Recently, most of the Particl Desktop application development has been focused on the marketplace, but its wallet functions have also undergone quite a few major changes. In fact, today we’re officially releasing Particl Desktop 1.2.3, a major update on the mainnet wallet capabilities of Particl Desktop. A majority of its user interface has been improved upon as well as made more user-friendly, and a lot of bug fixes and stability improvements were implemented to make the Particl Desktop experience as smooth as it has ever been!

Download link: https://github.com/particl/particl-desktop/releases/tag/1.2.3

What’s New Since Particl Desktop 1.1?

Welcome to Particl Desktop

We believe that, for a product to be used by a large user base, building an outstanding underlying technology is only part of the solution. A product also needs to be easy to understand, intuitive to use and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, otherwise, most people won’t bother. Thus, with the goal of refining the user-friendliness and usability of Particl Desktop as we move forward, this new release introduces a lot of new features and user interface improvement

The new interface tweaks and features introduced in this new release, which include pages, screens as well as modals redesign and additions, are designed to create a more intuitive and comprehensive way to use the Particl Desktop features and decentralized applications such as the marketplace:

New:

  • New Particl Core modal
  • Time offset warning icon
  • Lots of new & better icons

Improved:

  • Receive page
  • Address Book page
  • Make Payment screen
  • Block Syncing modal

Non-UX Features:

Bug Fixes & Stability Improvement

  • Fixed the cold staking widget
  • Fixed the recovery phrase password field. Wallets created on Particl Desktop 1.1.0 could only be restored with an empty password field
  • Improved memory leaks
  • Encrypting Particl Desktop no longer requires a restart
  • More robust Windows builds & Particl Desktop termination
  • .desktop file is now created when installing Particl Desktop using .deb
  • The debug window now has better string decoding
  • No more missing 0 on fractional numbers
  • ModalsModule refactored
  • Transaction handling refactored
  • Fixed a ton of other small & insignificant bugs and stability issues
Cold staking widget is back!

Particl Desktop 1.2.2* Showcase

Christina, our social media coordinator, also put together a video on our Youtube channel showcasing Particl Desktop 1.2.2 and its new, improved look and feel!

*The difference between Desktop 1.2.2 and 1.2.3 are minimal, minor tweaks.

Preparing for the Future

Receive Funds Page

Our first official decentralized application, Particl Marketplace, is going to be hosted and accessible directly from Particl Desktop. This is precisely why this Particl Desktop 1.2.3 release is an important one, as it sets the stage for a more intuitive approach to our product which will affect how decentralized applications such as Particl Marketplace will look within the wallet. As mentioned earlier in this post, we strongly believe that a solid underlying technology, that of which we are absolutely confident in, is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a product used by millions of people online. Usability and aesthetics also go a long way to attract a wider range of users, especially when building an online marketplace where looks and feel plays a very big part.

Particl Marketplace

Particl Marketplace Alpha (Testnet)

As many of you already know, we are in the final stages of our mainnet RingCT implementation and have started implementing the initial iteration of our decentralized governance for Particl Marketplace, which currently is at its Alpha stage of development and exclusively on testnet.

For this reason, we recommend keeping an eye on our Discord channel, especially the #testing channel, for new testnet builds of the market. In the meantime, you can download the latest version of the marketplace here and get testnet coins (tPART) by using the Particl tPART faucet here.

As with any of our product, if you have any suggestion, feedback or comment, don’t hesitate to contact us on our Discord server or log an issue on Particl Desktop’s Github repository!