Dash Explorer

 

DashCore v0.16 is a major release and will be a mandatory upgrade for all masternodes. Version 0.16 introduces a number of improvements to Dash, including performance optimizations, wallet user interface enhancements, greater stability, and numerous enhancements through Bitcoin backports. Below are a few key highlights of this release. Comprehensive details can be found in the release notes.

Release Highlights

 

Quorum Signing Optimizations

Quorum load has been significantly reduced when recovering signatures. The new system initially sends signature shares to a single deterministically selected node, instead of propagating signature shares to every node until one has enough to recover the signature. After one second, if the recovered signature has not appeared, the signature share is sent to another deterministically selected node and this process repeats until a recovered signature is present. This way only the recovered signature needs to be propagated and verified by all members. This optimization is expected to reduce the load by several orders of magnitude. Dash Explorer

Network Threading Improvement

 

Network threading has been optimized by eliminating unnecessary repetition of loops through all nodes by implementing event polling (epoll) on Linux. This efficient event notification system will reduce the overhead of the socket handler thread to nearly nothing. This optimization only impacts linux implementations and is specifically impactful for masternodes which handle a large number of connections. Dash Explorer

Minimum Protocol Check

Proof of Service (PoSe) for Masternodes is enhanced by ensuring a minimum protocol version is running. During the distributed key generation (DKG) process, a masternode will verify that the Dash port of other masternodes is open and accepting connections. In addition, the protocol version will be checked to ensure it is above the minimum required version. If either of these conditions are not met, the offending masternode will be flagged as a bad quorum member. This feature will be activated by spork 21 once 60% of the masternodes have upgraded to version 0.16.Dash Explorer

Bitcoin Backports

This release also introduces over 650 updates from Bitcoin v0.16 as well as some updates from Bitcoin v0.17. This includes a number of performance improvements, dynamic loading of wallets via rpc, support for signalling pruned nodes, and a number of other updates that Dash users will benefit from. Bitcoin changes that do not align with Dash’s product needs, such as SegWit and RBF, are excluded from our backporting. For additional detail on what’s included in Bitcoin v0.16, please refer to their 

Code Cleanup

 

PrivateSend Code Refactoring

PrivateSend code has been refactored, removing outdated logic, and changing mixing logic to be simpler and on average provide better privacy. PrivateSend mixing rounds used to have a random number of participants between three and five. In v0.16, this logic has changed. It is no longer random, but instead, a masternode will accept up to five participants and will fall back to using three or four participants if there isn’t enough liquidity at that moment.

PrivateSend Create Denominations Improvement

 

The create denominations algorithm has been significantly improved. Previously, users when mixing would either end up with too many tiny outputs, effectively clogging their wallet, or too few outputs, resulting in mixing not completing. This has been resolved with a new and improved algorithm which both ensures that all funds that the user wants to have mixed are mixed, while also avoiding creating too many small outputs. Dash Explorer

Core Wallet Enhancements

Numerous issues have been resolved to improve the overall consistency and cleanliness of the user interface of the core wallet. All of the graphic controls have been standardized into a custom configuration for proper display across operating systems and within different themes. Clean-up work has been focused on tabs, fonts, labels, colors, hover mode, focus and various controls. A new PrivateSend tab has also been introduced to simplify the experience when dealing with mixing transactions. This tab will only be enabled when PrivateSend functionality is enabled within the configuration settings.

Additional Changes

A number of other changes were made including updates to RPC commands, command-line options, crash reports, and stack traces. For additional detail on these please refer to the release notes, when available.

Integration Partner Notes

 

DashCore v0.16 is a major release, but is only a mandatory update if you are running a masternode. There are no new consensus rules to activate and it should not have any impact on mining pools. All integration partners should immediately review the Product Brief and Release Notes to become familiar with the details of the release.

We do recommend all partners update to v0.16 as there are important fixes and optimizations which will not be backported to v0.15. It is important to verify compatibility with particular attention to 1) changes to RPCs, 2) changes to command-line options, and 3) Bitcoin backports.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Changes

There is one new RPC command which is Dash specific and three new RPC commands introduced through Bitcoin backports. In addition, one RPC, GETINFO, was removed and has been deprecated since version 0.15. The new RPC commands are: QUORUM SELECTQUORUM, LOADWALLET, RESCANBLOCKCHAIN, and SAVEMEMPOOL.

