This past Thursday (March 21), Luxcore released its detailed project roadmap for 2019, outlining exactly what tasks are being worked on, how far along towards completion each task is, as well as expected timelines.

In recent months, development throughout much of the blockchain industry began to slow as cryptocurrency markets went into retreat and funding availability became suppressed. Luxcore, though, continued to trundle on, quietly working on important long-term projects like LuxGate and the Parallel Masternode Network.

Here is a summary of some of the more important details from last week’s roadmap:

Custom Block Explorer

Luxcore’s in-house block explorer has been built from the ground up and remains under continuous development. A suite of new features and performance enhancements are being rolled out now, before Q1 comes to a close in a few days. Discover the many design and usability advantages of Luxcore’s new explorer here: https://luxcore.io/explorer/.

A new explorer module to enable monitoring of on-chain token transactions using the Lux blockchain will be implemented in Q2. Then, as a fully customizable product, Luxcore’s explorer will be leveraged as a revenue-generating solution to other projects seeking to take advantage of an artfully designed and feature-rich explorer to better position themselves as future-forward leaders in the industry.

Web Wallet and Mobile Wallet

Most Luxcore users are already familiar with the first-of-its-kind staking web wallet-as-a-service, which — like the new explorer — remains under continuous development. One of those most recent developments is the roll-out of a Proof of Stake (PoS) mobile wallet for Android and iOS. The latest Beta release of the mobile wallet includes fingerprint and face recognition authentication to further secure balances and transactions.

Like the explorer, the web and mobile wallets will be updated in Q2 to support an on-chain token management feature. The planned monetization strategy for the web wallet-as-a-service has been delayed due to legal complications, but Luxcore now expects all relevant legal agreements to be finalized and in place before the end of Q2. Licensing of the combined staking web and mobile wallet solution will then commence in earnest.

In addition to balance and transactional tasks, Luxcore will be expanding the usability of its mobile wallet in Q3 to include tasks appropriate for an Apple Watch, such as price monitoring and push notifications. Manage your portfolio of Luxcoins and other on-chain assets from the comfort of your own wrist!

Core and On-Chain Development

The popular Lux QT wallet will continue to undergo development throughout 2019 including, for the first time ever (and by popular demand), a Dark Version!

Aside from aesthetics, several improvements and optimizations of the Luxcore blockchain are planned. In particular, Luxcore plans to integrate Schnorr Digital Signatures in Q2 for simplifying on-chain transaction data, resulting in a storage and bandwidth savings of up to 25%. Outside of improved efficiency, Schnorr signatures also offer higher levels of transaction privacy and security with a significantly more advanced and easier-to-use scheme for users to execute multi-signature transactions.

Later, in Q3, the Lux blockchain will undergo a system-wide upgrade to the newer PoS v3.0 protocol. Upgrading to the newer staking protocol will improve the security of the blockchain and provide a more modern foundation for future on-chain development.

Lastly, in Q4, Luxcore will introduce a graphical address visualizer to improve the accessibility of Lux usage to facilitate more widespread adoption. As well, Luxcore will implement a new Zero-Knowledge Protocol (ZKP) for leveraging the immutability of blockchain transactions when providing evidence of the existence of some data (or piece of knowledge) without providing any information about the data itself. This will become useful when executing more advanced privacy transactions.

All of these core developments, as well as those from the past several months, will be thoroughly detailed in the new Whitepaper 3.0, scheduled for release in Q2.

LuxGate

The one product many observers have been most excited about is LuxGate — a revolutionary new peer-to-peer cross-blockchain platform, which promises to settle once and for all the debate over the true meaning of “decentralized exchange.”

After months of speculation and anticipation, LuxGate finally has a release schedule. The Alpha version of LuxGate will be released in Q2 for testing and debugging amid restricted functionality. LuxGate Beta will be released in Q3, offering wider availability to the public for continued testing and debugging under heavy system load. The Beta period is only expected to last one month — barring any acute obstacles — prior to a full production release later in Q3 or early in Q4.

Parallel Masternode Network / Decentralized File Storage

The development period for the Decentralized File Storage system (DFS) built upon Luxcore’s first-of-its-kind Parallel Masternode Network (PMN) will culminate in a Beta test scheduled for Q2. This development constitutes an entirely new on-chain layer. That is an important distinction to note, because a new blockchain layer means new opportunities for further development of on-chain products and services.

The Beta test will be open for public participation in testing and debugging, with expectation for the final release and full implementation of DFS in Q3. DFS product development, leveraging the PMN layer will begin thereafter, with an eye towards opening more avenues for revenue generation.

Smart Contracts

Smart Contracts — already enabled on the Luxcore blockchain since block 300,000 — remain a work in progress. Luxcore will be optimizing its smart contract system to vastly improve transaction processing speed in Q2 by leveraging both the Proof of Work (PoW) and PoS hashing functions. This will effectively double the speed of smart contracts on the Lux blockchain.

Following the optimization of smart contracts (but still in Q2), Luxcore will launch an incubation incentive in order to attract talented developers to the Lux blockchain. As users develop methods for tokenizing the Lux blockchain, those tokens will become available for management via the Luxcore explorer and web/mobile wallet. Development will likely begin with internal proof-of-concept initiatives, but the success of Luxcore’s smart contract system will depend upon external adoption; hence the B2B promotional campaign geared towards external developers specializing in smart contracts and blockchain-as-a-codebase.

One of the proof-of-concept internal developments for Luxcore’s smart contract system planned for Q3 is the launch of a Lux Web3 interface host. This will leverage a node cluster to allow users to run their own on-chain applications without having to host their own node(s). This will be followed up in Q4 by a Web3 interface browser extension and wider availability of the dApps project.

Marketing & Business Initiatives

Much of Luxcore’s development plans for 2019 are geared towards revenue generation. In order to generate revenue, there has to be a market for the goods and services Luxcore will be offering, and Lux is under no illusions that will simply appear out of thin air.

It should be noted that many of the target audiences for pending Luxcore products and services are not general population or crypto investor audiences. Instead, they are other businesses and entities operating in the blockchain space. Most of Luxcore’s marketing efforts throughout 2019 will be specifically geared towards those audiences, and it is likely that those efforts may not be readily apparent from an outside point of view. For example, licensing agreements for Lux products such as the explorer and web/mobile wallet will be generated through a direct B2B marketing campaign beyond the scope of public observation.

Still, Luxcore recognizes the need to establish brand capital that blankets across all areas of the blockchain space. In order to facilitate brand awareness, Lux has launched an online store boasting a wide-range of promotional merchandise (Visit the Lux store here: https://store.luxcore.io/). The Innovations TV episode featuring Luxcore will also be airing on FOX Business on April 13 at 5:00pm EDT.

Finally, the launch of each new product and service — particularly LuxGate — will coincide with widespread campaigns throughout the crypto community, leveraging all available social media assets at Luxcore’s disposal.

Visit us at: https://luxcore.io/

Detailed Roadmap for 2019: https://luxcore.io/en/roadmap

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LUX_COIN

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