

January 2017 (IV)

Here are some of the latest news about Nxt over this past week in January:

NXT COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT

NXT IN THE MEDIA

PRICE EVOLUTION

Below, are more details about these news pieces:

NXT COMMUNITY

MyNXT.info Wallet – How to View and Transfer Assets

It’s become common that some users of the MyNXT.info online wallet, the popular service brought to you by some members of the Nxt community (a service which isn’t a part of the official Nxt Reference Software), ask some questions to the Nxt community about how they can check their asset balance, more specially, their ARDR balance as this option is disabled by default.

In October last year, CryptKeeper shared a small step-by-step guide that shows you how to install the free plugin which is necessary in order to view and transfer your Nxt assets on this web wallet.

CryptKeeper explains:

A short description for installing the Asset Plugin on wallet.mynxt.info to see your Ardor Log into your account at wallet.mynxt.info On the left there is the dashboard with a “+ Plugins” button, click on it:

Chose the basic asset plugin:

Confirm the disclaimer and your plugin will be installed Back at the dashboard, click on the plugin button:

You will see your Ardor balance under “My Assets” and you can send them out by clicking on the asset name and choosing the second tab “Transfer”!



VanBreuk reminds us:

The Asset plugins in MyNxt do not have currently the option to attach a message to an asset transfer, as required by Bittrex. This is as far as I’ve seen an unusual requirement for an exchange deposit, but I have reported this to the MyNxt website developer so this modification can be added to development list.

Source and more information: https://nxtforum.org/index.php?topic=11976.msg225645#msg225645

https://nxtforum.org/mynxt-info

https://wallet.mynxt.info

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BTC38 – ARDR/BTC Added to the Exchange



With this brief statement, BTC38, the popular exchange based in China, and one of the most utilized to trade NXT, announced that ARDR was included into its platform, thus allowing users to exchange it for BTC and vice-versa:

In just a short amount of time, the exchange climbed up to the third position by volume among all the exchanges that allow you to trade ARDR. We should also point out that on BTC38, the NXT/CNY pair is also the 4th-most traded cryptocurrency on the platform. Also ARDR/BTC has become, in record time, the 9th-most traded token there. A brilliant start.

With BTC38, there are now six exchanges (plus Nxt’s Asset Exchange) that let you trade the ARDR asset.

Source and more information: http://www.btc38.com/altcoin/ardr/

http://www.btc38.com/trade.html?mk_type=btc&btc38_trade_coin_name=ardr

https://coinmarketcap.com/assets/ardor/#markets

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Nxt – Monitoring the Activity of Accounts



Some Nxt users with programming abilities have shown some interest on how use the Account Monitor feature, by means of the fully-featured API that the Nxt platform has. Some well-known developers of the Nxt community have come up with some solutions to this end, including websioux or ScripterRon, Nxt Core Developer:

Websioux says:

If you have that many to check or more, yes, you’d better check the transactions when they appear on your node. But remember blockchain reorgs do occur and in that case you should detect it, and check if it has a consequence for your treatment or not. Otherwise, it’s probably not going to take that much to check the transactions of 1000 address, I’d bet for something between 1 and 10 sec.

ScripterRon says:

One possibility is to use the EventWait API. You can be notified when blocks are pushed and popped. For a rollback, you will get a block popped event for the old block followed by a block pushed event for the new block.

Additionally, “regular” users can also benefit from this through a service that some third parties are offering. With this, you will receive an email every time something happens in the account you are monitoring, as we mentioned in our November newsletter:

Nxt Alerts : This is an utility inside the MyNxt portal which sends you an email everytime a block is generated your chosen account sends/receives some coins

: This is an utility inside the MyNxt portal which sends you an email everytime

If you are a developer who is having some trouble using the Nxt API, you can ask for some help at Nxtforum or in the #developers or #helpdesk channels at Nxtchat on Slack.

Source and more information: http://nxtwiki.org/wiki/Exchange_Integration

https://nxtforum.org/index.php?topic=13242.0

Nxt’s API Documentation

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DEVELOPMENT

Ardor – New Features and How it Compares with Nxt



Jean-Luc, Nxt and Ardor core developer, announced the inclusion of two new features to the future Ardor platform in addition to Coin Exchange, a feature that will let you trade one child chain token for another child chain token, or for ARDR. The latest features included are:

A017. 2015-07-28. Allow AE issuer use Asset to make dividends payment in another Asset.

