The website shows NightTrader has a current estimated development stage of 70%. How long is it likely to be before it's complete?
Well that was a couple years ago when I first had the beta client and thus smart contracts. The protocol at the time was microtrading. In theory you can already do decentralized exchange by putting a deposit in Blackcoin and microtrading LTC for DOGE or BTC for ETH etc.
However, I realized waiting for Bitcoin confirmations can be excruciating. A few times I've had to wait 24 hours for a confirmation. So when I imagined doing an actual automated microtrader on top of an orderbook either built on the decentralized markets or run a server, it dawned on me that it might not get used. That is a big problem because its like 1000s of hours of work at least. And work for a protocol that bloats the chain and is inefficient and not conducive to the fast paced consumer demands.
So NightTrader I need to change that part. It's not 70% done because I'm not going to be doing microtrading. This has been discussed a few times here.
The best method for doing decentralized exchange is probably Atomic Trading using checklocktimeverify. But for that we need a web based front end that probably doesn't run through Halo wallet simply because users don't want to download software, they want to trade from their phones and private keys would be based on long passwords.
But even checklocktimeverify needs to wait for Bitcoin confirmations to perform a trade. Its a pretty big undertaking. So unless a microtrader is set up as a template in Python contracts NightTrader is on hold until the protocol is decided.
Like I said I'm leaning towards Atomic Trade. Atomic trade has some other drawbacks. One being any coin wishing to be on the exchange must fork and add checklocktimeverify. Luckily several do have it. But many popular coins don't and might not want to do that.
There is also multisignature exchange which was another one of my original designs. But then I realized if I'm the exchange I hold liability and that was a very dangerous proposition. Basically because a multisignature exchange can still be hacked. Although your coins are not in jeopardy any unpaid IOUs are in jeopardy because when a transaction is sent to the exchange it is sent as sighash single like a blank check (only the change is paid back to the original wallet) so the exchange can double spend by spoofing the buyers or sellers side. Also the exchange could get hacked and face the same fate.
Granted that attack is like 10 times more complex than a normal exchange hack but its totally possible. And only live trades are jeopardized not the entire balance.
Also the lightning network has the same horrible flaw (collusion and hacking). In fact the only way lightning works is with extremely rich holders routing payments. Since all payments should be cleared immediately if it exceeds what you are owed and especially if the routing multisig joint partner isn't holding enough physical cash. I raised this point to r/Bitcoin and got yelled at for it so I don't even bother to post there anymore... lol
So I abandoned multisig structures as the liability is too high and now am thinking of if its worth it to pursue Atomic Trade because trades would still be live, we can't do IOUs and it can be a bit arduous to wait for Bitcoin confirmations. But it is still very possible, it would be like 1000s of hours of engineering though so for now, I finished the client itself... low hanging fruit.
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