This is the twelfth edition of the BCH Pulse developer newsletter. Existing projects have been updated. Information can be sent to the new email bch.dev.mail@gmail.com Thanks! Here is some of the work that is being built on BCH by the Developers. This does not take into account work done by developers who chose to remain anonymous.
Recently Completed:
Released 0.16.3 which had a fix to a standardness bug
Currently working on:
Specing out the SLP integration, expecting to have a document available for review and comment this month.
Future work:
SLP integration
Recently Completed:
BCHD 0.16.3
Currently working on:
SLP JS library
Minor updates to explore.cash
https://github.com/monsterbitar
Currently working on:
Specification and implementation of a Price Oracle for use in BCH smart contracts, and smart contract risk trading to mitigate volatility.
https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc
Recently Completed:
Helped businesses prepare for the May upgrade, which activated smoothly.
Various improvements including: improved node stability, improved performance, and bug fixes.
Faster and more stable tests running on all changes, before and after landing on master.
Currently working on:
Infrastructure to improve iteration speed team-wide.
Faster deployments for website and testing infrastructure.
Future work:
Develop code-gen for repetitive tasks.
Continue effort on de-globalizing internal node state.
Wants help with:
https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc
Currently working on:
Reviewing DAA work to define requirements, design goals, and evaluate different proposed improved DAAs for BCH.
https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc
Recently Completed:
Cleaned up upgrade code related to Transaction Chain Limit
Cleaned up upgrade code related to Sigchecks.
Other miscellaneous code cleanups.
Currently working on:
Porting PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction) to Bitcoin ABC, and adapting it for BCH transaction.
Avalanche - fixing tests and preparing code for block-level avalanche.
BIP-157 - work to bring BIP-157 block indexing code to Bitcoin ABC. This enables Neutrino wallet support.
Future work:
Continue with current work, and deal with new stuff that comes up.
Wants help with:
DAA work - defining a problem statement and requirements.
https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinUnlimited
Recently Completed:
Extend a bunch of RPC calls to work also with to block height not just block hash (BCHN/BU), improved github.com/sickpig/bch-rpc-exploer (see explorer.bitcoin.com)
Currently working on:
Electrum server testing (eletrs, fulcrum), BU develpoment
Wants help with:
"everything I''m currently working on 😄"
https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinUnlimited
Recently completed:
Graphene v2.2
Updated Graphene spec
Currently working on:
Bobtail prototype (BUIP 131)
Future work:
Bobtail prototype
https://gitlab.com/FloweeTheHub
Recently completed:
Provide a 'txid monitor' service. Allowing clients to register a txid they expect and get a push notification on first-seen or mining. (Flowee the Hub)
UTXO-DB speedups because of better algorithms for compression aiming at memory-locality. (Flowee the Hub)
Introduced a new C++ lib 'p2pnet' (Flowee Pay)
Provided a simple, functional, desktop wallet that can sync existing private keys (Flowee Pay)
Provided 'sending' feature to actually transfer money. (Flowee Pay)
Researched and implemented a UTXO system that aims to have enough outputs to avoid unconfirmed chains. (Flowee Pay)
Currently working on:
Ongoing maintenance work, including backports and working with newer libraries. (Flowee the Hub)
Future work:
Import private seeds.
Mobile skin (QML)
Wants help with:
Import private seeds. (does anyone have a C++ lib?)
Mobile skin (QML)
https://github.com/softwareverde/bitcoin-verde
Currently working on:
"Bitcoin Verde 2.0" which is an overhaul to the storage system of Bitcoin Verde.
Syncing progress down from 1+ week to 24 hours
Storage requirements down from 750GB to 250+ GB.
Currently in beta, QA soon.
Future work:
Mining Validation Service
Bitcoin Verde mining rules hardening
https://gitlab.com/bitcoin-cash-node
Recently completed:
2nd and 3rd releases of Bitcoin Cash Node (v0.21.1 and v0.21.2)
Setting up bookkeeping, scheduling, backporting processes for BCHN
Currently working on:
Managing the BCHN development & maintenance work
Specification of automatic finalization & block parking/unparking
Looking at restructuring BCHN test environment to improve verification capabilities
Future work:
Improving simulation capabilities for evaluation of BCH changes
Wants help with:
BCHN improvement dev, testing, review (Merge Requests, bug reports) - join me on BCHN Slack via the invite link available on https://bitcoincashnode.org
Feedback about CPFP usage: https://gitlab.com/bitcoin-cash-node/bchn-public-consultation-system/-/blob/master/output/campaigns/202006_BCHN-PCS_CPFP_survey/202006_BCHN-PCS_CPFP_survey-en.md
https://github.com/Electron-Cash
Recently completed:
BCHN Flipstarter campaign (and helped with others)
Currently working on:
Electron-Cash Flipstarter campaign
Sketching new possible AnyHedge contracts
Wants help with:
Electron-Cash
BCHN
https://gitlab.com/bitcoin-cash-node
Recently completed:
A Beta Release of corgi , a distributed framework for testing emergent properties of a bitcoin network
Currently working on:
Polishing corgi for public release, adding test-cases
Future work:
I'd like to try to formalize a BCIP process (with on-chain proposals via memo/member)
Wants help with:
Defining test-cases for corgi, help with gathering BCIPs and implementing the system
https://github.com/Electron-Cash
Recently completed:
BCHN performance and other fixes and improvements
Electron Cash macOS packaging and general look & feel improvements (macOS only)
Currently working on:
BCHN codebase
Fulcrum minor fixups
A better mining pool
https://github.com/simpleledger/Electron-Cash-SLP
Recently Completed:
Initial specifications for SLP Rewards and Staking protocols
Currently Working on:
Initial specifications for SLP Rewards and Staking protocolse
Future Work
SLP Rewards Spec/Implementation
https://github.com/PayButton/paybutton
Currently working on:
Implementing project overhaul w/ Preact.
