As we close the curtains on an eventful year for the Particl project, we'd like to take a moment to look back on 2022 and review all the exciting releases, news, and surprises it brought with it.

But that's not all! We are pleased to offer a sneak peek into the future and give a glimpse of what to expect marching through what is sure to be an even more exciting year for the project!

Let’s not waste a second more and dive right into it!

Table of Contents

The year 2022 was a tumultuous one in the world of cryptocurrency, with a number of dramatic events occurring within the industry.

Fortunately, the Particl project managed to remain largely unaffected by these developments, instead making significant progress towards its mission of providing an ecosystem with unrivaled levels of privacy and decentralization.

Indeed, all throughout the year, we have seen considerable development and code releases on the project's Github. What's more, in June, we unveiled our new vision for the platform's infrastructure, one designed to be fully open, modular, and incorporate a multitude of new and cutting-edge capabilities. This strategic refocus is essential in advancing Particl and facilitating its adoption by a broader audience.

But before we continue to discuss what's in store for the future, let us take a step back and recognize the accomplishments that have been achieved throughout the year.

Particl Core

GitHub - particl/particl-core: Particl Core integration/staging tree
Particl Core integration/staging tree. Contribute to particl/particl-core development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHubparticl

Particl Core, the platform’s blockchain, is precisely what its name implies; it is the backbone of the PART cryptocurrency and powers safe and private currency transactions using the PART coin — complete with a wide range of features like private transactions, smart-contracts, and advanced financial capabilities to be used in intricate decentralized applications.

One important particularity of the Particl blockchain is that it is forked from Bitcoin and is actively maintained up-to-date with all its upstream updates — providing you with the assurance that your funds are secure and that the platform has the necessary capabilities to provide all the modern, enhanced functionality of Bitcoin.

The significance of this cannot be overstated. By leveraging the Bitcoin developer community, the Particl ecosystem directly benefits from its entire talent pool. This can be easily seen by simply examining blockchain Github rankings, like CryptoMiso for example, where the Particl Core repository currently ranks 11th out of all the coins listed.

This is a testament to the strength of open-source development and its global collective of dedicated contributors embodying its vision in their everyday lives.

Releases

* Particl Core 0.19.2.18 was released on December 13, 2021, but the Taproot hardfork was pre-scheduled to go live on the 1st of February, 2022.

Particl Desktop

GitHub - particl/particl-desktop: The GUI application for Particl Markeplace and PART coin wallet. A decentralized peer to peer marketplace –free, secure, private, untraceable.
The GUI application for Particl Markeplace and PART coin wallet. A decentralized peer to peer marketplace –free, secure, private, untraceable. - GitHub - particl/particl-desktop: The GUI applicatio...
GitHubparticl

This year's recap is also a great reminder that Particl is far more than a 'privacy coin.' It is, indeed, a comprehensive ecosystem of privacy-first dApps that prioritize privacy and decentralization above all else.

As such, the ecosystem requires user-oriented gateways, or user interfaces, through which you can interact with applications like the Particl Marketplace. Without it, you would be limited to only a command-line or basic Qt-like interfaces, both of which being less-than-optimal user experiences.

That’s where Particl Desktop comes in. It is a desktop client which provides users with a unified and user-friendly interface for interacting with a suite of applications. Its current functions include acting as a cryptocurrency wallet management, a decentralized marketplace, and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance portal. In 2023 and beyond, its scope will expand to include a multitude of additional features and capabilities, becoming more akin to a "dApp OS", but more on that further down below this article.

There’s no denying. Particl Desktop is a vital element within the Particl ecosystem, and, similar to Particl Core, it has been improved multiple times throughout 2022.

Releases

* Particl Desktop 3.3 is a transitory release into the new development cycle.

