Qortal 2 Year Anniversary!

 

The Qortal Project has reached another milestone. Genesis was launched on June 29th 2020, so we’ve made it through a second year! We’ve managed to overcome a lot and make large strides in certain areas of development. While it may be true our current proof of concepts have much room for improvement, we keep moving forward to make this dream a reality! “We” means all of us. Every single person that chooses to run a node and take part in the Qortal Network is important, as together we are the chain, and together we can make change.

 

Qortal is envisioned to become an unstoppable platform that can outlive us all. With blockchain technology we can build together and leave behind a legacy for future generations. In a world where virtually everything relies on the Internet, it’s important that we create viable alternatives sooner rather than later. Decentralization is a worn-out buzzword in the crypto space, but Qortal is surely meant to deliver true decentralization, including:

• Peer-to-peer solutions such as our Trade Portal and Q-Chat, where no middleman is needed or capable of intercepting the transaction!
• Local wallets that the individual has complete and sole control over in a world with an increasing interest to diversify asset portfolios with cryptocurrency.
• Website and data hosting that removes reliance and governance by third parties, where free trade of information can thrive!
• A decentralized platform on which anyone can build without the worry of the base infrastructure being subject to compromise; a place where we can build new systems to empower lives.
• Internet service replacement with mesh networking and satellite bridging to alleviate the reliance associated with existing service providers.

 

With the current ‘crypto winter’ among us, now is the time where projects like Qortal shine. Development of our project has no reliance on the rest of the crypto space, although trade value of QORT has decreased substantially. It certainly has more to do with third party markets than it does Qortal directly. With that said, it’s important to remember that QORT is only a small part of the overall platform, and its value will hopefully move more independently compared to other markets, as it has already. Quite often we look at ‘current price’ of QORT in fiat terms, and often only based on the fiat bridge with LTC; QORT’s trade value as displayed on exqlorer.com is based on the average of the last 5 trades and is displayed in USD value based on LTC’s direct value to USD. This is an indirect fiat value for QORT that’s determined by a third party’s market value (LTC-USD). The actual trade value is between QORT-LTC, and not QORT-LTC-USD. In other words, QORT’s direct ‘current price’ or trade value average in the LTC market could be 0.01 – 0.02 LTC per QORT, and much higher or lower depending on P2P trades! This means the value of QORT is determined by the buyers and sellers, and please remember that there are no ‘sell walls’ so you can buy any listed sell order!

 

QORT can also be obtained via minting! Now is a great time to get started if you haven’t already! It’s important to note that minting is totally optional and is not required to use the rest of the platform such as the local wallets, Trade Portal, Q-Chat, QDN, and Q-Apps when launched. Minting is only required if you’d like to level up your account, earn QORT rewards, and gain weighted influence in the voting system once that goes live.

 

This project is all about perspective, and we hope that the massive roadmap for Qortal resonates with those who take the time to study. Qortal is meant to be so much more than surface-level features. Our technology can be utilized to rebuild virtually every aspect of our digital lives. This includes the ability for the entire world to begin transitioning into a safe haven where collective consciousness and individual sovereignty can thrive. Qortal removes the controlling grip of the elitists who get in the way of the common good of the people. We are not anarchists per se, but we do believe in building an anarchistic platform that is free of regulation by outside forces. With that comes the future plans of greater security and privacy features such as support for privacy coins, private transaction types, obscuring IP addresses, and more. The world is our oyster with a decentralized platform like Qortal, and time will tell an amazing story.

 

Imagine a world where the people are in complete control of their banking, communications, trade of information, and building systems that make the conventional options subpar. These capabilities allow us to get off old systems, and regain control of what is rightfully ours. Qortal will evolve into a thriving e-commerce and collaborative space where many dreams can come true, such as rebuilding critical aspects of infrastructure including education, food supply, logistics, warehousing, off-grid capabilities, and beyond. You are taking part in the very beginning of a humanitarian project to put the power back into the people’s hands worldwide. Qortal is bigger than ‘crypto’.

