Greetings Qortians! We have a lot of development in the works and things are moving along steadily. The first phase of the Names Market has been launched, we now have weekly ‘Think Tank’ meetings in Discord, a new Discord server dedicated to marketing efforts is being made, the first iteration of Q-Apps is nearing launch, and so many other awesome things are in the works. Qortal is infrastructure. Implementing a new infrastructure requires effort. Qortal’s efforts depend on all of us working together to fill all voids. Remember that Qortal is a community developed and run project. Every member of the community has their role in assisting Qortal with building the future digital infrastructure of the world!

 

Project Updates

Qortal ‘Names Market’

Names on Qortal are not just the equivalent of ‘domain names’, but also offer the ability to act as an on-chain username for any Q-App (social media, communications, profiles for all Q-Apps that ‘follow’ you from one to another), a QORT wallet ‘nickname’, and even an “NFT” (proof of ownership AND the data tied to the proof – where a user can soon manage a git repo and any other data associated with the name). A Qortal name will have the ability to have a website, git repo, public and private data, application, and followers tied to it, all of which can be sold AT ONCE on the Names Market to another owner that can pick up where the previous owner left off with NO changes to ‘hosting’, ‘DNS’ or anything associated with the current ‘internet’. This is a revolutionary concept that will allow building and selling entire ‘brands’ or ‘companies’ at once, along with their entire digital presence secured on a distributed decentralized network. The Names Market is a plugin that allows owners to list names for sale, at whatever price in QORT they see fit. Remember, each name is unique and is permanently owned until sold – which can now be done via the Names Market!

European Marketing Team

Our European community has a goal to print between 10,000 and 100,000 flyers and/or stickers to hand out over the summer. If you are interested in helping get the word out in Europe, contact Positeer#5504 in our Discord.

If you would like to contribute to this cause, you can send to the “Promotion” account:

QORT: Qf166hvr4jYF49mZ4LotA6EGJXzef35ZtF 

LTC: LKH5BuCLGUAzeuUCeZ6bEiXABFUbbN2z6V 

ARRR: zs14m4p77qy3vr9d2v3eh65adg3rvfxuxssh34d6jyn4azrkqc99k4eyzh86py08rjc5c3kzhstgpv

Spatial.io

We have started to discuss a potential relationship with Spatial as we explore their immersive 3D ‘metaverse’ concept. Visit their website to experience a Star Wars flight simulator, an 88 MPH Back to the Future ride, or a concept of your own design! You’ll also find a Qortal infographic that the team added to bring awareness to our project! https://www.spatial.io/

Crowetic Consulting

Since Qortal is being built to offer secure and distributed infrastructure, Crowetic Consulting is a new company and service provider preparing to launch. The objective is to assist the public and private sector with building solutions on Qortal’s infrastructure. Whether it be a website, app, its own chain, or any other means of building real value, virtually anything is possible. Stay tuned!

Payment System Plugin

There are several important aspects for Qortal to become a viable alternative for the future digital world. One aspect is the ability to safely conduct transactions with a payment system. Q-Apps will soon unleash a plethora of capabilities including a payment system concept. Envision e-commerce and subscription-based services on the Qortal Network thriving with a trustless payment system! Envision the local storefront having the ability to host their own website and accept QORT or any of the other coins we build support for! There’s even a possibility that we can develop a partnership with a third party fiat gateway service, as Qortal will never build support for fiat directly, but there may be a way to ensure greater adoption during the ‘transition’ from fiat money with some form of fiat gateway onboarding. 

QORTable – The Portable Qortal Device

‘QORTable’ will also soon be available. QORTable is a totally portable installation of Qortal. Utilizing custom scripts, QORTable allows a user to have a completely self-contained installation of Qortal that functions on any existing OS. The Qortal Core and UI will run without having to install anything on a computer. The core and UI run with the computer’s hardware, but the Qortal installation, database (including other types of data), and UI stay on the external drive which means QORTable will be plug-n-play ready for running the Qortal Core and UI from one computer to another at any time! In other words, you can stop where you are on one computer and pick up where you left off on another computer with QORTable! No exact release date is planned, but it will be available soon at: https://crowetic.com

Qortal Voting System

Qortal will soon launch the long-awaited Voting System. This on-chain feature will give every Minter a weighted vote based on their blocks minted count when taking part in network-wide decision making. This weighted vote concept is based on TIME and CONTRIBUTION, just as the Leveling System is. This technology can also be used for the Groups built on Qortal, where these sub-communities can launch their own votes or polls. More info will be provided soon. 

 

Wiki Updates

The wiki has a couple of updates worth noting.

How To Build Qortal UI From Source guide has been updated in a more detailed format: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortal_ui_from_source

QORTEX open source block explorer has been added: 

Thanks to Positeer, How To Change A Name Guide has been created: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=how_to_change_a_name

QORTEX open source block explorer has been added: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qortex

Each Qortal Think Tank episode will be added here: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=information_videos

 

Social Media

Think Tank #1 (February 28th 2023)

We are now hosting Qortal Think Tank every Tuesday at 10am PST in the Qortal Community Discord! Join us as we use this time to learn more about the overall ideals of the project, the inner workings of the platform, the ever-evolving roadmap, and share ideas to further the mission. Anyone is able to ask questions, provide feedback, present ideas for comments by the developers, and more! Recordings are currently posted on YouTube for those who aren’t able to join, and links can also be found on the wiki: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=information_videos

Privacy Crypto Speculation Charts

Check out this article by H8St8, where the crypto privacy arena and the war for your money are covered and along with the technical characteristics of leading privacy coins, all while Qortal is given a prominent role in it: https://bastyon.com/h8st8?s=89e7cf4e13f8e062c7d4d19415ae9e07b79bb4d89b26b079a77c1b0f446d1558&mpost=true

Qortal AT Lottery

Be on the lookout for the next decentralized automated lottery within the Qortal UI! Your chances of winning are completely random! Nobody handles any aspect of this manually (it’s all managed by what is called an ‘Automated Transaction’ and often referred to as ‘AT’). In order to buy a lottery ticket, you simply send a set amount of QORT to a specific address (the AT’s address), and you can only buy one ticket per Qortal Account. The system will then select a winning ‘ticket’ at a predetermined block arrival. This is one of many alternate use cases for the AT system of Qortal and makes for a great demo! The AT address will be different for each lottery issued. In the future, the ability to create these lottery ATs and many other types of ATs will be built into the Qortal UI.

