October 30, 2017

Masternodes Advertisement and Discovery Protocol

We are excited to announce the alpha release of the Stratis Masternode technology.

The Masternodes feature a Service Advertisement Protocol where services are registered on the blockchain and subsequently made discoverable by client applications.

Masternode Service Advertisement Protocol

This part of the protocol advertises that a Masternode hosts a particular service. It works as follows:

1. The Masternode operator chooses which services they wish to host then configures and starts the Masternode.

2. The Masternode performs a small micro transaction on Stratis mainnet which is committed to the blockchain in the normal manner.

3. The transaction includes a small amount of service specific tokenized data that is used by the Client Discovery Protocol. This data could be a standard internet address Uniform Resource Locator (url) or an IP Address, for example.

4. The Masternode monitors any changes to the data represented in the tokenized data and will perform a superseding update transaction if required.

Masternode Client Discovery Protocol

A client application, such as Breeze Wallet with the Breeze Privacy Protocol, can read the tokenized data on the blockchain as follows:

1. The client application includes a Stratis Blockchain technology component that receives blockchain blocks as they are added to the Stratis Mainnet blockchain. This is similar to a wallet that receives new blocks as it processes transactions.

2. The Stratis Blockchain technology component examines the transactions in the block and picks out the data.

3. The component passes this data to the main part of the application to be used for service connection or other application specific purposes.

Advantages

The decoupling described creates a robust, trustless, decentralized advertisement and discovery mechanism that is resistant to manipulation or censorship.

Masternode Support in the Breeze Privacy Protocol (powered by TumbleBit)

The Breeze Privacy Protocol is the first Stratis Service to support Stratis Masternodes. The Masternode release includes the Breeze Privacy Protocol Service. Here the Masternode Service Discovery Protocol is used to advertise the internet address of the Breeze Privacy Protocol Service hosted inside the Masternode. When a user of the Breeze Wallet wishes to use the Breeze Privacy Protocol, the application has available a list of Masternodes hosting the service which it has discovered through the Masternode Service Advertisement and Discovery Protocol.

Testnet and Mainnet

The release of the Stratis Masternode is configured for testnet however the Advertisement and Discovery Protocol is mainnet ready.

Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol (powered by TumbleBit)

Download and try the beta testnet version of Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol here and try connecting to our Masternode:

https://github.com/BreezeHub/Breeze/releases/tag/v0.2.0-privacy-alpha

Masternode Release

If you wish you can download and configure a Masternode yourself. The instructions and source code are available here:

https://github.com/BreezeHub/BreezeProject

Feedback

Please get in touch to provide your feedback. You will find us on Slack or come see us on GitHub.

October 23, 2017

Breeze Beta Release

The beta release of the Breeze wallet is now available and represents a significant milestone in our development roadmap schedule.
There has been extensive work undertaken since the alpha release in order to move the Breeze wallet to the beta status. A key development since the alpha release is the Breeze wallet now supports two currencies running side by side: Stratis and Bitcoin respectively.
The release encompasses user interface enhancements and provides updates with regards to stability.
Existing Breeze Wallet Holders
There have been a number of updates, therefore, any users which have an existing Breeze wallet will need to perform the following steps before starting the app:

Make sure you have your mnemonics and your passwords for these wallets

2. Delete all the files in the following folders:
%AppData%\StratisNode on Windows or ~/.stratisnode on MacOS and Linux

Choose wallet recovery on start-up and use your mnemonic and password

Breeze Wallet Download
The Breeze wallet is available to be downloaded from the below link:
https://github.com/stratisproject/Breeze/releases/tag/v0.2.0-beta

October 13, 2017

Product Development Update

We are well into Q4 and wish to share the progress on our exciting Q4 Product Development Roadmap. There have been great strides made since our last update and below is an insight into the key milestones achieved in our development so far.
Breeze Wallet
The upcoming Breeze Alpha 1.2 release enables running both Stratis and Bitcoin networks in parallel all while operating in full block SPV mode. Breeze being able to operate on multiple blockchains was one of the last tasks we had to complete before we could release the Breeze MasterNodes. This release will contain the MasterNode registration and discovery protocol, allowing:

Stratis and Bitcoin running side by side in Full Block SPV mode
Improved transaction details including confirmations
Improved privacy, randomized input selection
Fee estimation

The Breeze Alpha 1.2 release is scheduled for 23^rd October.