 

The current state of Qortal is progressing quite well with all things considered. Qortal did not launch with an ICO or any real source of funding (as seen in the crypto space where projects raise millions in funding). Most of our developers work full time jobs and work on Qortal in their free time. This of course means that the rate of development is not as fast as we’d like, but is a testament to how genuine people can come together, and build together despite the less-than ideal circumstances. The same can be said about the rest of the team and community who find ways to contribute however possible. The majority of us share the same vision for what Qortal can become, and/or have our own ideas on how we’ll carve out our own space to see our own concepts through. As Qortal is the base platform, with a suite of default plugins, and eventually Q-Apps where anyone can build out their ideas freely (excluding projects seeking asset issuance which requires DevTeam and community approval to prevent scams on our platform).

 

A lot of work is happening in the background, as developers fine tune existing features, and work towards the grander scope of the project. Sometimes it may appear that not much development is underway, but trust and believe that a lot of work goes into coding our infrastructure which is not a clone of any other project and requires out-of-the-box thinking. Qortal will soon be recognized across the crypto space as the right platform to build upon, rather than platforms like Ethereum. Qortal will also soon be recognized as the superior codebase for projects to clone and build their own chains with (if desired). The latter would be quite the compliment as we concluded long ago Qortal would have to be built from scratch (there were no existing codebases sufficient for Qortal to clone and build off of – other than some basic snips of code taken from QORA and built upon).

 

We’re still in ‘Phase 3’ which is the era of core 3.0+ including the Qortal Data Network (QDN). This was a massive step in the roadmap where we launched a proof of concept that empowers individuals to host their own websites and data from their nodes (free of any reliance of third parties). There are current limitations, and the platform overall can be a bit clunky, but things will only improve further over time. The development team is working on the governance system to combat those gaming the minting system. Thereafter the voting system can be launched fairly. Soon we’ll launch Q-Apps, as well as Q-Chat enhancements and a mobile app for Android. One of the soon-to-come milestones will be the moment we are able to host all of our GitHub code repository on Qortal’s infrastructure and show the world a viable decentralized solution for their repos too!

 

If you haven’t already, be sure to read the wiki in your spare time to grasp the scope of the project. Start with the video on the homepage to familiarize yourself with the general layout, then dive in! The wiki contains overview information, help guides, links to all the interviews and podcasts, and more! Cheers to all of our fellow Qortians in the virtual land of Qortia!

 

Scan the QR code below to link to the Qortal Wiki:

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) in the blockchain space are designed to work without any hierarchical structure and utilize a voting system to determine outcomes. DAOs often include weighted votes that are based on staking the project’s asset (coin/token). The first “DAO” was actually called “The DAO” and built on Ethereum in 2016. The DAO was a company that gave its investors/members a vote in the decisions the company makes when spending the raised capital. It expanded into a venture capital fund, and raised over $150M worth of ETH, then was hacked and lost around $50M worth of ETH. The company is still around, but “The DAO” never regained its original status and this hack led to one of Ethereum’s historic forks.

 

The term DAO has evolved into a descriptive acronym, and is quite a common buzzword in the blockchain space. Most DAOs follow the same blueprint with crowdfunding and member voting – even block rewards for running a node and validating (in our case minting). Some DAOs are quite successful these days, having raised billions in funding. Here’s why Qortal is not a DAO: 1) we do not stake coins for a weighted vote and 2) the community votes do not take action directly with the code. Voting weight on the Qortal chain will be based on blocks minted (time and contribution). These votes will NOT directly update code (as smart contracts do on DAOs). 

 

In Qortal, we have the overall “DevTeam” and also DevTeam “Admins”. The DevTeam Admins manage the codebase and require a 60% approval among the pool of Admins to push updates to the core (this is how auto-updates work). Anyone is welcome to join the Dev server to begin collaborating on the codebase, and be considered as part of the development team or “DevTeam”. Based on time and contribution, these new team members may eventually be vetted for by the DevTeam Admins and become an Admin themselves. That process will include: 1) developer contributes over time, 2) Admins can confidently vet for the developer, 3) Admins submit a summary to the Qortal community as to why the Admins vet for the developer, 4) community votes to approve the decision to make the developer an Admin, 5) Admins conduct a 60% on-chain vote – giving the vetted developer’s Qortal account the Admin permission. This structure allows us to carefully consider the Admin pool and safeguard our project, while the Admin pool grows and becomes more decentralized over time.

