Project Recap

It has now been a little while since our latest Community Update and since then, the Particl team has been extremely busy and a LOT has been happening! This Community Update will break down everything you need to know about the status of the project and put you up to speed with what’s going on.

We’ve broken this Community Update down into 3 pieces. This first part will recapitulate what’s been happening with the project since our last update. If you want to jump right into the NYC Blockchain Week recap or the Development Update, follow the links below to jump:

What’s Been Accomplished Since our Last Community Update

2019 has been a busy year so far, and one that is shaping up to be pretty different than the last one. Whereas last year was focused on building the base layer for the Open Marketplace, this year has been all about refining it and starting to add new features on top of it. That doesn’t mean, however, that the only milestones reached this year were about the marketplace! Here’s a complete list of all the accomplishments and deliverables Particl had so far this year:

Particl Copay 5.4.1 Released (Jan 17th): A new version of Particl Copay was released on the 17th of January and marked a renewed active development for Particl’s mobile application. This update has been a major overhaul of the mobile application. It upgraded the application’s codebase, introduced a slew UI/UX and security improvements, fixed a couple of minor bugs, and enabled multi-currency support. This major Particl Copay update was pushed to set the stage for a bigger Particl Copay update that came a few weeks after: mobile multi-signature cold staking.

Particl Copay 5.4.1 Released
Yesterday, we released the 5.4.1 version of Particl Copay which sets the Particl mobile application to the latest Copay…particl.news

Particl Copay Released on iOS (Jan 24th): Particl Copay was finally released on iOS on the 24th of January. This means Particl’s mobile application is not exclusive to Android users anymore and now covers all mobile users.

Particl Copay Now Available on iOS
We are very excited to announce that Particl Copay, Particl’s mobile wallet, is now available on iOS! You can now…particl.news

Particl Meetup at CoinHouse, Paris (February 21st): Did you know that the biggest non-official Particl community is Particl FR, a French-speaking community? This is the reason why we organized, along with a few community members, a Particl meetup right in the heart of Paris at CoinHouse. The event held three presentations related to Particl and its protocol. You can watch these presentations by clicking on the following links:

Particl in Paris — Presentations at CoinHouse
We are thrilled to announce that Particl will be holding an event directly at the headquarters of CoinHouse, France’s…particl.news

Particl Desktop 1.3.1 Release (February 22nd): A new version of Particl Desktop was released on the 22nd of February. This release fixed the cold staking Zap feature to also work with cold staking pools as well as a few other minor issues. This Particl Desktop build automatically updated Particl Core nodes to the latest version, the one that would be compatible with the hardfork that was about to come.

Particl Desktop 1.3.1 Released
Earlier today, we released Particl Desktop 1.3.1 which had been in its pre-release stage for a bit more than two weeks…particl.news

Particl Network Hardforks (March 1st): On March 1st, the Particl main network went through a hardfork in order to prepare for the mainnet release of the Open Marketplace. This hardfork introduced both multi-signature cold staking capabilities to the network as well as paid SMSG messages. Paid SMSG messages are crucial to the functioning of the Open Marketplace on mainnet as they are used to carry listing messages around the network and make the governance system work. The hardfork went through without any issue and the network is now ready for the mainnet release of the marketplace.

Hardfork Successful
🎉 It’s official! 🎉particl.news

Particl Moves to Discord (March 7th): The Particl communications team has been mostly moved over to Discord. While we initially intended to move entirely on Discord and put Telegram in read-only mode, our travels around the world have made it clear we couldn’t do that as some countries exclusively use Telegram. Nevertheless, the team has been mostly moved over there and our Discord server will be the main platform we’ll focus on moving forward even though we will keep our Telegram channel open.

Particl is Officially Moving to Discord
The Particl community has been spread across many different platforms ever since we abandoned Slack more than a year…particl.news

Open Marketplace Alpha 2.0 Released (March 8th): On the 8th March, Particl reached a big milestone by releasing its Open Marketplace Alpha 2.0 on testnet. Unlike other testnet builds, this one is a permanent one, meaning that its download link hasn’t expired after 10 days. This release marked the completion of the base layer of the marketplace, meaning that the development team could now start focusing on adding features on top of it.

Particl Open Marketplace Alpha V2.0 Release & Development Update
It’s finally here! The Particl Open Marketplace Alpha V2.0 has just been released on Github and is now available for…particl.news

Particl Soft Rebrand (March 8th): At the same time Alpha 2.0 was released, Particl went through a soft rebrand to refresh its branding. Both Particl’s logo and color palette were updated, paving the way for a better creative direction. The soft rebrand was spearheaded by Gerlov van Ek, Particl’s Lead Designer, UI/UX, and developer.

