Since the launch of the VeChainThor mainnet on June 30th, 2018, VeChain has continuously emphasized and supported community-based development, consistent with our role as an Enabler in the ecosystem.

To develop a mature and inclusive public blockchain that aims for mass adoption, we have envisioned an ecosystem that is built by all the stakeholders, including enterprises, government authorities and especially community developers. As the Enabler in the ecosystem, the VeChain Foundation has been committed to encourage, assist and supplement all of builders to be more successful with their endeavors than if they were to build their startups without the VeChain Foundation.

We have served over 30 Fortune 500 level enterprise builders, and several community startups as well.

Our commitment to the community is evident by VeChain partnering and spotlighting the VeForge Explorer and VeForge Vault for Ledger Wallet developed and maintained by community developer group and startup Totient Labs, rather than using our in-house developed solutions for a public block explorer and Ledger wallet support.

The VeChain Foundation has been supporting Totient Labs with marketing promotion and technical support. Additionally, The Foundation has provided over $100K USD to the Totient team in the form of prizes and bounties (at the date/time of reward, which is more than any other pure reward funding for any projects by the VeChain Foundation).

Besides the monetary and financial support provided, products by Totient Labs such as the VeForge Explorer and VeForge Vault has been positioned and spotlighted as the de facto official block explorer and Ledger Integration Interface in various official channels, including but not limited to the official website, technical documentation portal, social media (Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, Facebook), and promoted by our community management team as such.

In addition to that, we have also invited the Totient Labs team to speak as Keynote Speakers on the same stage amongst our partners such as DNV GL and Deloitte, in the inaugural VeChain Summit 2019 in San Francisco to present their business plans and products to professional developers, enterprises as well as connecting them with numerous VCs and investors for their various technical and business projects. Totient Labs was indeed one of our most supported community startups.

Unfortunately, it is to our surprise that we and the Community had been given a sudden, last-minute short notice by Totient Labs today (20 October, 2019) that they have decided to discontinue their VeForge services including the Explorer and Vault on Monday, 21 October 2019 12:00 PM PDT.

We sincerely express our gratitude to our partner Totient Labs that has been diligently contributing to the VeChain Ecosystem by building much-loved tools and services and proposing the idea of VIP191 which was later formalized and developed by the VeChain dev team, and wish the folks within Totient Labs well with their business endeavors.

Today, VeChain is announcing two new official, in-house developed solutions that will be actively maintained by the core development team: the VeChain Official Blockchain Explorer and the VeChain Sync Official Ledger Wallet Interface.

The new solutions will serve the community as VeForge and Vault had always been, and more.

1. VeChain Official Blockchain Explorer

We have decided to reinstate the project of an in-house developed VeChain Blockchain Explorer. The explorer will have richer functions and we plan to continuously update and add new features to it. Some of the planned features are as follows:

Integration with Token Registry & Application Hub so that VIP180 token issuers and dApp developers are able to add the token or dApp info to the explorer simply by submitting a Pull Request to the open source data repositories

Robust APIs for third parties such as dApps, exchanges, wallet providers to easily integrate the VeChain blockchain and inquire accounts, tokens, transactions, block information history

Integrate with VeChain Authority Masternode Dashboard which is in the process of being developed. As mentioned, we work diligently with Authority Masternode holders to formalize the node management and monitoring process so that they will be comfortable with letting the public know who are operating the Authority Masternodes. With the VeChain Authority Masternode Dashboard, the public will be able to see the information disclosed by the Authority Masternode holders and the real time running status of the Authority Masternodes

The VeChain Official Blockchain Explorer will go live by the end of November. In the meantime, as an alternative, you can use VeChain Insight, a functional and serverless VeChain blockchain explorer developed by our core dev team to inquire accounts, tokens, transactions, block information.

In addition to that, we have notified exchanges to redirect the transaction links to VeChain Insights to avoid any service disruption to users. Also, other community developed projects such as VeChain Stats can still be used to monitor mainnet activities, VTHO consumption / burn and many other useful statistics and graphics.

2. VeChain Sync Official Ledger Wallet Interface

We are aware that the VeForge Vault is currently the main portal and interface for Ledger Wallet users to access their VeChain wallet. The closure of the VeForge Vault by Totient Labs will temporarily impact Ledger users. Ledger users will not be able to access their tokens when Totient Labs turn off access to the VeForge Vault Interface.

However, please be rest assured that your VET and VIP180 tokens are completely safe and intact on the blockchain even with VeForge Vault being discontinued.