 

When it comes to decision making, the final say in some cases relies on the Admins. When the community can be involved in a vote to determine the project’s direction, every level 1 or higher Qortal account will be able to cast their vote. This type of voting can be used to determine how the DevTeam should allocate time for new coins to add, or building support for a new project on the Qortal Network. For example, when the time comes to potentially change the block reward, or transaction fee, the community will get to determine the outcome with options presented. All of these different voting types will simply tell the Admins which option to move forward with, and the Admins will then follow through, conducting their 60% vote separately when the update is ready.

 

As we see, Qortal is not a DAO where every minting account gets to take part in voting that directly affects network updates. It doesn’t make sense for everyone to take part in voting code that cannot be read and vetted. This is also why some Founders are not “Admins” as it would not be a fair vote. With that said, it’s important to note that Qortal is building infrastructure and anyone can build on-chain without permission (unless a project desires its own asset which requires Admin vetting to prevent scams on our chain). Qortal itself may not be a DAO, but it can certainly host a suite of DAOs (projects built on-chain) and is intended to become a superior alternative to Ethereum. 

 

The Voting System Overview page on the wiki has more info on Qortal’s voting system concept which has yet to be fully implemented: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=voting_system_overview

Greetings Qortians! We are excited to announce monumental changes at Crowetic Hardware Development (CHD). First, let’s review the history of CHD:

 

• Founded on June 28th 2021 – an LLC in Nevada between @crowetic @gfactorQORT @fdmdynamics.
• Launched www.crowetic.com to provide pre-built QORTectors with custom 3D printed cases as a means to help onboard newcomers who might get discouraged otherwise with setting up a node to take part in the network.
• CHD is simply a third-party service that is totally optional for those interested. Please note: CHD will never sell your information or infringe on your privacy rights as we see so many companies abuse!
• Everything we build is fully open source without anything proprietary – everyone is free to buy the components elsewhere and build their own device (we’ll even provide you with the 3D printing files).
• Retail pricing for a QORTector (8gb RAM) began at $420 – due to supply and demand issues for computer boards, starting price has been increased to $535.
• As with any business, pricing must be profitable and allow for scalability. We feel our pricing and margins are modest. Some feel our pricing is too high, while others feel it could be higher. Everyone must keep in mind that this is a business, with expenses and labor. Not to mention we are also profit sharing 20% with development of Qortal.
• To date, CHD has not taken any ‘profit’ to pay its owners. All revenue has been invested back into the company, as Crowetic and G Factor have funded CHD’s startup without any other parties. The investment wasn’t much, but was enough to get the operation off the ground. @fdmdynamics invested his 3D printers and time to make custom cases possible. As you see, we are three Qortal co-founders doing what we can to provide the community with a needed service that makes sense.
• Order turnaround time has typically been between a couple days up to two weeks in some cases, due to varying circumstances. Our goal is to have a more consistent 3-5 day turnaround time. Bear with us as there are a lot of variables!
• The QORTector has had 5 software versions so far, each expecting to have improvements over the previous version it replaces: Plumbus, SinclairMATE, Titan Plasma, TitanMATE, and TitanPLUS. Customers do not need to update their device each time there is a new software version unless it is desired to have the latest and greatest (assuming the newest release doesn’t have any unexpected disappointments like SinclairMATE). Updating the software is not difficult, but does require a second computer that can support the software required as well as a working USB port.
• The idea of the QORTector is to have a stand-alone and dedicated minting machine that can be left running 24/7. These devices only use 5W/5V of power – the equivalent of charging a cellphone! This means there will not be a significant power cost to take part in the Qortal Network! Ideally, the QORTector can be left running at home, always synced and minting while freeing other computers from the hassle.
• Anyone can become an ‘affiliate’ for CHD, there is no requirement of ID verification – simply let G Factor know what you’d like your promo code to be and help drive sales on www.crowetic.com.
• Every affiliate gets the same program which is currently a 5% off coupon for customers, and $20 worth of QORT per device sold to the affiliate. Payouts will be monthly, and the idea here is to help more sovereign-focused individuals find and adopt Qortal! The affiliatie’s focus should be less money-driven, and more adoption-focused for Qortal. CHD is not a cash-grab scheme and hopefully affiliates will get onboard for the same reason. 