Ticket price of previous lotteries: 10 QORT (ticket price is programmable upon AT launch)

Read more about the Lottery System here: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=lottery_system

Crowetic Hardware Development “CHD”

Whether a custom laptop, or a QORTector utilizing the RaspberryPi, CHD is offering these products worldwide (shipping out of Reno NV USA). Custom laptops include upgraded storage to SSD, a deactivated Intel management engine, disabled tracking systems, and visual and performance tweaks for full functionality, including the battery and power adapter. Custom laptop builds are also offered if desired! QORTectors include custom kernels (software) to provide optimized cryptographic and security functions for a reasonably priced 5W dedicated minting machine! They will also offer the QORTable device once it is made available. New customized laptops are being listed all the time, so check back often for updated listings! As of March 1st, all CHD laptops will come with multiple desktop environments. These will include a ‘windows-like’ desktop environment and a ‘mac-like’ desktop environment so users can choose which they use based on their experience on centralized Operating Systems. Both environments are completely customized for ease of use and appeal. https://crowetic.com

Additional Notes

We had our second historic chain stall in February. This was due to a genesis bug which wasn’t fully realized until the names functionality was modified (due to developing the Names Market) and launched on the main net. The solution was to install a new core version and bootstrap if on the ‘stuck’ block. The network is back on track now, so it’s back to the usual, onwards and upwards! For the record, the DevTeam always tests releases in a dev net environment prior to releasing, but sometimes unforeseen events occur only after launching on the main net. The DevTeam is working on a permanent test net which anyone interested could help take part with. More info on that will be coming soon. Please note: users of CHD’s laptops who followed Crowe’s Ubuntu Desktop installation guide, as well as those with newer QORTector versions sold by CHD, would have automatically recovered from this issue thanks to the ‘auto-fix-qortal.sh’ script that is setup to run automatically on these devices. Reach out if you’re interested in automating your Linux machines with this script! 

A Message From CalDescent

“Qortal is an incredibly complicated system, with over 40 different transaction types. Compare that to most crypto projects, which really only have one type (payment) — or at least just a few variations of the payment type. Qortal’s transactions affect the chain state in significant ways, such as adding and updating names, groups, websites, balances, reward eligibility, etc., and it all has to be done in a way that doesn’t result in any discrepancies. Qortal’s foundational code is close to perfect. You can see that by the number of unit tests that exist in the core, testing various elaborate scenarios to proactively ensure there are no bugs. However, it’s not 100% perfect. There have been very minor consensus bugs in the code since the original published version, with a couple more introduced along the way. Even a single line or character out of place in the consensus or transaction processing code is enough to split the network into endless forks or stall the entire chain. In a project like this, there is zero room for error when it comes to the foundational code. And we need a lot more core development and testing resources before it will get to a stage where every one of these lurking bugs is completely fixed.”

A Message From Crowetic

“#Qortal $QORT – Now in final stages of #Q-Apps Development. This will allow ANY application to be built on top of Qortal’s infrastructure. You think NFTs are useful, you’ve not seen ANYTHING yet. ;)”

Motivational Quote

 “Aim for the stars and maybe you’ll reach the sky.” — Reinhold Niebuhr

Join Us!

Discord: https://discord.gg/UqhQCYjVw2

Telegram (general chat): https://t.me/qortal_official

Telegram (tech support): https://t.me/qortalchat

Twitter: https://twitter.com/qortal_official

Website: http://qortal.org/

Wiki: http://wiki.qortal.org/

 

Greetings Qortians! As we kick off the new year, development continues to take large strides in the right direction. Qortal is bigger than “crypto” – and the roadmap is ever-evolving as we build from scratch! By utilizing blockchain technology, Qortal aims to provide the world with true peer-to-peer solutions (P2P) in areas of local wallets, cross-chain trading (atomic swaps), e-commerce, communications, data hosting, application hosting, and more! Envision a base platform that offers alternatives to rebuilding the Internet, crypto space, and internet service itself!

 

QORTEX

The first iteration of a fully open source block explorer has arrived! QORTEX offers a way for users to review certain data on Qortal from a web browser (without having to access through a Qortal node). Eventually, QORTEX will become a Q-App and be available within the Qortal UI as well! We thank our lead UI developer AlphaX Projects for starting the development of this explorer and look forward to seeing more features be released soon! 

https://explorer.qortal.org/

Q-Apps

Q-Apps will be the first time for EXTERNAL developers to directly jump in without any ‘approval’ of any kind, and start developing on Qortal (excluding projects seeking asset issuance). We’ll build an App Store that will list all of the applications as Apple and Android app stores do, including ratings and reviews! For those who understand how the GitHub works, you can read an explanation about all the various ways websites and apps can interact in the first iteration’s framework here (note that the core side is done, but the UI side will need at least another month or so before this is live): https://github.com/Qortal/qortal/blob/q-apps/Q-Apps.md

 

Price Charts

Thanks to AlphaX Projects, beginning with UI version 3.0.0, the UI now has the ability to navigate between price charts for each trading pair! You can change the date range or simply press a button to export and view full screen. Enjoy!

