@kilrcola 21 January 2020

BCH Open-Source Developer Pulse Newsletter #9

This is the Ninth edition of the BCH Pulse developer newsletter. Existing projects have been updated. We will now be moving to a monthly publication. Submissions are due in by the 20th of each month. Information can be sent to the new email bch.dev.mail@gmail.com 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. **Developers ~** **Chris Pacia - BCHD** **Currently working on:** Misc work on SLP support in BCHD. **Wants help with:** SLP support in BCHD: https://github.com/gcash/bchd/issues/328 **Tyler Smith - BCHD** **Recently completed:** Released first spec draft for Avalanche pre/post consensus system (Snowglobe) and started discussing and incorporating feedback. **Currently working on:** Continuing work on Avalanche system, both spec and implementation, and working through feedback received from the spec draft. Working with some experienced computational proof (zkSNARKS, SONICS, etc) developers to derisk, formalize, and build test systems for some potential ways to bring the technology to Bitcoin Cash. **Future work:** Finishing initial public version of Avalanche test system and incorporation of initial spec feedback Releasing some proof of concept systems utilizing zero knowledge proofs to aid in scalable validation. **Wants help with:** Researching and building Snowglobe prototype. e.g. spec writing/editing, test writing, manual testing, code writing and review. Design and front-end skills are also very valuable. Researching and building SNARK-based applications. Previous knowledge is very helpful for either, but solid writing, engineering, or design skills are enough to learn and participate. No contributions are too small! Mark Lundeberg - Bitcoin ABC **Recently completed:** Got CashFusion alpha working smoothly, near-beta state **Currently working on:** Preparing for May upgrade **Future work:** Improve Schnorr signature usage (add to ABC wallet), start work on Schnorr batched validation. Further improvements to CashFusion Starting work on November upgrade. **Jason Cox - Bitcoin ABC** **Recently completed:** Code review UX improvements Improved release automation **Currently working on:** Better review process UX More release automation and test coverage **Future work:** Faster infrastructure deployments **Wants help with:** Unit test, utility, and network back-ports: https://github.com/Bitcoin-ABC/bitcoin-abc/blob/master/doc/backporting.md **Antony Zegers - Bitcoin ABC** **Currently working on:** BCH Script Roadmap https://gist.github.com/Mengerian/7ae4c4abbc6f4d1664507c817a51da2f Amaury Sechet - Bitcoin ABC **Recently completed:** Packaged libsecp56k1 for the rest of the ecosystem to use https://github.com/bitcoin-ABC/secp256k1/ Automated testing improvements. PSBT **Currently working on:** Support for Quic **Future work:** Prep for May 2020 network upgrade Rework of checksig. Opcode to reverse bytes in stack element **Wants help with:** Node development, pretty much anything somebody would be interested in working on and helping to maintain. Andrea Suisani - Bitcoin Unlimited **Recently completed:** BU: https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinUnlimited/pull/2053 (Add Nov 15th 2019 checkpoints for mainnet and testnet) BU: https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinUnlimited/pull/2070 ([port][rpc] Add getchaintxstats and uptime RPC calls) EC: https://github.com/Electron-Cash/Electron-Cash/pull/1771 (Add Bitcoin Unlimited managed Electrum server to the white list) BU: Use BU BCH ppa repository as Berkely DB packages provider BU: Update ElectronCash build instruction to take into account binary rename BU: Fix input validation for traffic shaping parameters Set up a new instance of Electrum server maintained by BU (electrs.bitcoinunlimited.info) **Currently working on:** Porting https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer over to BCH Setting up an explorer for BCH **Future work:** Gigablock testnet experiment #2 iteration May 2020 upgrade feattures (op_reverse and sigCheck) **Wants help with:** Porting https://github.com/janoside/btc-rpc-explorer over to BCH Andrew