[ANN][Blocknet] truly decentralized exchange | token ecosystem infrastructure

[Xaltotun]

Less than115k block available on Bittrex.

[free-bit.co.in]

I hope when the project is done, we will need some marketing done, updated OP, news articles etc. Project is in good hands!

[memii]

I hope when the project is done, we will need some marketing done, updated OP, news articles etc. Project is in good hands!

I also think OP should be updated with recent progress and working links. Dev has to educate the people about this technology with effective marketing strategy so this will be fruitful when community will grow it will go to the moon.

[truxton]

Just saw the devs have answered a load of questions on the reddit AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/theblocknet/comments/676buj/ask_anything_about_blocknet_qa/

Summary: (dev answers in red)

1. What is the timescale for the UI and SPV? Just roughly. Are we talking a couple of months, 6 months, end of year, next year? Cheers.

We work in an "agile" manner and thus do not deliver to timescales. As a rough estimate which cannot be taken as a commitment, I'd suggest that the timescale for the UI is "a couple of months" and SPV multiwallets "6 months." I may be mistaken though.

The better answer: we are aware that mass-adoption of an exchange technology requires low friction, thus removing the need to download at least two blockchains before trading. So SPV is at the top of our list of enhancements.

Work has already begun on the UI.

2. How is Blocknet different from projects like WAVES, COSMOS, SWARM CITY and so on. In general, how is Blocknet's approach to build a decentralized exchange and an interoperability protocol different from its competitors?

The Blocknet is the only project in our awareness that decentralises the four core functions of an exchange - capital deposits, order broadcast, order matching, and coin exchange.

    all coins stay in wallets

    orders are broadcast over an inter-chain DHT network overlay

    order books are compiled by local applications, not a central or distributed entity

    coin exchange is atomic and trustless, utilising OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY and not requiring the control of any third party.

As for interoperability in general and the emerging token ecosystem, the Blocknet is deliberately designed to function as infrastructure. No central chain is required, enabling services to be built on any chain and monetised and delivered over xbridgep2p, our "blockchain router," to nodes on any other chain and to dapps harnessing blockchain services.

Regarding waves, it's a coloured coin approach. As such, as a trader, you'd have to deposit your coins for some underlying token in order to trade. This does not decentralise deposits, even if the underlying architecture is distributed. Additionally it requires you to trust some manner of intermediary to redeem your coloured coins for a real coin when you want to withdraw.

My opinion on this is that if you're building a decentralised exchange, the main objective is to provide an alternative to having to trust some intermediary with your coin deposits.

Coloured coins cannot achieve that, and so I cannot consider any exchange of this type a decentralised one in the true sense of the word.

As for Cosmos, (a) its consensus algorithm is DPOS and (b) it relies on anchors/validators and so is vulnerable to collusion attacks.

These two points amount to Cosmos being a distributed system, but not one in which control is decentralised (that's what "decentralised" means btw - it's about control).

Thirdly - and correct me if I'm mistaken - Cosmos' approach is architecturally ill-fated to run afoul of the emerging "token ecosystem" by requiring inter-chain services to run on its chain only.

This is another way of saying that it is "inter-chain centralised," may be fine for sidechains, but is not suitable for an inter-chain era where it becomes the norm for dapps to become inter-chain orchestrations of on-chain microservices.



3. What are the possible applications of the xBridge other than a decentralized exchange?


   monetised API consumption
    digital service delivery

The Blocknet is designed as infrastructure for the emerging token ecosystem. Any service or orchestrated sequence of microservices provided by dapps may be delivered over the Blocknet's infrastructure.

Using decentralised exchange, these services are intrinsically monetisable, removing the friction and high costs of traditional payment networks - friction which has prevented the monetisation of the bulk of the API ecosystem.

Due to the decentralised exchange, consumers of a service may pay in their native token even if the service consumes a different token.


4 Do any of these dapps exist already or will they have to be built? Anymore concrete dapp examples would be great - helps me spread the word and keeps it simple.

This is potentially very exciting because if a service is in demand and people are buying Block to use the service then it makes the price go up.

Currently the only things on the Blocknet are its core infrastructural services:

    blockchain router

    coin exchange protocol

    trade fee collection nodes ("service nodes")

    in-wallet order book and order-creation/acceptance controls

    p2p end-to-end-encrypted data transport

If you're looking for concrete examples, the scenario is the same as current apps with a microservices architecture: you can build any of them with a monolithic architecture, but they'll struggle to scale, bugfixing is harder, a bug anywhere can break the entire thing, and they're not composable (i.e. they cannot be broken down into sub-services which may be used and monetised in other ways).

So... take all the dapps in existence. We're making the case that it's best to build many of them as inter-chain dapps.