 

Now let’s discuss the update of CHD obtaining funding and the plan to take things to the next level:

 

• CHD secured investment into the company in exchange for 20% equity and is allocating $80k towards development and the DevFund (in Litecoin). Developers still get paid on a case by case basis, almost always after work has been completed. We are simply excited to contribute more funding towards the cause!
• @gfactorQORT and @fdmdynamics are now full time CHD and Qortal! G Factor is now building the devices to offset Crowetic’s workload; Sawyer is now able to dedicate more time to his side of the operation. As time unfolds, there will be more noticeable improvements.
• Ten 3D printers are being added to the current five, so there will be fifteen total! This will really help prepare for scalability and turnaround times.
• A new website is being built: better layout, more information, color options for devices, shipping options, and… a merchandise store! Prepare yourselves for a suite of clothing options as well as various goods such as mousepads, banners, flags, pint glasses, coffee mugs, stickers, etc. The merch store will have frequent updates as the design and manufacturing process is rolled out. Eventually the community will be able to share ideas as well as custom ordering.
• We’re adding the QORTector KB to the hardware options: a keyboard with the computer components built into it! This 4gb RAM option comes with a mouse, power supply, HDMI cable, ethernet cable, etc. so all you’ll need is a monitor and internet connection.
• R&D is in the works for next-gen QORTectors utilizing other boards besides Raspberry Pi. Future plans also include cell phones and laptops as well as solar and battery packages.
• While the founding focus of Qortal has been one of grassroot and organic growth, we can certainly get more creative and productive with our marketing efforts – so hopefully CHD’s efforts will help motivate the community to do more too! As Qortal is greater than one’s self and together we are the chain!

Hello Qortians!

 

It has been a while since my last blog post, so I figured it would be a good time to give a more dynamic picture of the current development of the project overall. There is a LOT going on right now, and since our releases have been less frequently needed, I didn’t want people thinking that development had slowed in any way. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Qortal Core version 3.2.4 

In the next release of the Qortal Core, we will see multiple changes, including:

• Only sync with peers on the same or greater height – this should hopefully be a big improvement to syncing
• Fixes for some QDN issues
• Name registration fee reduction – the new fee will be 1.25 QORT.
• Q-Chat difficulty reduction – this is for new users thinking they’re having issues when they aren’t. Reducing the mempow for 0 balance accounts.
• Add member counts to group APIs – for ease of use checking number of users in a group on the chain.
• Don’t send PRESENCE updates if not synced – to prevent orders being listed that are not actually backed by an active node.
• Performance improvements – to help with overall performance on all systems.
• Translation updates – support for multiple new languages on UI side.

The information below will be AFTER 3.2.4 and beyond… just giving a bit of a ‘road map’ for the Qortal Core development.

 

EPC fixes

This is a MASSIVE new networking rework to the Qortal Core, this will not only improve massively the networking and data usage, it also fixes a long-standing bug where CPU usage would be increased over time. Many of the changes I will mention below, are reliant upon the EPC fixes. This is a dramatic enhancement to the core of Qortal. EPC is essentially the new engine that coordinates the networking threads. This is a huge overall improvement.

QDN Direct Connections

This will allow direct connections for data as opposed to relying upon relay nodes. Once we have the EPC fixes, this is ready to go.

