

15 May 2019 – 15 June 2019

Preamble

This month has brought Bismuth one of the biggest changes this year so far- the v4.3.0.0 fork. Alongside the emission adjustments, there were a multitude of other changes and updates that mainly occurred behind the scenes, and will be mentioned here. Let us delve into the rest of this month’s progress report.

Core Development

The Bismuth core node underwent rigorous testing under testnet environments prior to this month’s fork. This resulted in a flawless fork from the legacy chain with no issues. Significant bugfixes and core code reorganization was completed also for better maintainability, and to prepare for future features. Here are some additional updates:

Updated scripts for regular nodes, tests, incremental improvements, documentation, and the related FAQ.

Updated bootstrap utility codes with new rewards.

Wallet themes restored in legacy wallet version.

A new auto install script for the Bismuth node is available here.

Hypernodes

This month contained one of the most lucrative updates for Hypernodes since their release. Bismuth’s Hypernode Network offers an unrivaled inflation vehicle through operating a node, and as a platform that has stood the test of time, relentless development, and full market cycles, Bismuth is the preferred platform for attaining passive income.This month witnessed a reward hike from 0.8-2.4 BIS/block, effectively tripling previous rewards. Further updates below:

The one-liner install script for Ubuntu 18 has been updated here.

Full analysis of HN rewards and active listing methods. Bugfixes were made related to some inactive nodes.

There is an ongoing rework of the Hypernode/node interaction, making use of the new “Extra Commands” plugin architecture.

Updated script for PoW update of Hypernode installs.

Updated all-in-one auto install script, found here.

The FAQ for Hypernodes has been updated here.

Tornado Wallet

Earlier in the month, the Tornado Wallet witnessed the full integration of the DocShield dApp Crystal, as well as a makeover to the UI. Additional information below:

Fixed encrypted wallet import bug.

Improved DocShield queries.

Added off-chain message encoding and decoding.

Updated the Bismuth Price Crystal with CoinGecko’s API.

The 0.1.8 release package is in the final testing stage.

Updated language files for translation.

Actively testing new Tornado wallet and node features in a Windows environment.

Release of updated binary package with auto-installer for Windows and Mac OS X, found here.

Infrastructure & Ecosystem

Wallet server upgraded to latest version.

New Bismuth Client version with message encrypting features.

Bismuth API migrated from EggPool to Bismuth Foundation, and updated here.

Marketing

The fork announcement can be found here.

There was a Q&A for the hard fork, which was answered here.

There was an in-depth review article, written by Sisyphe (in French), found here.

There is a new “Hack with BIS Tutorial”, called “The making of DocShield”, found here.

The Bismuth Bounties plan was announced, found here.

Bismuth’s post-fork update can be found here.

The announcement of Bismuth’s first third-party project to receive a bounty reward can be found here.

Research & Mid-Term Development

There is PoC and some benchmarks to allow for rapid synchronization and faster bootstrap. This could divide bandwidth and sync-time by a factor of 3. The codename is “Concrete”, found here.

DB Queue improvement: there is a PoC to validate a more optimized way of handling SQLite DB, found here. This in-turn gave birth to an open source Python package called “SQLiteMulti”. It is a WIP, but can be of generic use. It is found here.

Lots of benchmarks were made related to DBQueue and Concrete.

More documentation and benchmarks for the “INT” experiment. End goal: reduce DB size, get faster and easier-to-calculate balances. Found here.

Additional experimentation was done on DB indices and structures- to be ultimately integrated into the Bismuth node code.

Scatter: A PoC of off-chain storage with Bismuth’s Hyperlane architecture, found here.

Other