master core

Tag, you’re it!

craigsellars, , 5 Comments

With the recent v0.0.8.1 Master Core tag (build instructions, source and binary), we’re now way ahead of the game.

The Mastercoin Foundation is happy to announce the following major enhancements in the most recent build of Master Core, released yesterday: Secure Asset Issuances and Sends, Smart Property Adminstration and Pre-funded Simple Sends.  All live on Bitcoin mainnet.

As more and more companies and projects are considering crypto-asset issuances, we’ve worked to anticipate their needs and demands by adding security and management capability to assets created on the Master Protocol.  Serious issuers need serious control, and the community that accepts and uses these assets must know what the issuers can and will be able to do with their assets.  These new features not only build trust between issuers and users, but also provide a robust toolset that asset-backed issuers can leverage and rely upon for the security and flexibility of their assets.

Secure Asset Issuances
Using P2SH Multisig, Smart Property Asset Issuers can require multiple parties (M-of-N) to approve issuances and grants. This provides protection from a single compromised private key being abused, and will give users more comfort that asset issuers will maintain control of their asset.

Secure Sends
Multisig addresses are also now supported for receiving tokens, and conducting secure M-of-N sends to other recipients on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Smart Property Administration
On-demand grants and revokes of user-defined assets, allowing asset-backed tokens to regulate the number of tokens in circulation against their reserves of assets.

Asset ownership transfer (issuance rights, grant rights) allows the issuer to transfer their issuance and grant rights to another Bitcoin address (regular or multisig).

On testnet, we also have provided Send-to-Owners functionality, which allows an issuer to send a proportional amount of tokens to the holders of that token in a single transaction, based on the amount the holders have in their wallets at the time of transaction.  This allows for distribution of tokens on a proportional basis with a single Master Protocol transaction (and therefore a single Bitcoin miners fee, no matter the number of holders).

Optional pre-funded simple sends
Since all Bitcoin blockchain-based assets require some amount of BTC to be used on the network, we’ve added an optional attribute to Simple Sends to allow the sender to provide additional BTC to the recipient (so that the recipient can have BTC funds available for additional sends and other transactions).

Experimental User Interface (a high risk-tolerance required!)
While we won’t be distributing binaries of the Master Core user interface until next week, extremely aggressive and non-risk-averse testers are welcome to compile from source against the 0.0.8.1 build and play with the user interface in its current state.

While I hate to tease, I’m really excited about the progress of the UI, so here are some sneak peeks at the UI on each target platform:

Windows
Windows UI
OS X UI
OS X UI
Linux UI
Linux UI

Some other noteworthy additions to the 0.0.8.1 tag are better unconfirmed transaction support and better blockchain reorganization protection, not to mention additional RPC calls for retrieving information about transactions related to crowdsales and DEx purchases.

Omniwallet has also moved to the most recent tag and supports the new features.

Work began this week on a re-base to Bitcoin Core 0.9.3, which is going much smoother than one would anticipate from an important update in the Bitcoin reference client. Master Core tag 0.0.9 will be based on Bitcoin Core 0.9.3 (Master Core 0.0.8.1 is based on Bitcoin Core 0.9.2).

Next up are two major features that have been in high demand: MetaDEX (the meta-token decentralized exchange for all Master Protocol tokens) and Savings Addresses. As these get closer, we’ll have testnet RPCs and UIs to play with.

The pace is blistering over here in the blockchain – so many devs and so much code all building towards the most robust financial, contract and business logic platform on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Each day we add another group of integrators and innovators to the platform, and there are some major announcements in the wings.

If you have any questions, ask me anything. If you want to get involved, now’s the time – if you’ve been interested in developing an innovative new technology, or issuing your own smart property asset, the Master Protocol provides the tools you’re looking to leverage, and more is on the way.  If there are features you want to see, write ‘em up, send ‘em our way, or make a pull request against the Master Protocol Spec and we’ll get it into the queue.  Lots more coming, and community feedback is the driver!

Start your engines, masterminds!