Future work:
Expanding PayButton to cover features outlined on GitHub (https://github.com/PayButton/paybutton).
Recently Completed:
Improved unit and integration tests.
Currently working on:
Crowdfunding platform for Knuth.
Future work:
Implementing mining-compliance test batteries.
https://github.com/Permissionless-Software-Foundation
Recently Completed:
FullStack.cash has had several updates recently. ipfs.fullstack.cash allows anyone to pay BCH to host files on the IPFS network. bch-js npm library has built in functions to support IPFS uploads.
minimal-bch-wallet (https://www.npmjs.com/package/minimal-bch-wallet) npm library released, forked from Honest.Cash's web wallet. This will be the wallet engine used as wallet.fullstack.cash is developed.
UncensorablePublishing.com got a new home page. This leverages the BCH blockchain for coordination and publishes content over the clear web, Tor, and IPFS.
Current Work:
wallet.fullstack.cash is a web-based wallet that will use the uncensorable publishing techniques at UncensorablePublishing.com. It's not functional yet, but we hope to have basic functionality in place in the next couple weeks.
Future Work:
minimal-slp-wallet (https://www.npmjs.com/package/minimal-slp-wallet) is not yet functional. It will be a clone of minimal-bch-wallet, but will support SLP tokens and NFTs.
Want help with:
I'd love to see more people start using bch-js (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@chris.troutner/bch-js).
I'd love help with integrating Bitcoin.com's rest.bitcoin.com into its Ninsight class: https://github.com/christroutner/bch-js/blob/master/src/ninsight.js
I'll provide free access to the FullStack.cash REST API for anyone who wants to help with development.
https://github.com/KarolTrzeszczkowski
Recently Completed:
BitcoinBileto paper wallet manager: https://github.com/KarolTrzeszczkowski/Bitcoin-Bileto
Mecenas executor bot - full automation of Mecenas recurring payment service.
Currently working on:
DAA improvement research, Mecenas automation integration in Mecenas plugin
Future work:
DAA improvement research
Wants help with:
DAA improvement research
https://github.com/cashweb/stamp
Recently Completed:
Lots of front end improvements
Currently working on:
Backend relay system API
Writing specifications
Future work:
Continued development on Stamp
Wants help with:
Funding
Participation in developing the wallet
https://bitbucket.org/o-studio/spedn/src/develop/
Recently Completed:
Spedn 0.3 released with support for May hardfork and improved covenants functionality
Currently working on:
Pattern matching and automatic optimization
Future work:
Spedn IDE
Wants help with:
Code and docs review
https://github.com/EyeOfPython
Recently Completed:
OP_REVERSEBYTES implementation
Currently working on:
Crowdfunding campaign
Mitra
Future work:
Backend
Wallet
Card
Mitra Playground
Wants help with:
Mitra (testing, feedback once released)
https://be.cash exposure
Recently Completed:
Released CashScript v0.4.0 and v0.4.1. Changes include:
OP_REVERSEBYTES support
Bitwise operators
Compiler optimisations
Some syntax changes and bug fixes
Completely revamped fluent Transaction Builder API for the JavaScript SDK
Created new website for CashScript documentation (https://cashscript.org/)
Currently working on:
Building out automated testing for the AnyHedge smart contracts (using Jason Dreyzehner's bitcoin-ts library)
Future work:
Generalising the automated testing setup and making it easily available to use for testing other BCH smart contracts
Wants help with:
Feedback on the CashScript website (does the documentation structure make sense, are you missing any information, etc)
Feedback on CashScript (try it out for some stuff, report bugs, etc)
This is the information that was submitted for this edition. We know there are many more developers who are currently developing for Bitcoin Cash and we encourage them to updates for the next edition.
The co-ordinators of this newsletter invite any developer (working on BCH) who isn’t featured in this issue to self report / submit what you are working on for the next issue of BCH Open-Source Pulse.
We’re looking for:
Recently completed
Current work
Future work (stuff you’d like to get to after you’re done with your current work)
Anything you’d like some help with
Please email us at bch.dev.mail@gmail.com
This is great, and very encouraging to read.