Command-line Options

A number of command-line option changes were made related to debugging, network management, and mixing. For additional detail on these please refer to the release notes.Dash Explorer

Bitcoin Backports

We have backported hundreds of items from Bitcoin v0.16 which are included in DashCore v0.16. In addition, select items have been backported from Bitcoin v0.17+ to remedy high priority issues.Dash Explorer

What is Dash?

Dash is a global payments network with its own cryptocurrency offering businesses and individuals instant payments for less than a cent per transaction. Our goal is to provide users with a better way to pay and get paid. Dash Core Group is in the process of rolling out a series of upgrades to our system dubbed “Evolution” to make Dash the most user-friendly blockchain-based payment network in the world. Dash Explorer

Dash Explorer

Dash Explore

 

Dash Core Group is pleased to announce the release of Dash Platform v0.14. This is the 3rd release in our newly defined process, and our 5th release overall, where observers of Dash’s development can expect new functionality delivered roughly every 6 weeks. In that regard, observers can expect the next release to arrive sometime between August 25 — September 8. Dash Explorer

Release Highlights

 

As usual, due to the breaking changes introduced in this release all data on Evonet has been wiped. Developers should make adjustments to their local setups to reflect this. Below you’ll find a list of the most important updates. You can view all of the updates in greater detail by visiting the release notes for each platform component, which are included in the last section of this article. Dash Explorer

• Document Timestamps: Being able to record the creation or update time of any given document stored on Dash Platform has significant implications for many use cases. Furthermore, timestamping documents opens possibilities for application optimization, e.g. fetching only new/updated documents. Consequently, we have added two new optional, protocol-defined document properties, $createdAt and $updatedAt. These properties can be marked as required in a data contract, and values are set by the Dash SDK and validated against the Platform Chain block time. Filtering or sorting documents by creation or update time can be accomplished by designating these properties as indexes in a data contract. Dash Explorer
  
• New and Improved DAPI Client: Platform team developers completely rewrote DAPI Client to improve code quality, usability, and testability. In the new version, developers can specify exact DAPI node addresses or inject their own custom logic to obtain/select nodes, as opposed to only being able to use seeds. All DAPI Client methods accept the same options as the DAPIClient constructor, so developers can specify different behavior for each API call. Previously, faulty nodes were excluded for a specific API call. Now, faulty nodes are banned for a specific period of time which increments exponentially in the event of repeated faults.
• Platform Test Suite: Platform team developers have consolidated all Dash Platform functional and end-to-end (e2e) tests into one single tool. This tool ships as a docker image and allows developers to run tests against any platform compatible network or local node. In combination with the Distribution Package (mn-bootstrap), it has allowed the platform team to set up a comprehensive continuous integration workflow for platform components. This workflow makes testing integration of platform components significantly easier, speeds up development, makes release times more predictable, and fosters more robust, secure releases. Developers can read more about the test suite by visiting the Github repository: Platform Test Suite.
• Improved Distribution Package: The distribution package received many improvements with this release, especially for local development. To prepare your local standalone node, the platform team introduced the setup-for-local-development command, as well as two options for the start command that allows developers to build Drive and DAPI from source code, as opposed to the default, prebuilt Docker images. Dash Explorer
  

Conclusion

 

First and foremost, I’d like to thank the platform team for their continued effort and dedication to developing and releasing Dash Platform. I’d also like to thank the other DCG developers, as well as the developers organizing on the Dash Devs Discord for their ongoing effort to improve the quality of Dash Platform. As DCG continues in our mission to deliver true digital cash, thus realizing the revolutionary potential of blockchain-based financial networks, it’s important to take a moment and celebrate the time and energy that has gone into developing this cutting-edge technology. During DCG’s Q2 Quarterly Call, we committed to delivering Dash Platform to testnet by the end of the year. After this release, observers can expect four more releases before the delivery to testnet, upon which Dash Platform will enter a new phase of its product lifecycle, one defined by growth, promotion, and use case identification. Dash Explorer

Follow the Dash blog and social media channels for more releases and updates, and as usual, your thoughts, feedback, and pull requests are greatly appreciated. Dash Explorer