https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*Yv1ARYjCb62yiFBfZcZrog.pngFor Q3, our developers continued to push out a number of developments and exceed milestones, with one deliverable that’s for the history books.
Automated Ghost Veteran RewardsOur developers worked over time on this deliverable and pushed it to production on Saturday, October 1st at block height 591621. This protocol entered the history books for Ghost as the blockchain becomes even more decentralized. The AGVR protocol introduces GVR rewards on a per block basis given stake weight and AGVR eligibility. No other blockchain has this similar structure in place.
https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*bD9gI8tiVWL5Uom8ot9pHg.pngCurrently, at press time, there are 102 AGVR eligible Veterans that will soon observe AGVR blocks in their wallet. These Veterans are currently waiting out their time lock of 21600 blocks as described in the AGVR update posted here. After block height 613221 Veterans will begin to see the first AGVR blocks being produced.
We observed a brief bug after the initial hard fork that was related to anon inputs/outputs. Within hours our dev team deployed the hotfix and released the current core version, 0.22.1.0. There were no errors found upon the basis of the protocol tracking GVR transactions, so users and the blockchain remained unaffected. This protocol is compatible in all formats of the Ghost Wallet including GhostVault. Furthermore, users who are cold staking can still enjoy the benefits of this protocol as the rewards are paid directly to the staker and not the pool.
Ghost ElectrumIn the background while AGVR was approaching the final stages of development, our developers were also working on a new lightweight wallet for both desktop and mobile use! Shortly after the launch of AGVR, we proudly introduced Ghost Electrum. This new lightweight wallet can be downloaded directly from the Google Play store here. And for those that do not have access to the Google Play store, the APKs can be downloaded here. This is Ghost’s first official mobile wallet developed as an app for your Android device. For Apple users, iOS versions of Ghost Electrum will came later, but again, Apple users on macOS can download the APKs just fine.
https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*3zLGyE6kZci65VWzuq8Ttg.pngThe Ghost-Electrum wallet is not a full node like the Ghost Desktop or Ghost QT wallet. It is a lightweight wallet that features greater coin control and accessibility. This new wallet will help pave the way for Ghost to be implemented with hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger. Because Ghost-Electrum is not a full node, sync times are as low as 2 minutes. This is achieved through servers indexing the block headers.
Speaking of servers, there are zero downtimes because Ghost Electrum servers are decentralized and robust. Your wallet is never down. Another advantage of using Ghost Electrum is the near instant transaction time since block headers are indexed, unlike a full Ghost node. As mentioned above, this lightweight wallet now makes it possible for Ghost to be used on hardware wallets. In the meantime, users are still able to utilize Ghost-Electrum as cold storage. Your private keys are encrypted and never leave your computer. If your device goes offline, you still have access to your funds via recovery seed. It should be noted that the seed phrases on Ghost Electrum are different from that of the Ghost Desktop wallet.
Moreover on security, Ghost Electrum features 256-bit addresses just like the Desktop and QT wallet. This is not common in other lightweight wallets as 256-bit encryption can become complex due to the cryptography. These addresses use the most secure encryption currently available. Not even Bitcoin uses 256-bit addresses. Fore more on Ghost Electrum, please read our announcement here.
Hardware WalletsWith the launch of Ghost Electrum, implementing Ghost onto popular hardware wallets as described earlier will make this all the more possible. In the past we have researched the different requirements each hardware wallet has. We have developed the foundation for this and are now moving forward with the main development. There has been a few test runs in the past with Ledger, but it was nothing compared to what will be actually supported via official firmware.
When this deliverable hits production, users will still be able to cold-stake just like on the other wallets, and of course, use this as cold storage. In the previous section it was mentioned Ghost Electrum supports 256-bit addresses. This will remain true when Ghost is supported on the various hardware wallets available. More to come regarding this deliverable later.
PartnershipsIn other developments, our Community Relations and Media Personnel team have been busy seeking out new opportunities to create strong partnerships for the Ghost ecosystem. Some of these include repairing old partnerships that spoiled in our early days due to lost contact and others are new partners that will increase the accessibility of Ghost, among other things. As our continuing efforts to spread awareness and expand our community, we have had a few official news articles written about Ghost. We expect to increase the number of articles through our Media Personnel. They are working day in and day out connecting with journalists and writers from every avenue.
New Exchange ListingSpeaking of partnerships, the last cherry on top of an explosive Q3 is a new exchange listing! $GHOST has been listed on Exchange Assets, a Ukrainian based exchange that offers PoS pools, interest on your holdings, and more. They have been around for over five years and counting! Exchange Assets offers four different trading pairs for $GHOST, BTC/LTC/USDT/S11. Users can trade on this exchange now.! Here is the link to their platform
https://exchange-assets.com/en/