 

Trade Bot Update

When a buyer selects a sell order, the buyer’s foreign coin (BTC, LTC, DOGE, RVN, DGB, ARRR) is removed from the local wallet and placed into an on-chain escrow (using a P2SH address), and the trade is then coordinated via the the buyer and seller’s trade bots. If either node goes offline for whatever reason, the buyer’s coin is returned of course, but the transaction fee on the foreign blockchain is NOT refunded. This can be frustrating, discouraging, and costly for users on the Trade Portal. Thanks to CalDescent, the next release includes a feature that will prevent foreign coins from leaving the local wallet when there is a high probability that the trade will fail; a check for unconfirmed transactions related to the seller’s QORT offer will identify if someone else is trying to buy the order as well as if the seller is canceling the trade.

https://github.com/Qortal/qortal/commit/876658256f735853040e930b057ee1db025d54a2

 

Q-Chat

Q-Chat has more features in the works! Recent updates include the ability to: 1) post pictures, 2) react to messages with emoticons, 3) reply to messages in group chats, and 4) tip users. 

Soon we’ll have file attachments (more than image files), and a GIF repository where you’ll be able to create a collection of GIFs and/or subscribe to them! Check out the quick video below and learn how to tip a user from within any chat inside Qortal’s UI, as well as by clicking on the person’s name from any group members’ list they are in:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/357242391750508545/1061701152216985600/Qortal_Tip_User.gif

 

AT Lottery System

Be on the lookout for the next decentralized automated lottery within the Qortal UI! Your chances of winning are completely random! Nobody handles any aspect of this manually (it’s all managed by what is called an Automated Transaction often referred to as “AT”). In order to buy a ‘ticket’, you must send QORT to a specific address (the AT’s address), and you can only buy one ticket per Qortal Account. The system will then select a winning ‘ticket’ at a predetermined block arrival. This is one of many alternate use cases for the AT system of Qortal and makes for a great demo! The AT address will be different for each lottery issued. In the future, the ability to create these lottery ATs and many other types of ATs will be built into the Qortal UI.

Ticket price: 10 QORT

Read more about the Lottery System here: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=lottery_system

Community Services

Crowetic Hardware Development “CHD”

Qortians the winter sale is still going on! Get the easiest, fastest, and most efficient device to run your Qortal node! Whether a custom laptop, or a QORTector utilizing the RaspberryPi, CHD is offering these products worldwide (shipping out of Reno NV USA). Custom laptops include upgraded storage to SSD, a deactivated Intel management engine, and visual and performance tweaks for full functionality, including the battery and power adapter. Custom laptop builds are also offered if desired! QORTectors include custom kernels (software) to provide optimized cryptographic and security functions for a reasonably priced 5W dedicated minting machine! https://crowetic.com

 

Developers Wanted

We’re currently looking for experienced pool developers to assist in a new project. If you know how to work with https://github.com/tpruvot/yiimp or NOMP, NGINX, APIs, etc, and have experience building pools for chains, also looking for a python/os developer that can customize Qubes-OS for Qortal. Please let us know and contact: Captain Loo✟z#2749 in our discord server: https://discord.gg/UqhQCYjVw2

 

Social Media

CryptoTips

Listen to this great chat with the CryptoTips tribe with Crowetic. He shares his own journey in cyberspace before continuing to inform the audience about the various possibilities that Qortal provides to modify how we utilize the Internet. He places emphasis on the notion that true decentralization only happens when the individual has complete control over their machine and equally important, are true peer-to-peer (P2P) solutions without any central points of attack (centralization). This talk is incredibly educational and easy for everyone to understand as these points are explained. The era of Qortal is here!

https://odysee.com/@CTClub-Community:a/Speaker—Jason-Crowe:1?&sunset=lbrytv

GreyWolf and Crowetic

Superb AMA with Polarity Exchange’s GreyWolf! In an easy-to-read and technical manner, Crowetic covers the amazing QDN, a full dissection of the AT (automated transactions), the advent of Q-Apps, the Qortal Git, as well as some of the challenges over the years of development and what’s in store for the future! This is a quick and easy read: Here:https://qortal.org/qortal-ama-with-crowetic-and-greywolf/

Final Words

The recent events in the crypto space have created awareness to the risks associated with centralized services that control user’s keys… remember folks: NOT YOUR KEYS, NOT YOUR CRYPTO! With Qortal, each user is in complete control over their account, keys, and data. This is just the beginning! We appreciate all of you and as we often say, TOGETHER WE ARE THE CHAIN!

“Today’s tears water tomorrow’s gardens.”

Join Us!

Discord: https://discord.gg/UqhQCYjVw2

Twitter: https://twitter.com/qortal_official

Telegram (general chat): https://t.me/qortal_official

Telegram (tech support): https://t.me/qortalchat http://qortal.org/

Website: http://qortal.org/

Qortal Wiki: http://wiki.qortal.org/

 

Qortal AMA

What is an AMA? An AMA is essentially a ‘session’ wherein a person associated with a project (in this case, crowetic) is asked questions by someone else. It stands for ‘Ask Me Anything’, and it is a useful tool to assist in overall understanding of a project, and get down to the details of said project.

In this AMA the questions were asked by another developer in the blockchain space, GreyWolf. He asked some great questions and we figured that the Qortal community would like to see them and their answers. Enjoy!

Green – GreyWolf questions

Blue – Crowetic answers.

This AMA took place between ‘crowetic’ of Qortal and developer ‘GreyWolf’ in a private telegram community.

"Qortal is basically what crypto was supposed to be all along. They are rebuilding the internet without the internet."