The VeChain team has already been working with the Ledger team to improve the VeChain app on Ledger. Once this process is complete, the new method to access your ledger wallet will be through our desktop wallet and dApp browser, Sync. Ledger users will be able to use their Ledger VeChain wallet address in Sync to access their VET and VIP180 tokens, enjoy and use dApps and sign transactions.

The new VeChain Sync Official Ledger Wallet Interface will be available within two weeks starting from 21 October, 2019.

Screenshots of the updated Sync in works that allows users to access their VeChain Ledger Wallets

A message to the community

The VeChain Foundation wants to take this opportunity to emphasize that we will stay committed to supporting ecosystem builders on the VeChainThor Blockchain. The Foundation will continue its numerous monetary and non-monetary grants to aspiring start-ups and community builders as well as offering technical support from the core development team.

The Foundation believes that with our technical and non-technical support, management teams and community developers can fully focus on deriving a functional business, monetization and sustainable growth model for their projects.

We wish Totient Labs the best for their future business endeavours.

Summary and FAQ

Q1: What is the VeForge Explorer and when will it be discontinued? What will replace it?

The VeForge Explorer is a VeChain blockchain explorer developed by Totient Labs, a community development team. As officially communicated to us by Totient Labs, it will be discontinued on Monday, 21 October 2019 12:00 PM PDT. The VeChain development team reinstated the project of an in-house developed blockchain explorer which will go live by the end of November. In the meantime, VeChain Insight can be used.

Q2: What is the VeForge Vault and when will it be discontinued? What will replace it?

The VeForge Vault is a user interface for VeChain Ledger users to access their wallets developed by Totient Labs, a community development team. As per Totient Labs, it will be discontinued on Monday, 21 October 2019 12:00 PM PDT. The VeChain development team is working closely with the Ledger team to allow users to manage their VeChain wallets on Ledger via Sync, the desktop wallet and dApp browser.

Q3: I am a Mobile Wallet user. Should I be worried?

No. VeChainThor mobile wallet users will not be impacted.

Q4: I am a Ledger Wallet user. When can I access my funds?

You will be able to access your funds via Sync in two weeks starting from Oct 21 2019 when the new Ledger Wallet Interface by VeChain is released. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Q5: I have a Economic/X-node linked to my Ledger Wallet Address. Should I be worried?

Your Economic/X-nodes are completely safe and intact on your Ledger VeChain wallet address even if the Vault is no longer available.

Q6: What will happen to exchanges which are currently linking to VeForge Block Explorer?

We have already notified exchanges to redirect transaction inquiries to VeChain Insights to avoid any disruption to users.

Q7: Are there alternatives to VeForge Explorer right now?

Yes, you can use VeChain Insights, which is another serverless blockchain explorer developed by the VeChain team.

Q8: What will happen to the Comet Wallet Chrome Extension?

It’s up to the Totient Labs to decide if they are going to continue the development of Comet. The notification we received is only related to VeForge. But you are strongly encouraged to backup the seed words of the address created in Comet wallet so that you can import into other wallets when needed.

Q9: Why did VeChain announce this so suddenly? There isn’t even a 48 hour notice.

This announcement has been prepared as soon as we received the decision from Totient Labs today that VeForge will discontinue its service on Monday, 21 October 2019 12:00 PM PDT.

Q10: Why did Totient Labs decide to stop support for VeForge Explorer and Vault?

It’s Totient Labs’ own business decision.

Q11: Is Totient Labs still partnered with VeChain as announced in this article — Introducing Totient as a Partner Pioneering New Heights For The VeChainThor Ecosystem?

The VeChainThor blockchain is a public blockchain, and development teams like Totient Labs are always welcomed to develop on it.

Q12: I am trying to access VeForge Explorer before the official cut-off date mentioned in this article but it seems to be down right now.

The official cut-off time and date mentioned in this article was communicated officially to us by Totient Labs. We have no information other than that.

Q13: How will dApps and developers be affected? Will this affect whether transaction creators such as Walmart make Txs etc?

dApps and developers will not be affected. If your application links to the VeForge explorer, please redirect to VeChain Insights. Enterprise solutions will not be affected either as they are completely built on VeChain’s ToolChain infrastructure.

Q14: Will the new explorer be open source? If so will there be bounties for improvements and/or features made by the developer community?

The new Explorer and Sync Official Ledger Wallet Interface will be open source so that the developer community can also participate and contribute.

Q15: What if I have questions that are unanswered in this article?