Stratis MasterNodes
The Breeze Node (MasterNode) alpha will be released on the 30^th October, which utilizes Stratis Blockchain technology to host secure, resilient and distributed services.
The MasterNodes allow operators to advertise the services they offer on the blockchain – which in turn are discoverable and consumed by clients such as the Breeze Wallet.
The release will include the first such service which is the Breeze Privacy Protocol (powered by TumbleBit). In order to allow a wide audience for the release, this test version will have no collateral lock down requirement.
The Stratis Breeze nodes will be the first MasterNodes that allow operators to earn Bitcoin, we are very excited about this release.

Stratis Full Node GUI

We have carried major updates to the Stratis Full Node and nStratis framework. Below are a few of the key developments undertaken by our Full Node team:

Proof of Stake code has been extensively tested and improved ensuring it is more robust and efficient
Interoperability testing with the soon to be legacy QT based StratisX wallet
Significant performance enhancements
Increased stability
Extending the test coverage

The Alpha release is on schedule for our Q4 deliverable.

Stratis Academy
The Stratis academy development process is nearing a MVP.
Our selection of a hybrid ‘Learning and Community’ management system will create a nurturing environment based on the education of blockchain, introduction of real world tech solutions and development of blockchain projects.
Stratis technology will be the base for developers to get introduced to and get involved with the blockchain. Content and course work is currently being compiled, further developed and produced.

September 20, 2017

Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol (Dev. Update)

Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol Released

(Powered by TumbleBit and Stratis Blockchain Technology)

Breeze Wallet with TumbleBit has a new name: Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol. Breeze Wallet will be the first wallet of its kind that will not only provide a fully featured crypto wallet, it will also include a unique coin shuffling and swapping technology. The protocol takes small denominations of bitcoins from a source wallet in Breeze, shuffles and swaps the coins with others, and then transfers those coins to a destination wallet.
The process is powered internally by TumbleBit to add privacy to your coins. It is likely to be used by discerning individuals and businesses that accept cryptocurrencies and do not want to leave traces that may reveal their customer and supplier lists.

Alpha Available Now

Stratis Internal and select community testing of Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol is complete and we’d like to offer you, our community, the opportunity to take a look, download and try the Alpha. The new wallet is available now for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu. Download details are available here: (https://github.com/BreezeHub/Breeze/blob/tumblebit-alpha/Breeze.Documentation/alpha/option1.md ). This release runs only on testnet and is an alpha/experimental release.
The work has focused on developing a smooth user experience as well as deep integration into the Stratis Blockchain Technology. There is no longer a need to run BitCoin Core alongside Breeze Wallet when using the protocol to shuffle and swap coins. That functionality is now completely provided by Stratis Blockchain technologies. This work moves us closer to our vision where MasterNodes provide discoverable services – such as the privacy protocol – to the Stratis network in a decentralized, scalable, trustless way.
We’d like to point out that the Breeze Privacy Protocol is a CPU intensive service and although we will be providing a test server, places on the server are limited and part of the goal of the community alpha is to stress the server. Please do not be disappointed if you cannot get on this server – we are working with our community to add more server power. If you are interested in running a server please get in touch.
We’d like to also extend a warm thank you to our dedicated community testing team who have done an excellent job helping to get Breeze and the core NTumbleBit technology to a solid alpha release state. A special mention to badass, zomertje, sigma, demon and kabbie. And lastly to all our capable development team across all functions. Last but not least thanks to Nicolas Dorier and the TumbleBit dev team from MIT. This was a team effort and you guys are awesome.