BasicSwap DEX

GitHub - tecnovert/basicswap: Basic Atomic Swap Proof of Concept
Basic Atomic Swap Proof of Concept. Contribute to tecnovert/basicswap development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHubtecnovert

Perhaps the most exciting release of the year, BasicSwap is Particl’s brand new dApp. Indeed, the simultaneous failure of the FTX scam exchange and the release of the BasicSwap DEX proved to be an opportune moment for Particl, as it brought considerable attention to the platform and its mission.

It is a peer-to-peer (P2P) trading exchange that offers a secure, private, and completely decentralized trading platform. It eliminates the need for central points of failure or third-party interferences, allowing you to freely swap cryptocurrencies with full confidence and in total privacy. This groundbreaking dApp is sure to revolutionize the way people trade cryptocurrencies, and is a major milestone in the evolution of both the Particl project and the broader cryptocurrency industry.

BasicSwap was released to the public, on the 7th of December, 2022, as an open beta. The DEX, which functions over mainnet networks, is fully functional for a variety of coins (including Monero).

However, it’s important to keep in mind that BasicSwap is still in its early stages and is currently better geared for more experienced users. To use it today, you must manually compile the Python code, which should only take a few minutes. Additionally, you must ensure that the blockchains of the coins you have enabled are synced locally on your device.

But don’t despair, this is merely the first step in a more comprehensive and end-user friendly vision for the DEX, which we will expound upon in the second half of this blog post.

Releases

Particl Electrum

GitHub - particl/electrum: Electrum Particl Wallet
Electrum Particl Wallet. Contribute to particl/electrum development by creating an account on GitHub.
GitHubparticl

As part of our efforts to make BasicSwap (and other Particl dApps) more easily accessible, we’ve made early strides in providing more light services to the network with the release of Particl Electrum, a fork of Bitcoin’s Electrum wallet. It is expected to play an important role in the ecosystem moving forward, whether that is more of a back-end one or not.

Indeed, being able to easily fork an open-source wallet like Electrum is one of the many benefits in keeping up-to-date with Bitcoin upstream updates, as we’ve mentioned earlier in this blog post.

But the wallet provides much more than just light services; it is a feature-rich and easy-to-use cryptocurrency wallet that can be set up in just a few seconds. And as a sweet bonus, it also doubles as a mobile wallet, providing you with an added layer of convenience and security you can bring with you on-the-go!

Releases

Particl Stories

Stories - Particl News
Learn more about Particl’s mission, vision, and purpose through stories that expose some of the lesser-known problems that affect us every day.
Particl News2 Nov 2022 • 5 min read

While technical releases are important — after all, they are what makes the ecosystem — it is important to understand them as part of a greater whole.

To better communicate our mission, vision, and the values that motivate the Particl team, we’ve started sharing, from time to time, different “stories” that touch on different topics relevant to Particl.

These stories provide more context to what we do, and we certainly plan on publishing more of these as we move forward. Refer to the list below for all the Particl Stories in 2022, or just navigate to their dedicated section on Particl News.

Releases

What to Expect Moving Into 2023

Reflecting back on a successful year, we can look forward to the next one with even more anticipation! Indeed, we’ve achieved numerous milestones that have positioned us well for the coming year, and we are eager to share what comes next with you.

A New Development Cycle Begins

It may have been a few months since we’ve announced Particl’s upcoming development cycle, but with the imminent mainnet release of Particl Desktop 3.3, the time has finally come for it to start taking form.

Particl's upcoming development cycle is set to revolutionize the ecosystem's architecture, making it modular in design and more open to external contributors. In summary, it bases itself on four pillars:

1- SMSG 2.0 — A Decentralized & Private Internet Protocol:

A major deliverable of Particl’s upcoming development cycle is a new, enhanced version of the SMSG network — Particl’s privacy-first peer-to-peer data network powering its dApps like Particl Marketplace or BasicSwap DEX.

This update intends to make the network faster, but also much more scalable and able to sustain consumer-levels of traffic, as well as provide additional functionality such as hosting, directly on its network, applications, web pages, and other types of data or content.

2- A New Modular Architecture:

Perhaps the most important aspect of this development cycle is the breaking down of Particl components into independent modules that can interact with each other, but without depending on one another.