I admit I am a intellectual troll at times and this message begins where I just implore into simple questions to back up such a statement, crypto is defined by the needed application by a business or entity or group.

What is meant by that statement, is… We are doing everything in a 100% decentralized and distributed fashion, along with adding the ability for ‘any’ person to become part of the project, and help power the network. (As these were the original concepts of the Bitcoin whitepaper, and the concepts to bring the ‘power back to the hands of the people’. etc.

 

Why do people claim the chain is private and not opt in?

I have never claimed the chain was private, so I’m not sure what you mean by that. the CHAIN and TRANSACTIONS are public, but since everything is completely decentralized, there is no method for an ‘identity’ to be tied to an account, unless the person specifically says ‘this is my account’.

 

 

Yes, you will see I am just questioning the community as politely as possible. I have not directed anything but love towards your commitment to helping ARRR.

Can you explain what level of funding and or dev hours have gone into your SDK?

Oh wow… lol… well… I have personally been working on the concepts and coming up with the correct people to work on the project, correlating messages between certain high IQ devs who shall remain nameless, who can’t seem to get along with anyone other than me for longer than a week (lol) and dedicating a TON of time to perfecting the concepts, etc… for 10+ years now.

But as far as the actual development goes, it really depends and is difficult to answer that question directly, as there are multiple components to Qortal, such as the AT system and its custom language that took its developer quite a bit of time to build, then our developer some time to translate it into something that was compatible with Qortal, etc etc…

But the actual development of the base level platform that exists today, started around 2016 during the ‘takeover’ of the QORA project. That was when the code actually started being written for what ultimately became the Qortal that exists now.

In order to accurately count the hours, that would be quite difficult, but it has been A TON of time and effort since ~2013 that continues to this day…

Myself personally, I have invested what would equate to nearly 2 million USD (which is part of what makes the current ~1.5 million dollar market cap so offensive to me) in one way or another in order to get the platform live and keep it moving.

 

Has there been any business application or utility so far applied to your network outside of staking and l1 base tradition functionalities?

We do NOT ‘stake’. In fact that is part of what we are trying to get rid of in the ‘crypto space’. We use a method that gives NO ‘weight’ to ‘money’ in any way, disallowing the ability for anyone to ‘buy’ any sort of ‘influence’ over the network. We believe this is the only way to prevent the platform being ‘owned’ in one way or another, when it inevitably gets to the point that it becomes a more widely known ‘threat’ to the existing system.

It must be impossible for those with the most ‘money’ now, to be able to gain a foothold in Qortal, simply by having more money than others.

that being said… yes, there are TONS of available use cases, including the ability to host a website on our completely decentralized and distributed data network, QDN. Users can right now, publish a website on QDN that is there INDEFINITELY, for a one-time name registration fee.

The data published doesn’t cost ANYTHING to publish, not even a transaction fee (as we use the same MemPoW that is in our consensus, to allow transactions to take place completely feeless in regard to publishing data on QDN, and messaging in Q-Chat) – Q-Chat will soon be getting turned into a protocol in order to remove reliance upon unconfirmed transactions at all, but that’s another story.

Q-Apps will be made available VERY soon, which will leverage the ‘websites’ and give them a TON more functionality, allowing applications to be built in the same fashion, that get more redundant, stronger, faster, as more users access them from their nodes.

QDN is a masterpiece of a data network with a blockchain security layer. It allows you to publish a website with no DNS, no server, no domain, no publishing fee, no continual fee, that cannot be taken down, cannot be hacked, and stays there indefinitely until you as the owner decide to take it down.

You can see one of my QDN hosted sites, even without running a node, by way of a ‘gateway node’ that I run, which I have made accessible here – https://qortal.link/crowetic

(with the gateway node, you can input any registered name after the / there, and it will load that site from QDN and display to ‘the internet’. Making use of the node running on that domain. But if a user accesses the site from the Qortal UI they do NOT need to utilize any domain, or access any server at all. In the future when we have lite nodes we will be able to build a ‘browser’ as well for QDN, so that accessing sites through the UI is not the only way to access them with full decentralization.)

When Q-Apps go live, full ‘merchant sites’, video hosting platforms, social media, blogs, forums, and literally anything you can think of, will be possible to build on top of QDN.

(payment processing, tipping, user account ‘authentication’, cross-site linking, communications from users to site owners, all directly possible from the sites themselves.)

 

As mentioned by another user there was concern around the model of sponsoring nodes, with the program stopped, have all the leases been revoked to nodes in the previous governance program model?

If you’re referring to the ‘self-sponsorship’ issue… the self-sponsorship algorithm has done its job, and retroactively added a ‘blocksMintedPenalty’ to every account deemed by the algo (utilizing a TON of data points in very specific fasion to both catch the self-sponsors and not catch non-self-sponsors, even those sponsored by obvious self-sponsoring sponsors) to be controlling multiple accounts. The same method was utilized on EVERY account, and every account was treated exactly the same by the algo.

The algo found and removed minting and sponsorship rights from 5,570 minting accounts from ~60 sponsors, and we are now past that scenario. We knew that eventually we would need to address the obvious one game that could be played on Qortal’s minting system, but we had expected that we would be able to do so a bit later down the line, so that we could have gotten more of our new features first, but alas, it worked out this way… no matter, that is now behind us, and we’re moving forward, and massive Q-Chat and QDN improvements are now on the horizon, along with the addition of multiple new signers into the developer group, etc etc. 2023 is going to be a REALLY exciting year for the project.

 

Understood, so how does your networks consensus work then? Can it not be 51% attacked? Do you control the push and commits for the node updates?

