This image was taken from the Tornado Cash website related to Ethereum and does not represent the Ubiq implementation, since Ubiq’s version is currently cli only.

Privacy enhancements w/ Tornado Cash & zk-Snarks

In March, the recently released privacy centric Tornado Cash went live on Ubiq main net, making it the first functional implementation outside of Ethereum. The community is grateful to dev(s) who led the release and to Octano Labs and various community members who led the testing phase. An article by JP88, David Mancini, Julian Yap, and Luke Williams, was published explaining the functionality and detailing how to utilize these new features from the Gubiq command line. You can read about these new features in Privatizing Ubiq with Tornado Cash.

Bringing a method of fungibility to one’s UBQ without the need for a custodial entity is a welcomed development. Having a way for people to utilize optional privacy features that rely solely on public code and negating the need for a custodial entity enable the progression of something that has always been paramount in Ubiq; decentralization.

Escher/Governance Updates

The 7th Escher Airdrop concluded in early March 2020! As was the case with the previous two airdrops, anyone holding UBQ in their non-exchange wallet had the opportunity to claim ESCH at a 1:1 ratio.

For this latest allocation of Ubiq’s governance token, there were 318 total claims representing a total of 9508176.65347363 ESCH distributed to users. There remains only one more opportunity to acquire ESCH via the airdrop process if you have not already done so. The block at which the final airdrop will commence will be announced via normal social media channels as the time approaches, but participants can expect the claim window to open around May 1, 2020.

After the final Escher airdrop, a Ubiq Improvement Proposal (UIP) vote will be brought forward to determine whether the community will permanently disable ESCH minting as originally planned, or leave the minting function enabled for potential future uses.