We’re happy to announce it’s been 1 full year since POA Network launched its mainnet!On December 15, 2017 we launched our network with 12 validators and a vision of a high-speed, low-cost network that would provide tools and transaction efficiency for the developer community as well as the general public. Fast forward one year, and we’ve grown to support a new interoperability protocol, amazing DApp development and integration, and a thriving proof-of-authority consensus process which includes 23 validators, all of whom play an active governance role in the network.

For POA Network, 2018 was a year full of constant development and consistent delivery. We’ve tasked ourselves with finding new and innovative solutions to the biggest problems that exist in the ecosystem today. Tackling issues such as scalability, network congestion, high gas costs, and providing open-source solutions has always been, and continues to be, our long-term objective.

In this post, we’ll highlight our major accomplishments of 2018 along with developments to look forward to in early 2019!

POA Interoperability Solutions

A main focus at POA Network is to increase interoperability between EVM based chains. We’ve accomplished this through our bridge infrastructure, which enables different chains to interact and transact with one another. On November 20th, POA Network launched a new interoperability solution, the ERC20 to ERC20 Bridge. This novel solution allows users to transfer ERC20 tokens from one Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based network to another EVM based network within a single wallet. The ERC20 to ERC20 is the third POA Bridge that we released in 2018! Each bridge addresses different concerns and enables horizontal scalability in a secure and efficient manner.

1. Native to ERC20 (POA ↔ POA20)

2. ERC20 to Native (DAI ↔ xDai)

3. ERC20 to ERC20 (ERC20 ↔ ERC20)

BlockScout

On October 9th, we launched BlockScout, the first ever full featured open-source blockchain explorer for the Ethereum ecosystem. We’ve been excited to see the community response to this tool — adoption rates and feedback have been extremely positive! Users can explore transactions on Ethereum, various Ethereum test nets, Ethereum Classic, xDAI, and of course the POA Network. BlockScout can also be configured for private chains. Microsoft Azure recently added BlockScout integration steps to their PoA based network deployment guide. Keep an eye out for new features and additional networks coming to BlockScout very soon!

POA Network Launches BlockScout

xDai Chain

On October 18th, we partnered with MakerDAO to launch the xDai Chain! This new blockchain network uses xDAI–a representation of DAI–as its native token, creating the first ever USD stable blockchain. We’re excited to see developers already building DApps and integrating with this powerful new network.

POA Network Partners With MakerDAO to Launch xDai Chain

CryptoLife Hackathon — Top 3 Developments on xDai Chain

Increase DApp Adoption

Throughout 2018, one of our most important goals was to increase DApp adoption and usage in real-world settings. We’ve worked on several initiatives in a diverse group of industries with outstanding results!

POA Network partnered with Bancor to enable a new network of blockchain-based community currencies for trading simple goods and services. We’ve created Nifty Wallet and integrated with best-in-class wallets such as Trust wallet. POA Network has also provided a working alternative to Ethereum for gaming related DApps. We’ve had a lot of fun (and spent a lot of late nights!) playing DopeRaider and EverDragons thanks to the speed and reliability of the network.

2018 was full of many firsts, and we plan to continue rolling out cutting-edge, open-source solutions in 2019. Our 2019 roadmap includes upgrades and improvements to established POA tools, like BlockScout and TokenBridge, as well as protocol-level development on projects like HBBFT Consensus and Mana-Ethereum. In addition, we’ll be working to advance our bridge technology, adding new sidechains and applications that will help bring continuity to the ecosystem as a whole. We’re excited for the new challenges and possibilities as the POA Network continues to grow and mature in 2019!

HBBFT Consensus (Honey Badger Byzantine Fault Tolerance)

We’re continuing to build HBBFT, a new and unique consensus protocol that will provide networks with a secure and robust consensus mechanism. To learn more, be sure to check out our blog posts related to ongoing development.

Part 1 — Building Honey Badger BFT

Part 2 — How Honey Badger BFT Consensus Works

Mana Client

On November 1st, we partnered with ConsenSys and Compound Finance to collaborate on an Elixir based open-source Ethereum client — Mana! Elixir runs on the Erlang Virtual Machine, which was developed for distributed systems and offers scalability and high performance. We’re aiming to deliver the Mana client in early 2019 so keep an eye out for more updates!

POA Network, Compound, and ConsenSys announce collaboration on Ethereum client written in Elixir

Upgrades to BlockScout & Interoperability Solutions

In 2019, we plan on adding new functionality to our most widely used open-source tools. We are dedicated to providing the community with the tools they need to continue building and innovating on the blockchain.

BlockScout

We are planning three main upgrades to our blockchain explorer.

To provide the smoothest user experience possible, we will be updating the UI to include new features and customizable options for users. We will enhance data interaction and retrieval functionality, offering users the ability to work with different ERC token types and extract targeted data in a seamless manner. We’ll integrate some of the more popular blockchain tools such as MyCrypto, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Remix, Truffle, etc. to increase BlockScout adoption and grow the community.

TokenBridge

The TokenBridge, which is our most popular interoperability solution, will be upgraded and feature-enhanced. We will be focusing on user experience and creating functionality to make bridge setup more intuitive. We are working to create an admin panel for TokenBridge parameters, enabling a streamlined deployment process. We will also incorporate Arbitrary Message Bridging (AMB). This new mode will allow for message transfers between networks. AMB is also compatible with our existing interoperability solutions — opening up a whole new avenue of use cases.

xDai Cash — First of Many Sidechains in 2019

In the upcoming year, POA Network is planning to release a number of additional sidechains. We’re excited to provide some initial details regarding the first network we’ll be launching called xDai Cash. This new network involves a consensus upgrade to xDai Chain. The new chain will switch to a delegated proof-of-stake (dPoS) consensus model that uses POA tokens as the staked currency. xDai Cash also plans to leverage the HBBFT consensus protocol, resulting in a secure blockchain with fundamentally unique properties.

We will release more details on xDai Cash in early 2019 with clear design implementations and instructions on how anyone can become a validator and stake their POA tokens to earn rewards in xDai Cash. Our vision is to provide an easy on-ramp that launches dPoS sidechains which use POA tokens as their staking currency. By building an ecosystem of dPoS sidechains, we’re taking a significant step forward towards an interoperable and scalable future.

Connect with us:

Website: https://poa.network/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/poanetwork

Medium: https://medium.com/poa-network

Forum: https://forum.poa.network/

Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/poa