Reddcoin Weekly Development Update
Welcome again Reddheads to another weekly update of Reddcoin Development.
This last weeks efforts have continued to focus on the requirements for the ReddID and services.
Additionally, there has been a renewed interest overall with Reddcoin, which has seen some old wallets coming back online. This has required a bit of effort to help some users getting their wallets operating again.
Still there are some activities to complete on the v2 wallet before I am happy to create a more general release, with language translations forming the bulk of the work to do. Suffice to say, I am somewhat pedantic to make sure everything is covered, especially since our audience covers many different nationalities.
Some discussions have also been raised on how to create further incentive to promote and support the network. And do we have a plan for such activities?
New Wallet - RC1d development update
The work this last week has focused on network resilience and language files.
Some of the extreme testing done on testnet has been putting nodes off-line for extended periods so that they fall behind by greater than 24hrs, and then establishing the network again. Testing was passed.
Language translation is a focal point of mine for the release of the new wallet. And having an interface that can be read in your native language is a better user experience than relying on falling back to English. We live in a global village so the UI (user interface) should be accessible to all.
After reviewing past work, I think we can leverage some of the translation work done in BTC core to transfer into Reddcoin, and this will make the translation process more of a review for 22 language files which are 100% complete. Thanks thijs for the discussion on this
I will be putting some focus this week in getting the updated resources pushed to the transifex site
Translations
One of the activities that needs to be done is to review the current translations for Reddcoin V2.0. We follow the same procedure as Bitcoin, using a service by Traniflex to manage and maintain the translation files. As mentioned, I will be working on updating some of the resource files this week to help expedite the process.
We have already had a good start on the following languages
- French (100% completed)
- Dutch (82% completed)
- Russian (70% completed)
- Icelandic (88% completed)
- Finnish (63% completed)
- Filipino (5% completed)
I would also like to get some focus on the following languages, which for some will be a review of work already done:
- Ukrainian (44% completed)
- German (42% completed)
- Chinese (50% completed)
- Hindi (0% completed)
- Spanish (40% completed)
- Portuguese (45% completed)
Of course your welcome to contribute to any other of the languages as well.
We currently have 60 languages on file, and you can add to this if needed (Klingon anyone??)
PM me if you are interested (we have already had some starters)
ReddID Updates
I have been keeping generally pretty quite on the progress of ReddID as I want to focus on getting the core wallet completed. That said, there is still some good progress occurring and the basic functionality is now available including backend services, an API to integrate with (3rd Party services) and integrating with wallet services. There is still a ways to go, but I am excited by the progress being made.
Getting involved
Community awareness is still increasing at a steady rate, and statistically we are back at the levels seen in early 2015. The number of active nodes, google search trends and Reddcoin marketcap have all been increasing from October 2015. The big difference is the trend is in a positive direction.
Some of my goals this year are to increase traffic to each of our forum areas (including Reddit, ReddCoinTalk
2 weeks ago we experienced a small blip on the exchanges, and this was followed again by another blip this week where nearly 900BTC was traded on Poloniex during the 24hrs on Apr 2.
I am looking forward to an exciting year in 2016.
If you would like to get involved and dont know where to start, reach out and we will see where you can jump in
Rewards + Full-Nodes + Network Support
I am going to borrow the title from the posting on Reddit since it was raised there this week by appleluckyapple (/u/appleluckyapple)
When PoSV was introduced to the community in August 2014, it was done with a built in reward rate of approximately 5% per annum return on staking. It is considered a modest inflation rate in which to reward users who continue to keep their wallets online and staking.
The questions raised was if there is consideration for any of the following
- Boosting the reward for staking
- Introducing staking requirements for boosted rewards (similar to masternodes)
- Incentivizing network support
This could form the basis of a very long thread, but it is worth discussing so you know where the teams headspace is at. These very questions are often on our minds when we consider the on going health of the network
At the current exchange rate of 9-10sat with 100MM coins staking you would earn approx 5MM RDD which at todays rates would be $USD210 (assuming no change in the exchange rate)
So it would cost an initial $USD4172 to purchase 100MM RDD, with a return of $USD210.
Interest is compounded
In Australia a return from the banks at this rate would be considered very generous (typically rates are 1.5% - 3%).
In Russia, you can get up to 10%
And in UK, you could expect to get 1.4%
It is my opinion, that 5% is a healthy middle ground, that provides some reward to operators of staking nodes. As indicated, you do need to be staking a reasonable amount to get any significant return.
But, is it enough??
If you consider for a moment, running a full Bitcoin node, you could expect to earn 0 BTC for your outlay. Which I think is one of the failings of the Bitcoin eco-system. There should also be an incentive for operators to support their full node requirements. Bitcoin miners receive the proceeds of mining a block, AND the transaction fees.
With Reddcoin, we have combined the functions. Node operators can be both ‘miners’ and full node operators. We don’t need expensive mining equipment, with a home PC or even RaspberryPI being sufficient to handle the task of being a full node and staking. Additionally, when staking, if you stake a block that contains transaction fees, you also receive those fees.
How could this be increased??
One of the goals of the ReddID implementation is to provide a method to fund additional payments into the network.
Since the ReddID system was first announced Social-X architecture by Laudney, I have been thinking on a deeper enhanced solution to improve the support of the network.
In regards to this discussion, I would like to single out the items regarding ReddID registration fees. This list differs somewhat from the original proposal.
- ReddID registrations will cost Reddcoins. The cost for a registration will vary depending on a number of factors such as the length of the username, the combination of numbers/letters/vowels used. For example, we expect popular names like tom to cost at least 7 figure.
- ReddID registration fees goes to the Reddhead who successfully mints the PoSV block that verifies and confirms the registration. In a sense, it will feel like a lottery. And this is why this service doesn’t make sense for any PoW coin where each block is pool-mined.
- A PoSV block can contain multiple ReddID registrations (can receive multiple fees for staking a block).
- In order to support the network and ongoing development a small percentage going to the ReddID node operators and developers
- ReddIDs can be transferred to new owners, there by establishing a market
- ReddIDs auto-expire annually and can be renewed.
- Small Reddcoin holders, as long as they keep staking can receive surprising large fees by staking a high value registration.
The overall goal is to create a dynamic crypto ecosystem to enhance the PoSV system and provide a means to transfer value between users.
The future
Although I did not touch on any of the points presented in the Reddit OP. I would not dismiss any of the ideas as not being valid, each has merit in their own right.
I have not presented a roadmap yet for Reddcoin, but 2016 has a lot to offer. With the new wallet, ReddID and tipping platform we have some exciting features to launch this year.
In Closing
Every week that passes a little more gets achieved, between the efforts of the Core team and the contributing community members we are getting a lot done. Sometimes it is hard to see this if you are not seeing the output (new exes, source code, etc) but it all will arrive in good time. Going into this week, I hope to tick off a few more from of my activities list.
Where ever you are, enjoy your week ahead
Keep on staking!