Development Update – August 19, 2014

Bug squashing and the stability of Darksend

During the last week we’ve been squashing bugs in the RC4 client and getting everything as stable as possible. As of the last update, it’s working for nearly everyone and humming along.

The next 3-6 weeks will be spent creating the RC5 client which will have a few minor updates including some known issues resolved along with a basic gui that shows the current status of Darksend.

Also, we’ll be working on improving the Darksend source code and getting it ready for other programmers to help out. It needs heavy commenting and some basic refactoring.

Kristov Atlas and the code/security review

Kristov is preparing deliverables for both the strength of anonymity and the code security of Darksend. Expect this to be released while work on RC5 is ongoing. Depending on what Kristov has found, this could delay RC5 so that we can fix important issues. As it currently stands, that doesn’t appear to be a concern.

Enforcement

Due to the delayed release of RC4, enforcement of masternode payments was not able to be extensively tested. We plan on beginning testing this feature soon. If possible, it will be turned on in mainnet before the launch of RC5.

Open Sourcing

RC5 should be solid for open sourcing. We’ll have someone else look the source over, then we’ll be open-sourcing soon after. While this is ongoing, we’ll start work on our next project.

Utilizing the Masternode network – DarkTor

One of the future goals is to turn the masternode network into a decentralized business for masternode operators. To do this we’ll add features that improve the privacy of end users and compete with centralized businesses. Our first endeavor into this is to make a completely private tor network within Dash.

The Dash network will begin to offer anonymous internet access via the masternode network. As a user, all you’ll have to do is pay a fee for 24 hours of access. This fee will be paid to a masternode in much the same way the masternode fees are paid, using a deterministic algorithm for distributing the payments evenly across the whole network.

There’s a few benefits to running a private tor network through Dash.

• Sybil resistant – Due to the cost of obtaining masternodes, it will be very difficult for any one person to view all traffic.
• Anonymous Payments – Users can pay anonymously for the service
• Private Network – Our tor network will be internal to darkcoin only. All traffic will be paid traffic, so the cost of running the service should be profitable for the masternode operators.
• Faster than tor – Tor has historically been very slow. This will be a lean version, that has much higher throughput.

As for the cost of the service we’re thinking $0.50 per day or something to that effect.

We’re still working on the details how this will function and this isn’t a feature that we’re absolutely set on. We’re very interested to get the community’s response to see if it’s viable .

Other Future Ideas

Maybe after it’s opensource other developers can help with some of these ideas: