TL;DR: Crypto Dev Digest (CDD) is a regular column, documenting cryptocurrency development. We highlight the projects and persons working under the hood to bring peer-to-peer, electronic cash to the world. LN nodes shutting down this year. Jason Dreyzehner continues to impress. Electron Cash SLP latest. November 2019 upgrade preparations. Weak block confirmations. Bitcoin Unlimited governance issues, and so much more in this packed installment.

Quarter of LN Nodes Have Shut Down

A quarter of all Lightning Network nodes in operation have shut down this year. They made about $0.001 in fees https://t.co/5NA8Wuu9q0 — Tony "ABOLISH ICE" Arcieri (@bascule) August 27, 2019

LN nodes are finding a hard time staying open, and as LN nodes struggle, of course, so does the overall health of the proposed second layer solution as a whole.

Full TypeScript Implementation of the BCH Virtual Machine Available in bitcoin-ts

“A full TypeScript implementation of the BCH virtual machine is now available in bitcoin-ts, including both standard evaluation and a step-by-step debugging mode. The VM passes Bitcoin ABC’s script_tests.json test vectors, as well as some additional testing done by bitcoin-ts,” Jason Dreyzehner details in a recent Medium post.

He tells CoinSpice, “I also released an update to http://ide.bitauth.com which includes autocomplete and hover descriptions for all opcodes, and a new “import script” button which lets you import a script from hex-encoded bytecode. (E.g. copied from a block explorer.)”

Electron Cash SLP Edition 3.5 Released

Among other notable upgrades, “Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can now be grouped — Applications driven by unique assets like gaming, collectibles, and digital media rights can now tap into the power of grouping NFTs with a group ID. This way a group of NFTs can have a limited supply and easily prove an NFT is included in a particular group. See NFT1 spec,” its GitHub reads.

Prepare for November 2019 Upgrade

Start preparing for the November 2019 upgrade today with Bitcoin ABC 0.20.0! https://t.co/5LLPOLA5o2 On Nov 15th, the upgrade will activate. It includes Schnorr signatures for OP_CHECKMULTISIG(VERIFY) and enforcing MINIMALDATA in script. #bitcoin #bitcoincash #bch — Bitcoin ABC (@Bitcoin_ABC) August 21, 2019

“Bringing MINIMALDATA to the consensus layer, along with the dummy element restrictions in the OP_CHECKMULTISIG upgrade, finally achieves the goal of removing third-party malleability from the vast majority of transactions performed on BCH,” developer Gabriel Cardona notes.

Cardona went on to highlight:

* No more third-party malleability

* Hiding as P2PKH

* Avoid second-party malleability

“Altogether, it’s a simpler and more private replacement for complicated ‘malleability fix’ transaction formats like segwit,” crediting independent developer Mark Lundeberg for “schooling” him.

Lundeberg responded, “Happy to see people discussing this! Actually, it’s going to be the basis of my talk in Bitcoin Cash City Conference in two weeks from now, hope to see you all there. :-)”

FYI

Located here, the repository for all the assets for bitcoincash.org is updated regularly. Contribute to bitcoincashorg/bitcoincash.org development by creating an account on GitHub.

A Checkdatasig Example for CashScript

I was asked by @cgcardona to wrap up a checkdatasig example for CashScript. So yesterday I put together a contract utilising CDS and oracles to enforce HODLing until a certain BCH/USD price has been reached. CDS opens the doors to awesome functionality!https://t.co/upTvNB9SmB — Rosco Kalis (@RoscoKalis) August 25, 2019

BitAuth IDE Updated

Jason Dreyzehner just won’t stop: “I just updated BitAuth IDE to include several new example authentication schemes for securing bitcoin: single signature (P2PKH), a 2-of-3 multi-signature vault, and a time-delayed recovery vault. You can try any of the new templates in the IDE to see how they are evaluated step-by-step,” here.

Bitcoin Unlimited Governance

Voting is now open for Bitcoin Unlimited members. https://t.co/lHTFsmOIaq I recommend voting "ACCEPT" to BUIP128 to allow BU's lead developer to continue receiving a salary. I recommend voting "ACCEPT" to BUIP125 to remove a BU member who continues to defame the organization. — Peter R. Rizun (@PeterRizun) August 26, 2019

Pulse Vol #6 is Out

Independent developer pokkst tells CoinSpice, “I’ve been working on the front-end redesign for tipbitcoin.cash. And during that, I started work on the tipbitcoin.cash rewrite, from Python to PHP.

“What started as me planning to just get the base/core foundation of the system done this month has turned into me almost finishing the rewrite in just a few days. I still have to rewrite a few portions though.

“I’m using bitcoin-lib-php (the current Bitcoin PHP library) that’s technically made for BTC, so I’m only using xpub generation for it.

“So that’s almost done. Right now I’m taking a few days off to rest from the coding sprints I’ve been doing. That way I don’t get burnout.

“What’s left:

– Finish up a few portions that haven’t been rewritten yet.

– Polish, add security measures (like SQL injections and XSS protections), test.

– Transition current tipbitcoin.cash database to the new site. Shut down old version and swap out the sites so people are directed to the new version.

“No timeframe though. I want to make sure it’s perfect before launching. If I were to give a rough estimate, I’d say 1-1.5 months until the rewrite is fully ready for launch.”

Weak Block Confirmations

This is an awesome proposal by awemany (the developer who found the "inflation bug" CVE-2018-17144) to bring near-instant "weak block" confirmations to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) _and_ improve block propagation!https://t.co/LjQud3C2Xa — Peter R. Rizun (@PeterRizun) August 29, 2019

Spedn 0.1.3 Released

spedn 0.1.3 released! This version fixes a bug with compiling conditionals [thanks @monsterbitar for reporting] and switches SigningContext.signData() method in SDK to use Schnorr algorithm. — Tendo Pein (@tendo_pein_sama) August 30, 2019

DISCLOSURE: The author holds cryptocurrency as part of his financial portfolio, including BCH.

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