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DashPay will be built into the existing native mobile wallets on Android and iOS.

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tungfa

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Dash Community,

We wanted to share with you a technical change in how we are executing against the product strategy for our Evolution wallets.

After some internal deliberation, we believe that we will be able to deliver the best possible version of DashPay by building it into the existing native mobile wallets on Android and iOS, as opposed to building a brand new app in React Native.

For those unfamiliar with our Evolution plans, we are working on the following:

  • Blockchain Usernames (DashCore v1.0), allowing any user on the Dash network to register a username, which will serve as their decentralized identity across multiple applications
  • Decentralized API and App Storage (Dash Platform), providing developers the ability to securely connect to the Dash network, build applications, and store application data
  • User-Friendly Payments App (DashPay), providing users with the ability to register their username, create lists of contacts, and easily pay their friends and family
We had initially pursued building a new app for DashPay in React Native for several reasons. First, the React Native framework is known for allowing rapid mobile development on both iOS and Android in Javascript. Javascript is both a popular programming language in the development community as well as the language of Dash Platform. React Native also allows for multi-platform app development as opposed to requiring custom development for iOS and Android.

We believed building DashPay in React Native would allow us to deliver a unified user experience on DashPay and a solid reference app to developers as rapidly as possible. Our plan was to create DashPay with a focus on the inexperienced user who is not as familiar with Dash or with crypto in general and keep the existing native wallets focused on the more experienced user. Both would be Evolution-enabled so users could easily exchange payments via usernames.

When we made the decision, we did so with a commitment to revisit it if our assumptions about development speed on our native wallets and React Native were incorrect. As development progressed, the native wallets advanced more rapidly than we initially assumed relative to React Native. As a result, we decided to get back together and discuss whether the React Native approach still made sense, as we had committed to do.

We considered the following priorities for DashPay to make the decision:

  • Highest quality UI/UX
  • Proven level of security
  • Existing native functionality (Uphold and Firebase integrations)
  • Ability to align as closely as possible with Dash Platform team’s launch
  • Architectural flexibility for future features
  • Probability of success
After evaluating the various possible approaches against these criteria, the conclusion was to focus our resources to build DashPay on native iOS and Android. We believe this approach minimizes time to market, reduces development cost, and allows us to include all the features, UI/UX, security, and flexibility we aim to provide to DashPay users of all experience levels. As an additional benefit, the native mobile wallets already have a substantial and growing user base, and now those users will get to experience the beauty and simplicity of the planned DashPay designs.

We will still keep the Javascript wallet library up to date (along with the previously planned Objective-C, Java, .NET, and PHP libraries) so developers from a range of disciplines can build applications leveraging Evolution features. In addition, the originally planned UI redesign to align the UX of the native mobile wallets is still slated for release this fall in advance of the launch of DashPay for Evolution.

We know everyone is as excited as we are about the coming enhancements to the native mobile wallets. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

https://blog.dash.org/dashpay-to-be-built-on-native-mobile-63f98899c845
 
I dont really get this change. We are moving away from getting a Dash Evolution Dapp, that would have served as a showcase and maybe even a standard for developers to demonstrate
the power and beauty of Dash Evolution. A Dapp where (i assume) considerable time and funding has been put into already and would have been in Dash Core Group
full control with regards to unified design and functionality and are now moving towards having Dash Evolution integrated in what basicly are third party apps, supported by
their own mobile app developers (Android + iOS), which are not part of Dash Core Group i believe. Or are they ? Maybe i'm missing something here about these third party
apps that are described as our 'official' mobile wallets.
  • Who are ultimately responsible for these mobile wallets and decide its direction on what to include or exclude ?
  • Are we not risking that we are getting too depending on these mobile wallet developers, restricting ourself perhaps design-wise in the future ?
  • Are we looking at additional funding requests from these mobile app developers to have this integrated / supported in the future or is this covered through Dash Core Group funding ?
  • Does this change impact our timeline in the roadmap ?
  • Do the benefits really outweigh the risks of changing Dash Evolution wallet support from a decentralized app / Dapp (over which DCG has full control, code-wise) to integrating on centralized third party apps, over which DCG has far less control ?
For now this blog raises more questions then answers for me, and i cant help but feel this change on itself is a step backwards.
 