September 1, 2017

Breeze Wallet Alpha Release Postponed

We have just got word that the Breeze Wallet Alpha Release had to be postponed due to the fact that the development team has hit several issues running final tests. We apologize for the delay and want to share with you the official statement from the Breeze Wallet team:
As you know we are hard at work on the latest alpha release of Breeze. We are fortunate to be working with some of the leading cryptographers and developers in the crypto-currency space and occasionally their work and reviews surface integration delays and issues such as the one below. Rest assured that this is a normal part of our software development process and is designed to produce a high quality and secure product.
Please bear with us and look out for a new super-secure version of Breeze. Alpha coming soon.

A second bug we are currently addressing:

Thanks for your patience!
The Stratis Team

August 31, 2017

Stratis CTO’s Developer Update

Development Team Update: ( Dan Gershony / Stratis CTO )
I am happy to report that Stratis has grown quite a lot these last two months, with many new exciting projects and technical challenges. Today I want to share with you some details on how we are organizing to make Stratis the leading blockchain platform.
We have hired several developers (full/part time), product managers and we are actively seeking for experienced testers and QA specialists to review our products and processes. To accommodate our growing team, we have relocated to our new office in WeWork Moorgate London (please, come say hi!).

We have implemented Agile and Scrum methodologies across all our teams, and I encourage autonomous and self-managing teams working towards sprint goals. We operate as a decentralized company as the team members are from all around the globe (setting meetings can be sometimes tricky, and I really appreciate the devs that stay out to participate in meetings at really late hours! Also I want to thank all collaborators for your valuable contributions). At this point we have dedicated teams in the following areas:

Full Node

Dev Leader: Jeremy Bokobza (@jeremy)
Developers: Pieterjan Vanhoof (@dev0tion), Robert Carr (@robertcarr), @aprogenia, @fassadir, @mikedennis and @someguy

Breeze Wallet

Dev Leader: Carlton Pringle (@carlton)
Developers: Jeremy Bokobza (@jeremy), Pieterjan Vanhoof (@dev0tion), Kevin Loubser (@zeptin), Dan Gould (@dangould) and just joined Adam Ficsor (@nopara73)
UI: Benoît Philibert (@bep42)

Stratis PoC

Project Leader: Cesar Castro
Developers: Alexei Kogtev (@kogot) and Igor Goldobin (@fenix2222)
UI: Benoît Philibert (@bep42)

What we’ve been busy on?

Stratis Full Node

Achieving higher code quality and getting to production ready (for enterprise standard). We have been conducting extensive testing, but we still need to have a larger percent of unit tests coverage.
Extensive documentation and refactoring of code (improve internal node components).
Improve the node performance (this may not be a big deal for new blockchains).
Extending the Stratis test network to run a network of C# nodes for a period of time.
Ideally we need to get our C# node on an exchange (how and what currency is not yet clear) and on a block explorer.

Breeze Wallet

We have been putting a lot of time and resources into achieve higher code quality for the Breeze Wallet and its underlying technology – Tumblebit – integration in order to get it production ready for enterprise standards. Soon we will be publishing a full update from the Breeze Wallet team itself with all the details. At this point I will ask your support in helping us conduct extensive testing of the upcoming Breeze Wallet with Tumblebit Alpha release and share your experience with us. The sooner we have Breeze wallet sufficiently tested, the earlier we can release with full functionality on the mainnet.

Stratis Identity

Our Proof of Concept team has been working in creating our first proof of concept application – Stratis Identity. Soon to be released on the app stores it will provide a working app, and most important, the building blocks for developers to start creating applications around identity management and provenance utilizing the Stratis blockchain.