Stone - Bitcoin Unlimited **Currently working on:** Phase 1 BCH specification project for evaluation http://reference.cash Collaboration on DS proofs with TomZ. Voting software dev project. UMass research on a Bobtail and Storm prototype Tail elimination difficulty DAAs. Testing of long unconfirmed chains and “intelligent forwarding” algorithm. PRs covering smaller stuff. Testbench work to create a dedicated gitlab runner and docker container Peter Tschipper - Bitcoin Unlimited **Recently completed:** O(n^2) post block processing related to long chains **Currently working on:** Multi-threaded block validation **Future work:** Giga-net testing Joshua Green - Bitcoin Verde **Recently completed:** Bitcoin Verde has been dedicated to working on the Bitcoin Cash Protocol Specification. With the funding depleted, we are looking for additional funding. Until then, we have begun resuming optimizing Bitcoin Verde for a smaller disk footprint and improving the initial block download sync time. We are also making time to release our wallet. *Below are details regarding the status of the Bitcoin Cash Protocol Specification:* The protocol specification work that was funded by Bitcoin Unlimited was completed Current status can be viewed at https://bitcoinprotocol.cash The repo behind bitcoinprotocol.cash is located at https://github.com/SoftwareVerde/bitcoin-cash-specification Bitcoin Unlimited’s clone of the repo is located at https://github.com/BitcoinUnlimited/BitcoinCashSpecification Other node implementations are encouraged to clone the repository. If you’re a developer and would like to have write access to bitcoinprotocol.cash create an account and ask for it to be activated in the Bitcoin Verde telegram. We encourage at least one representative from each node implementation to have write access. The consortium is looking to diversify control of the bitcoinprotocol.cash system. This includes different owners of the following attributes: - The bitcoinprotocol.cash domain (Verde) - The bitcoinprotocol.cash repository (to be determined) - The bitcoinprotocol.cash server (BCHD) **Currently working on:** Looking for additional funding to expand on the specification. **Future work:** The code used to host bitcoinprotocol.cash will be released soon. Scott McDermid - PayButton **Recently completed:** Setup framework for proper API documentation. **Currently working on:** API documentation hand-off. Webpage refresh. **Future work:** Transition PayButton from polling to socket connection. **Pokkst - Crescent Cash** **Recently completed:** Native SLP integration into bitcoincashj. This will allow for fully-featured SPV SLP wallets with HD support for Android and Desktop with Java. tipbitcoin.cash HONK SLP token support. tipbitcoin.cash backend improvements and fixes. **Future work:** tipbitcoin.cash fixes. Crescent Cash Desktop SLP support. Imaginary_Username - Electron Cash **Recently completed:** Doing reviews for misc projects. **Currently working on:** Reusable address: Working closely with both bchd and Harry Barber for a layer on top of bitcoind. Prototype server: https://github.com/hlb8122/prefix-server/tree/dev/grpc **Future work:** Assist with double-spend proof testing and implementation Investigate Avalanche and Storm pre-consensus mechanisms Calin Culianu - Electron Cash **Recently completed:** Fulcrum SPV server early beta: https://github.com/cculianu/Fulcrum **Currently working on:** Fulcrum release **Future work:** CashFusion release / UI polish **Wants help with:** Testing and writing documentation How-tos for Fulcrum once it’s released (which is soon!) Jonald Fyookball - Electron Cash **Currently working on:** CashFusion for Beta Release Researching Cash Fusion Maths James Cramer - SLPDB / Electron Cash SLP **Recently completed:** Preparations for SLPDB v1.0 upcoming release (“db-updates” branch on GitHub Initial sync time is now as low as 8 hours using bchd gRPC, compared to previous sync time of ~24+ hours Startup time is now as low as ~60 seconds with gRPC, compared to the previous startup time of 30 minutes Real-time validation speed is much faster and unconfirmed/confirmed items always have validation