DigiByte development update — Dec 2018
Here’s a quick insight in to what’s been going on lately and where things are at.
I posted a few days ago about how I was compiling a test version of the DigiByte code. I love doing that, because I’m not a programmer, but this doesn’t require any coding knowledge. Breaking things seems to be my speciality (Just ask our ninja coders about the trouble I am).
I love watching it scroll past my screen as it’s compiling, something rather matrix-esque about it and even though half the time I don’t understand it, it’s still fun regardless.
Anyways here’s a few things that are happening at the moment:
1/ DigiByte low-memory improvements
We’ve had some work being done to the DigiByte Core wallet thanks to Yoshi, to help DigiByte work on lower-memory devices (Such as the Raspberry Pi).
This is still in-progress and on-going, however, the changes are very promising for allowing the DigiByte Core Wallet to work on lower memory devices. Drive-storage is cheaper and easier to expand so this is a very welcome change, and this will eventually be an optional “launch flag” for when you start DigiByte.
This means you’ll be able to start it up normally, and it’ll use a couple of gigs worth of RAM. Alternatively you can start it in a low-memory mode and it’ll keep the information on the hard-drive (Or, SDCard) instead.
2/ New version of the Core Wallet: DigiByte 6.17.1 testing
Yes, the testing of the new version of DigiByte Core Wallet is well under way.
The team and I have been working testing, with upgrades, clean syncs, and many other tests going through with 6.17.1. There’s some nifty new features coming in this which will mostly be of interest to miners and mining-pools, however this will lay the foundation for the future Algo Swap
3/ Speaking of Algo Swap: Odocrypt!
Yes, we’re also working on testing Odocrypt out.
This isn’t going to be an “overnight” change, so there’s nothing to worry about this being “sprung” on you. There’s a TON of work that goes on in order to make this sort of transition smooth and seamless. Naturally we want this to be very well tested.
Odocrypt is a changing algorithm that dynamically morphs every 10 days, in a bid to prevent ASIC dominance. This will favor GPU and FPGA miners, and will further secure the DigiByte network.
Fun fact: Odocrypt got it’s name from Odo from Star Trek DS9:
Although the initial git commit suggested Block 8,000,000 as the change. That block # was a merely a suggestion and as many people know these types of upgrades are difficult, require extensive testing and have to ensure that the network is not compromised. No timeframe has been set in stone
4/ Digi-ID on 3rd-party wallets
Yes, we’ve got Digi-ID coming to other major 3rd-party multi-wallets soon. This will help to further cement Digi-ID as a strong, safe and seamless authentication method, allowing an even broader user-base direct access to log in with Digi-ID no matter which wallet they use.
More details will come soon, but I want to thank our developers again for helping out these other 3rd-party wallets with getting the integration done.
Speaking of Digi-ID there will be a slight update to the iOS wallet within the coming weeks to fully fix the cross-platform restore working so that Digi-ID remains the same across both! Right now you can restore your wallet, but not your Digi-ID. That’s going to be sorted shortly.
5/ DigiByte Node Map
I shared a screenshot a little while ago as a bit of a teaser. This is coming along however there’s an issue where the interface seems to stall after being up for a few days, so a few more minor things and we’ll have that shared and available for people to peruse.
Obviously the geolocation is just a “guess” based on the IP address, but it’s still fascinating and very cool to visualize anyway.
6/ Address Book on Mobile
A key part of us getting the reoccurring payments (As any good payment system should have) is the Address Book. We need this before we can move on to Step #2 of the reoccurring payments.
Thanks to Yoshi and Rob for their work on this, and we hope to have this in your hands for beta-testing shortly!
7/ DigiByte Node guide on the Raspberry Pi
Yes, the guide is pretty much all finished and ready to roll, we’re just waiting on a few improvements to the memory side and other things before I publish this.
This guide was written with Windows in mind, but I’m also going to be getting some information for OSX and Linux users who want to setup a Raspberry Pi too.
8/ DigiSweep improvements
Matthew ( @mctrivia ) continues to work on DigiSweep, a recovery tool for people who have a recovery seed phrase or wallet.dat file but no access to their older wallet.
It’s recently been improved with a more mobile-friendly UI as well as additional polish and is looking very sharp.
It’s arguably one of the most useful recovery tools out there in the entire cryptocurrency space and he’s done a fantastic job, you can check out the progress at https://mctrivia.github.io/DigiSweep/index.html
9/ DigiAssets
DigiAssets work is still progressing, mostly behind-the-scenes.
We’ve seen a recent tweet with DigiByte founder Jared Tate going through checking for further optimization possibilities in the DigiAssets protocol:
In addition, I’ve also been working with Anon Unlimited on a short video explaining what DigiAssets are that you can use to refer even non-crypto people to:
Check out the video, share it around, and we’ll have more info on DigiAssets in the new year.
In closing
It’s been a busy few months (Not that it’s ever quiet around here), and a lot of people have been very concerned with other non-development movements of the blockchain space in general, specifically around price. The price will do what it wants to do, it’s not something we have any control over, but we can control the ongoing efforts we put in to development. To that end, development is still full steam ahead from our amazingly talented dev team.,
No matter what happens, DigiByte is here to stay, and we carry on with progress, byte-by-byte.