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I'm a little confused because the DAPI is meant to make development easy. So why we can't have both a new reference wallet and the native application adopting some DAPI features? Do we need to split funding into two halves? One part for protocol and scaling, the other part for application references and developer community building?

Although I use the native dash wallet, I also find myself recommending Edge Wallet because then people can see direct purchase in action. I think this is Core's thinking, that the native wallet already has Uphold integrated with more to come. However, I think the current native app needs a lot of work to be super user friendly and I don't know how much work is needed to do that. I mean, anyone remember what happened to Copay?

If we had two clearly defined teams (protocol, scaling vs application development / community building), then I suspect none of this would of happened.
 
I would like to address some misconceptions as best I can around this change.

We are moving away from getting a Dash Evolution Dapp, that would have served as a showcase and maybe even a standard for developers to demonstrate
the power and beauty of Dash Evolution.

There isn't 1 Dash Evolution Dapp, there are multiple and Dashpay will be one of the first ones. The plan was always to support them on mobile, as mobile clients would transform to combine L1 and L2 and offer a much more improved experience.

Last year we had libraries in javascript for many things that were needed for evolution connectivity, processing and Dashpay but none in native. Skip to a year later and we were in a situation where these libraries have been finished on mobile as we've made a great amount of progress. The reasons for bringing out a Javascript based wallet kind of faded. Basically the system currently works in a branch of the native wallets, I can add contacts and make payments between them and it has for a few months.

I'm going to do my best to answer other questions as well, I would like to add that these are my personal beliefs and I'm not trying to speak for the entire organization.

Who are ultimately responsible for these mobile wallets and decide its direction on what to include or exclude ?

We use a very inclusive approach to making decisions and 99% of the time I would say we get all members of the team in agreement before making a decision. There are multiple levels of responsibility, with many people being responsible for specific parts. For example I consider myself responsible for the security and performance of the underlying iOS library (which I mostly wrote). As team leader I also consider myself responsible for the well being of the team and for their technical understanding. We have Brian who is Product Owner and who is responsible for product decisions.

Are we not risking that we are getting too depending on these mobile wallet developers, restricting ourself perhaps design-wise in the future ?

Well not really, we will have 3 main libraries at launch for external devs to use, a javascript one, a iOS/macOS based one and a Java one. One could argue that maybe we need more languages, but I think we could do those as a quick follow up after launch.

Are we looking at additional funding requests from these mobile app developers to have this integrated / supported in the future or is this covered through Dash Core Group funding ?

Most of the hard work has been already done. Right now we have Dashpay UI to do (as we just got it), and to incorporate platform changes that are coming in the following few months (like verification of proofs).

Does this change impact our timeline in the roadmap ?

I think since Mobile libraries (iOS/Java) are at a more advanced stage than the Javascript ones, this only can help. I wouldn't say that the last hard problems are on mobile (or were on dashpay team), so this change only further guarantees the client side of the roadmap is on par.

Do the benefits really outweigh the risks of changing Dash Evolution wallet support from a decentralized app / Dapp (over which DCG has full control, code-wise) to integrating on centralized third party apps, over which DCG has far less control ?

I think there is a big misconception here. There are no centralized third party apps being worked on in mobile team, all apps are run by dash core group. The problem why the android app, and iOS app are in different accounts on the appstores are purely technical, the private keys can't be easily/securely migrated without a complicated process for our users. All of our apps connect directly to the network and are non custodial.
 
Good to hear that the native mobile wallets are already and will be for the future onder full control and support of the Dash Core Group (that part just was not clear to me, due to these apps indeed having different app developers on the Android and iOS store accounts).

