Luna has Landed

Successful Protocol Update and Roadmap Details

We are happy to announce that today 2017–11–23 at 17:53:48 Luna has landed in our release branch and is now live for the public. This is the final major update before the Nimiq Mainnet launch. Luna introduces all remaining core protocol features such as:

Nano clients establishing consensus with the network by downloading just about a megabyte of blockchain data.

Light clients that securely sync to almost full consensus by downloading just about 100 MB.

High degree of miner decentralization by using Argon2 as memory-latency bound Proof-of-Work algorithm.

Multiple significant performance improvements such as WebAssembly modules, Ed25519 signatures and fast database transactions.

An intuitive address format designed for usability, based on the IBAN standard.

To learn more about the guts and features of Luna please read here.

Roadmap Details

Based on what we’ve learned by shipping Luna and progressing on our operations setup we now have more detailed time estimates for Nimiq’s major milestones:

November

Public Testphase of the final protocol architecture.

December

Launch of the Nano Wallet App, introducing a user interface designed for mainstream adoption of blockchain-based payments.

Hardening of the protocol details and further performance optimizations.

Implementation of more advanced account types such as (aggregated) multi signature wallets and hash time-locked contracts for lightning transactions and cross-chain swaps.

Q1/2018

Launch of public Bug Bounty Program for the protocol.

Begin of replacement phase NET for NIM coins and public launch of the activation tool.

Prepare and promote the public announcement of the details of the Mainnet launch.

Finalize the Mainnet Genesis Block.

Launch of Nimiq Mainnet

Q2/Q3 2018

Hardening the protocol “in the wild”.

Implementation of Lightning Network infrastructure.

Launch of Lightning Network Testnet.

Q3/Q4 2018

Launch of Lightning Network Bug Bounty Program.

Integrate Lightning Network features in user-friendly app ecosystem.

Launch of Lightning Network.

2018/2019

Implementation of P2P Exchange.

Launch of P2P Exchange Testnet.

Launch of P2P Exchange Bug Bounty Program.

Launch of P2P Exchange

Mainnet Launch

Nimiq aims for simplicity which makes it an all the more complex project. We work with full dedication on solving all occurring challenges to complete the implementation of the vision we stand for but we can not always guarantee deadlines precisely months in advance.

We had to reconsider the Mainnet launch date because we potentially have to deal with unforeseen complexity regarding regulatory requirements and guidelines. Such processes slow down all dependent tasks which is hard to compensate because we can not sacrifice security by rushing through the remaining critical tasks. To secure all NET holders a smooth transition to NIM we want to launch the Mainnet in Q1/2018. This will also allow us deeper test coverage as well as completing more peer reviews to make sure any critical weaknesses are exposed and corrected pre launch.

Related Updates

Betanet now Deprecated

Luna fully replaces our former Betanet and starts from scratch with a new blockchain. Testnet Balances must be reset to zero because Luna operates on completely different addresses which are incompatible with our previous version’s.

To update a browser miner or wallet just refresh the page. All community members currently running NodeJS nodes should update as soon as possible by reinstalling from git. As always, we deeply appreciate you supporting the Luna Network by running a backbone node. Users of apps contributed by the community need to be a little patient until all contributors have updated to the new version.

Previous Website Update

Some members of the community have noticed that yesterday we inadvertently published the updated release timeline on our website before publishing this official announcement. We realized this mistake too late and concluded the optimal way to clarify the situation is to continue to deliver the comprehensive update today. We apologize for the confusion this gap of information has created in our Discord channel.

Introducing Robohash

In parallel to the protocol enhancements we are working on a sophisticated ecosystem of enduser apps. The upcoming Nano Wallet App will introduce advanced usability features such as well recognizable Identicons as visual representation of a user’s address.

Automatically generated Identicons for addresses

Based on Robohash we’ve created an SVG+JS library which renders on the client side and is less than 50kB gziped. This approach fits our requirements for recognizability, performance and privacy well. We’re looking forward to contribute other such libraries in the process of implementing our app ecosystem.

Stay Tuned

We are very excited to bring this update to our community and look forward to approaching our final steps towards launching the Mainnet. We will provide an update in time as to the steps that will be required to securely transition to the NIM Token. For that purpose also make sure you are subscribing to our Community Announcements.

As always thank you for your support,

Team Nimiq