Bandwidth Reduction

Again relies upon EPC fixes, but our brilliant developers have come up with some methods to hugely reduce network traffic.  These improvements will be rolled out bit-by-bit over the next several releases.

Pirate Chain Support

This is a BIG one that we’ve been talking about for quite some time, and will certainly make the ARRR community happy. We are now directly working on this.

• We have already built out the ARRR Equivalent of the ‘electrum network’ for submitting transactions to the ARRR network. This allows for the majority of our TradeBot functionality.
• We are currently awaiting some wallet fixes from the ARRR team, once that has been taken care of we should be able to finish the Pirate Chain implementation.
• This will give Qortal a fully functional ARRR wallet, and ARRR/QORT Cross-Chain trades in the Trade Portal. 🙂

DigiByte support

This is mostly complete now, development team is just finishing adding TradeBot support. This will allow both DGB wallet and DGB/QORT Trades on the Trade Portal.

RavenCoin support

This is less developed so far than DGB, but it isn’t too far behind.

MemPOW for minting signatures and Online Accounts

This is fully developed, just needs more testing, and will need to be rolled out SLOWLY over the next multiple releases to be sure it doesn’t cause any unwanted negatives. This is an EXTREMELY high risk addition, so we will need to be VERY careful with the roll-out of this one.

Lite Nodes

I am personally quite happy about this addition. This will allow full mobile compatibility to be built out very easily for Qortal. Lite nodes are nodes that do not need to synchronize the entire chain, but instead communicate to their connected full nodes for the chain information necessary. At the moment we already have lite nodes with the following functionality:

• Developed and tested for wallet, chat, and name registration transactions.
• Does not yet support showing registered names in chat, a bit more development is required for that.
• This can probably be merged into one of the upcoming releases within the next couple weeks.

Massive Q-Chat improvements

• Q-Chat messages are getting their own local database for messages. This will allow setting how long you would like to keep your Q-Chat messages on each node.
• Q-Chat messages are being turned into their own protocol instead of using unconfirmed transactions, this will be a DRAMATIC increase in speed, and message propagation.
• Q-Chat UI is getting MASSIVE reworking done, to include all of the functionality seen in centralized messaging services like Telegram and Discord.
• This is going to be taking place in the very near future, and we are very excited for this opportunity to become one of the best decentralized messengers and give the world TRUE freedom of speech back.

Self-Sponsorship Algorithm

All of the backend data needed for the algorithm has been discussed, and the work on the algo itself will begin shortly. The days of self-sponsorship are coming to an end very soon. Be warned those who still attempt self-sponsorship.

 

That’s it for this blog post, hopefully everyone found this information as interesting and exciting as I did. Until next time!

– crowetic

 

 

Hey Qortians! We apologize for falling behind on updates here. This blog is meant to briefly recap what’s happened since the 2.0 blog…

At the time of writing this blog, the current version of the core is 3.2.3, and the UI version is 1.8.2! Core version 3.0 was Phase 3 of our roadmap where we launched the framework for our Web/Data Hosting concept on January 14th 2022. We consider the data hosting concept to be in a ‘beta’ phase currently since everything we’re building is completely custom and requires stepping stones to reach the end-game goal. Data per node is limited to 350mb at the present time, soon we expect that to increase to 4gb, then ‘limit-less’. You can learn more about the data hosting concept as well as updates on the wiki under the ‘Data Hosting’ section.

This leads to the next topic: the Qortal Wiki. The wiki is meant to be a repository of official information related to the Qortal Project. The homepage has a video to introduce you to the layout of the wiki and alleviate the overwhelming first impression. When in doubt, did you check the wiki out? The wiki has a search bar where you can type in keywords and find related content. With that said, we feel the wiki is the best starting point for your questions, and your feedback is highly appreciated. G Factor has taken a lead role with managing the wiki, so please let him know if you have any comments/questions/suggestions for the site. We have plans to build the wiki out better over time. As stands, the wiki currently houses overview information, help guides, and details about third-party services to name a few things. If you’re seeking sponsorship, there’s even a ‘Sponsorship Questionnaire’ you can gather the answers to and submit to your sponsor. Please note: becoming a minter is not a requirement for using all of the other features Qortal has/will offer! Minting is totally optional.

