 for finding this! Correct typo/mental math

 Version 0.1.3: Change a typo in the abstract - in one place it said vote where it should have said post.

-Version 0.1.4: Several changes, mostly to information around funding. I added many disclaimers because where I'm at - I'd rather not even raise funding if it means people will be lined up with pitchforks and torches if this thing takes longer to build than you think it should. If you decide to support this thing at all, it's a donation plain and simple and you should expect no specific item in return.
+Version 0.1.4: Several changes, mostly to information around funding. I added many disclaimers because where I'm at - I'd rather not even raise funding if it means people will be lined up with pitchforks and torches if this thing takes longer to build or if fails or any reason whatsoever. If you decide to support this thing at all, it's a donation plain and simple and you should expect no specific item in return.
+
+Version 0.1.5: Changed wording in funding disclaimer slightly.

 #### References
~~~~

I'd be willing to donate if you had a minimum viable product. 

We could have several decentralized curation systems that function by aggregating the minnows voting power.  It would be a nice balance of power on the network. 

I'm following, please post regular updates :)

Hopefully this will help the minnows. The whales hold too much power

What a great idea! Maybe we could even become a kraken. Following. upvoted and resteemed. Please consider resteeming my #steemfestdreamers post to help someone win a ticket to SteemFest!

Let's hope whales will donate this cool project :)

This sounds amazing! I would totally be interested in it! I'm still trying to understand everything here. But I think I know enough to know that this is awesome! :)

I like it 
https://httpsimage.com/img/balena1.jpg

Brilliant idea. I've noticed the exact same problems as well as people feeling discouraged on the whole because posts and good writing takes time and effort and when people don't see that, they might leave or not believe in the platform any longer. 

Upvoted and followed.

hopefully the app will be multiplatform?  A linux version would be handy :P

I agree on this idea.  Thinking how to give minnows more weight in relation to whales.  I am a thinker but not a coder.  Would love to find a way to help users in steemprentice especially new users as well as others.

I really like this idea, I'm gonna give you a follow. I'll have to read more into it and it's late where I am, so it'll be a tomorrow night thing. But if upon further review I still like it, I'll throw 500 SP into it.

I'd also like to say I think curation rewards should be more geared towards minnows. I'm a dolphin and a small one at that and I still pull in around 50 in curation a week. When I'm super active it's over 100. I see no reason why someone with over 10,000 SP can't donate 10% or 15% all the way up to the whales giving up 30-40% perhaps? Maybe that's too high, but I feel like I would gladly give up 20% so 30-40 wouldn't be to high to ask from the biggest whales. 

It wouldn't affect the whales who don't vote, and it would be even across the board percent wise. 

I don't know just something I've thought could help minnows grow faster.

Hey not sure if anyone gives a shit, I made this post last night about getting more SP in the hands of minnows. I didn't really get a huge response on it so just out of curiousity am I out to lunch with this idea? https://steemit.com/steemit/@will-zewe/what-i-feel-can-be-tweaked-to-help-incentivize-no-users-sign-up-new-user-activity-and-most-importantly-new-user-moral

Also don't care about the value of the post itself, I just thought it was a good idea... So if anyone feels like taking a read I really do think this could help.