Topic: [ANN] Ergo: A Resilient Platform for Contractual Money [PoW - Autolykos] - page 9. (Read 7086 times)

Bypassing Non-Outsourceable Proof-of-Work Schemes Using Collateralized Smart Contracts: A Chepurnoy, A Saxena

https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/044

Introducing the Ergo Foundation, a community-driven entity

https://ergoplatform.org/en/foundation/

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1218174658521989120

Security Audit (by Jean Philippe Aumasson)

https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2020_01_12_security_audit/

Ergo Mainnet 3.2.0 released

Attention! This version contains breaking changes in database structure, so please remove "state", "history", "wallet/registry" in your data folder (.ergo by default), and do re-sync. If you did not make derived keys, you can delete the whole folder and recover from mnemonic. Please unlock wallet before the height of the first tokens retrieval!

Main changes:

PR #969 , #1011 - LevelDB is used now for storing the state (UTXO set + authenticated AVL+ tree on top of it)
PR #1004 - a fix for light mode with blocksToKeep set (pruning switched on)
Additionally (fixes for minor issues not related to client functionality):

PR #1010 - support for native-image generation in ergo-wallet
PR #997 - from now every new release will be checked for bootstrapping in 3 full-node regimes (w. UTXO set, w/out UTXO set, w/out UTXO set and blockchain pruning)
PR #1014 - improvements and fixes in ergo-installer.sh
PR #1015 - fix for Docker build
PR #1016 - fix for empty gitHeadCommit (minor building issue)


https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/releases/tag/v3.2.0

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1214608612288585730

"Make Your Own Ergo Wallet: Managing Ergo Coins with ErgoTool"

https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2019_12_31_ergo_tool/

https://twitter.com/avslesarenko/status/1211956953083240448

"Coinbarn wallet now has its desktop version"

https://twitter.com/coinbarn/status/1211026427686064133

New tutorial: "Mining Ergo for Fun and Profit"

https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/wiki/Mining-Ergo-for-Fun-and-Profit

Updated manual: "How to set up and configure a full Ergo node"

https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/wiki/Set-up-a-full-node

Ergo Mainnet 3.1.5 released - Node UI (/panel) updated, cross-build for Scala 2.11 and few fixes. Details in the description of the release

https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/releases/tag/v3.1.5

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1207716918116978690

The Ergo Cast: Understanding Ergo One Episode at a Time. The Ergo ecosystem’s premier podcast https://ergocast.io 🔥

https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2019_12_16_podcast/

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1207253475026972672

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybtWmbBfcOM

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1207339456220585984

AMA transcript: https://medium.com/gains-associates/ergo-telegram-ama-december-12-13db412331cd

"Welcoming Ergo Platform — Telegram AMA - 1000 ERGs of prizes split between 10 winners: 3 on Twitter beforehand and 7 on Telegram (https://t.me/GainsChat) on D-day"

https://t.me/GainsChat

https://twitter.com/GainsAssociates/status/1204406021805891585

Actually the post above from mx is a good update: we have new release, new client library and new tutorials. Much more in progress, in particular, more text & video content is coming, as well as new applications!

Also let me post here the following text here I put into TG group few days ago. It is about long-term value of the Ergo token:

I checked some PoW coins recently. ETH is going to roll out its 8th hardfork, changing difficulty bomb rules for 3rd(or 4th?) time and only ~40% of nodes are ready for the fork. Monero just changed its PoW along with some other things, gosh, I don't really know how many hardforks they've done through. ZCash is also hardforking often, also experienced inflation bug happened in the protocol published in peer-reviewed paper then implemented, audited etc. Some PoW coins are even going to switch to PoS. Ergo is following the Bitcoin path: no hardforks, minimum intervention into protocol. Then you're buying reduced set of assumptions with minimized human intervention, basically that:

    * hash function is collision-resistant
    * DLOG problem is hard (in a certain group)
    * majority of miners do follow the protocol

