Hi and welcome to a new Decred’s News Update. I’m your host Exitus, and today we’re going to be looking at some of the new features coming up in Decred version 1.6
I tested out the release candidate and was pleased to see just how easy it was to opt in to the new privacy features, and mix my coins right in the Decred wallet. With the press of a button the mixer starts up, and coins are gradually filtered from your unmixed account to your mixed account. The mixer obfuscates ownership of your DCR coins, and from there, you can choose to purchase tickets, or transact normally knowing there is no history tied to your freshly mixed coins.
Checkmate took to Twitter to talk about his first coin mix going through for less than 1 cent.
The new Voting Service Provider implementation is here as well, and it makes staking even easier than it was before. Users will no longer need to sign up to a VSP, they just have to make a selection in the wallet. These new stakepools also work with the new privacy features. Enabling VSP tickets to be purchased with funds mixed through CSPP increases the size of the overall anonymity set, which in turn provides a greater level of privacy for all Decred users.
Currently almost 20% of decred coins have been mixed. Once this release goes live and Decrediton users begin mixing, we will see these numbers go up considerably.
A Lightning Network tab is now available in the Wallet, prompting the user to create a special Lightning Wallet. From there you can make use of Lightning by opening channels, creating invoices, or sending payments. Lightning allows for nearly instant and feeless transactions since it’s a second layer solution, and transactions are only settled On-chain once you close out your Lightning Channel.
If you’d like to test out this release candidate for yourself, I will leave a link in the video description. It’s still in the process of getting polished, so don’t expect everything to be complete.
The initial release of the DCR DEX has arrived.
The DCR DEX is fully operational with trades now being executed over mainnet, open to anyone that wants to participate.There is no KYC, no exchange fees, no loss of custody of your coins, no bots, and bad actors are punished if they try to manipulate the system. Trades are done via atomic swaps.
The DEX data has even been added to the markets page of dcrdata.org
So far there has been a volume of over 200,00 DCR has been traded over the DEX.
Visit https://dex.decred.org/ to learn more and download the client for yourself.
A few different guides are available if you’d like to join, however currently the setup process is command line based and can be a bit intimidating for less technical users.
Richard Red has a guide out for Linux, and there is a basic walkthrough on the DEX github.
Ricardo Off has created a full guide in portugeuse on windows.
To trade to or from Bitcoin, you will need a pruned Bitcoin node. A pruned Bitcoin node only takes about 5 gigabytes of harddrive space, but it still must download and sync the entire Bitcoin chain, so it may take awhile depending on your internet and hardware.
A Graphical User Interface should be in the works to make the process of getting on the DEX a bit easier, and will be announced when it has arrived.
It should be noted that this an initial release or MVP - meaning its a minimal viable product, and there are still plenty of upgrades and new crypto currency pairs to come. The end goal is to get the DEX integrated into Decrediton.
The Decentralized Treasury upgrade vote is coming soon. It even popped up on voting.decred.org, so get your tickets ready to vote.
In Decred Coin Holders actually get to vote on Consensus changes, unlike in most crypto currencies which are run by a small group of people.
(show meme)
Politeia is coming to mobile.
This update will allow Mobile users to:
View Decred politeia proposals View politeia proposals details View vote status of politeia proposals and Receive notifications for proposals on (new proposal, vote started, vote finished)
The Decred Network has processed it’s 500,000th block with no inflation bugs, no double spend attacks, no forks, and no miners stalling innovation, as noted by Darth Crypto.
No Inflation bugs, no double spend attacks, no forks, no miners stalling innovation, as noted by Darth Crypto on Twitter.
There was lots of Community involvement and Great podcasts, lets take a look.
Decred Society made a video talking about the importance of Fully Validating Nodes.
Decred Society has been creating some great content, be sure to give him a sub on YouTube.
Staked Podcast has been churning out many episodes featuring various members of the community, be sure to follow him on YouTube or Spotify.
There were also several updates from Monde PR.
Decred Project Lead Jake Yocom Piatt was Interviewed on Authority Magazine talking about his background and how Decred plans to redefine BlockChain Governance.
Decred Researcher Richard Red was featured on AMB Crypto discussing whether or not DeFi will collapse the crypto market similar to collateralized debt obligations did.
Richard says “At an aggregate level, the degree to which DeFi users string different protocols and smart contracts together must also result in some systemic risk, as each smart contract relies on the inputs from other smart contracts to behave in a predictable way.”
Richard was also asked by Cointelegraph his thoughts on the rise of Defi vs the 2008 financial collapse, saying “Many people who participate in DeFi recognize that what they are doing is risky, but are enticed to take those risks by high rates of return on their locked assets. Another difference is the much faster speed at which the DeFi ecosystem is developing.”