This will facilitate greater contributions to the ecosystem, and will reduce the overhead of upkeep for each application or initiative, regardless of whether they are developed by the Particl team or community contributors.

Additionally, the introduction of a developer SDK and a more streamlined development process for the entire ecosystem will enable improved interoperability of the modules, allowing developers to leverage the contributions of others to incorporate functionality into their own dApps or services.

3- Access Gateways and dApp Accessibility:

One of the main benefits of implementing a modular and open architecture is the ease of integration into third-party applications. For instance, BasicSwap could be readily integrated into popular cryptocurrency wallets, drastically improving the exposure of the ecosystem as a whole by exposing it to an entirely new audience.

But the reverse is equally true: it also makes it simpler to incorporate third-party services, such as advanced eCommerce inventory management systems, into Particl dApps like Particl Marketplace.

This will, notably, enable a broader range of gateways to interact with decentralized applications. These can include web and mobile frameworks, allowing users to access the marketplace, for example, from any location as long as they can get an internet connection and access to a web browser.

The changes brought by this new development cycle will bring an unprecedented level of accessibility, user-friendliness, and intuitive design while maintaining a high degree of privacy and decentralization. This will position the platform perfectly for adoption, as people will now be able to enjoy the benefits of a secure and decentralized system without sacrificing too much convenience.

4- Currency and Protocol Agnosticism:

It is well established that any technology-based platform that fails to embrace the ever-evolving nature of the industry it inhabits will not be able to sustain itself in the long run. As technology advances at an accelerated rate, platforms must be able to adapt to the changing landscape in order to remain viable.

As such, Particl’s upcoming development cycle will introduce a much larger degree of agnosticism with the currencies that can be used on the platform, but also with the protocols that can power its dApps.

Currently, Particl dApps only work using either the Particl blockchain, the SMSG network, or some combination of both. While this is a viable solution in many ways, it hinders the platform's ability to gain traction beyond its existing user base, and overlooks the potential advantages that alternative protocols may be able to provide.

This is why we want to move ahead as a truly open project, embracing various cryptocurrencies and protocols with the aim of providing the best levels of privacy, freedom, and self-empowerment to the greatest number of humans as possible.

But don’t be afraid! PART will continue to play a central role in the coming cycle. It offers capabilities that are not available with other cryptocurrencies, particularly in terms of its unique ability to combine privacy and flexibility. We also fully expect that many future decentralized applications will require PART and its unique capabilities in order to simply function.

Additionally, the proposed changes will greatly facilitate the development of applications and services, many of which can be creatively monetized by their creators to the benefit of the network. We anticipate that these changes will result in a net and significant increase in PART usage, while bringing real value to other cryptocurrencies as well.

Current Roadmap

To adequately map out the path forward as we progress through the upcoming development cycle, we’ve published a roadmap which marks the most important milestones. It is separated into two main phases: the foundational phase and the deployment phase.

The foundational phase is dedicated to constructing a modular and open architecture for the ecosystem. The deployment phase, on the other hand, involves integrating the new foundation design into existing dApps, integrating them into new gateways (i.e., web access), and developing new applications and services (or variants of current ones) as well.

Once we reach the deployment phase of the roadmap, the Particl ecosystem will be fully open and modular; primed to receive a wide range of contributions from the community. This will enable the integration of dApps into third-party platforms, which is likely to result in a significant snowball or domino effect on all fronts.

And there we have it, the full review of 2022 and a glimpse of what to expect in 2023 and beyond.

With the project maturing into an ever-more useful and integrated ecosystem, it is clear that it is becoming increasingly relevant and pivotal in the face of the new challenges our world faces.

We'd like to express our most sincere gratitude to you all in the community for your passion, contributions, and trust. We promise to always  keep pushing boundaries and give everything we've got to make 2023 the most exciting year for Particl yet!

Cheers to all of you in this awesome community — the power to change the world for the better lies in our collective hands! 🥂

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