Sidechains and Smart Contracts

The end goal for the fullnode is to make it THE blockchain framework where all C# developers go to when they need to build a blockchain. It is becoming evident that in the near future there will be countless blockchains (analogues to websites, but maybe not at that scale) and developers will need easy to use frameworks to develop blockchains on them. Stratis aims to provide such a platform, we will create out of the box templates of a Stratis hybrid sidechain. Next, I will be publishing a paper on our sidechains approach and unique features.
For smart-contracts I have joined with Jean Lehmann (https://www.cybercapitalhq.com/team.html) a cyber security academic to help with writing a paper on how we can securely deliver smart-contracts on the Stratis node. This is a work on progress.
Smart contracts enable applying logic over ownership of assets on the blockchain, we will need to change some core components of our fullnode to support smarter logic over assets, the node is built mainly on top of Bitcoin with a limited smart-contract support. We may need to change NBitcoin and the way the Bitcoin protocol stores UTXO (the UTXO set will need to be extended to allow contracts access to a key value pair storage among other things).
We are also exploring executing C# scripts directly in a node environment (smart contract scripts in C#) using the Roslyn compiler.
Last but not least, it is very important to notice that we have streamlined the development planning process with the addition of a Agile Project Manager – Paul Aderonmu (@paul_stratis). With his help we have been putting together a fresh roadmap that can provide better visibility and tracking to the community and all interested in our tech development process. We will shortly be releasing a reviewed roadmap and improved tracking tools for all to use.
With the Breeze Wallet and our first PoC release around the corner these are indeed very exciting times for Stratis. Stay tuned for the upcoming news!
These are exciting times to be a developer!
Dan Gershony

July 21, 2017

BreezeHub is Here

This note is a contribution from our new team member Carlton Pringle (@carlton on Slack). One of the key missions in Carlton’s new role as Breeze / Tumblebit development Project Lead, is to coordinate the communications about progress in this exciting technology to internal teams, developers and the public at large.
As he gets more familiarized with the vision and accomplishments of our development team. He will be responsible for providing all the relevant updates and streamlining communications from the Breeze / Tumblebit team to our developers and general community.
Welcome Carlton and we wish you success in your key role, and without further ado… here is his first Breeze Update.

Facilitating Breeze Development Access

We want to simplify access and visibility for the Breeze Project, as we expect many peer reviews and collaborators to this exciting project now and in the future. To this aim we are launching the GitHub open source projects for Breeze / Tumblebit development under the auspices of Stratis.
BreezeHub hosts our TumbleBit Server Experimental build and showcases the Stratis secure node advertisement protocol, which will be utilized by the Breeze wallet to locate Breeze Tumblebit servers without the need for a centralized list. This is therefore a registration mechanism resistant to manipulation or censorship as it does not require trust in third parties.
Check out BreezeHub where you’ll find all our work on the TumbleBit Protocol in one place including code, documentation and all the latest info on the TumbleBit Server Experimental Build.
BreezeHub includes full instructions to walk you through the TumbleBit server installation. Give it a try and please reach out to our team of developers on Slack with your bug reports, suggestions, and comments.
Expect to see lots of activity on BreezeHub – including more incremental releases – as our vision of this exciting technology takes form.
BreezeHub on GitHub

BreezeHub is hosted on GitHub and can be found at https://github.com/BreezeHub.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to @zeptin and @dan.gould for their hard work on this and thanks @jeremy for your support.
TCP Server
This week also, Nicolas Dorier wrote a custom asp.net core server to replace the default Kestrel implementation that runs in asp.net core on Windows, Linux and OS X. This lightweight tcp server will be used within the TumbleBit Server in place of the previous http+json ptotocol to improve anonymity for TumbleBit users. It can be found here.

July 17, 2017

Breeze Tumblebit Server Experimental Release

Breeze TumbleBit Server is Ready to Test!
The highly anticipated alpha version of the Breeze TumbleBit Server has now been released for testing. As promised, we have been engaging in a process of incremental deliveries and in this opportunity we want to share some technical details of the release. We expect to provide even more details both from an user and an operator perspective in the weeks to come. So, stay tuned!
This release showcases the Stratis secure node advertisement protocol, which will be utilised by the Breeze wallet to locate Breeze Tumblebit servers without the need for a centralised list. This is therefore a trustless registration mechanism resistant to manipulation or censorship.
Node advertisement protocol
A high level overview of the protocol operations performed by each Breeze Tumblebit server is as follows:
1. The node operator starts up the Breeze Tumblebit Server software.
2. The node checks to see if it has registered itself on the Stratis blockchain before.
3. If it has, the tumbler service is initialised as normal.
4. If the node is not yet registered, or if its configuration has changed, the registration transaction updates and broadcast again.
Registration transaction