While changing from javascript based mobile wallet support to native based mobile wallet support, is it safe to conclude then that these native based mobile wallet apps (DashPay wallets) are in fact also Dapps? If the answer is yes, then my most pressing concern with this change has been lifted.

To conclude this post, if a developer came forward with plans to create and support a javascript based wallet Dapp and asks for DAO funding, would that developer be granted access to the progress in code made so far by the Dash Core Group?
 
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While changing from javascript based mobile wallet support to native based mobile wallet support, is it safe to conclude then that these native based mobile wallet apps (DashPay wallets) are in fact also Dapps? If the answer is yes, then my most pressing concern with this change has been lifted.

Let's say you define a Dapp/DPA (Dash platform application) as a contract who's structure is persisted on the blockchain. The mobile wallets currently have the ability to read this structure (though we are going to change the way this is done soon, so this isn't completely done). They also have the specialized presentation (understand encryption) and application logic specific to the Dashpay contract.

The wallets basically therefore use an integrated dapp to exchange key information between contacts, though transmission of value is still done outside of this dapp.

To conclude this post, if a developer came forward with plans to create and support a javascript based wallet Dapp and asks for DAO funding, would that developer be granted access to the progress in code made so far by the Dash Core Group?

Since what we are doing is open source then yes for the code. I think though that 1 developer couldn't do this within less than 6 months. The current state of the javascript client libraries are not complete and are still in progress. I also think that unless the dev was really good we could easily have security vulnerabilities emerge.
 
@QuantumExplorer This is becoming even more puzzling... If you believe 1 developer could create a wallet in 6 months then why can't DCG create a team of 3 or 4 devs and have them create it in a few months as well as bringing the JS libraries up to date?

Can you please explain why JS has been put on the back burner. From the blog post it looks like all resources have been moved to the Java and IOS libraries at the expense of the JS Libraries.

Has this been done because you have security issues with JS that you are unable to solve in time for the planned evo launch date?
 
@dazman Let me be clear, I said that 1 developer couldn't do it in less than 6 months, not that any 1 developer could do it in 6 months.

Furthermore Dash core is bringing the JS libraries up to date. We just aren't building the dashpay UI around them.

From the blog post it looks like all resources have been moved to the Java and IOS libraries at the expense of the JS Libraries.

Nope, mobile devs are staying the same (though we are getting 1 dev from dashpay), people working on JS Libraries are still working on those libraries.

This change is happening because mobile team advanced really well in a year on needed libraries. The security is tested and proven and demoes have been given of the system working.
 
thanks lets hope we really get it :)
Don't hold your breath.

DASH's relevance and budget continue to plummet... From 5 to 18.

No way to pay the bills... Working for free.

Dedicated to scoring woke cred instead of doing anything useful... Remind me how much money you get when you cash in woke cred?

DASH is basically like trying to spend "woke cred." It has no monetary value. No vendor accepts it as payment.

After all this waiting and crying wolf, DASH could cure cancer and nobody would care.

DASH has made such a spectacular fool of itself nobody cares anymore.

The best DASH can hope for is to have it's ideas stolen by someone respectable. At least it would get used. But, it'll never be by these people, or with the name DASH.

DASH is the Francis O'Rourke of cryptocurrency.
 
What about a Dapp or Game on the Dash Platform that has an educative purpose? something like Duolingo App. The application has X amount of levels that you gotta get through answering the correct answers.

Yes. A quiz/trivia game (starting with easy questions until reaching a legendary level) so when yo complete a lvl (or the game) you get a reward payout in Dash.

I think this idea as a marketing idea is not that bad. Imagine you could get lots of people interested in Dash but too scared or eskeptic about crypto that they won' invest or buy.

Once they complete every level they get rewards in Dash attached to a smart contract. so when they finish the complete trivia they get te reward and learn all the basics and not so basic stuff about Dash!

This game could be distributed to merchants, costumbers that attend to meetups via a referral code to control de abusing people.

Still have to think about the people abusing of the system but that could be solved in many manners.

Cheers!
 
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