5. What are the benefits of running a node? And how many blocks do I need to run one?

There are two types of node: a "service node" and a trader node.

Service nodes do not handle or control any trader's coins. Their function is to collect and distribute trade fees. Typically a service node operator will run multiple full node wallets of whichever coins (s)he wants to support, in order to garner as many trade fees as possible.

Trader nodes enable one to trade on the decentralised exchange.


6. Will there be fees for buying/trading on Blocknet like there is with Coinbase/GDAX?

Yes, there are fees, though they are significantly lower that centralised exchanges (with a minimum fee that's just above the dust threshold).

The fee structure is as follows:

    transactions over the networks of each of your currency pairs will remain subject to their normal network fees for P2SH transactions

    a tiny trade fee is charged in BLOCK and the software takes care of securing some BLOCK to pay the fee.
        current implementation: trading is from the Blocknet wallet and you can buy BLOCK using it or on any other exchange. This is then used for fees.
        future implementation: trading will be from any trading dapp built by anyone. The protocol is likely to involve a second trade for the BLOCK trade fee, without requiring your dapp to have the Blocknet's blockchain





Click the reddit link for more answers.

[truxton]

Less than115k block available on Bittrex.

111K now.  Time is running out to get block this cheap.

Also the whale buy walls are now gone. Looks like they accumulated enough.

[greyskies]

Those AMA answers confirm there's a hell of a lot more than just a decentralised exchange going on here. Xbridge will be able to link together dapps.

Think about this, a service does something useful and it is in high demand. They can monetise it using Xbridge. And the best thing, people will use Block to pay for the service... meaning that high demand for the service will push up the price of Block.

[truxton]

Block at $1.95 now. 

[RAGEmond]

hope people don't see the huge potential of this coin and hinder me to fill my bags

[kim-yon]

I got the most blocknet. For the future. I think you will be valued.

[bitcircle]

hope people don't see the huge potential of this coin and hinder me to fill my bags

It's still undervalued coin from my point of view at the moment price should be over $10 as recent testing gone wonderful. This first truly decentralized exchange has huge potential I also bought last night under 70k and will hold my coins till $100.

[Jumanji7]

Just saw the devs have answered a load of questions on the reddit AMA:

https://www.reddit.com/r/theblocknet/comments/676buj/ask_anything_about_blocknet_qa/

Summary: (dev answers in red)

1. What is the timescale for the UI and SPV? Just roughly. Are we talking a couple of months, 6 months, end of year, next year? Cheers.

We work in an "agile" manner and thus do not deliver to timescales. As a rough estimate which cannot be taken as a commitment, I'd suggest that the timescale for the UI is "a couple of months" and SPV multiwallets "6 months." I may be mistaken though.

The better answer: we are aware that mass-adoption of an exchange technology requires low friction, thus removing the need to download at least two blockchains before trading. So SPV is at the top of our list of enhancements.

Work has already begun on the UI.

2. How is Blocknet different from projects like WAVES, COSMOS, SWARM CITY and so on. In general, how is Blocknet's approach to build a decentralized exchange and an interoperability protocol different from its competitors?

The Blocknet is the only project in our awareness that decentralises the four core functions of an exchange - capital deposits, order broadcast, order matching, and coin exchange.

    all coins stay in wallets

    orders are broadcast over an inter-chain DHT network overlay

    order books are compiled by local applications, not a central or distributed entity

    coin exchange is atomic and trustless, utilising OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY and not requiring the control of any third party.

As for interoperability in general and the emerging token ecosystem, the Blocknet is deliberately designed to function as infrastructure. No central chain is required, enabling services to be built on any chain and monetised and delivered over xbridgep2p, our "blockchain router," to nodes on any other chain and to dapps harnessing blockchain services.

Regarding waves, it's a coloured coin approach. As such, as a trader, you'd have to deposit your coins for some underlying token in order to trade. This does not decentralise deposits, even if the underlying architecture is distributed. Additionally it requires you to trust some manner of intermediary to redeem your coloured coins for a real coin when you want to withdraw.

My opinion on this is that if you're building a decentralised exchange, the main objective is to provide an alternative to having to trust some intermediary with your coin deposits.

Coloured coins cannot achieve that, and so I cannot consider any exchange of this type a decentralised one in the true sense of the word.

As for Cosmos, (a) its consensus algorithm is DPOS and (b) it relies on anchors/validators and so is vulnerable to collusion attacks.

These two points amount to Cosmos being a distributed system, but not one in which control is decentralised (that's what "decentralised" means btw - it's about control).

Thirdly - and correct me if I'm mistaken - Cosmos' approach is architecturally ill-fated to run afoul of the emerging "token ecosystem" by requiring inter-chain services to run on its chain only.