51% attacks are nearly impossible, as the person looking to attack would need to have over 51% of the level 5+ accounts, and also, at the beginning of the network, the ‘founder’ accounts of the network mint with an ‘effective level’ of 10, making them more likely to be the actual SIGNER. This was done specifically for the network’s security while it was still relatively ‘small’.

being the block signer only matters for chain security, every minter is rewarded every block whether they’re the signer or not.

Only minters of level 5 or higher are actually able to sign new blocks, and obtaining the majority of accounts of level 5 or higher, AND the majority of the founders, would be the only way to ‘attack’ the network.

As far as the update question, the Qortal Core has ‘auto-updates’ (which can be disabled by users if they choose) that work by way of a ‘group_approval’ (basically multi-signature transaction usable only by ‘admins’ of a specific group, in this case the ‘dev-group’.) transaction. The developer who is submitting the update code, submits a special type of transaction that sits on the chain until it is signed by the required amount of dev-group admins. This transaction contains the code for the update’s automation. When the update has been signed by the required number of dev-group admins, that final signature block becomes the ‘update block’. Every node that passes the update block and has auto-updates enabled, will automatically update the qortal.jar once their node reaches the block. There is also code included that delays the updates so that the entire network doesn’t go down at once to update at the same time, the staggered update ripples throughout the network until all auto-update-enabled nodes have been updated. This allows for seamless network improvements and much more ease-of-use in regard to running a node and making sure it stays updated with the newest features and functionality.

 

What format are these websites (on QDN)? html/css?

Yes, websites are written in HTML/CSS/JS (client-side languages) and SECURED by the blockchain. The data itself is encrypted and chunked, and stored on any node that accesses it. (views or follows it)

Viewing nodes become a peer for THAT VERSION of the data only, if an update happens, they would have to re-view it in order to get the new copy of the data.

Followers obtain updated copies of the data automatically, when a new version of a site is published, all of the name’s followers automatically obtain the new version of the data.

Data is only decrypted and built when VIEWED, so even the followers, unless they have specifically clicked the site to VIEW it, only have ‘encrypted chunked nonsense’ on their node as far as any ‘prying eyes’ are concerned, if the data isn’t accessed THROUGH QORTAL, then it is a bunch of encrypted chunked nonsense data.

 

What is the estimated monthly cost hosting a node now, and versus a ballpark estimate of when the network supports 100,000 websites approx? (To the end user.)

Given the fact that a node can literally be run on basically ANY computer, even a raspberry pi 4 can run Qortal with no issues (as @Theophilus33 can attest to, and many many others 🙂 ) – it costs you only ‘bandwidth’ to run a node, and most people in US and EU have ‘unlimited data’.

In the future our plan is to remove the reliance upon ‘the internet’ and ISPs as well, but that will require a much larger network of nodes, and our Mesh Network addition, and a bit of time to fully accomplish, along with some concepts for cross-ocean connectivity, etc… we have a few ideas there, but we’re not there yet overall. So we will utilize ‘the internet’ a while longer I suspect.

But Qortal was built in such a way that it does not REQUIRE ‘the internet’. It simply requires A method to communicate…

 

Alright so you index the site over the number needed of blocks, are the blocks dynamic? Or fixed, and to what TPS loads?

The data on a QDN namespace is published in the form of a zip, that zip is then encrypted, chunked, and hashed.

Each hash is then stored in a single file, which is in turn also hashed.

Finally, the single hash, is stored on the blockchain.

With that single hash, we can then tell if any file subordinate to that hash was modified, as that hash would then also be modified, and we can assume data was changed if that happens. At which point the modified data is made note of and acquired to view the newly updated site.

 

On the privacy side, could an attacker parse a website, and then export it? Or is this not possible without signing by way of public key?

Not sure what you mean exactly by this, but since all of the data is encrypted and chunked, in order to decrypt and build it, you must first have a key.

For public data that key is obviously available publicly, for private data it would be only available to those who were specifically given access to the key (this could be done by way of groups, which we will be adding very soon, or by way of a single-account ‘share’ done by the name’s owner.)

 

My only concern with this statement is for example, if you run waves tech which can scale to solana TPS on a super machine, or run on a raspberry pi, is determinate on the number of blocks being processed by the network, example:

100tx per second, rapsberry pi can handle, 10,000tx per second, def not, you need more resources or the node will stall.

Our chain functions differently on the base level, and even now, just to process the multiple listed trades (which live on-chain in the form of an AT) and all of their transactions to keep them ‘alive’, there is quite a bit of processing going on at any given time, all of which is handled just fine by a raspberry pi.

I suspect EVENTUALLY we will get to a point wherein pis will not be able to run EVERY aspect of QDN and everything hosted there, but that won’t be for quite a while, until we build a ‘server-side’ hosting method… at which point we will also be ‘modular’ so that nodes that CAN support the added processing necessary, can simply install an additional module that will allow them to do so.

But that’s not on our development radar yet, and as such hasn’t been fully ‘flushed out’ at this time. We do know, though, that Qortal, as it grows, will definitely need to become ‘modular’ in multiple ways, and are planning with that in mind.

Client-side hosting is what we’re focusing on now, and I don’t see any reason why (at least from existing experience and seeing how things have gone so far) that a pi should not be able to continue running everything on QDN for quite a while longer.

 

Ok so there is public data end user can view, and backend secured by key?

Correct, we have not yet initiated the ‘private data’ functionality, but that will be done very soon, and it will be data that is secured unless you have specifically been given access to it in one way or another, and since Qortal also has on-chain ‘groups’, doing shares and multiple other things becomes able to be accomplished quite easily.

We do not yet have group-controlled or private data live, but both of those are very close.

 

Ok good answer thank you for being transparent, scale is a serious topic.

