The Komodo Team is pleased to release the 2019 Annual Report and the 2020 Technical Roadmap. With the new roadmap and development priorities in place, Komodo is excited for another year of progress and growth in 2020.

In addition to the annual report and roadmap, Komodo is also announcing the launch of a new community portal, providing a new platform for community members to explore Komodo's technology, learn about blockchain, and connect with the team as well as other community members. Also included in this announcement are details about Komodo's Fourth Annual Notary Node Election.

Komodo’s 2019 Annual Report

The Komodo team is excited to release the Komodo 2019 Annual Report to summarize all of the milestones and progress made throughout the year.

In 2019, Komodo developed a number of new features and technologies. Here is a brief recap of some of last year's most significant developments:

In March, Komodo enabled quantum-secured blockchains within the ecosystem by integrating the Dilithium digital signature scheme to the Antara Framework. The following month, Komodo Lead Developer James Lee solved the oracle problem with yet another addition to the Antara Framework.

In July, Komodo launched a full rebrand, including a new logo, visual identity, and messaging, as well as a new website and beta versions of two new products: the Antara Composer and AtomicDEX mobile. The rebrand launch introduced a new Komodo to the industry.

Later, in August, the Komodo Dev Team innovated an ultra-light, next-generation simple payment verification technology called nSPV. That same month, Komodo developers also created Adaptive Proof of Work (APoW), a modified consensus mechanism that improves upon ordinary PoW rules to prevent difficulty stranding attacks.

The first major stress test of Market Maker 2.0, the networking layer that powers AtomicDEX, was held in late October. Over 100,000 swaps were attempted in a four-hour period, providing an enormous body of valuable data for the Komodo Dev Team to use for optimizing the protocol.

Lastly, Komodo activated a major software upgrade throughout the entire ecosystem on December 20, 2019. The update to Komodo v0.5.0 included DeFi solutions for crypto-backed stablecoins pegged to any asset and collateralized loans, among other things.

Technical Roadmap For 2020

Now that we’ve covered a few of the major developments from 2019, let’s look forward to Komodo’s Technical Roadmap for 2020. There are 3 primary areas of focus for the Komodo Team in 2020: Komodo Core, Antara Framework, and AtomicDEX.

Komodo Core

Komodo Core is the engine that powers the Komodo main chain and extends blockchain platform services beyond the single-chain platform model to a multi-chain architecture. Further advancing Komodo Core as the most secure and most sophisticated platform architecture in the blockchain industry is a top priority for 2020.

The Komodo Dev Team will advance Komodo Core in several ways. First, Komodo is refactoring the Komodo Core code base to increase performance and reduce memory usage. Second, Komodo is rewriting the Delayed Proof-of-Work (dPoW) security mechanism in Rust to reduce transactions costs and improve efficiency. Finally, Komodo is continuing to develop nSPV with the addition of libnSPV, which will help make nSPV features production-ready.

Antara Framework

Antara Framework is a powerful toolkit for custom blockchain development that provides a next-generation alternative to ordinary smart contracts. Providing an existing library of built-in modules, the ability to code custom modules, and an open API with which external applications can connect to a Smart Chain, the Antara Framework gives developers all the tools they need to build blockchain-based software.

Komodo’s development priorities for Antara Framework in three primary areas: reviewing and optimizing the existing Antara Module library while also finalizing development on the stablecoin modules; improving developer tools (RPC wrappers and a custom module development toolkit); and new standalone initiatives, like the Antara Incubator and the Finite State Machine module.

AtomicDEX

Komodo has been the industry leader in atomic swaps for several years, and continues to be today. In 2020, Komodo will continue to lead in this regard by furthering development of AtomicDEX, Komodo’s third-generation decentralized exchange.

AtomicDEX priorities for 2020 have three dimensions: building reference implementation products, adding new features and optimizing the networking layer, and integrating new protocols to the underlying atomic swap technology. Reference implementations include desktop versions of AtomicDEX for Windows, Linux, and MacOS, as well as the beta web-based version of AtomicDEX that will run in any browser. New features will include market-making tools and z-transaction atomic swaps with privacy coins like Pirate and HUSH. Lastly, the Tezos protocol will be added to AtomicDEX and exploratory research will begin on integrating the Tendermint protocol.

Komodo’s New Community Portal

Komodo has one of the most active communities within the blockchain space and the discussions within the community are often insightful and inspiring. Many community members have been involved in blockchain for many years and have plenty of wisdom to share.

To promote more thoughtful and educational discussions, the Komodo team is delighted to announce a new platform for the Komodo community— our very own community portal.

The Komodo Community Portal has several major objectives:

Accelerate community growth by providing more value for the existing community and by easing the learning curve for all newcomers.

Build a culture of peer-to-peer community support and start documenting all the valuable information into a growing knowledge base that can be easily accessed.

Increase the adoption of Komodo technology by building a stronger open-source developer community and facilitating discussions around building with Komodo.

Support the growth of the Komodo ecosystem by bringing people and projects closer together.

The Komodo Community Portal is a place to connect with other developers and community members; it is a place to learn, ask questions, and join in conversations with other blockchain enthusiasts. Become a part of Komodo’s vibrant community.

Komodo’s Fourth Annual Notary Node Election

Since the very beginning of the Komodo Platform, the Notary Node Elections have been a central component of the project’s governance model. Every year, the Komodo community elects a new cohort of Notary Node operators. The first Notary Node Election was in January 2017, the second annual Notary Node Election was held in March 2018, and the third annual Notary Node Election took place in April 2019.

Now, the Komodo Team is excited to announce the Fourth Annual Notary Node Election. The election will begin on March 1, 2020, when the Komodo Team will airdrop VOTE tokens to all KMD holders at a 1:1 ratio to the KMD held in a private wallet. The voting period will last until March 15, at which point the 30 newly-elected Notary Node Operators will be announced.

As in previous years, anyone may become a candidate in the election. There are technical requirements, such as knowing how to run a server on Linux and having access to a sufficiently powerful computer, but you do need to hold any KMD to become a Notary Node Operator within the Komodo ecosystem.

The Komodo Team would like to encourage everyone who is interested to submit a proposal and run for election. All of the details about how to run for election are included in the Official Fourth Annual Notary Node Election Blog Post.

To stay up-to-date with all of Komodo’s development and progress, you can join the Community Portal and sign up for Komodo’s monthly newsletter. The Komodo team will post weekly updates to the Community Portal and send out an official newsletter on the first Friday of every month to the email list.

Begin your blockchain journey with Komodo today and join us as we continue to accelerate the global adoption of blockchain technology.