This is another way of saying that it is "inter-chain centralised," may be fine for sidechains, but is not suitable for an inter-chain era where it becomes the norm for dapps to become inter-chain orchestrations of on-chain microservices.



3. What are the possible applications of the xBridge other than a decentralized exchange?


   monetised API consumption
    digital service delivery

The Blocknet is designed as infrastructure for the emerging token ecosystem. Any service or orchestrated sequence of microservices provided by dapps may be delivered over the Blocknet's infrastructure.

Using decentralised exchange, these services are intrinsically monetisable, removing the friction and high costs of traditional payment networks - friction which has prevented the monetisation of the bulk of the API ecosystem.

Due to the decentralised exchange, consumers of a service may pay in their native token even if the service consumes a different token.


4 Do any of these dapps exist already or will they have to be built? Anymore concrete dapp examples would be great - helps me spread the word and keeps it simple.

This is potentially very exciting because if a service is in demand and people are buying Block to use the service then it makes the price go up.

Currently the only things on the Blocknet are its core infrastructural services:

    blockchain router

    coin exchange protocol

    trade fee collection nodes ("service nodes")

    in-wallet order book and order-creation/acceptance controls

    p2p end-to-end-encrypted data transport

If you're looking for concrete examples, the scenario is the same as current apps with a microservices architecture: you can build any of them with a monolithic architecture, but they'll struggle to scale, bugfixing is harder, a bug anywhere can break the entire thing, and they're not composable (i.e. they cannot be broken down into sub-services which may be used and monetised in other ways).

So... take all the dapps in existence. We're making the case that it's best to build many of them as inter-chain dapps.



5. What are the benefits of running a node? And how many blocks do I need to run one?

There are two types of node: a "service node" and a trader node.

Service nodes do not handle or control any trader's coins. Their function is to collect and distribute trade fees. Typically a service node operator will run multiple full node wallets of whichever coins (s)he wants to support, in order to garner as many trade fees as possible.

Trader nodes enable one to trade on the decentralised exchange.


6. Will there be fees for buying/trading on Blocknet like there is with Coinbase/GDAX?

Yes, there are fees, though they are significantly lower that centralised exchanges (with a minimum fee that's just above the dust threshold).

The fee structure is as follows:

    transactions over the networks of each of your currency pairs will remain subject to their normal network fees for P2SH transactions

    a tiny trade fee is charged in BLOCK and the software takes care of securing some BLOCK to pay the fee.
        current implementation: trading is from the Blocknet wallet and you can buy BLOCK using it or on any other exchange. This is then used for fees.
        future implementation: trading will be from any trading dapp built by anyone. The protocol is likely to involve a second trade for the BLOCK trade fee, without requiring your dapp to have the Blocknet's blockchain





Click the reddit link for more answers.

Nice!

It would be also nice if someone answers my previous questions:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=829576.msg18719539#msg18719539

[commenter]

hope people don't see the huge potential of this coin and hinder me to fill my bags

It's still undervalued coin from my point of view at the moment price should be over $10 as recent testing gone wonderful. This first truly decentralized exchange has huge potential I also bought last night under 70k and will hold my coins till $100.

I think they will bill worth much more then that ! You can monetize them running nodes

I think Blocknets the next  Ethereum ! $4,590,422,721 x 3,900,000 = $ 1170.00, and when people find out and word gets out it may happen overnight ! Blocks nodes has value.

[Dalvinchi]

hope people don't see the huge potential of this coin and hinder me to fill my bags

It's still undervalued coin from my point of view at the moment price should be over $10 as recent testing gone wonderful. This first truly decentralized exchange has huge potential I also bought last night under 70k and will hold my coins till $100.

I think they will bill worth much more then that ! You can monetize them running nodes

I think Blocknets the next  Ethereum ! $4,590,422,721 x 3,900,000 = $ 1170.00, and when people find out and word gets out it may happen overnight ! Blocks nodes has value.

Less of the fudding please. If you want block to rise do not attempt to pump it, let the product speak for it's self.

[greyskies]

hope people don't see the huge potential of this coin and hinder me to fill my bags

It's still undervalued coin from my point of view at the moment price should be over $10 as recent testing gone wonderful. This first truly decentralized exchange has huge potential I also bought last night under 70k and will hold my coins till $100.

I think they will bill worth much more then that ! You can monetize them running nodes

I think Blocknets the next  Ethereum ! $4,590,422,721 x 3,900,000 = $ 1170.00, and when people find out and word gets out it may happen overnight ! Blocks nodes has value.

Less of the fudding please. If you want block to rise do not attempt to pump it, let the product speak for it's self.

I don't think you know what fudding means lol.

Blocknet does have huge potential. Not just the decentralised exchange. But also linking all the different blockchains out there and their services through Block.