Craig Sellars

CTO, MSC Foundation
craig (at) mastercoin.org

Tag, you’re it!

Technology Update: Tag and the Final Stretch

craigsellars,

One of our primary goals at the Mastercoin Foundation is to provide innovative solutions for unsolved problems, and to suit what we build to the needs of those who wish to use it.

This past week was just that: what do those who are integrating Master Core need from the platform, and how can we provide that in a timely, robust manner? On Monday, the Foundation released version 0.0.7 of Master Core, which was promptly gobbled up and integrated by a variety of exchanges, asset issuers and payment processors for their upcoming Master Protocol launches.

In this release, we added p2sh multi-sig for sends and asset issuances, a new way to issue assets that provided more flexibility for issuers, and lowered the required Bitcoin transaction fees to 1/5th of where they were originally. Integrators and testers have been busy hammering against these features on Bitcoin Testnet and the Mastercoin Test Ecosystem in preparation for the full-fledged live ecosystem mainnet release next week.

A few notable enhancements that were provided were for two major projects that will be launching within the next few weeks, and laying the groundwork for other major projects that will be launched within the next few months. Those include multi-sig security and send-to-owners functionality, and firming up the spec for Savings Addresses while tidying up the remaining MetaDEx functionality.

Integrators have provided amazing feedback on how to revoke issued tokens elegantly, how to make it more opaque to the end-user that Bitcoin 2.0 projects are riding on top of bitcoins as they move across the blockchain, and what kind of administration needs that asset issuers need to properly manage their asset portfolio. Some of these things are protocol-level, while others are interface and presentation to the end-user.

The 0.0.7 release can be downloaded here for any and all wishing to play with the last sneak peek before the official launch next week.

The MetaDEx (meta-coin decentralized exchange) will be the next major feature in Master Core after next week’s launch, and professional traders have provided input on how best to interact with it, and Omniwallet is being prepped to provide an easy-to-use user interface for you and me.

A write-up on the merits and utility of the decentralized exchange is in the works, and the information such an exchange can provide with the assets planned for launch in the coming weeks will begin to demonstrate the power of decentralization and smart contracts.

The final touches on the Master Core UI will be completed this weekend, and a Bitcoin Core-based downloadable wallet will be made available for all Master Protocol users.

Master Core Send UI

As usual, the development teams at Mastercoin have been hard at work polishing and testing these features so that they can have the greatest impact upon release. We’re excited that we’re on the home stretch, and we know that you’ll be impressed with what is delivered.

If you see the potential and want to join the journey, we firmly believe the more masterminds the better. Everyone is always invited to contribute, so please feel free to ask me anything, and to get involved. We’re getting more and more interested parties such as developers, issuers and innovators each week as we build momentum for the future of digital financial platforms.  Come join us.

Craig Sellars

CTO, MSC Foundation

craig (at) mastercoin.org

Technology Update: Tag and the Final Stretch

Master Core beta on August 1st

craigsellars, , , 1 Comment

You may have noticed that the countdown timer on mastercoin.org has been changed. Not the deadline, but what is going to happen when the counter reaches zero.

August 1st is Mastercoin’s first birthday. And just as when something begins to grow up and it begins to get its legs, so does this metaphor. We have an opportunity to provide a better platform, upon which we can build better features. The developers have convinced me that if the focus were on a single implementation, the half of the time that is spent working out consensus would be regained. We realized how quickly developers could adapt and create new features upon this new platform. We realized we could build a better MetaDEx on this new platform.

So we’ve decided to do that: instead of the MetaDEx being released on the legacy platform, on that day, we will present Master Core’s first official beta release, with testnet support. Happy Birthday, Masterminds!

tl;dr: coding it twice is silly, and doing it right takes a little bit more time. Master Core is the right way to get it done. (Master Core beta, followed by the MetaDEx is going to impress you.)

Current Master Core beta deliverable: August 1st.
Current MetaDEx deliverable: soon thereafter.

Master Core beta on August 1st