[ANN][SIM] Simcoin - A Simple Coin

[xchrix]

good progress.
but: a todo txt file??? please use a bugtracker like mantis. i know its a little bit of work to set it up but it will save you sooo much time in the future.

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[NxtChg]

good progress.
but: a todo txt file??? please use a bugtracker like mantis. i know its a little bit of work to set it up but it will save you sooo much time in the future.

In the future, maybe. But when I work alone on a code that's not yet public text files work best for me.

[xchrix]

i am working alone all the time and i wont miss my bugtracker and my code version control. its really worth the effort. when you want to look back in the past. what you did last week. why you changed exactly one line of code. save screenshots or other things to a bug ticket etc etc etc.....

good progress.
but: a todo txt file??? please use a bugtracker like mantis. i know its a little bit of work to set it up but it will save you sooo much time in the future.

In the future, maybe. But when I work alone on a code that's not yet public text files work best for me.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

This week I was working on refactoring the vault and on command-based interface for it (+ wiki spec).

The vault is an important part, so it requires a lot of thinking and ideally should have been a stand-alone project, yet I am developing it just as an optional feature of Simcoin...

Also added the auto-repair capability to the vault, in case the file gets corrupted. Updated the old repair algorithm description in the wiki.

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Checked a few JSON libraries for C/C++, didn't like any of them for the simple task I need: passing commands to/from JS to limit the number of wrapper API functions. Will probably write something simple myself.

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Spent one day setting up our own forum, which will be shared with CryptoPlay

You will find more information and more frequent updates about both projects there.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

This week I continued working on refactoring the vault and on command-based interface for it.

Also added the third core mode – "neutral" – in which the core only serves as a passive library and provides useful services to third-party applications.

Added a bunch of generic/crypto functions. For example, any app can generate public/private keys from a text passphrase by sending this simple command:



It will also return the address of the account, which corresponds to this passphrase. Very clean and simple.

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Created Vault Maker GUI tool:



More info here: https://simtalk.org:444/index.php?topic=29.0

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Switched SQLite to use delayed DLL loading because in the neutral mode not every app wants to include 400 Kb DLL if it's never used.

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qhoster finally restored my lost VPS (and only after just one month ), so I was able to copy old data and restore SimExplorer and wiki.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

This was a relatively slow week, plus I worked on many small things, which are hardly worth mentioning, like splitting the ledger into several sub-tasks because it became too big, or the "task died" event to help with task synchronization...

But anyway, this project is not a sprint, it's a marathon, so steady progress is what matters.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Good progress this week, but mostly on small things, which hardly seem worth mentioning.

Here's about 2 days worth of to-do items, to give you an example. Not sure if anybody reads these, but anyway

+ Split SQLite into 2 classes to make setting exposed API and some additional checks more clean.
+ Comm keys stuff moved into its own independent sub-task.
+ self.accounts, set from the ledger check task.
+ Realized that there will probably be some modified versions of nodes running, so added a "branch" field into both Pong response and status. It will also help to distinguish bugs between platforms (Windows/Linux, etc.). Wiki updated.
+ task_died.is() to compare by name.
+ Added "update keys" command.
+ Added confirmation support into node's console.
+ Beep on console.confirm(). Also tested flashing the window - not good.
+ Nasty bug found and fixed: starting tasks inside incoming() or outgoing() sometimes caused indexes to shift, so had to rewrite the whole event dispatcher loop to allow this.
+ Writing some draft code for task subscription for commands...
+ Finalized how the vault records are enumerated via commands.
+ Reject vault passwords shorter than 6 chars on nodes.
+ Added "status" command to get a bunch of aggregate info about the core.
+ Rewriting and simplifying T_Startup to manage _all_ the tasks startup sequence in one place.
+ BUG FIXED: didn't catch if there's no keys in the vault in T_LedgerComms.
+ Improved SimExplorer a bit and added public keys display. Took some time to figure out how to do it because of SQLite's stupidity.
+ Removed sim.out_packet and sim.out_raw_packet - they are almost always "out". Only Net and Triage send them as "in" and they can do it manually.
+ Consistency changes:
    + "cfg" => "cfg / set cfg"
    + "vault pass" => "set vault pass"
    + "vault info" => "get vault info / vault info"
    + "vault data" => "vault data / set vault data"
+ New vaults for all test nodes generated (the stretching algorithm changed).
+ "cfg loaded" event.
+ Set node name from INI by Supervisor on "cfg loaded". Enforce allowed characters only.
+ Moved "time" and "ts_adjust" into status. Renamed to "net_time" and "time_diff". Fill net_time by Supervisor from self.time() for "status" command. Wiki updated.
+ Replace "type" and "reason" with arrays in sim_cmd.
    + Also use cmd_type() instead of "type" to allow "type" to be used by other commands, like sim_packet and sim_vault_data.
+ Unicon switched from node indexes to account ID's to help with decoupling.