That will create a positive feedback loop. All it takes is one DAPP to get some traction and people buy block to use it and that will take us sky high.

In a way Block is almost carnivorous. It's going to feed off the value of other chains and grow big and strong.

[cryptohunter]

Best thing block can do now is bring on a larger team and get it done faster....

time is their enemy above all others here now.

By whatever means bring in enough dev power to produce non spv fully functional in a month

SPV 3 months max.

6 months in crypto is almost like saying not in your lifetime.

Perhaps promise special favours (blocknet based) to devs of other teams that work with you to provide what block needs.

Most importantly obfuscate the code so our block investment is not threatened by the copy and paste button of other journeyman devs.

[greyskies]

They going to hire another crypto dev to join the team, they're investigating it now. And the UI has been outsourced to a solid UI dev.

Most importantly obfuscate the code so our block investment is not threatened by the copy and paste button of other journeyman devs.

Not a bad idea actually. Reason being - the point of open source is so others can contribute. Right now nobody is contributing anyway as it's too early

In my opinion, as a temporary measure freeze the openness of the code - we can point to what is out there in public already which is substantial. We can go back to showing everything in a couple of months.

For all we know Cosmos and Ark are drawing inspiration from our codebase. And Cosmos is better funded with more resources, we don't want to help them overtake us.

[cryptohunter]

They going to hire another crypto dev to join the team, they're investigating it now. And the UI has been outsourced to a solid UI dev.

Most importantly obfuscate the code so our block investment is not threatened by the copy and paste button of other journeyman devs.

Not a bad idea actually. Reason being - the point of open source is so others can contribute. Right now nobody is contributing anyway as it's too early

In my opinion, as a temporary measure freeze the openness of the code - we can point to what is out there in public already which is substantial. We can go back to showing everything in a couple of months.

For all we know Cosmos and Ark are drawing inspiration from our codebase. And Cosmos is better funded with more resources, we don't want to help them overtake us.

Of course they will be.... this entire environment is mostly based on prior art.

throw all resources and promise what you must to whoever you  must to ensure first mover and keep first mover advantage...

open source is a joke now in this enviroment.  Only huge teams like eth can do this and get away with out being over run. Even they i heard are considering licensing as are steem

yeah open source it in terms of allowing people to see it is clean of nasties but don't let them copy and paste it after years of working on it.

[greyskies]

After Friday's update to resolve the dust issue:

"After that update, the next update will include the voting/governance feature and lock in the service node requirement of 5k blocks"

"So that major update will include the ability to fund/vote for specific projects"

Also at the moment counting Dan there are 3 full time devs working on the project.

Service nodes can vote and fund on new features. Service nodes are what were previously called DX nodes, to reflect the fact they will be capable of more than just exchange functions.

[Xaltotun]

After Friday's update to resolve the dust issue:

"After that update, the next update will include the voting/governance feature and lock in the service node requirement of 5k blocks"

"So that major update will include the ability to fund/vote for specific projects"

Also at the moment counting Dan there are 3 full time devs working on the project.

Service nodes can vote and fund on new features. Service nodes are what were previously called DX nodes, to reflect the fact they will be capable of more than just exchange functions.

Well that settles that.

Looks like 26 nodes up for sale on Bittrex.

[truxton]

Update from the reddit thread: (dev answer in red)

What is an example of a simple dapp that would be cool?
One reason why I'm asking is I'm interested in building a dapp to drive people to Block. I can program to some degree of proficiency but I'm not on Dan's level.

I'll list a couple of simple ideas:
Zcash mixer (clone a multiwallet, integrate xbridgep2p, auto-trade for Zcash and back to any other currency. Near-perfect mixing)
A marketplace app. You'd want the following services: (a) customer reputation and info, (b) payment processing, (c) image storage, (d) item listings. Use a microservices architecture for the reasons given above, gaining the advantages of utilising multiple blockchains. Use one chain to store encrypted customer info (see the final item on this list), use the Blocknet's XBridge to accept payments in any cryptocurrency, store images on a server, and use a third chain and in-wallet code for the item listings and UX. The result: a scalable, composable set of services that are easier to bugfix, ungrade, or replace.
The use of any Ethereum contract by supplying "gas" in other coins
A stablecoin that maintains its peg by exploiting the fact that trade records on a dx are on-chain (checks trade records; burns/creates or freezes/unfreezes coins to maintain a precisely equivalent money supply)
An OAuth killer: a personal information service that records encrypted personal metadata on your chain and comes with a revocable permissioning system. Users thus acquire self-sovereignty over their personal information. From there, you can integrate to any site/app requiring sign-in, or users can voluntarily sell their metadata to advertisers for micropayments (sorry, Google Ads), or it can support passport/identity systems.