Roadmap v2.0

We teased this a bit in our last AMA livestream, and here is a more complete look at what the Particl development team will be working towards for the upcoming 6 months and beyond. https://particl.io/roadmap/

The following items are all in our 2018–2019 pipeline. We’ve identified important items that are focus features over the next 6 months and beyond but aren’t tying these to quarters as we did in our Roadmap v1.2.

*New items can be added or taken away at anytime, this is a living document.

IN PROGRESS:

With the release of Particl Core 0.16.0.1 the development team debuts a couple features that they have been working on.

Support for Hardware Signing Devices

Particl Core 0.16 introduces generic support for Hardware Signing Devices to provide key-signing capabilities.

Ledger Integration

Initial support for the Ledger Hardware Wallet is here!

This has not yet been extended to blind or anon tranactions and therefore currently cannot be used exclusively for all functions of the wallet. Support will continue to be extended in future versions.

Stealth Addresses V2

In order to facilitate deterministic generation of stealth addresses between Particl Core and Signing Devices the method used to generate these addresses had to be changed.

Particl Marketplace (MP)

The majority of our team will be focused on the private decentralized marketplace over the next 6 months. We are readying our Alpha release of the Particl Marketplace as I write this.

ALPHA is the long-awaited decentralized marketplace dApp within Particl Desktop. The Alpha release of the marketplace will be barebones to start as users begin to test and progress through the buying/selling process.

As more users onboard we’ll continue refining the user experience and the tools available to vendors and shoppers.

Listing Governance

Governance won’t be in our initial release of the Markeplace but is one of the items in the pipeline this year. The vision of the Particl Project is to be a privacy focused platform for decentralized applications.

The Particl Marketplace is being built to be self-sustaining, self-governing and completely decentralized. Governance is a huge piece of the puzzle that the team will be focused on developing to protect privacy and protect users.

Software Development Kit (SDK)

A plan to have a SDK for developers is in the pipeline. The SDK will allow the creation of applications within the Marketplace or Desktop.

This might not come in 2018 from the Particl team (it is a pipeline item in the future) but could be a community development item someone takes on as a side project to create. The full support of the dev team will be available to anyone wanting to contribute and help speed of delivery of valuable items.

A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar development platform. — Wikipedia

ZMQ for MP Messages

Short for ZeroMQ, this is an automated messaging system that allows messages and notifications to be automatically pushed to Particl Desktop. An example would be if Particl Desktop has an update available, ZMQ will push notification to Particl Desktop and users will see a notice a new version of the Desktop is available.

BETA Marketplace

Our next major release of the decentralized marketplace will be BETA.

Beta MP may or may-not be a mainnet viable product. It is too early to tell but is something the team will be transparent in communicating.

Factors such as Governance and privacy (RingCT) are big factors on whether a mainnet marketplace is available in the next 6 months on mainnet. 50/50 is the best bet at the moment; being completely honest and forthcoming.

A Beta marketplace release with governance but without RingCT could happen with our Confidential TX’s (CT) already providing privacy on mainnet. CT do a good job of hiding amounts (MAD escrow) but don’t provide complete privacy for addresses of vendors and buyers in a escrow contract.

Privacy and Governance are 2 of the major factors that ultimately will determine the BETA marketplace release in the coming 6 months.

Full Particl Marketplace Release

All versions of the MP leading up to full release will be testing versions and live versions with new features introduced at each release. Once RingCT is on mainnet, Governance is fully developed, and currency-agnostic options like cross-chain atomic swaps/integrations have been through the proper testing environment we’ll plan a Full Particl Marketplace Release.

This will be the truly private decentralized marketplace that will disrupt the way you buy and sell online.

Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT)

Speaking of privacy and RingCT, we will see some exciting movement on this privacy enhancement in the next 6 months.

Academic Review

If you aren’t aware, NJIT research Qiang Tang is leading a group in a review of our RingCT privacy on Particl Testnet. Particl Foundation created a grant with the university in Sept. 2017 for this research, Qiang’s lab received the grant money in Nov. 2017 and began working on a 6 month review in Dec. 2017.

They are 3 months into review and will provide the foundation with a report after 6 months on the privacy, cryptography and security recommendations for Particl’s RingCT implementation on the latest Bitcoin codebase.

