Lisk Core

1.5.0 was released to Mainnet on March 6th and includes a brand new database layer.

After the second release candidate to Testnet — 1.5.0-rc.2, we have spotted no further regressions, therefore we released 1.5.0 to Mainnet. This means that the following objectives from the “Architecture and Design” phase of our Development Roadmap are now completed:

• “Use a consistent and informative versioning scheme” — its purpose was to create a versioning scheme that differentiates the protocol version from the software version. Peers now have a new header attribute called `protocolVersion` additionally to the previously existing `version` attribute. The `version` attribute now only represents the software version keeping `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH` notation defined by the Semverspecification. The `protocolVersion` attribute represents the protocol version and follows the `H.S` notation proposed by the LIP0007, where `H` represents the number of hard forks and `S` represents the number of soft forks since the last hard fork.
• “Implement extensible data persistence model” — this objective’s purpose was to create a flexible and extendable data persistence model that could be used across the whole application using the same predefined interfaces. To achieve this, a new storage layer was implemented exposing a common interface for every entity and making it extendable by adding new functionalities when required. That means now the storage layer is decoupled from the application and can be easily replaced if the same interfaces are implemented. Each entity implements the CRUD operations and has a list of filters auto-generated based on the field types. The filters are very flexible and allow to mix `AND` and `OR` combinators by using objects and an array of objects. You can read more about this here.

1.6.0 is in the final stages of development, continues work on the new modular architecture.

Over the last two weeks, we focused on cleaning the code after the vast changes from “Introducing a new flexible, resilient and modular architecture for Lisk Core” roadmap objective, which has resulted in 20 issues closed. Adapting dependent projects to the new modular structure has already been finished.

After the Storage Component was isolated to only contain getter operations, we decided to export all the storage functionalities by centralizing the interface to provide modules with all the Storage utilities and avoid them to access the component files directly. This way modules can extend and utilize Entities, Adapters, Error messages and Utilities already implemented by the Storage component.

More refactoring was done in both `Chain` and `HttpApi` modules seeking for a better separation of concerns and decoupling the code when possible. With the new modular architecture, each module should have a clear responsibility and only communicate with other modules through messages using channels.

Improvements on how packaged scripts and configurations are used were also finalized. Some of the scripts and configuration files under the `packaged` directory in the LiskHQ/lisk-scripts repository were directly related and used in Lisk Core to manage binary builds and configure dependencies. These included Redis but needed to be downloaded during the build process. Now they were moved to the Lisk Core repository under the folder `build/target/` keeping it in the same place as it is used. The other scripts in LiskHQ/lisk-scripts will still stay separated from Lisk Core repository as they are used to bootstrap a Lisk Core installation and are (mostly) version independent.

Work on the three remaining steps for “Introduce a new flexible, resilient and modular architecture for Lisk Core” continues and is expected to finish within the next week. Those three steps are:

1. Lisk Framework unit tests coverage
2. Loading modules as child processes
3. Updates to Lisk Core documentation

1.7.0 development is in progress, will conclude integration of Element’s libraries.

The work on the configuration with the overall aim to make Lisk Framework extensible, accessible and easy to use by external developers is moved to Lisk Core 1.7.0.

Within it, a GitHub milestone “Improve transaction efficiency” is still in progress. We have mostly finished implementing this feature by using Lisk Elements libraries, and now are fixing the tests and adding the missing feature back to Elements. A parent issue “Integrate @liskhq/lisk-p2p module in chain module” is currently being worked on. We have created a new network module which wraps the @liskhq/lisk-p2p library, and are currently replacing network usages in the application.

We are also preparing a significant change regarding the structuring of 1.7.0 and the following releases. We are planning to announce the change in the next Lisk Dev Update.

Lisk Elements & Commander

Lisk Elements 2.1.0 is finalizing integration of three libraries into Core 1.7.0.

As stated above, we continue to focus on the integration of three libraries into Lisk Core 1.7.0. We have fixed several bugs and added improvements including minor interface changes with the feedback gathered during Lisk Core 1.7.0’s integration so far. This work will continue until the integration to Lisk Core 1.7.0 is completed. The following libraries will now be used in Lisk Core:

• Transaction extends the functionality for Core to be able to process transactions and lays down the basis of custom transactions for the future SDK.
• Transaction-pool where transactions are held prior to being written to the block.
• P2P lays down the basis for LIP-0004 by creating the initial version of the library that is compatible with the current Core.

