Today I’d like to present the first showcase of an independently developed client for Nxt to you. It is not my intention to advise you on which client to use, or to give any judgement on which client is “best”. All these clients have their own peculiar flavour and you will have to decide for yourself which one fits your needs best. Some people may prefer to stay with the basic NRS client, and others may opt for a more feature rich one.

dotNxt

Developer: minusbalancer

Most recent version: here

Source code: here

Short description

dotNxt is built using the .NET Framework 4.0. It should run fine on all up to date Windows versions. It was announced on the 14th of January 2014 as an entry into the Nxt client competion and was released on the 18th of the same month. The source code was released on the 1st of February. It is created to avoid the hassle of installing the Java based NRS client. The philosophy is that a simple one-click installer will make it easy to use for anyone. In this, it is inspired by the BitcoinQT client.

dotNxt has a clean, easy interface. It’s simple in design and all the currently supported uses of Nxt (transactions, aliases, Arbitrary Messaging) are available.

It is also possible to do some things without having your account unlocked, like search for registered aliases and seeing the current blocks. The client will automatically update the data from the blockchain.

The interface

When you start up dotNxt you will find yourself in the account screen. This screen is divided into two parts. To the left are your account details, and to the right you have buttons for registering Aliases, sending Arbitrary Messages and relocking your account. The first two of these actions will require you to enter your secret passphrase. It is possible to search for aliases before you try to register one. Arbitrary Messaging has an encryption feature that is checked by default. You are required to fill in your secret passphrase before you can send Nxt, register and alias or send a message, of course. If you have no Nxt in your account, buttons that require a fee (registering an alias or sending a message) will be greyed out.

The client also has screens that will be familiar to everyone who has been using the standard NRS client: a (unconfirmed) transactions screen, a peers screen and a blocks screen. These screens provide the same functionality as in the NRS client and basically are used for information purposes.

dotNxt also has a useful in-built tool, which is an Alias explorer. You can view and search all registered aliases. Of course it has a standard “Send Money” pop-up. You can adjust some settings, like the minimum transaction fee, the default deadline for transactions, use your own list of nodes and an option to analyse hallmarks.

List of current features

Send Money

Transaction statistics

Forging Timer

Register Alias

Messaging

Message encryption Lock account

Alias search

Hallmark checks

Multiple account display

Auto updating

Custom user settings

Upcoming

Near future plans

A redesign of the account transactions window

Copy functionality for the blocks screen and account screen

Authorization tokens implementation

“wallet.dat” optional security future Mid term plans

Asset exchange support

Advanced AM functionality: various features requested by users.

A voting system on top of AM

Torrent tracker like functionality

Long term plans

dotNXT Node software

Electrum (https://electrum.org/) like client software.

“NXT super node” project

Windows Phone client

Linux and MacOS clients using Mono

Android and iOS clients using Xamarian

About the developer

minusbalancer has over 10 years of experience in software development. He is mainly focused on C++ and C# development. He currently works as a tech leas at one of the biggest investment banks. He is always open to user opinions so feel free to contact him at minusbalancer@gmail.com. If you would like to donate, please do so at account: 5687942189255392308