Yes, it really is, and we are very aware of that fact, but as it sits right now, the pis are easily able to support everything we have, and should be able to do so for quite a while longer. 🙂 and of course, I am ALWAYS 100% transparent, just like our codebase. 😉

What I am personally VERY excited about, is ‘Qortal Git’, which will allow EVERY NAME on QDN to have along with a ‘namespace’ for a ‘website/app’, also a ‘git repo’, this will be VERY exciting, and allow multiple other open source projects to utilize a truly decentralized distributed git repo location, instead of the Microtrash-owned ‘GitHub’.

 

 

Thats a serious application which could help out a lot.

Yes, I am VERY excited about this, and there are only a few other little things we need in order to make it a reality. 🙂

 

 

Excellent, this exercise was in the flow of incorrect information, and people to challenge themselves to determine the truth 🔑

some lingering questions

– is your language for SC non turing complete, or turing complete
– is there a shortage, or abundance of libraries available to work wtih
– would you be interested in stateless gateway to TN or DVPN?
– Both would function by using the other network as an oracle
– transfer of funds is between user public keys

So, our ‘SmartContracts’ (I don’t like using that term as I feel like it has been bastardized like many other things in the space, by the likes of Ethereum and Binance ‘smart’ chain… but yea…) are written utilizing a turing complete hardware-level programming language called ‘AT’ or ‘Automated Transactions’.

This language allows for a ‘virtual CPU’ that lives on-chain, to automatically execute transactions on the chain.

At the moment, the primary use case for AT that we’re using now, is the ‘ACCT’ AT, or ‘Atomic Cross-Chain Trade’ AT. This is what powers the ‘Trade Portal’ of Qortal and allows us to cross-chain trade with the 6 ‘foreign’ coins that we now support.

the AT language is able to be read up more on here, on the main developer’s main info website – http://ciyam.org/at.

 

 

Interesting, is it possible for you to implement a non turing complete language? As they are the most secure, and what I feel comfortable writing software for, I can cite for you why I have such a position

I do believe I sent this once before – https://hackernoon.com/should-smart-contracts-be-non-turing-complete-fe304203a49e

Well, I suppose it would be possible, but since our ATs are a lot ‘simpler’ in functionality and what they can accomplish, and are not utilized to create ‘full applications’ but instead for simple automation of payments, automated escrow, automated ‘lottery’, and cross-chain trades, I don’t know if it would be something we need to focus on at the moment.

We only utilize the ‘battle-tested’ ATs that have existed for many years, modified to work with Qortal’s unique blockchain, and ATs are limited in terms of what they can accomplish overall, and are only meant to be utilized for automating certain transactions.

Thus far there hasn’t been anything like that that has taken place, but I welcome anyone to try to break anything, always, so that we may make any necessary modifications. 🙂

 

 

Can a user make their own AT, deploy and run it locally? Is there an authority of AT modules, and would that be your team?

ATs run on-chain. Yes, users CAN make their own, but it’s not a simple language to learn, and they are limited overall with the things they can do… think of them more as a ‘virtual CPU’ instead of a full VM. there is no ‘authority’ over them per se… other than the ‘authority’ given to them when created… If I understand the question.

 

 

What language is this based on or closest to in nature?

Assembly. AT language is a hardware-level language that is meant to run on-chain and be ‘simple’ as a ‘virtual CPU’ instead of a full ‘Virtual Machine’.

 

 

You did a great job handling some very simple, and some difficult questions.

Thanks! I do my best. 🙂

 

 

IMO the ATs should be a point of focus given the volume of DEFI comes from protocols.

Yes, we have yet to put a lot of focus there, as we first plan to have an ‘AT builder’ available for people, so that they don’t have to learn the AT language fully in order to launch an Automated Transaction. I suspect we will utilize them when we have ‘eBay-like’ markets as well, for automated escrow, etc… they could also be utilized for ‘automatic monthly payments’ and things like that, in tandem with a Q-App.

 

 

Just be aware many devs will wish to assemble their own ATs.

Yes, I’m certain that will be a thing as well, and that is totally possible, the language just takes a little learning to grasp. AT is quite unique. The developer of the AT language is one of the highest IQ people I’ve ever dealt with, and has some truly amazing software under his repositories. It took me many years of daily communication to get enough translated to our devs to allow his AT system to be built into Qortal.

 

 

You did very well for ARRR, and thats super special to me.

Glad you liked what we’ve done, our lead dev also contributed some improvements to the ARRR repo directly that forge has taken and made use of. 🙂

 

 

Thank you, this conversation was very helpful.

My pleasure, I am always around to answer questions from users or potential users of Qortal. I do not expect that every person has taken the time to read our very extensive and ever-growing wiki line-by-line, and am always here to assist in obtaining a better understanding of our completely custom base level infrastructure platform. Thank you!

 

Qortal Newsletter Update January 2023 Edition

Happy New Years Qortians! 2022 was a year full of complex developmental achievements that prepared us for the new year. Network performance, combating self-sponsorship, and base layers for an ever-evolving platform are just a few areas in which Qortal has advanced. We’ve experienced all sorts of challenges that were not easy to resolve, but with passionate care, we continue to make large strides in the right direction! 