The registration transaction is a specially-formatted transaction broadcast by the Breeze Tumblebit Server to the Stratis network. In this release, the registration transactions are broadcast to the main Stratis blockchain.
Security features

The registration transaction contains the following information embedded inside it:
1. The IP address of the Breeze Tumblebit Server.
2. (Currently optional) TOR address of the server.
3. The port that wallets should use to connect.
4. All the information is signed by the tumbler’s private keys. This means that the signatures can be validated by a Breeze wallet when it connects to the Breeze Tumblebit Server. The registration protocol will greatly benefit from widespread testing by the Stratis community.
As this is alpha software, the tumbler is currently configured to only operate on the Bitcoin testnet. This is to prevent loss of funds in the event of errors. Once the tumbler is sufficiently stable a Bitcoin mainnet version will be released.
Please reach out to our team of developers on Slack with your bug reports, suggestions and comments.

June 30, 2017

Alpha Version of Breeze Wallet Released

The Stratis team is releasing today the highly anticipated alpha version of the Breeze Wallet on the BTC testnet. Grab the latest release on our Github.

As announced earlier this year, Breeze Wallet is a proof of concept on the utilization of C# / .Net programming languages into cryptocurrencies, combined with the Stratis Platform capabilities.

The Breeze wallet is the first full SPV Wallet written in C#. This initial version will allow to execute test transactions with Bitcoin (BTC) on the BTC testnet. From this alpha-release the development team expects to gather information about the user experience, and potential issues and bugs in the Breeze Wallet. These would then be addressed before offering a stable, ready for production version.
This marks a solid milestone in our roadmap towards releasing the full capabilities of the Breeze Wallet. Leveraging advancements with Tumblebit technology, the Stratis development team continues to make advances in the integration of advanced features into the Breeze Wallet such as enhanced privacy and scalability capabilities, Proof of Stake, among others.
We would appreciate the participation of our community in helping test and experience this release of the Breeze Wallet, so that we can take your observations into consideration.
Thank you for your support!

Acknowledgements: We want to thank our team members: Wallet developers – Pieterjan Vanhoof (@dev0tion), Jeremy Bokobza (@jeremy) – also our UI designer – Philibert Benoît (@bep42) and developer Dan Gershony (@dangershony), and the rest of the Stratis team for making this release possible today. Special thanks to our community members @Neurosploit, @quantumagia, @molopony, @DogaOztuzun, @detroitpro and all of the others that have helped.
Please report any issues to either the #csharp_development channel on our Discord or on the GitHub repo.

May 26, 2017

Breaking News: Stratis Mines 1st POS Block in C#

Hello Stratis!
We wanted to share with you a major milestone achieved by Stratis development.
We are happy to announce that we have mined the first Proof-of-stake block on the Stratis testnet blockchain utilizing our C# Full node.
This is the first documented and tested instance of a Proof-of-stake blockchain block mined in C#. Now the developers will combine the full node with the wallet layer developed for Breeze, our full node with POS will then be ready for a test release in approximately a week from now.

After this technical breakthrough, we still have a series of activities until we can have the first test releases to the community for comments and evaluation. Major tasks following this first achievement are:
Testing
Peer Reviews
3rd party audit
Industry expert audit (C# /.net)
This event puts us well ahead in our development plans according to our road map. Follow us in Slack and join our different development channels. We invite experts and developers interested in participating in the different stages of this process to create the most secure and popular C# POS Digital currency.

Masternodes Advertisement and Discovery Protocol

Breeze Beta Release

Product Development Update

Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol (Dev. Update)

Breeze Wallet with Breeze Privacy Protocol Released

(Powered by TumbleBit and Stratis Blockchain Technology)

Alpha Available Now

Breeze Wallet Alpha Release Postponed

Stratis CTO’s Developer Update

Full Node

Breeze Wallet

Stratis PoC

What we’ve been busy on?

Stratis Full Node

Breeze Wallet

Stratis Identity

Sidechains and Smart Contracts

BreezeHub is Here

Facilitating Breeze Development Access

Breeze Tumblebit Server Experimental Release

Alpha Version of Breeze Wallet Released

Breaking News: Stratis Mines 1st POS Block in C#

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