Particl has a new look
Only by being obsessed with little things do amazing things emerge. — Andy Dunn This year Particl Project is set to…particl.news

Particl Booth at Hong Kong’s TOKEN2049 Conference (March 13rd-14th): A good chunk of the Particl team took a flight to present the Open Marketplace at TOKEN2049. In fact, this event, which we were a Gold sponsor for, marked the first big conference and kick-off point for our journey of creating awareness and introducing Particl’s first dApp, the Open Marketplace, to the crypto community. Not only was the Particl booth one of the very popular one around, but it also proved to be an excellent exercise for the team ahead of the two other major conferences Particl would be having a booth at: Consensus and Magical Crypto Conference. The team made great connections at the event and was able to gather a lot of feedback which we’ve used since then to improve the look and feel of the product.

TOKEN2049: A Recap & Review
It’s one week past the big event and by now, all Particl participants have safely made it back home. With our team…particl.news

New Mainnet Release Timeline Announced (March 20th): TOKEN2049 was a great time for the team to discuss the mainnet release strategy for the Open Marketplace. While it was initially announced that the marketplace would be released without privacy transactions, the team had decided to respect our commitment to privacy that we are making to our users by releasing the first mainnet version of the marketplace with the OMP Library and private transactions enabled by default.

Additionally, because the entire Open Marketplace had been built using the Bitcoin Core 0.18 codebase, we opted to push the official release only after Bitcoin itself would update its core to the 0.18 version. In the end, the release of Bitcoin Core 0.18 was delayed for about a month, an extra period of time the Particl team used to fine-tune and improve the OMP Library and the escrow mechanism. Read the Development Update section of this Community Update for more details about the status of the development and why we’ve finally opted to not release the Open Marketplace without its intended privacy features.

Marketplace Development Update
We packed our bags and headed off to TOKEN2049 last week with the Open Marketplace in tow. If you haven’t had a chance…particl.news

Multi-Wallets Make Their Way On Particl’s Testnet (April 11th): The first feature that was initially scheduled for Beta to be pushed on Particl’s Open Marketplace was multi-wallets. In fact, they’ve made their appearance on testnet on the 11th of April and are now, to this day, entirely ready for mainnet. For more information about what multi-wallets, follow the link below.

Multi-Wallets on Particl Desktop
Multi-wallets are not new to Particl. In fact, they have been available on Particl-Qt ever since Particl forked to…particl.news

Community Contract Pools Announced (April 17th): Community Contract Pools are a creative way to crowdfund community initiatives and get them funded the proper way. Have a Particl-related project you want to build? Would like some integration to be worked in but it requires a fee? Want to fund an awareness campaign? These Community Contract Pools are just like your regular pool with the difference that instead of charging their users 2–3%, it charges them 100%. The funds collected by the operator are then used to fund the initiative initially proposed by the pool.

Community Contract Pools
If you’ve been around the community for some time, then you probably know that there have always been some discussions…particl.news

First Particl Lightning Network Transaction on Testnet (May 1st): The Lightning Network is a groundbreaking protocol that supports blockchains in order for them to sustain more transactions per seconds without being negatively impacted by it. It allows blockchain to safely execute any sort of transaction, including micro-transactions, instantly and at a near-zero cost. The Particl test network saw its first LN transaction take place on the 1st of May, which marks the official beginnings of a more pro-active research and development on how the Lightning Network could be integrated into Particl to improve its performance.

Particl Lightning Network Now Available on Testnet
Last week, Particl’s Core Developer and Cryptographer, Tecnovert, successfully conducted the first-ever Particl…particl.news

Particl Copay Update — Mobile Cold Staking (May 9th): Particl released a major update for its mobile application on the 9th of May. Indeed, this update introduced cold staking capabilities to Particl Copay as well as the possibility to enable cold staking for multi-signature addresses. This allows anyone, even those who do not own a computer, to help strengthen the network and earn staking rewards for it by connecting their phone to a cold staking node or pool.

New Particl Copay Version Released
Today, we’re keeping the good momentum going ahead of the NYC Blockchain Week by announcing that we’ve released a new…particl.news

The Particl Team Presents the Open Marketplace on Mainnet During the NYC Blockchain Week (May 10th-16th): And that brings us to our most recent series of events where Particl presented the Open Marketplace, on mainnet, during both Magical Crypto Conference and Consensus conferences. This entire week has proven to be a major milestone for the project as well as an excellent mainnet test run for the Particl Open Marketplace. Read the NYC Blockchain Recap section of this Community Update for more details about the conferences.

Toward the Particl Open Marketplace
The coming week is shaping up to be a very exciting one. Many Particl team members are gathering in New York City for…particl.news

This concludes the project recap part of this Community Update. If you would like to continue and read the other parts of the update, please follow these links:

The Particl Team