Comet 4.2 and Block DX 1.7.0 have been released
Blocknet Comet 4.2 and Block DX version 1.7.0 have been released with improvements and new features. Full details on these updates can be seen below.
Note: This wallet release contains the staking protocol upgrade and will result in a hard fork on June 8th at 6pm UTC +0. Updating prior to this date is required to stay on the correct chain.
Blocknet Comet 4.2
Staking Protocol
This update includes a v7 staking protocol upgrade, which is the final upgrade to the new staking system. The purpose of the v7 upgrade is to promote block time consistency by using a quadratic staking weight multiplier on the staking UTXO. This multiplier will benefit stakers who mine blocks at times closest to the target block time of 60 seconds. This upgrade will result in a hard fork on June 8th at 6pm UTC +0. Updating prior to this date is required to stay on the correct chain.
Wallet
There are two new features in this wallet. The first is the ability to stake to a specific address with the staketoaddress=[address] option in your blocknet.conf file. This allows you to send your staking awards to a completely different address than the address that staked as long as the address is in your wallet. The second new feature is the splitbalance command which allows easy splitting and combining of inputs (UTXOs). This comes in handy if you have many staking inputs you’d like to combine or if you want to split up your inputs to optimize for staking. For usage instructions see the help splitbalance command output. There are also quite a few bug fixes including crashing on macOS due to transaction processing, partial filtering on the Service Node screen, and crashes caused by the getblockstats command.
XRouter
As we work towards XRouter 1.0 there are a lot of enhancements being made. For starters, XRouter now supports TLS p2p connections so all data is encrypted. This feature is only available for Enterprise XRouter (EXR) Service Nodes and can be enabled with tls=1 in xrouter.conf. Furthermore, due to the higher quality of service and the ability to handle millions of requests per second, EXR Service Nodes will be prioritized for XRouter calls and sorted by their score from there. If you’re a Service Node owner, guides on setting up an EXR Service Node are in progress, but feel free to ask for help in Discord in the meantime (ping @86b or @aderks). Blocknet is building an Enterprise XRouter reverse proxy that will be compatible with EXR calls. If you would like to pilot this please reach out in Discord.
The XRouter C++ library has been completed too. This library will allow developers to interact with XRouter without any blockchains installed. If you would like to get started with this library, see the sample project guide. If you have any questions please join our Discord and ask.
A bug with XRouter DNS resolution where a lockup would occur on non-IPs every so often has also been resolved.
XBridge
This release includes an XBridge protocol upgrade with improved validation checks on the taker that incorporates block height. This resolves an issue with failing trades resulting from the maker or taker being on forked chains or not in agreement on the current block height. In order to more easily debug and continue enhancing the protocol, we have also improved the logging by incorporating json format on xbridge logging.
Lastly, a new feature has been added that allows you to view all orders on the network without having connected wallets for those markets. You can enable this feature in the xbridge.conf file with ShowAllOrders=true. Alternatively you can also control this option in the blocknet.conf file with the dxnowallets=1 setting. The dxnowallets setting will override the ShowAllOrders xbridge setting, therefore it is recommended to use the ShowAllOrders xbridge option because it doesn’t require a wallet restart (this is also configurable from Block DX). It should also be noted that enabling this feature will be more resource intensive.
Block DX 1.7.0
This Block DX release includes various user experience improvements and bug fixes, which can be viewed below.
Note: Block DX 1.7.0 requires Blocknet Comet 4.2
Full App Zoom
To accommodate a variety of screen sizes and resolutions, Block DX now supports full app zoom between -60% to +150%. The zoom level will persist across sessions and can be controlled with the typical hotkeys or from the program menu (View > Zoom In/Out).
ShowAllOrders Support
This Block DX release supports the XBridge ShowAllOrders setting. This feature allows you to view all orders on the network without having those local wallets running (Blocknet wallet still required). This setting may consume more of your computer’s resources and is disabled by default. To enable this feature go to Menu > General Settings > Order Book.
Unverified Asset Warning
Since Block DX is fully decentralized, Service Nodes have the ability to add support for assets. However, issues can occur if support for these assets are not properly and thoroughly tested. To accommodate for this we added a warning that is shown when selecting a market pair that contains an asset that hasn’t been verified by the Blocknet core team (all verified assets can be found in the blockchain-configuration-files repo).
Electron/Dependency Upgrades
We’ve upgraded Electron to v8 as well as over 50 dependencies for improved security and efficiencies.
Bug Fixes
- Generate Address — When generating a new address only the input you are generating an address for will be cleared instead of clearing the entire order form.
- Retain Price On Order Submit — The order form will now retain the price values after submitting an order instead of clearing the entire form.
- BTC Pricing — If the BTC price is available and present in the order book, the order panel will no longer show the price as “N/A”.
Looking Forward
There are many exciting milestones still ahead including XRouter 1.0, the lite XRouter Go library, market and limit order functionality on Block DX, various other Block DX improvements on UX, and integration of a lite multiwallet being developed by CloudChains Inc, which is powered by the Blocknet Protocol. View the roadmap.
Blocknet will continue breaking new ground as we move through 2020. Be sure to keep up with the latest developments by joining the Blocknet community on Discord and subscribing to the biweekly newsletter.
Note: This wallet release contains the staking protocol upgrade and will result in a hard fork on June 8th at 6pm UTC +0. Updating prior to this date is required to stay on the correct chain.
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