Lisk Commander 2.2.0 is nearly finished implementing new node functionalities.

This upcoming version of Commander has been making great progress for Roadmap objectives “Add node dependency/management/configuration commands” and “Add node migration/upgrade commands”. We have finished implementing main features including “node:install”, “node:uninstall”, “node:start”, “node:stop”, “node:status” and “node:list”. Now we are working on finishing the last two commands — “node:upgrade” and “node:migrate”. Once we finish the work on the last two commands, we will go back and improve the UI/UX of the commands. The production version of 2.2.0 is planned to be released with Lisk Core 1.7.0.

Lisk Hub

1.12.0 introduces a transaction filter, new passphrase length option and continues design rollout.

1.12.0 was released as planned on Wednesday, March 6th. With this version of our network dashboard and blockchain wallet, we have introduced the following changes:

1. New transaction filter allows you to filter your transactions by the custom message.
2. 2. We continue the rollout of the new UI/UX design with a new ‘Request LSK’ dropdown.
3. 3. We have included an option to extend you passphrase to 24 words.

We also added an option to the login page in order to accommodate users who have generated a longer passphrase than standard the 12 words that Lisk Hub (and previously Lisk Nano) use when creating a new account. The 12 word passphrase is of sufficient length to make your LSK secure, but if some users want a longer combination, they can now choose a longer passphrase in Lisk Hub.

1.13.0 will bring more transaction filters and a new transaction details page.

This version of Hub is currently in beta and the final release is scheduled for next week. We implemented more options for filtering transactions in the wallet so that users can find any particular transaction more easily. Users now can filter transactions also by minimum and the maximum amount of LSK sent, as well as by earliest and latest date of when the transaction might have occurred.

In this upcoming release, we have updated the transaction details page. Now the new design so that now user clicking on one row in the wallet page transactions list no longer goes to the old design. This page is specialized for each of major transaction types — transfer, vote, delegate registration, and second passphrase registration.

We also added a new “Terms of Use” page, on which all users are obliged to accept “Lisk Terms of Use” before being able to use Lisk Hub.

We are also making further improvements to the Wallet page. “Wallet overview” module was added — it displays these numbers about the account: account balance, last transaction, and balance change since the last visit.

1.14.0 will include another account and ‘send LSK’ pages in the new design.

We are currently working on the implementation of another account page to the new UI and UX. And also improving the look and UX of send LSK process and the search field in the top bar. We have also decided to postpone the rollout of the foundations for the new custom extension module system for further releases in order to run further internal testing. Keep an eye out for the new custom extension module system announcements in future LiskDevUpdates.

Lisk Mobile

1.0.0 will introduce multi-coin support, starting with BTC integration.

Given that 1.0.0 marks the second major release for our mobile wallet, this version takes two sprints instead of one (four weeks in total). As disclosed in the previous Lisk Dev Update, we are refactoring most of the core functionality to facilitate multi-currency support, starting with Bitcoin. This will allow us to easily communicate with other blockchains, retrieve the accounts and transactions information and store them locally in order to present them to the user. The Bitcoin integration in Lisk Mobile will allow users to manage their Bitcoin assets from inside the application by using the addresses derived by their mnemonic passphrase. There were multiple reasons for implementing this feature starting with comprehensive research, including competitor analysis, and community feedback/requests to include multi-currency support. Additionally, Bitcoin is the most widely used cryptocurrency in the industry — by integrating it into our mobile application, we are inviting a much larger userbase into the Lisk ecosystem.

We’ve also recently asked our community for their thoughts on the features they would like to see implemented in Lisk Mobile. We are happy to announce the results of the survey are now live on Reddit. Here’s a sneak preview of the findings, showing a significant demand for multi-currency support among our community:

For the full survey findings, head to our Reddit page!

Thanks for keeping up with the latest developments here at Lightcurve. The next two weeks will see us progress further through various objectives on the roadmap as well as produce multiple releases across our product suite.

Lightcurve Development Team

Lisk empowers individuals to create a more decentralized, efficient and transparent global economy. We welcome you to join us in our mission:

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