Also started drawing a startup diagram, because things are getting a bit complicated:



The good news is: the end of the refactoring is in sight. I won't give you any time estimates because when you refactor, you constantly get new ideas about how the code should be written and organized, and that's hard to predict, but at least most of it is finished.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Not much progress this week because I had to take 3 days off and deal with some real life stuff.

Normally I work every single day without weekends or holidays, but unfortunately sometimes you have to do other things too

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Good progress this week, although refactoring is not yet finished, mostly because about half of the week I spent thinking and documenting stuff instead (passed 1K edits in the wiki: actually 1,150 already).

One thing I was working on, and am excited about, is a virtual machine (yes, Simcoin will have one). But don't worry it will be very simple, not Turing-complete, more like Bitcoin script, but of course simpler and more elegant.

It took me about 1.5 days to write a spec and most of the code for it and the compiler. We will be able to use it anywhere, where we need simple scripting, for example to define the rules for transaction fee calculation. Then all the clients can download these rules and use them to calculate the minimum fee required for each transaction.

When it comes to scripts, even a simplest language can usually give you a lot of flexibility. That's why I am so excited about it – how simple and yet powerful it is

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Lost two days this week when my new HDD died

It survived for just 8 months. And what's most annoying is that it was a red WD drive, which is supposed to be more reliable and tolerate heat better. Damn marketing liars! Probably the only thing different about it is the red sticker.

Luckily, it died in the exact same way as my previous one – started malfunctioning after heating up. So I was able to cool it down and copy all the data within one hour. And then realigned partitions for 15 more! Thanks, Paragon Software, for being so lame...

Still, managed to get some work done: continued working on VM/compiler, plus figured out how to organize accounts in such a way that reorg could be done incrementally instead of the simplistic "flush/rebuild".

And also figured out how to efficiently locate fracture points, so now only a few transactions need to be re-downloaded in case of the reorg.

These two are significant advances, so I am happy with the overall progress this week.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

This week I took three days to push CryptoPlay's project A, because it's getting ridiculous - it's a tiny project and we still can't finish it! Titulaer promised to take two days off his day job next week too, so hopefully we will start closed beta-testing for our top investors next week (by the way, it's still not too late to buy shares )

The rest of the week I was mostly fixing bugs. About 90% of my closed to-do items were "bug fixed" records. It takes less mental effort to fix bugs now because individual modules are simpler, but it's more time-consuming, since now I have to track bugs across a multitude of modules and determine which one is malfunctioning or which ones have miscommunication.

This made it obvious that I need better debugging tools, so I worked a bit on improving my command logging task and other debug instruments.

One notable thing is that I finally figured out how to merge staged and non-staged consensus classes into a single one. It doesn't sound like much, but having two copies of such a critical code was bothering me from the start and I couldn't find a simple way to merge them until now.

[NxtChg]

We have our own forum now: https://simtalk.org:444

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Many more bugs fixed. Besides integration bugs, some of the bugs were caused by the lack of unit testing, which I started to relax due to time pressure. Well, it bites back.