finished (no longer possibly pending slp validation) Memory footprint is reduced to 1 GB, compared to previous footprint of ~6 GB Addresses and UTXOs collections removed (Breaking Change) The latest version is running at nyc1.slpdb.io (maybe on or offline since I’m using this for testing) Electron Cash SLP 3.6.2 Pre-Release Fixed issue related to “Wallet does not have SLP input” error on sending SLP transactions **Currently working on:** Electron Cash SLP 3.6.2: Add “exclude_txids” in Graph Search server query. Prepare for release with testing. SLPDB v1.0: Completing a few unfinished items to reach feature parity with SLPDB 0.15 **Future work:** Develop more testing scripts for SLPDB Continued maintenance and improvements for EC SLP and SLPDB **Wants help with:** Developing testing scripts for SLPDB Developing some unit tests scripts for Electron Cash SLP Jonathan Silverblood - Cashual Wallet **Currently working on:** Misc smart contract work. Replacement for BitBacker **Future work:** Switching Cashual backend to use Electrum Fernando Pelliccioni - Bitprim **Currently working on:** Backporting code to ABC Bitprim node improvements **Future work:** Remove the restriction of 25 chained transactions. AlwaysAn0n - CashShuffle **Wants help with:** CashShuffle library unit tests and performance audit Chris Troutner - Bitcoin.com **Recently completed:** Token-liquidity app is more robust and includes token burning via OP_RETURN code: https://github.com/Permissionless-Software-Foundation/token-liquidity Math behind the token-liquidity app: https://troutsblog.com/blog/design-pseudo-stable-community-token **Currently working on:** Benchmarking standards and tests for the ‘Cash Stack’: https://github.com/christroutner/benchmark-bch/tree/master/docs More explanation of the ‘Cash Stack’ https://troutsblog.com/research/bitcoin-cash/how-to-bch-full-stack-developer **Future work:** Porting the features and payment processing in api.bchjs.cash and account.bchjs.cash to rest.bitcoin.com **Wants help with:** Feedback on the benchmark tests would be great. Open to thoughts on better testing methods and additional testing methods. I will publish a post to r/bitcoincash once I’ve finished the first draft. Karol Trzeszczkowski - Plugins **Recently completed:** *Currently working on paper wallet manager for Electron Cash, Mecenas with cash account, hardware wallet support for Last Will **Future work:** Fully automated Mecenas **Wants help with:** Hardware wallet in Last Will plugin Tobias Ruck - SLPDEX **Recently completed:** Cashcontracts-rs, which makes working with transactions and contracts much simpler: https://github.com/slpdex/cashcontracts-rs **Currently working on:** OP_REVERSE Be.Cash **Wants help with:** *Mitra *Bitcoin-cash crate: https://crates.io/crates/bitcoin-cash **Future work:** More Be.Cash features Mitra transaction format Bitcoin-cash crate: https://crates.io/crates/bitcoin-cash Tendo Pein - Spedn **Currently working on:** Compiler optimization algorithms **Future work:** Macros Pattern matching IDE support Rosco Kalis - CashScript **Recently completed:** CashScript v0.3.1, including bug fixes, improved error handling and some interal refactoring. **Currently working on:** Article on covenant use cases with CashScript, collaborating with Andre Cabrera on browser support for CashScript. **Future work:** Advanced compiler optimizations, tuple assignments, and other improvements **Needs help with:** Trying out CashScript and reporting any bugs or suggestions. Also any open issues on the CashScript repository (https://github.com/Bitcoin-com/cashscript/issues), specifically any issues labeled “help wanted” or “good first issue”. No submission this issue - **George Bissias - Bitcoin Unlimited** **Justin Holmes - Bitcoin Unlimited** **Dagurval - Bitcoin Unlimited** **Tom Zander - Flowee** **Axel Gembe - Electron Cash** **Pete - Bitcoin.com** **Shammah - Cashweb Keyserver** Calling all developers working on BCH We 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 information on: 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 You can find a copy of this newsletter online at: The Future of Bitcoin Cash