Bulletproofs: Short Proofs for Confidential Transactions

A very exciting paper was released in the middle of our grant with Qiang (NJIT) that significantly reduces the burden of confidential transactions on the blockchain.

Bulletproofs greatly improve on the linear (in n) sized range proofs in existing proposals for confidential transactions in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Particl is the only Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency with Confidential Transactions live and available today. We don’t allow CT to be default because of the size/cost this privacy introduces to transactions. Here is an infographic you may have seen showing the size/cost of each level of privacy for PART.

You can see that transaction size of CT and RingCT are 20x that of the pseudo-anonymous “public” state most users default to.

Bulletproofs is a big development that we will be reviewing this year. We estimate research, development, implementation and testing will be a 3–4 month part-time assignment for Tecnovert, Particl Lead Core Developer.

RingCT — Mainnet

It is fair to give a realistic checklist of the steps needed to see RingCT on Particl Mainnet in the coming months. Some work has begun, some work will need to be adjusted and some work has yet to begin.

*Future dates are estimates and subject to change.

  • June 2017 — Particl is the first Bitcoin-based cryptocurrency with CT and RingCT on pre-launch testnets
  • July 2017 — Particl launches as first project with privacy available through Confidential Transactions on mainnet. RingCT continues on new versions of testnet
  • September 2017 — Particl Foundation creates a research grant with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to review our RingCT implementation on Bitcoin codebase.
  • November 2017 — Qiang Tang’s research lab receives the Particl Foundation grant
  • December 2017 — Research begins on Particl RingCT
  • *est. April 2018 — Particl begins developing Bulletproofs on testnet. Working versions will be relayed to NJIT to bootstrap onto their ongoing research efforts.
  • *est. June 2018 — NJIT researchers present Particl Foundation with their review and recommendation of our RingCT / CT / Bulletproofs development on Bitcoin codebase.
  • *est. July 2018 — Particl development will modify/improve CT/RingCT code based on NJIT recommendations. First Bulletproofs on Testnet
  • *est. August 2018 — Particl Foundation will have improved code reviewed (1 month peer review, 3rd party)
  • *est. September 2018 — Particl development will make any changes necessary. New code will be on Testnet. Hardfork announced for RingCT to be moved to Mainnet
  • *est. October 2018 — Hardfork completed, RingCT on Mainnet alongside Bulletproofs CT

PIPELINE:

Copay Cold Staking

Particl Copay is a secure wallet made for desktop and mobile OS. We plan to integrate Particl Cold Staking into this multi-signature wallet.

Community Fund Vote

There is PART remaining from the Community Initiative Fund #1 — roughly 30,000 PART (at this time) with a few more claims still being vetted. The community needs to create a plan for these extra coins that were donated but not needed. Start brainstorming!

Lightning Network

A lot of excitement is stirring in the space because of lightning (LND) releasing on mainnet. Obviously, this is a big item on our radar as we build paths for other cryptocurrency coins to be used on Particl Marketplace.

#BlindLightning | #BlackLightning

What if Particl Confidential TXs or even RingCT could be leveraged in atomic swaps/ lightning network transactions between PART and other coins — providing true privacy for non-private coins?

Particl Desktop — future versions

In our last AMAFAQ livestream we also mentioned the current status of our flagship app, Particl Desktop.

New features related to the Particl Marketplace integration into Desktop will be ongoing throughout 2018. We’ve had a lot of requests for extra widgets and features from the community/team that are moving down the pipeline.

Below we’ve begun a checklist of requested features.

  • Multiwallet modal
  • Coin Control
  • Alias Addresses
  • Balances and Staking graphs
  • Remote Daemon Connection
  • Tor Integration
  • Settings modal
  • Modal Refactoring

Particl Marketplace is the main focus of the team moving forward, but you can expect to see some of these features coming into Desktop as well. The marketplace is priority number one.

We’re excited to see the impact Particl Marketplace and PART have in our space for 2018–2019. We all see an opportunity to provide use cases for other coins with our privacy focused decentralized applications — starting with the Marketplace.

Join us in our Riot/Telegram channels to get involved:

Riot | Telegram | Discord

Thank You

Particl Team