Monde PR also secured many different News Headlines for the Launch of the Decred DEX, including Coinmarketcap, CryptoPotato and BanklessTimes.
Decred Latin America is running a blockchain learning challenge through talent land. This includes a week of workshops about bitcoin, blockchain, and various elements of the Decred project. The competition is based around original project development, with $2,500 dollars in prizes.
If you’re a Spanish Speaker I would absolutely recommend checking out the Decred Espanol YouTube channel, Twitter, and Telegram group as there’s lots of good content being created.
https://www.talentland.talent-republic.tv/challenge/blockchain-learning-challenge-decred/
An October Report for the Brazil Proposal’s social media work is now available to see on Reddit. It showcases growth and activity.
The brazilian exchange Nova DAX has launched a Decred Debit card that allows exchange between DCR and the Brazilian Fiat currency on 23,000 ATM’s in Brazil.
Now lets see what has been happening on Politeia, Decreds proposal system.
POLITEIA:
On Politeia we have 4 new proposals published and one that has finished voting.
First up is the GoDCR GoLang Native Desktop Wallet from Raedah.
This proposal seeks funding for 8 months of work totaling $60,000 USD to build out a new Desktop wallet for Decred using Gio, which is a GoLang library for implementing immediate mode user interfaces. A demo was shown a few months back of this new wallet in action.
Raedah says a major benefit of building capabilities for godcr is that the mobile wallets will also get access to these new features, as GoDCR shares backend golang code with the Decred mobile wallets via the dcrlibwallet component.
Upcoming Features include the ability to Stake using the new vspd stakepools, Politeia Integration, improved design, Coin Control, and Dark Mode.
GoDCR will be released on windows, mac, and unix platforms.
The proposal also includes a sponsorship of $1,000 per month to the Gio project, whose developers are continually working on and supporting the software. Decred will be listed as a sponsor on their website.
Comments thus far have been supportive of the proposal.
The Mobile Wallets 2020-2021 Proposal was also Published for Discussion by Raedah.
This proposal is for continuing work on the Decred Mobile Wallets for the Android and iOS platforms which has been ongoing since 2018.
The mobile wallets are continually being developed and upgraded, with a host of new features coming to them such as privacy support, Politeia viewing, Staking, Coin Control, Dark Mode, password input delay, and more.
If you haven’t already tried the mobile wallets out, they are available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App store for download.
The budget for this proposal has a billing limit of $52,000 USD paid in Decred spread out over 8 months. This budget is based off of average ongoing costs with additional allowances allocated for new developers to join.
Commenters have praised the reputation and output of the Mobile Wallets team, with many happy to see this Developer based proposal go to Politeia.
When asked if we can expect all of these new Mobile Features completed in this proposal window, Raedah says releases will come quicker if community members step up to help out with testing and bug reporting.
There is a proposal from Paris Smithson to build out the WhyDecred website.
Paris says the purpose of the WhyDecred website is to better communicate Decred’s value to the market using an innovative strategy combining Art and concise messaging. The site is designed to take you on a fascinating, inspiring journey; firstly exploring why money has been corrupted worldwide, showing why a solution is needed, then clearly showing how and why Decred is superior to most if not all other #cryptocurrency projects.
He plans to request a budget of about $900 per art piece which would go along with a written, completed section of the website. These funds would go towards the art itself, writing, polishing, social media marketing, and more.
He also requests $2,400 usd for 1 month of experimental marketing efforts He plans to set up a market place on the website from which the Art could be sold.
For more information you should visit whydecred.com, and follow Paris Smithson on Twitter.
The Decred Address Scanner proposal is here from Joe Gruff.
The address scanner is a lightweight app that can track decred addresses on android. It has already been in the google store for over a year with 500+ downloads and is already open source on github.
One purpose is to help track tickets for when they have voted. The user receives a sound and visual notification on their mobile device helping them keep track of their purchased Decred tickets.
The requested budget is totaled at 9000 usd, which would pay for past work completed and updates and new features to the app.
Joe says the work would take about 4 months and will be performed by himself and other contractors who would like to contribute. Be sure to sign up on proposals.decred.org if you have any questions or suggestions.
The Decred Content and Asset Translation Proposal passed with 75% yes votes. In total 11,554 votes were cast which means there was a voter turnout of 28%. This proposal allocates a budget of $33,000 USD payable in Decred for ongoing translation work.
Thanks for tuning in to this Decred News Update, be sure to join the community by following the links in the video description, and happy staking!