So you're not buying that Vitalik and friends will do proper decisions all the time or anything like that.
However, Ergo also takes into account past years experience and trying to get maximum out of cheap tools (like sigma protocols which is actually quite old cryptography from 90's relying in the simplest cases on the same DLOG): ring and threshold sigs and other crypto protocols (like the non-interactive mixing scheme), multi-stage contracts in the UTXO model, stateless clients, storage rent etc. So no need to discuss Schnorr sigs, they are already here. No need to discuss blocksize, miners can change it a little bit if majority of them are okay (and users can catch with them anyway with full-node security but maybe without UTXO set in extreme cases). No need to discuss 40 or 80 bytes for OP_RETURN payload, take 400 but pay for them (every four years). So hopefully it will be possible to disconnect from the network for years and then catch up with the current state of it without software update. And with ultra-compact client Ergo can deliver store-of-value even to Kashmir which is disconnected from the Internet for four months currently (https://www.ergoforum.org/t/e-mail-client-for-limited-or-blocked-internet/134).So even for simple HODLing Ergo should be perfect. But Ergo also allows to do contracts on top of the native SoV token and created monetary systems with different properties (if you need for something in addition to SoV, e.g. some stablecoin).

Ergo Mainnet 3.1.4 released  This minor release includes new API method /script/executeWithContext and new integration tests.

https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/releases/tag/v3.1.4

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1202253909869441025

The Typescript library for Ergo with the support of custom tokens and complex transactions.

https://github.com/coinbarn/ergo-ts

https://twitter.com/coinbarn/status/1202195454672482305

Simplified tutorial for new users - How to set up and configure a full Ergo node

https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2019_12_03_how_to_setup/

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1201957291269988352

Appkit: A Library for Polyglot Development of Ergo Applications

https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2019_12_03_top5/

https://twitter.com/avslesarenko/status/1201935368452558848

Hi everyone, good time for another update  


Asian tour postponed till February or March due to cancellation of Proof-of-Value conference (and also our partners in shanghai pulled out of joint meetups, it seems now it is not good time to do events in Shanghai).

Spent some time over the weekend to read about popular PoW coins. I wasn't impressed at all! Some are planning or have done recently hard-forks to change monetary policy, PoW function or even to replace PoW with some other consensus. How long-term investors can trust them? Hardforks could be done only to fix critical security vulnerabilities not to please wishful thinking of devs not done their homework before the launch properly.

Please note that Ergo is for long-term HODLing, thus there's commitment (clearly formulated in the whitepaper) to avoid hardforks.

There's also need to make Ergo more friendly to long-term usage by introducing better tutorials, lighter clients and applications (to make valuable things with the digital gold, such as financial apps, derivative instruments, mixing etc), and that's we're are working on. More details below.

There's also new and good introduction to Ergo, please check and distribute: https://thecryptoassociate.com/what-is-ergo/

Trading
-----------

Our exchange guys are now targeting bigger exchanges, and talks are not going fast for this case. So no concrete news to announce at the moment, but there's progress here.

HODLing
-----------

For helping users running fullnodes, we're going to publish new tutorials in coming days. It is much easier to run a node now that few months ago, but there are no new tutorials on that at the moment. Also, we'll explain soon how to run a lighter node which is not holding UTXO set but still have full-node security guarantees (based on https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/994).


BUIDLing
-------------

 With initial applications done in September-October (Ergo Notary, Ergo Crowdfunding CLI, Ergo Oracle) it became obvious that better support for custom tracking rules could help
external applications a lot. Version 3.2.0 implementing EIP-1 (https://github.com/ergoplatform/eips/blob/master/eip-0001.md) is about that. It is conceptually done, it requires just more testing, polishing and documentation.

A tutorial is coming on Ergo AppKit (https://github.com/aslesarenko/ergo-appkit/).

More
-------

3.1.4 version is finalized and merged: https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/pull/980 . The release will be done tomorrow.  This version is not big about new functionality per se but is a good preparation for 3.2.0 internally.  


Collateralized and semi-decentralized pool is mostly ready, as reported by its devs, private testing is to be started within few days.

Thanks a lot! Is it your resource or you just posted the news there?

