Testnet Hardfork (16th of February)

2019.02.16–12:00:00 UTC

In 4 days, on the 16th of February, we’re going to fork Particl’s test network (testnet) to merge a couple of features that have been sitting in RegTest (internal pre-testnet network) for some time now. This hardfork doesn’t require you to do anything but, of course, it will allow you to test these new features on our public testnet.

Bulletproofs

This testnet hardfork is going to include Bulletproofs, the Confidential Transactions protocol improvement that will reduce the size of CT/RingCT transactions by ~70%. Bulletproofs is an important brick in Particl’s wall of privacy as it will allow RingCT and CT transactions to be executed without bloating the blockchain and bringing its size to absurd levels. We believe privacy and scalability can and should go hand in hand.

Why make compromises when you can have the best of both worlds?

Multi-Signature Cold Staking

As some of you already know, we are already working on a major new feature to our mobile app, Particl Copay; Cold staking capabilities! This testnet hardfork will add multi-signature cold staking support, meaning it will now be possible to cold stake funds held collectively by multiple devices.

This will give you access to the utmost level of privacy Proof-of-Stake can offer.

In fact, cold staking from multi-signature addresses means you will need to have access to more than one device to move funds around. This constitutes a solid barrier to anyone looking into stealing your coins as they would be required to get a hold of all of your signing devices.

Note: Ledger Nano devices won’t initially be compatible with multi-signature cold staking, however we’ve already identified that, and with the help of a custom script, it could be possible to make the hardware devices compatible. This may not come immediately, but is good to know for future endeavors!

Variable SMSG Fee

This feature is probably not an exciting one at first sight but will be very important when it comes to implementing advanced escrow features. This protocol improvement allows SMSG messages to have various fees, allowing, for example, custom escrow security deposit ratios (agree with the other party to put any % of the item’s value as security deposit instead of 100% every time). You won’t really be able to test variable SMSG in a practical way until this feature is integrated into the escrow system. But, it’s nonetheless an important feature making its way onto testnet.