A006. 2015-06-16. Allow AE issuer use MS to dividends payment. Those two are already implemented in Ardor

Jean-Luc has also published a chart on nxtforum.org that compares the major differences in the functionalities between Nxt and Ardor:

Blockchains Single chain One parent chain with multiple child chains Transaction tokens The same token (NXT) is used for establishing the consensus and providing the security of the blockchain, as well as for the basic unit of value in all transactions Only the parent chain token (ARDR) is used in the proof-of-stake consensus, and thus provides security for all child chains. Child chain tokens are used as transactional units of value only. Transaction fees Transaction fees are paid in NXT only, requiring users to always have NXT in their accounts. On each chain transaction fees are paid in the native token (coin) of that chain. End users do not need to own ARDR tokens. Features Asset Exchange, Monetary System, Aliases, Messaging, Digital Goods Store, Voting System, Shuffling, Data Cloud, Phasing, Account Control, Account Properties All these features are preserved in Ardor, and are available on each child chain. A child chain can optionally be restricted not to enable some features. The parent chain supports a limited subset of features, as it is intended to be used for consensus establishing only and not for everyday transactions. Accounts Each passphrase maps to a single account. Passphrases can’t be changed, and there is no wallet file to store. The same mapping of passphrases to account numbers is used as in Nxt. Accounts are global across all child chains, and an account can have balances in each of the existing child chain coins, as well as in ARDR. Holdings There is a single coin (NXT), and unlimited user-issued Assets and Monetary System currencies. Each chain has its own coin. Assets and MS currencies can be issued on any child chain, and are available for trading globally. Assets or MS currencies can optionally be restricted* to some child chains only. Trading Assets and MS currencies can be traded for NXT only. Assets and MS currencies can be traded on any child chain, with price denominated in the corresponding child chain coin. Coin Exchange N/A A new feature, Coin Exchange, allows trading of child chain coins to each other, and also to the parent chain coin (ARDR). Dividends Asset dividends can be paid in NXT only. Asset dividends can be paid in any of the child chain coins, by simply issuing the payment transaction on the corresponding chain. Additionally, paying dividends in another Asset or in MS currency has been implemented. Crowdfunding Crowdfunding feature is available in the Monetary System, but the funds must be collected in NXT only. Crowdfunding feature is available on all child chains, and on each child chain the funds are collected in the corresponding child chain coin. Shuffling Shuffling of NXT, Assets, and MS currencies is available. On each child chain, shuffling of the corresponding coin, or any Asset or MS Currency, is supported. Aliases Alias names are globally unique. Alias names are unique within each child chain only. MS Currencies Currency codes and names are globally unique. Currency codes and names are unique within a child chain only. Pruning Pruning is available for plain and encrypted messages, and for tagged data (data cloud feature). Pruned data are retrieved automatically on demand from designated archival nodes. Pruning and retrieving of all prunable data is available as in Nxt. In addition, the child chain transactions themselves are designed to be prunable and will not need to be stored permanently or re-downloaded by every new node. The actual pruning of transactions will be implemented later.* Transaction identifiers Transaction IDs are 64-bit longs, and are globally unique. The 64-bit transaction IDs are no longer guaranteed to be globally unique for child chains. 256-bit transaction hashes (sha256 digests) are used instead as transaction identifiers. Block generation A “forging” process is used to create new blocks, with the probability of block creation dependent on the account NXT balance (stake). The same forging algorithm is used as in Nxt, dependent on ARDR account balances only. Bundling N/A A new process, “bundling”, is used to group child chain transactions into a parent chain transaction (“child chain block”), which is then included in the parent chain. Any account can play the role of a bundler. The bundling process also performs the exchange of fees paid by users in child chain tokens into ARDR fees accepted by the block forgers. Phasing Transaction execution can be made conditional, subject to approval using various voting models. Same voting models as in Nxt, but phasing is possible on child chains only. Approval transactions can be on a different child chain from the phased transaction, and the by-transaction voting model also supports linking to a transaction hash on a different child chain. Account control Accounts can be restricted to use phasing only (mandatory approval). Same as in Nxt, but accounts under phasing-only restriction cannot submit transactions on the parent chain, as those cannot be phased. Peer networking HTTP based, also with WebSocket support, transmitting JSON formatted data between peers. Completely re-written and optimized, using native Java sockets and binary messages between peers. Block and transaction propagation has been significantly improved, by exchanging and caching information about currently available blocks and transactions between peers and only propagating the missing data pieces. API HTTP query APIs, returning JSON formatted response. Mostly unchanged, except:

1. A “chain” parameter has been added to each API that is child chain specific.

2. 64-bit long transaction IDs have been replaced with 256-bit hashes.