So where should you seek sponsorship? We plan on having a sponsorship board within the Qortal UI one day, but until then, there are a few ways you could reach out: 

1. Join the ‘Sponsorship Requests’ group in Q-Chat and introduce yourself (remember that messages are removed after 24 hours so please repost and we will get to you)
2. Join our Telegram (@qortal_official) and introduce yourself 
3. Join our Discord (refer to the ‘Official Links’ wiki page) and introduce yourself in the #sponsorship-requests channel
4. Go to join.qortal.org and submit your inquiry there

We apologize for having so many options rather than a single one… all in due time!

So what else do we have for Qortal?

• Update notification in the UI (when there is a new version of the UI for you to install, you will see a pop-up message to update when you start the UI and it will check for updates every 15 minutes)
• Dark mode in the UI
• ‘Minting Details’ in the UI
• ‘Send Coin’ feature in the UI merged into the ‘Wallets’
• Ability to block accounts in the UI
• Puzzles in the UI that reward QORT if solved
• Improved Trade Portal functionality 

What can we expect in the near future?

• MemPoW implementation to limit the amount of accounts per node and combat bad actors 
• Lite nodes and mobile app solution
• More language versions in UI
• Price charts and history in the UI
• Better Q-Chat features such as replying to messages like Discord and Telegram offer (this combined with a mobile app solution can lead us towards getting off of Discord and Telegram, hopefully one day COMPLETELY!)
• Local storage of Q-Chat messages that save messages longer than 24 hours
• Pinning of messages in Q-Chat
• Q-Chat Groups encryption (currently only private P2P messages are encrypted)
• More API calls added to the UI for ease of use such as blocking accounts 
• Q-Apps: the next layer of Data Hosting where projects can build securely 
• YouTube replacement plugin
• GitHub replacement plugin
• Website builder plugin
• More coins added to the Wallets and Trade Portal
• Voting System – refer to the wiki for more info on how this system will work
• Crowetic Hardware Development (CHD): new hardware models like the QORTector KB, new boards built specifically for Qortal, customers can choose between colors options, a merchandise store, etc. (https://crowetic.com/)

(version 2.0 core)

Qortal 2.0 – ‘Infinite’ Scalability

That’s right Qortians! We have launched Qortal version 2.0 (Core)!  In version 2.0 there are MANY new enhancements, mainly focused around ease-of-use and scalability.  To anyone who has been around for a while, they might have noticed that the Qortal database (the blockchain) grew very quickly, and was at some points over 60 GB already.  This was obviously a concern towards the long-term scalability of the project and how many nodes would continue to be able to hold the entire blockchain. This spurred the development team into action surrounding the growth of the database.

What ended up being done is two-fold:

• The database was completely re-structured to allow for full nodes to store most of the ‘older’ block data in ‘archive’ files. This allowed full nodes to become ~10GB total size, instead of anywhere from 25-60+ GB and growing.  The 2.0 and beyond full nodes will only require ~10GB of space, and will grow much more slowly.
• Version 2.0 also introduced a new portion of the database that is made to support the ‘Sleeping ATs’ for the Trade Portal SmartContracts. What this will allow is for the ATs (the SmartContracts that allow the trades on the Trade Portal to take place) to ‘sleep’ until they are messaged (during the trade initiation phase). This takes the processing that was previously required EVERY BLOCK, and makes it so that processing is only required for about 3 blocks, during the time a trade is ACTIVE only. This is MASSIVE for performance, scalability, and data use by the blockchain itself.

This ‘sleeping AT’ addition will come shortly after version 2.0 (in 2.1+) and will dramatically reduce both the processing and data storage required by the Trade Portal’s SmartContracts. This is a huge scalability improvement (along with the massive improvements in the database making it smaller and more performant). These two changes alone will give Qortal essentially ‘unlimited’ scalability for the future in terms of both performance of processing transactions and AT information on the chain, and growth of the blockchain overall.