Self Sponsorship Algorithm 

The self-sponsorship algorithm was implemented in December. This area of development took several months to conceive and code, with tedious care. The algorithm uses data points to identify and then penalize accounts deemed to be ‘self-sponsored’ accounts (literally individuals sponsoring multiple accounts for their own personal gain). These accounts are given a ‘-5 Million blocksMinted Penalty’ which discredits each account’s blocks minted count by 5 million. Thereafter making the account revert back to below level 0, unable to mint, and unable to sponsor (if the account was level 5+). Most if not all subsequent accounts under the self sponsor are also given the same penalty, while also using data points to avoid penalizing what appear to be ‘normal users’ who were sponsored by the account being penalized. As you see, this is a rather complex design based on data points that was not easy to produce. Of course no system is perfect, and Qortal’s Minting and Sponsorship Systems will never be entirely fool-proof, but hopefully this historic implementation will help deter more of those attempting to self sponsor and ensure a more fair system for all Minters. Please note: the self-sponsorship algo is not continual, meaning it is a one-time sweep each time it is run. There will be a second sweep at a later time, after more data can be reviewed and collected, as well as allocating development time to this unfortunate issue. The Qortal Wiki will soon have a page with a more in-depth explanation of the Blocks Minted Penalty! 

Q-Chat Update

We also encountered a unique Q-Chat issue due to a spammer in the General Chat (creating a new account for each new message so users cannot simply block a single spam account). This event bogged down the performance of nodes connecting to the network (causing much more MemPoW verification processing with each message), and led to the recent update where level zero accounts must now hold a minimum of 4.2 QORT in their wallets in order to grant faster chat capacities. Further work and investigation will be done in regard to this pragmatic issue.

 

Qortal UI Block Explorer

The UI now has its own built-in block explorer! Simply type in a QORT address or registered name in the search bar at top of the UI, and a pop-up will appear with the account’s information (including trades on all markets). Eventually we’ll have a mobile solution (lite nodes) so users can access their accounts and Qortal Network info without having to do so on their full nodes. Stay tuned!

Auto-Buy

Qortal’s Trade Portal now offers ‘Auto-Buy’. This feature lets users select the amount of coin they are willing to trade at a value set by the user. This ‘buy order’ is then set to automatically buy every order within the set parameters (and is only viewable to the user setting the buy order). The Auto-Buy is designed to select the lowest priced orders in the market, and buy as many of them up to the set rate the user has selected. For example, a user could set the Auto-Buy for 5000 QORT at 0.01 and the trade bot will buy as many of the sell orders under 0.01 up to a total of 5000 QORT. If an order is refunded, it will not attempt to buy from that sell order again. Please note: the UI must be left open if an Auto-Buy order is in place, and the user must stay signed into the account with the Auto-Buy. You can use the other plugins within the UI such as Websites or Q-Chat, but the UI must be left open.

Price Charts Coming Soon!

The long awaited price charts within the UI are nearly ready! Users will be able to view the history of each market over various time frames. Stay tuned!

More Development News

Development is picking up speed in other areas: the first iteration of Q-Apps nears, data transmission enhancements with QDN, while Q-Chat is evolving with a protocol instead of unconfirmed transactions (making it much faster and more efficient, and with less or no ‘missed’ messages), Q-Chat will also have new features such as picture and file messaging, edits, replies, formatting, and ability to store messages as long as the user would like (locally)! Another important area of development is the Voting System – where our votes will be weighted based on blocks minted and make decisions on certain aspects of the project’s direction. Coming soon!

Q-Apps will provide the Qortal Network with a variety of different functionality, including but not limited to: payment processing, cross-name linking, individual file downloads, code repository solution (GitHub replacement), video hosting and streaming (YouTube replacement), and evolving Qortal into a platform where apps can be built freely (without the Qortal developers being required). We will also have both ‘default’ and ‘external’ UI ‘plugins’ (applications that can be installed to run directly in the UI like the current plugins on the left sidebar) and will have eventually a location to acquire these plugins hosted on QDN. Read more about Q-Apps here:  https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=q-apps

AT Lottery System

Enter our fully decentralized automated lottery! Your chances of winning are completely random! Nobody handles any aspect of this manually. For the moment, this is an AT-Powered Lottery System, so in order to buy a ‘ticket’, you must send your QORT to a specific address (the AT’s address), and you can only buy one ticket per Qortal Account. The system will then select a winning ‘ticket’ at a predetermined block arrival. (This is one of many alternate use cases for the AT system of Qortal.) The AT address will be different for each lottery issued. In the future, the ability to create these lottery ATs and many other types of ATs will be built into the Qortal UI, 

Ticket price: 10 QORT

The Qortal ‘AT’ system (or Automated Transactions) allows for multiple types of transaction automation to take place. Currently we utilize it primarily for the peer-to-peer Cross-Chain Trades (or the ACCT AT) within the Trade Portal. There is a lot of other functionality that can take place utilizing ATs, such as ‘automated escrow’, ‘automated decentralized lotteries’, ‘automatic payments’ on a schedule, ‘funds holding and distribution’, and much more. As time goes on, many more ATs will be built for Qortal, and able to be utilized. But it takes time to develop and test, and the UI components must be built as well, in order to allow other users to make use of the created ATs, deploy them, etc. The first Lottery AT test on Qortal is LIVE! Read more about the Lottery System here: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=lottery_system

Crisis Event

Be sure to catch Qortal’s co-founder, Crowetic, when he meets with a number of freedom fighters during February 6–10 with the goal of releasing revolutionary knowledge and their passions so that we may create a sane, liberated, and empowered community.

Anyone who feels led to speak is welcome to do so; the event is free and open to everybody. Find more details here: https://piratechain.com/events

Join their hangout hub headquarters on the open Guilded server: https://www.guilded.gg/r/zzyjKrQ0qE?i=d3737Nkd

 

Crowetic Hardware Development “CHD”

CHD was founded as a third party service provider to the Qortal Project – providing pre-built computers to operate as nodes on the Qortal Network! From laptops and QORTectors, to custom Qortal merch, CHD is a totally optional service for those interested. Get the easiest, fastest and more efficient device to run your Qortal node with this winter’s sale! Custom laptops include updated storage to SSD, a deactivated Intel management engine, and visual and performance tweaks for full functionality, including the battery and power adapter. QORTectors include custom kernels (software) to provide optimized cryptographic and security functions for a reasonably priced 5W dedicated minting machine! https://crowetic.com

Social Media

Crypto Rich

True decentralization is defined by Crowetic in this interview with Crypto Rich. His persona being just another contributor to the creation of Qortal’s infrastructure is the first of Qortal’s guiding principles. He continues by outlining the current state of Qortal and its primary objective of developing into a peer-to-peer, decentralized, free, and private internet supported by a mesh network data service alternative, all done and controlled by the user.

