Technical Update

block DAG Ledger

Full block definition, validation, and persistent storage (RocksDB) connections

Internal DAG data structure & query algorithms, with IPC interfaces for the consensus algorithm

Modified GHOST protocol with an internal main-chain

Functional VRF committee selection and voting mechanisms to eliminate DAG reordering risk

Refactored internal RPC code to be compatible with gPRC

P2P node discovery

Up next: IDA block propagation, explorer, wallet, simple coin transactions

Concurrency

Conducted in-depth analysis of the ETH blockchain to understand how to maximize concurrency (articles are forthcoming)

Refactored the codebase for the conflict detector, rollback mechanism and concurrent objects from C into C++

Stood up an independent version of the EVM to test our concurrency engine

Up next: hook up EVM to conflict detection, design and implement concurrent objects

Application Update

The entire blockchain space is struggling to discover killer applications, we here at Taraxa place application development and discovery as our top priority. No matter how fast or technically interesting your ledger is, it isn’t worth much if no one is using it. We are idealistic (we firmly believe in decentralization) in the long term, but practical in the short term.

We also believe in leading by example. Partnerships are great, but the first question a potential partner asks of a blockchain team is invariably, “Why is blockchain useful?” The best way to answer that question is to have created an application (any application) that unambiguously demonstrates the economic utility of blockchain technology, thus lending us enough credibility to move beyond the questionable raison-d’être and into the more practical and productive question of “How does blockchain improve my bottom line?”

We are currently working on several applications and with several partners, but we will not announce them until we have signed written agreements with the partners, or that the applications have launched prototypes. For now, the partners’ domains are in IoT platforms (in Japan and the US), and agriculture (in China); the applications’ domains are in smart city and retail (in Japan), and privacy (in the US).

Stay tuned.