 

Qortal ‘Top-Only Sync’ Nodes

Version 2.0 also introduces a completely new node type, called ‘top-only’.  This is essentially still a ‘full node’ but it is much more ‘trimmed’ or ‘pruned’ making it only ~700MB in total size!  With this node type, any computer can run a fully functional Qortal node without worrying about needing even the lower amount of space in the new Qortal full nodes.  These types of nodes could potentially open the door for a ‘mobile node’ that would run on phones as well, and still provide every bit of functionality in Qortal.

Bootstrapping is still required for this node type, but the bootstrap is much smaller, and the db is much smaller when bootstrapping is completed (literally only ~700MB total size).  However, and leading me to the next topic, bootstrapping is now MUCH simpler in 2.0 as well!

 

Qortal Auto-Bootstrapping

Any Qortian who was familiar with the bootstrapping process in versions below 2.0, will be VERY happy about this new addition.  From version 2.0 on, bootstrapping will no longer be a ‘manual’ process.  That’s right, bootstrapping will take place completely automatically (this can be disabled with “bootstrap: false” in settings.json).  This applies to BOTH node types, full node (which is the default if you do not set “topOnly: true” in settings.json) and top-only nodes.

Automatically downloading a bootstrap (which is created now with a bootstrap API call, so there can be no ‘bad’ bootstraps created) from one of the 3 (with more on the way) official bootstrap hosting locations configured in the core.  When version 3.0 and Qortal Data goes live, these bootstraps will be stored there, so there will be ZERO centralization in the process.  The bootstrap files are fully capable of being stored on Qortal Data, and we will move the location to Qortal Data as soon as version 3.0 and data goes live.

 

Qortal Auto-Backup and Restore

Another great addition to version 2.0 is the automatic backup and restore of trade states and minting accounts.  Nodes that already have a database and update to version 2.0 will require a modification of that database to make it compatible with the new archive storage mode.  When you start your node with a 1.7 or earlier database, the core will automatically convert that database to the new style for you, this process will take 60-120+ minutes, and there are notifications on the Qortal ‘splash screen’ when Qortal starts (as well as in the logs).

Once your database has been converted, all of the previous information backed up (version 1.6+ automatically backed up trade states, and 2.0 does both trade states and minting accounts) will be re-imported to the new db automatically.  If a successful db conversion takes place, no manual re-applying of the minting key or trade states backup will be required, and everything will automatically return to its previous state.

If for some reason a user isn’t successful with their 1.7 db conversion, they may simply remove their db folder, and 2.0 will automatically bootstrap, then if there was a trade state backup from 1.6 or 1.7, it will re-import those trade states.  Version 1.6+ automatically backed up trade states into TradeStates.json in the ‘qortal-backup’ folder.  From version 2.0 and beyond, both the trade states AND minting accounts will automatically backup and re-import to the node (even when there is no db). So all a user will have to do if they have any issues whatsoever, is delete their db folder and the core will auto-bootstrap, and auto-import their backups, leaving them exactly where they were prior.

 

Ready For the Future

All of these additions in 2.0 and the ones between 2.0 and 3.0 are all preparing for the release of Qortal Data in version 3.0. From 2.0 and beyond there will no longer be worries about the db size and scalability of the platform, and no longer will people have to do anything ‘manual’ in order to get their node running. These enhancements are MASSIVE in terms of attaining new users and getting their nodes running easily.

There will also be many new changes in the next UI version that have been requested, and will make things simpler. Overall this version is MASSIVE for Qortal and the growth of the platform, we are VERY excited about this version and beyond. Version 3.0 will introduce the first iteration of Qortal Data, public data allowing for Web hosting, application hosting, and much more to be accomplished on Qortal’s custom data storage network. This will be the true beginning of Qortal’s end goals, to rebuild the internet entirely.

We are extremely happy with the advancements in 2.0, and from here to 3.0 Qortal will have nearly everything on its existing roadmap! Here’s to the future of Qortal and the new decentralized secure internet!