New release version 0.2.0
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Best place to start is the
release notes - in particular for existing users, please read up to and including "Notable changes".
Then follow the installation/upgrade guide on the
frontpage/readmewhich has of course changed a bit. The most notable change is that the libsecp256k1 binding is now required, not optional.
In terms of how the experience of Joinmarket changes,
this section is the most important, giving a short summary of what changes for Makers and Takers, and the
wiki article linked inside gives more details, for Takers (that's sendpayment or tumbler basically). In short, they will have to change their wallet funding behaviour a bit, and in some cases be more patient (or use more expert tools).
There are some superficial changes (like nicknames) that are there to support using multiple IRC servers. Currently CgAn is kept as the default, but you can add other IRC servers if you like. If the community of users can come up with another fully Tor-supporting and stable IRC server that will allow Joinmarket usage, we could come to a general agreement on that. The code now happily supports at least 3 different servers simultaneously, probably more although I haven't tried. The idea of this is to improve censorship-resistance and reliability, but for now we just have the one default still.
This is a breaking change in the protocol, unlike previous releases - that means, while old and new bots can happily live on the same channel, they will ignore each other. So please upgrade as soon as you can, and don't be surprised if there is some disruption in the meanwhile.
Lastly, there are now only two yield generator bots offered within the codebase - yield-generator-basic.py and yg-pe.py (short for privacy enhancement). The rationale for removing the others I've mentioned elsewhere, but will repeat here:
"it's a combination of 3 things i guess; 1/it's too much work trying to support them 2/there is nothing wrong with them being used and maintained separately 3/i'd quite like to prod people towards running just the simple two versions mentioned for the new version, as those simpler ones are giving away less info to snoopers; but that last point is up for discussion"
A final overall point - this is a substantial, disruptive change and not one that makes usage easier. But, let's not forget that the existing Joinmarket is fundamentally broken in as much as there is no realistic privacy guarantee in any mode of usage. While this change intends to ameliorate this problem, it most likely will not remove it entirely, and its best benefits will only be seen if the level of usage increases considerably, which is likely a way off. So I hope people can be patient!
Please feel free to ask questions here or preferably on reddit (it's easier to keep track of one location). Or IRC of course.