Spent some time helping Titulaer with CryptoPlay's project A, but he occasionally helps me with Simcoin too: for example he tested Simcode compiler and VM and caught quite a few bugs!

One notable thing: I finally completely fixed my initial blunder of separating everything by transaction type – there's no need for that. So earlier I've merged all the transaction-specific tasks and this week finally merged all the network packet types to be just one – TRANSACTION. The underlying code shouldn't bother with what kind of transaction it is. Sounds obvious, but it wasn't in the beginning.

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Yesterday was exactly one year of me working on Simcoin. On March 21, 2014 I had the idea and started looking for suitable crypto libraries. So, happy birthday, Simcoin

To commemorate, I've started our future repository at Github:

https://github.com/NxtChg/simcoin

It's a small step for… uhm, never mind.

Even though I initially allocated only 1 year of my life to this project, it's obvious that I can't just throw it all away, so I will have to continue working on it for as long as it takes.

I am still here, still working and haven't given up on any of my promises.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

This week I shifted focus to the client and refactored the JS API to form commands completely in JavaScript.

This makes the client relatively simple – it's basically just an embedded browser with a single function send() to pass commands between JavaScript and the core. It doesn't even have to be recompiled if the core interface changes – only the JS code needs to be updated. So the client will be easier to maintain and easier to port, because JavaScript code is already cross-platform.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

I've decided to suspend progress reports, because at this stage they are too distracting – instead of focusing on what needs to be done I am trying to find tasks that would give weekly reports a sense of progress, and it only delays the project.

So the next update will be when there's actually something to report.

[NxtChg]

Progress report

Happy birthday to you,
 Happy birthday to you,
  Happy birthday, our saviour,
   Happy birthday to you.



As they say, "It's not officially Xmas until Hans Gruber falls off the Nakamoto Nakatomi Tower".

Anyway, I wanted to describe briefly the current state of development

A few months ago I got stuck with the internal version "v2". The main reason for this is that I tried to develop the full client along with the main protocol and unify client and server as much as possible.

This proved to be too difficult, especially in the clouded state of mind that was caused by neglecting my health. The task became multi-dimensional and finding optimal solutions next to impossible: you change something on one dimension and everything else changes on the others. The current codebase became quite complicated to the point that I didn't feel confident in its security anymore.

After taking a break and relocating to a warmer climate, as well as improving my heath, I decided to focus on the server and use a test "SPV" client instead, which would require 100% trust in the node it connects to. Then reduce the trust by connecting to 3-4 nodes at the same time and comparing the results. And then make the final version, which doesn't require trusting any particular node.

So "v3" was born and I made some nice progress, revisiting various parts of the system and rewriting all the stupid things I've done in the clouded state of mind.

Then I got to tx fees and realized that they should be handled differently. This required some minor changes, but more importantly - a lot of problems to solve.

Research is the most annoying and time-consuming part of this project, particularly because you can't plan it.
You just wander around your apartment thinking and hoping that today you will be able to solve it.

In the end, of course, all of it is due to my own stupidity. Sorry for not being smarter

I think here is where I am currently:



I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a long road to go.

There is nothing cool to show you at the moment. I wrote a network monitoring tool using the WebSockets server developed for CryptoPlay, but it doesn't look particularly exciting

It would be nice to give you some sort of timeline, but:




So I guess our faith that this project will ever be finished is gonna be tested some more

[NxtChg]

Updated Simcoin distribution:



Blue is old, red is new.

[NxtChg]

A $100 bounty:

https://www.xbtfreelancer.com/prj/3557/user-management-registration-login

More to come.

[NxtChg]

Today one of our servers was hit by SHNELL ransomware.

Looks like a fresh new one, which logs in as ASP.NET user and encrypts all files.

The server was scheduled for migration anyway, so this incident ranks as "mild inconvenience"

The simxchg and simtalk forum will be down for some time until we finish migrating to the new server.

[NxtChg]

New bounty - port a piece of C++ code into JS:

https://www.xbtfreelancer.com/prj/3762/port-a-short-piece-of-c-code-to-javascript