3. All prices and rates that were previously defined relative to the smallest indivisible holding amount (“QNT”) are now defined relative to a unit of the holding (share). Scalability Transactions are stored in the blockchain permanently, and need to be re-downloaded and re-processed by every new node, which after months and years of operation becomes a significant bottleneck. All child chain transactions will be possible to prune completely, without affecting blockchain security, thus allowing the blockchain size to be kept much smaller. A new node joining the network only needs to download the parent chain transactions, followed by the latest snapshot of the current system state.*

* Functionallity marked with asterisk is planned to be implemented in a future Ardor release. All other functionallity is already implemented and currently being tested on a testnet blockchain.

Source and more information:https://nxtforum.org/core-development-announcements/ardor-vs-nxt-functional-comparison/

https://nxtforum.org/core-development-discussion/list-of-feature-request-for-nrs/

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Ardor – Testnet Countdown



Riker, Nxt and Ardor core developer, published a list of all the remaining tasks that have to be completed before the Ardor Testnet goes live. There isn’t an exact date when the the launch of the testnet will take place yet, but it will happen in this first quarter of 2017. It’s important to note that after some previous leaked images, the market capitalization of Nxt and Ardor went up, which shows how many people are keeping and eye on these projects. Obviously, there is a lot to be expected.

Lior says:

Getting closer to the Ardor testnet release but still some way to go.The server code is nearly complete and the APIs are mostly stable… Most of the work will now focus on getting the client UI ready for release Here is a list of remaining tasks which we would like to complete before the official release:

– More work on the Coin Exchange page and tables

– Prefix each MS currency name with the name of the chain to which it belongs – partially implemented

– Ability to link from a child chain transaction to the ChildChainBlock transaction in which it was bundled – done

– Improve the entity properties modal to support entities like orders and offers – done

– Format amounts and links in the entity properties modal

– Test and fix currency reserve/claim tables and modals

– Remove child chain specific widgets from the Ardor UI

– Reomve Ardor specific widgets from the child chain UI

– UI for the new “by holding” dividend modal

– UI for the “by holding” dividend history

Source and more information: https://nxtforum.org/general-discussion/ardor-testnet-countdown/

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NXT IN THE MEDIA

The Percept – Nxt is the New Generation of Bitcoin

Irem Sokullu, of The Percept platform, conducted an interview with Bas Wisselink and Dave Pearce, both members of the Nxt Foundation. Bas and Dave answered questions concerning basic concepts of the blockchain, its philosophy, new possibilitie, advantages of decentralization, and the key differences between PoW (Bitcoin) and PoS (Nxt), among other questions.

Here is a snippet of some of the questions that you can find in the full article:

Irem (interviewer): Bitcoin is using Proof of Work and NXT uses the Proof of Stake. Please tell me more about the difference. . Bas: PoW can be characterized as a contest. The strongest computer assaults the cryptographical puzzle fastest. So, the more powerful equipment you have, the more Bitcoin you will mine. That leads to a large hardware race and a lot of power consumption. Proof of Stake is more like a lottery in which each coin in the system can be seen as a ticket to the lottery. The more ticket you have, the more chance you get to generate a new block. You don’t spend hardware and power on that lottery. It is an energy efficient system. Dave: Participants put their stakes into the system, software choices in a semi-randomized way who gets the reward next. NXT has 1 billion tokens. That is the way Proof of Stake works to ensure the trust in the system.

The Percept also recorded a video interview with Bas:

[vsw id=”tlJ-84AZVG0″ source=”youtube” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]

Source: http://www.thepercept.com/nxt-new-generation-bitcoin-bas-wisselink-dave-pearce/

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PRICE EVOLUTION

Weekly NXT/ARDR Price Evolution

The following graphic shows the NXT / Bitcoin exchange price at Poloniex over this past week:

The following graphic shows the ARDR / Bitcoin exchange price at Poloniex over this past week:

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