As the week ends, let's take a moment to look back at what we've achieved in the past few days and see what we've got to look forward to in the week to come.
Particl Desktop Update 🖥️
This week has seen only minor progress on Particl Desktop due to our desktop developer being mostly unavailable. However, we expect desktop development pace to start picking up starting today.
- Update Particl Desktop-related dependencies and modules. (partly completed, focus shifted to items listed below)
- Diagnose and fix a problem with how market identities behave. (priority)
- Diagnose and fix an issue with the editing of Seller Templates. (priority)
- Tie marketplace content moderation voting threshold to circulating supply.
- Improve proxy connections (better Tor functionality, add i2p, etc).
- Allow for transactions to be abandoned on PD before they are confirmed.
- Default display of chat messages to newest message receive.
Remember that, in the interest of pushing updates more quickly and as the array of dependency updates are rather time-consuming due to the accrued development debts of the past few months, we may opt to push out Particl Desktop 3.3.3 with most of the updates and fixes mentioned above included, and push a subsequent update (i.e., 3.3.4) addressing the remaining larger dependency updates.
Note: Particl Desktop development is currently being worked on on a part-time basis, which is expected to result in slower development pace compared to Core or BasicSwap DEX. However, we expect to resume development of this department on a full-time capacity in the near future.
Particl Marketplace Moderation 🛡️
In our commitment to maintaining the safety and integrity of Particl Marketplace, we've resumed our research into a better, more efficient content moderation system. Those familiar with the project know about the already-existing crowdsourced moderation system which, while functional, is still in its early stages and needs further refinement to effectively minimize exposure to undesirable content for the end-user while improving it's pro-activity.
Moderating a decentralized marketplace without introducing central points of failure is a real challenge. On one hand, it cannot put too much responsibility on end-users, as that means they have to be constantly exposed to undesirable content so that they can vote it out. But on the other hand, it also cannot put that responsibility into specific users, moderation staff, groups of people, or organizations, as that defeats the very purpose of a decentralized system and introduces central points of failure and liability.
Our proposed solution would leverage Particl's staking pools, voting delegation, and the potential of LLM (large language models) to more proactively moderate content. This innovative approach would allow for pre-screening based on community-driven policies, removing inappropriate listings before they even reach users. The end result is a painless user experience that is free from undesirable content and doesn't require the end-user to act as a moderator and be exposed to undesirable content.
Keep in mind that this system is still theoretical, with ongoing research focused on integrating LLM capabilities and refining the implementation strategy without any sacrifice to the level of decentralization or privacy. Once fully deployed, this model could lead the way in terms of decentralized moderation without central points of failure or undue burden on users.
We will continue our research and provide a detailed update on Particl News once we finalize the design. This approach, if successful, could set a precedent for addressing moderation challenges in decentralized environments without sacrifices to decentralization.
Particl Core 🔗
Core Codebase Maintenance 🛠️
tecnovertAs always, we consistently stay up-to-date with Bitcoin's latest version by regularly incorporating upstream updates into Particl Core. You can monitor these changes by visiting this link.
SPV Integration 📱
We've started looking into more extensive SPV functionalities to Particl Core, which will eventually enable more portable instances of Particl wallets.
We have no timeline or ETA on this item, but it has now been added to our list of deliverables.
BasicSwap 📈
As mentioned last week, we've been working on completing a few changes that introduce fixes and improvements to the codebase.
As it currently stands, all items are now complete and undergoing testing within the dev branch before they go live on the master branch.
☑️ Fix error showing received bids for inactive coins
☑️ Fix error when display old offers on v13
☑️ Move protocol_version to the first field in protobuf definitions
☑️️ Allow users to select which coins to show prices for on offers page
☑️️ Move v13 from dev to master — not compatible with previous versions
☑️ Change sending the rate over in bids to sending the amount_to
☑️ Fix invalid amount error with large values
Decred Integration ✅
We're still working on integrating Decred into BasicSwap, making satisfying progress all throughout the week. Here is the relevant progress report in regards to that specific deliverable:
☑️ Collect Decred chain parameters
☑️ Encode and decode Decred addresses
☑️ Call Decred RPC commands
☑️ Start and manage DCR daemon from BasicSwap
☑️ Start and manage DCR wallet from BasicSwap
☑️ Validate Decred seed and wallet restoration
☑️ Add extkey class to get from seed to account pubkey
☑️ Add CTransaction class
🔳 Sign Decred transactions
🔳 Add Decred to basicswap-prepare setup script
🔳 Start Decred wallet with full functionality into DEX
🔳 Add a series of Decred tests
User Interface 🖥️
tecnovertWe've now finalized the changes we wanted to include in the 3.0.0 version of the BasicSwap DEX user interface with today's commit, save for minor changes to the notification system and popup modals that should be pushed imminently.
The changes are now available in the dev branch where they will remain for a few more days to ensure proper testing.
If you would like to test these changes before they make it into the master branch, you can change your active BasicSwap branch to the dev branch (using git checkout dev) and updating BasicSwap as you would typically do for a regular update.
Note: We wholeheartedly welcome community testing and look forward to your feedback and comments on the new changes introduced by 3.0.0.
As always, we thank you immensely for your passion and dedication to Particl and what it's working towards achieving. None of it would be possible without you all!
We wish you a great weekend we'll see you all back on Monday! 👋
The Open-Source Revolution
We're on a mission to create a private, independent, and pro-liberty digital economy that is fair and open to all. Learn more about what we do at any of the following links.
Be a part of the movement and join us in the fight for our freedoms by meeting the community and spreading the word far and wide!
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Learn more about Particl with these in-depth resources.
Website BasicSwap DEX Academy Wiki
Follow the link below to get a list of all other useful Particl-related links you may find helpful.