Mijin Blockchain Version 2 is Here

Catapult, the second version of the mijin blockchain that uses the NEM protocol, has been released. The announcement by Tech Bureau, a global fintech and cryptocurrency firm, came via Globalnewswire. The post, which was published on May 14th, reads:

“[Tech Bureau] … announced the highly anticipated public release of mijin v.2, also known as Catapult, a full-featured, blockchain engine delivering a new version of the NEM protocol for both public and private networks for enterprise. The company is also launching a self-service, on-demand developer lab that will enable companies and individuals to get started on Catapult quickly without having to manage their own infrastructure.”

The press release also mentioned that the Catapult project is open-source and implemented by Tech Bureau. It is meant to be used by both public and private platforms such as NEM and is best suited for distributed enterprise level solutions. The new mijin v.2 release features proprietary smart contracts that can be used to create and manage “digital assets” and by distributed accounting and business logic programs.

Important Milestone Achieved

Tom Beno, CEO of Tech Bureau’s North American operations, stated that the launch of the latest version of the mijin blockchain marks a “key milestone”. Notably, the new release makes the open-source blockchain platform publicly accessible and introduces the developer lab. According to the CEO, this will help establish the foundation of the company’s enterprise-level cloud-based solution.

The latest version of the mijin blockchain has been released after almost three years of extensive development work. Per the press release, mijin v.2 was subjected to thorough testing before launch. It’s also designed to work with permissioned and and hybrid blockchains, which can be a “mix” of both private and public blockchains.

New and Unique Features

The press release mentions that the new blockchain platform offers “multi-level, multi-signature accounts” and “aggregated transactions”. Reportedly, these features are not currently available on any other blockchain-based network. So, what exactly are aggregated transactions? A March 25th, 2018 medium post by NEM Official (Editors) explains that aggregated transactions, as the name implies, combine several (usually related) transactions into a single one.

This, the post says, enables “trustless swaps [and] automatic cross-chain transactions”, which Catapult implements by issuing a “one-time disposable smart contract”. Once this aggregated transaction has been validated by all the parties involved, it’s processed immediately. According to the NEM medium post, Catapult is the first and only blockchain network that has implemented aggregated transactions of this type.

What are “Trustless” Swaps?

It’s self-explanatory what “automatic off-chain transactions” (mentioned above) are, however, what exactly are “trustless” swaps? The NEM post uses the example of someone wanting to acquire a license to use certain media content. In this scenario, the post says let’s say the license costs 3,000 XEM (NEM tokens) and is posted for sale through an exchange service. However, the buyer prefers, for security reasons, to not store their private keys on an online exchange.

With Catapult, the aggregated transactions are simultaneously executed and this is what’s referred to as a trustless swap. The multiple transactions being: 1) Transfer of 3,000 XEM to seller (payment), 2) Transfer of media license to buyer, and 3) Transfer of 6 XEM to exchange for usage fees. Using a “built-in escrow”, Catapult processes all three transactions at once. Notably, all three transactions must be successfully confirmed in order to process the aggregated transaction.

In case any one transaction fails, the other bundled transactions will not be processed. One of the best things about this is that even though the transaction is done using an exchange, at no point does the exchange actually hold any private keys. This way, the funds are far less likely to be compromised.

Boolean Logic Used By Catapult

In addition to this unique feature, Catapult introduces “multi-level, multi-signature accounts” for the first time to the blockchain ecosystem. This feature uses Boolean logic (AND/OR) while processing multi-sig transactions. The NEM medium post gives a simple example of a high-security account that uses multi-level/mult-sig feature. In the example, funds transfer from an account can only occur once authorization has been granted by the account holder’s hardware wallet OR authorization has been granted by user’s mobile device AND a “fraud detection” application.

References:

Tech Bureau Press Release: GlobalNewsWire

https://github.com/catapult-project/catapult

NEM Medium Post