An infinitely scalable, instant stable coin payment network
CKB Weekly #3
Hello, welcome to issue #3 of the CKB Weekly, a newsletter about the Nervos Common Knowledge Base blockchain and related technology.
People always ask if there is anything that could ONLY be done on CKB.
Channel networks are probably the most fascinating players among the layer-2s. A widely deployed channel network can maximize the throughput (unlimited!) and minimize the latency (as fast as network connection between parties) of transaction processing, enhance transaction privacy, and can even provide certain interoperability for blockchains. In short, a channel network is the silver bullet if done right.
A general payment channel and its composability demonstrates a generic payment channel construction on CKB that is simple and excels at composability, with the hope to attract more research attention, spawn more discussions on channel networks and facilitate the building of channel networks on CKB.
The GPC construction can work with any tokens on CKB, no matter if it's the native CKByte or an user defined token (UDT). An UDT developer doesn’t need to consider how to channelize UDTs, because it can always be channelized without any modification. That means UDTs are born to be channelizable and the development cost of channelizing and scaling an UDT is ZERO.
So UDTs are not only first-class assets on layer 1, they’re also first-class assets on layer 2, because they can flow in and out between layers without any modification.
This is quite different from payment channels on Bitcoin and Ethereum. Payment channels on Bitcoin only work with Bitcoin because it is the only asset and the blockchain’s ability is limited. On Ethereum there’re many assets however the composability between payment channels and ERC tokens is restricted. Payment channels have to interact with token through predefined interfaces which could be different for different tokens. In contrast the GPC lock doesn’t care about how the UDT is implemented at all.
The construction’s composability could enable interesting use cases on CKB, e.g. channelized stable coins. No matter if it's an algorithmic or trust-based stable coin, it is a first-class citizen of the payment channel network from day one. A payment channel network of stable coins could bring users an experience beyond Visa, Paypal and Alipay, because it’s fast, scalable, permissionless and future proof - think about streaming payment for APIs and IoT!
Do you also have some ideas of what you want to see built on CKB? Join the chatroom for discussions!
The Sparklings
Tommy from Delphi Digital did a localization strategy review for Nervos in China - mentioning that Nervos will be part of the national Blockchain Service Network (page 9).
Zero Knowledge Proofs enable privacy-preserving protocols for the Nervos network. Nervos researcher Alan Szepieniec’s paper “Transparent SNARKs from DARK Compilers” was accepted by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). Congrats Alan!
Tannr Allard released Token Development on Nervos Part 2: Advanced CKB Programming Concepts - check it out for an explanation of the intricacies of CKB programming.
The Voice
We notice there is a new UI of CKB Explorer, well done! We can not wait to see the update of nervos.org website and improvement of Neuron UI/UX.
Seriously, CANNOT WAIT. CANNOT WAIT. CANNOT WAIT.
“I think it's reasonable for Nervos to stay focused in the short term on the people who will be building up the use/viability of the network (and leaning on tech heavy language while that's happening).
As people have pointed out, though, basic things like installing/using Neuron still seem fairly complex. Though the projects don't compare at-all in terms of tech, focus, scope, etc., I also have some VET/VeChain tokens, and their mobile wallet is extremely simple/straightforward to use, even in terms of selecting/creating a "node" from one of their tiered options. It doesn't have a flawless user interface, but it's pretty easy to navigate/use, and the updates are very light on user input. For Nervos, because CKB holdings that aren't deposited to the DAO face some inflation-related issues, I'd like to see it made easier to (through narrative explanations and/or UI improvements) to take advantage of the DAO. Even the "wallet" link on nervos.org takes readers directly to Github, which can be somewhat daunting for non-tech people.”
Technical Updates
Core
CKB
Muta [layer2 framework on CKB]
Neuron
Release Neuron v0.30.0
This version v0.31.1 of CKB node is now bundled and preconfigured in Neuron.
Bypass password verification when deleting/exporting watch only wallet.
Skip rescan when importing existing wallet.
New style of DAO page.
Remove Settings from the left side bar, which can be found from menu (Windows - Help, Mac - Preferences).
Add an Experimental divider on the left side bar.
CKB Explorer
(#623) market data calculation support aggron
Working on new UX and new charts
Ecosystem
Supporting wallets - MathWallet, ABC Wallet, imToken, HyperPay, Bitpie, Cobo, Hoo, Renrenbit
Supporting mining pools - 14 [source:miningpoolstats]
Exchanges - 29 market pairs [source: coingecko]
ABC Wallet
implemented a web oriented SDK that can be use in your dapps now, which could also be implemented for mobile-compatible. Another CKB SDK and CKB Web Auth
SECBIT Labs [Zero knowledge proof toolkit for CKB] - N/A
GrowFi [token swap functionality] - N/A
Lay2 [build dApp on CKB and run them everywhere]
Adjust the representation format of secp256r1 pubkey, from projective coordinate system to affine coordinate system.
Design a new CKB lock script combined secp256r1 and sha256
Obsidian Labs[developer IDE]
N/A
Obsidian Systems[CKB integration with ledger wallets]
Ledger Hardware Wallet Demo - Using ledger with Nervos, Transactions and Nervos DAO Operations
Summa One [BTC/CKB interoperability]
N/A
Synapse [browser wallet and keyper agency]
improve the way of keystore storage to speed up
improve the access to chain’s data
change the storage of plug-in
add access to live cells API to speed up transaction
get the information of address and support querying by lock hash
New proposal
See you next week!
*CKB Weekly is curated by a group of people who witnessed Lina’s birth and started this to record her growth. Any views expressed are personal and do not represent an official position of the Nervos project. Got updates or articles you would like to include? Any feedback or other suggestions? Let us know by replying to the email.
Who the fuck is Lina?