Team Funding Proposal #2

We announced that we would be releasing a new app into the Particl ecosystem; BasicSwap. BasicSwap is a cross-chain and private decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol that allows you to swap one cryptocurrency for another without any middleman or third-party being involved. It is currently in closed beta; its open beta is expected to begin very shortly in early 2022.

Although we haven’t officially communicated on this yet, we’ve made preliminary progress in building certain aspects of what will allow Particl apps, like Particl Marketplace or BasicSwap, to be accessible from the web. We will be progressively ramping up development on that front in 2022 and we are likely to deliver web access to Particl apps in increments rather than all at once. We’ll have more information to share a bit later on.

We’ve released an update to the cold staking zap functionality that allows for more a granular management of the zapping process. The process has been optimized and made more private. You can also now choose between two zapping options; optimized for staking or optimized for privacy.

Although not yet released, we’ve worked on a new light wallet for Particl: Particl Electrum. It’s a fork of the popular Bitcoin Electrum wallet and lets you send and receive coins on a secure wallet that doesn’t need to sync the entire blockchain. Particl Electrum will play an important part in some of the things we have planned ahead. Notably, the light wallet provides "light services" that can be used to provide Particl apps with access to the blockchain without syncing it entirely. It also provides an easy way to use the Lightning Network through a built-in interface, although converting that code to Particl is very much in progress and not an immediate priority for the moment.

In December 2021, we scheduled a hardfork to activate the long-anticipated Taproot protocol improvement. Taproot introduces many new features and capabilities to Particl’s blockchain, notably in the area of privacy and output management. This will improve the privacy and fees of Particl applications like Particl Marketplace and BasicSwap due to the better processing of their complex transactions. You can learn more about Taproot by following this link.

We added to Particl Desktop 3.1 many improvements to the inventory management aspect of the marketplace. Sellers now have access to more options when importing their inventory from CSV files and can easily adjust their product prices in bulk to account for any PART price changes. A notable variety of other improvements related to the management and publishing of listings has also been added.

A major item we’ve completed with Particl Desktop 3.1 is the addition of a customizable security deposit ratio for marketplace escrows. Before this update, both sellers and buyers had to lock 100% of the value of a transaction in an escrow contract. These security deposits are refunded, in full, once a transaction is completed. But with Particl 3.1, it’s now possible for the seller to set custom deposit ratios between 0% and 100%. This was one of the most requested features from marketplace users and it opens the platform to a wider range of audiences and use-cases.

Aside from the two major additions mentioned above, a large number of additions, improvements, and bug fixes have been added to Particl Marketplace. Because there is way too much to mention here, we invite you to check out the full list of changes available here.

Various additions, improvements, and bug fixes have been made to Particl Desktop. These are changes that are not exclusive to the marketplace app itself. Just like with the general marketplace improvements, the list of changes is too big to put here; we invite you to check out the full list of changes here.

BasicSwap will receive a lot of focus for the first half of 2022. With its open beta phase looming over, you can expect it to be functional and publicly available early during this new development cycle. We’re also happy to announce we’ve still got a lot of surprises which we’ve been working on in that regard, but haven’t announced yet. These will take the DEX to a whole other level, notably in terms of usability, and should take care of boosting Particl’s general adoption and exposure within the space.

The “web framework” refers to the ability to port Particl applications to the web, making them accessible from your favorite browser without the need to sync a blockchain or the SMSG network, and without having to download any application. This item will be delivered in increments and we expect that we'll deliver some of the first components of this system during this development cycle. It is a major part of making Particl more accessible to the world and easing its adoption.

As you probably already know, the Particl coin is a next-generation privacy coin. It uses RingCT and CT, much like Monero, but uniquely uses the Bitcoin codebase. As is usual, we pledge to keep its code up-to-date with all the Bitcoin updates, which is critical both in terms of security and usability.

This new Particl light wallet, based on the very popular Bitcoin Electrum wallet, provides a lot of “light” functionalities that can be leveraged for the many projects we have in mind, notably putting together a new, better mobile wallet for example. Although that mobile wallet might not see the day during the first half of 2022, we expect that, at least, Particl Electrum will.

To ensure that Particl can sustain a much larger number of users, and to improve the reliability and performance of applications such as Particl Marketplace and the BasicSwap DEX, an update to Particl’s SMSG network is planned for 2022. While we don’t fully expect it to be ready by the end of this 6-month development period, we are confident that we’ll be making valuable progress towards it.

This Particl Marketplace feature will let buyers and sellers communicate directly from within Particl Desktop. This is a widely-requested feature that will massively improve the user experience of the marketplace and improve its potential for adoption. This is a preliminary version of a more complete “chat application” that will eventually serve as a distributed and private alternative to messaging applications such as a Signal, Telegram, Element, etc.

As we incrementally build components of the web framework, they make available some low-hanging fruits. This is the case, for example, of both a web and mobile gateway for buyers. They would make it possible for buyers to browse the marketplace from their favorite devices and purchase items without having to install Particl Desktop and sync the blockchain and SMSG network. The early versions of these gateways are expected to be relatively basic but will serve as a good showcase of what the web framework will ultimately allow.

The SMSG controller is more of a back-end deliverable that improves how Particl applications interact with the SMSG network. While this item may not lead to apparent changes to the end-user, it makes Particl applications more efficient and lets them support more complex features. This is a requirement for more advanced SMSG functionalities such as application extensions and desktop plugins (formerly known as “SMSG bots”).

App extensions and Particl Desktop plugins are add-ons that enhance the user experience. Often, they are third-party services that provide valuable functionality such as allowing you to swap cryptocurrencies from the desktop app, get price data through oracles, and so on. While Particl itself is entirely decentralized, these opt-in modules provide useful features that might require third-parties to get involved. By being opt-in rather than opt-out, we ensure that only those looking to use those extra services have to deal with the added level of centralization they require.

Another widely-requested feature from some of our most security-conscious community members, building hardware integration into Particl Desktop will let you connect your favorite hardware wallet (i.e., Trezor, Ledger Nano) and manage the funds it contains without having to use a separate Particl wallet (Particl-Qt). This will let you use Particl Desktop, and its applications, without having to make security compromises.