Protocol Development: Technology

During the second quarter of 2018, our focus was on developing the OriginTrail protocol in continuous, iterative biweekly sprints. To be able to do so rapidly, while maintaining quality output, we invested considerable efforts in a comprehensive recruiting campaign. This resulted in our expanding the development team by several experienced software engineers coming from varied backgrounds. Having an extended team has allowed us to stick to the tight schedule and publish as much as seven releases in the three months of Q2, culminating with the testnet release on June 29th. Each of the releases has introduced additional protocol features, as well as continuously improving the previously implemented ones, with the goal of finalizing the full feature set by the testnet launch.

The team has also tried to keep up with documenting most of these efforts. Each of the releases has been followed up by blog posts:

Additionally, there have been several documents published to explain the underlying mechanism of the protocol:

The latest and most comprehensive documentation can be found here.

One of the goals we set for ourselves was to make sure that we minimize the friction associated with becoming part of the OriginTrail network for new users. We made sure to allow several options for node installation (the most simple one being using Docker) as well as a friendly remote control interface we have dubbed Houston. Houston allows for easier configuration and monitoring of the node operation and is currently supported on OSX. Windows support is coming in early Q3.

The development team will keep iterating in the coming months as we work on the network optimization and monitoring, improving the user experience and crafting more comprehensive documentation on the protocol’s abilities and ways of utilization. We are currently running our beta program and by participating with running your node you are helping the system improve and give us valuable insights about the network operation. You can do this both by submitting any issues or ideas on improvements, but also just by keeping your node up, as it keeps sending our team valuable telemetric information and reports. We will keep the community informed with updates on the protocol and our findings during the coming months before the launch of the mainnet.

Financials

The second quarter was the last to be directly influenced by the TGE activities, which is the reason for expenses being skewed in certain categories, predominantly legal/financials. Apart from that, the financial situation was stable and in accordance with plans.

In the following quarters, we are expecting the relative rise of development costs, as well as some security expenses since smart contract audits will take place.

The company is financially in a good state with enough liquidity to weather the suboptimal market conditions going forward, as well.

The envisioned financial structure, according to the execution plan of OriginTrail team, was presented at the TGE and can be seen in the values below showing target share (should be met by the end of the 3 year period). Next to the target share, you can find the current share of costs based on the actual funds spent in a particular segment up to the date of the report. The final assets value in ETH on June 30th was 14,538.