Lisk Roadmap

Lisk’s goal has always been to bring accessibility to the world of blockchain through its products and services. If we are going to achieve it, something to help illustrate the direction of the project is needed.

Setting clear goals and breaking down phases of development helps everyone stay in sync. That’s why we worked hard to provide you with a precise Lisk development roadmap.

Completed phases of the Lisk Roadmap

Phase: Quartz

(01 Jan 2016 - 24 May 2016)

Since the day Lisk was created, it has continued on its ever-evolving journey with continual expansion. To this end, many new elements and components were produced in the Quartz phase, from adding a transaction pool and a multi-signature system to introducing LSK token block rewards for delegates.

This first phase of the Lisk Roadmap concluded on 24th May 2016 and its achievements included Lisk Core v0, the MVP and launch of the Lisk network This was just the beginning.

Improvements:

  • Create initial Lisk Core code basis to begin platform development
  • Create initial wallet Lisk UI
  • Create initial blockchain explorer Lisk Explorer
  • Create initial Lisk coin Faucet
  • Add transaction pool system
  • Add multi-signature system
  • Add block rewards system

Phase: Amber

(24 May 2016 - 16 Aug 2018)

We accomplished many positive changes and updates during this time, like creating the minimal wallet Lisk Nano and the command-line tool Lisk Commander. Lisk Elements, a suite of useful blockchain libraries was also launched. Next to that we added stability and performance improvements, resulting in a secure and stable Lisk network. This phase concluded on August 16th, 2018.

Improvements:

  • Create minimal wallet Lisk Nano
  • Create command-line wallet Lisk Commander
  • Create blockchain library suite Lisk Elements
  • Improve scalability with change of database from SQLite to PostgreSQL
  • Add support for verified database snapshots
  • Add database migration system
  • Improve scalability with improved P2P mechanism
  • Add broadcasting mechanism
  • Add application benchmarking functionality
  • Add minimum version support
  • Add block versioning mechanism
  • Add fork recovery mechanism
  • Improve API architecture
  • Add delegate passphrase encryption
  • Complete multi-signature functionality
  • Add data field to balance transfers

Phase: Ruby

(16 Aug 2018 - 23 Jul 2019)

The result of this phase was a flexible, resilient, and modular architecture for the Lisk SDK. Accessibility is the primary focus of the Lisk project, and it's paramount for the Lisk SDK to meet the needs of developers as we work towards onboarding 100 Million people into Blockchain.

Furthermore, to complement this transformational phase in our journey, Lisk Elements and Lisk Commander were migrated to TypeScript. Improved wallets for desktop and mobile were introduced, together with the establishment of the Lisk SDK. This marks the first step for Lisk to be a blockchain application platform.

Improvements:

  • Create new desktop wallet Lisk Desktop
  • Create new mobile wallet Lisk Mobile
  • Setup mono repository structure
  • Use a consistent and informative versioning scheme
  • Move build system directly into Lisk Core
  • Move Docker integration directly into Lisk Core
  • Facilitate single installation for all networks
  • Introduce flexible, resilient and modular architecture for Lisk Core
  • Create application framework Lisk Framework
  • Add sodium-native support
  • Implement consistent error handling
  • Add configuration migration system
  • Improve API & vote verification performance
  • Add multi-signature transaction fetch & sign commands
  • Migrate Lisk Elements to TypeScript
  • Create transactions element
  • Create transaction pool element
  • Migrate Lisk Commander to TypeScript
  • Add vote and voter listing commands
  • Add node dependency, management, configuration commands
  • Create software development kit Lisk SDK including Lisk Framework, Lisk Elements and Lisk Commander

Phase: Emerald

(23 July 2019 - 21 Aug 2021)

During Emerald phase we were working on developing new protocol enhancements, which make significant improvements by augmenting the Lisk SDK and Lisk Core.

This phase improved the critical areas of network security and reliability, economics, consensus, and longevity. A new address system, fee system, and an upgrade to the Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm were completed. During the Emerald phase, all protocol improvements were thoroughly researched before implementation. It resulted in the publication of 36 Lisk Improvement Proposals (LIPs).

Improvements:

  • Introduce robust peer selection and banning mechanism
  • Remove redundant properties in transactions
  • Mitigate transaction replay on different chains
  • Change consensus protocol to add block finality
  • Change to byte based block size limit
  • Replace static fees with dynamic fee system
  • Implement fee estimation algorithm for dynamic fees
  • Simplify transaction validity rules within blocks
  • Enable transaction invalidation
  • Improve multi-signature solution
  • Uniform ordering of delegates list
  • Change voting system
  • Incentivize standby delegates
  • Punish protocol violations by delegates
  • Replace address system
  • Replace block ID system
  • Replace transaction ID system
  • Introduce an authenticated data structure
  • Introduce universal serialization method
  • Remove pre-hashing for block and transaction signatures
  • Introduce transaction properties moduleID and assetID
  • Introduce decentralized re-genesis

Phase: Sapphire

(22 Aug 2021 - 5 Dec 2023)

The Sapphire phase began with the launch of Lisk Core 3.0 in late August 2021. Several months of beta testing lead up to the transition. The hard fork patch was the most extensive upgrade to date and was performed flawlessly on Lisk’s network.

The Lisk interoperability solution is fully researched and all Lisk Improvement Proposals (LIPs) are published. The successful implementation will mark the official launch of the Lisk blockchain application platform.

Improvements:

  • Define cross-chain messaging protocol
  • Define sidechain registration and lifecycle
  • Introduce token standards for ecosystem
  • Introduce alternative validator selection mechanism for sidechains
  • Enhance signature scheme
  • Define state model and state root
  • Update Lisk-BFT for interoperability
  • Update block header format
In this article

Phase: Quartz

Phase: Amber

Phase: Ruby

Phase: Emerald

Phase: Sapphire