Last month, we provided a comprehensive update on our development roadmap and corporate news. As part of our ongoing commitment to keep the community across the latest developments, we also intend to publish a review of 2019 at the end of December. For those who just cannot wait to hear more, tuck into the latest news from the month of November.

Development Update

A high-level summary of the key developments can be found below.

Stratis Full Node

.NET Core 3.0 Upgrade

Implemented SQL Wallet feature for Sidechain Wallets

Improvements to SQL Wallet

RPC Call alignment with Bitcoin Core

Support for Bi-Directional Messaging in SignalR

Testing of LevelDB implementation

Block Explorer

Enhancements to Block Explorer catering for Smart Contract data

Various improvements to Indexer API

Stratis Smart Contracts Challenge in full swing!

We now have over 180 developers registered to take part in the Stratis Smart Contracts Challenge and win their part of the US$18,000 prize fund. The response from both community members and the wider developer network has been exceptional and from the discussions we have had with participants so far, we are anticipating some truly innovative submissions as we approach the 16 December deadline.

Amid the excitement, the recent ruling that cryptoassets and smart contracts are valid in English law shows the very real potential of these applications. After all, the statement was based on “not what they would like the law to be, but what they believe English law to be now”. Not a bad time to be building Stratis Smart Contracts in C#.

We would encourage you to continue to share the hackathon with your friends and contacts – even if they are not currently involved in the space, this is a fantastic opportunity for any C# developers to kick-start their blockchain journey.

Stratis in the news

Stratis was in the news again this month as the launch of the Stratis Smart Contracts Challenge was featured in the media. The announcement of the hackathon appeared in Financial IT, Crypto Ninjas and Enterprise AI. We are glad to see these publications supporting our online hackathon!

Latest research: blockchain to create major cost-savings in the supply chain

We continue to see widespread adoption of blockchain and DLT led by some of the world’s largest companies. In particular, there is growing industry focus of blockchain’s role in the supply chain to improve business processes, unlock cost-savings and restore the trust of consumers.

A new study has found that the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains could save businesses in Western Europe $450 billion in logistics-related costs. The report found that 60% of companies overpay their supply chain vendors and 70% have ‘visibility gaps’ between the initial supplier and internal clients’ systems.

In the food industry alone, a Juniper Research report revealed that blockchain will save $31 billion by 2024 through the streamlining of supply chains, efficient food recall processes and “simpler regulatory compliance.”

Meanwhile, in the automotive industry, a survey of 314 vehicle manufacturing executives found that 62% believe DLT will be a disruptive force in the industry within three years.

This is encouraging news for enterprise adoption of the Stratis Platform, an enterprise-grade development platform on which businesses can deploy bespoke blockchain solutions in C# and .NET.