3.1.4 is postponed a bit, as we want to include more optimizations and features into it. At the same time, good progress is done with 3.2.0. It will have much faster bootstrapping (~3-4x improvement on my laptop with HDD) and also support for external applications (EIP-1 https://github.com/ergoplatform/eips/blob/master/eip-0001.md ).

New Asian tour will take place from Dec, 4th till Dec, 11th and will include events in Shanghai (some private event and one event to be announced), HangZhou (Zhejian university), Beijing (Tsinghua university), and Seoul. Details will be announced in coming days.

Pool (with collaterals and need to run node on miner's side) is mostly ready as reported by its development team, private tests will be started around this weekend. If you are willing to help with a mining rig please write me.

To simplify installing and running the node, new versions will have an installer script, so it will be possible to get working node with a proper config by just running one script (in Linux):

Update from 15.11.2019
===============

EFYTs Buyback
----------------------

Currently, all the sell orders fulfilled, even more, at the moment of writing this post there's a buy order of 16+K. So the Foundation is swapping the tokens successfully!

Events:
-----------

I'm going to this event in Istanbul tomorrow: "EuroAsia Cryptocurrency Investment Summit" https://www.eventbrite.com/e/euroasia-cryptocurrency-investment-summit-tickets-74541833631 . If you're around let's get in touch!

In December we're going to China again, Proof-of-Value conference (I'll be on a panel there) and meetup @ Zhejiang university at least. More tour events to be announced.


Ecosystem Decentralization & Anti-fragility:
----------------------------------------------------------------

A repository is started to discuss community and development practices, please help us with that!
 https://github.com/ergoplatform/community/issue and https://github.com/ergoplatform/community/pulls

Core Development:
----------------------------

3.1.4 will be out next week, 3.2.0 in progress.

We have many new bounties for writing manuals etc please help us https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo/issues

App Development:
---------------------------

Appkit library to develop application with different languages is released: https://github.com/aslesarenko/ergo-appkit . Soon it will be more documentation and examples!

Core has support for decentralized pools now, and the development of the first pool is making good progress (will be released before NY hopefully).

Contract examples for bonds based on Ergo https://www.ergoforum.org/t/bonds-based-on-ergo-or-the-yield-protocol/128 (similar to the Yield protocol http://research.paradigm.xyz/Yield.pdf )

There's a team working on LETS implementation.

In the next update it will be more details on new wallets coming!

Please update AMD miner, it contains a bugfix!

https://github.com/mhssamadani/ergoAMDminer

Appkit: A Library for Polyglot Development of Ergo Applications

https://github.com/aslesarenko/ergo-appkit

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1192311361361076229

Please try the new simplified ui (in 3.1.3 release) and let us know how the UI can be improved (you can do this by opening a new Github issue)



Roadmap for next versions:
3.1.x - improved serialization, NiPoPoW proof generation, candidate block generation with provided transactions included (needed for decentralized pools)
3.2.0 - Improved database storage for UTXO set, EIP-0001 (external applications support)
3.2.x - multisig (ring / threshold signatures) support

3.1.x code is mostly done and under review.

Applications development:

Current ETA for decentralized pool launch is 6-7 weeks.
"Sininen taivas" has rolled out oracle script delivering GAU (gram of gold) price on the ergo blockhain: https://github.com/sininen-taivas/ergo-oracle
Interest-free loan contract code is done: https://www.ergoforum.org/t/interest-free-loan-contract/67
Auctions on top of Ergo: https://www.ergoforum.org/t/auctions-on-ergo/122

Ecosystem Decentralization & Anti-fragility:

Development Fund Board established. It has 6 members: mx, herb_mentalist, Justin Simpson, mobybit, morphic and me. If you want to get funding from the fund, please contact a Board member. Majority is needed to approve a spending.

We are looking for more core and ecosystem contributors, app developers, community leaders and so on. Please come to the community!

Ergo Platform: A Resilient Platform For Contractual Money and Decentralized Finance by Alex Chepurnoy in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SrzybpblMM

https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1190685105632792576