The reason for community-driven birth, Qortal partnerships, the process of minting QORT coin, sponsorship, and the system’s ability to offer each person full control are all explained by Crowetic! 

Rice Crypto Show

In this interview, Crowetic goes on to shed some light on how the base-level infrastructure combined with decentralization offers infinite use cases on the alternative internet Qortal is building. Crowetic points out Etherium’s failure to achieve true decentralization in the financial world and Qortal’s goal to succeed in it as well as other fields, including Qortal’s focus on the average user to take part in minting without the need to compete with the use of computational power but rather only by time contributed to the network.

The memory-based Proof of Work (memPoW), which aims to limit multiple minting accounts per node, prevents system-feeding whales that are overly voracious. The self-sponsorship algorithm’s recent inception and functioning are thoroughly discussed here, along with many other gems like the forthcoming mesh network and free ISP! Don’t miss this insightful discussion!

CryptoMindsetReset – crowetic Talks Qortal @ Virtual CryptoMindsetReset Event December 14th 2022

Qortal co-founder and current dev team facilitator @crowetic speaks on the TRUE crypto RESET with Qortal.

unite.live

CryptoMindsetReset

Crowetic is interviewed by RiceTV on this talk, where he shares a bit about his passions and his personal journey on the search for the perfect decentralized solution, all while clearly introducing RiceTV to the decentralized roadmap Qortal is destined to achieve. He comes to tell us the Internet has been captured by some entities, and the obedience to their rule by all paying for a website in a slave matter is a game we can avoid with Qortal. The Internet will be unrestricted and free on the Qortal Network. In this session, our co-founder goes into great depth about how this will be done, the game of minting, potential future ideas, and much more. Tune in this is good stuff!

Declare Your Independence

Ernest Hancock is conducting an interview with Crowetic, one of Qortal’s co-founders. While Crowetic instructs Mr. Hancock on the fundamentals of Qortal and the history of the project, Mr. Hancock shares his perspective and a spot-on clarification on actual and old censorship techniques that we desperately need to solve with decentralized, P2P systems. The conversation is in-depth and covers a wide range of crypto-verse issues. 

Information on how Qortal safeguards your data via DNS and IPFS, as well as information on Qortal’s long-term objective of doing away with the need for ISPs (internet service providers). This is boldly shared here, along with a great deal more: https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Media/336392-2022-11-29-2022-11-29-ernest-interviews-jason-crowe-qortal.htm

Wiki Qortal

New How-To Guide made for How To Reduce Bandwidth:

https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=how_to_reduce_bandwidth

New Ubuntu 22.04 Installation Guide:

https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=ubuntu_22.04_with_cinnamon_desktop_setup_guide

Final Words

Numerous additional developments are also being diligently and thoroughly developed. For us, Qortal is more than just a project; it has evolved into a symbol of freedom and a distinct economic system for the future that needs our undivided attention. Qortal’s whole theme and focus is on peer-to-peer solutions (P2P). From becoming a Minter and trading coin, to web hosting and data distribution, the Qortal Project will continue to develop P2P solutions that remove counter party risk and ensure each user is completely in control over their account, its balances, its data, its sovereignty! 2023 will be a year full of feature-rich development. Cheers!

‘’Is not what your family/community can do for you, but what you can do for your family/community’’.

Join Us!

Discord: https://discord.gg/UqhQCYjVw2

Telegram (general chat): https://t.me/qortal_official

Telegram (tech support): https://t.me/qortalchat

Greetings Qortians! As development continues to knock out new additions like the madmen of raw talent they are, Qortal introduces a completely new piece to its fully custom consensus, a piece meant to remove the ability to run multiple nodes (and thus minting keys) on a single computer — introducing, the MemPoW algo! MemPoW is a major step toward the future and yet another world first for any blockchain. A memory-based Proof of Work is now a requirement in Qortal minting.

Minting rewards have been modified across the board, with a reduction to the founder tier and an increase to the rest of the minting level tiers. (along with a massive reduction to the previous “QORA burn” rewards, which were given as a way to help convert the previous QORA community to Qortal, and it was decided that the initial percentage for that was set way too high.) These decisions were all made by community vote.

The final self-sponsorship changes, which include the self-sponsorship algorithm and a 5 million block reduction for existing self-sponsoring accounts, will be the next key area of development. The long-awaited “Q-Apps,” which will allow developers to create fully fledged applications on Qortal, with cross-name linking, “payment processing,” and a ton of other helpful website and app functionality, are just one of the significant Q-Chat and QDN upgrades that will be made. It appears that Qortal’s “moment to shine” will be at the conclusion of 22 and the beginning of 23.

We’d like to thank our mate Legend Lootz for providing this brand-new newsletter and wish Crowetic, who turned 37 a few days ago, a happy birthday!

Project Update

 

Qortal Data Network QDN

New in Qortal? Discover the Qortal Data Network, one of the platform’s main features. It is what will make it possible to start “creating the internet of the future.” This website serves as a showcase for some of the numerous features available on QDN.

In addition to detailing how to set these things up on your own QDN-hosted website, Crowetic will be demonstrating what is possible on QDN as this page develops (and updating those demos as time goes on to continue to display the newest of QDN’s data possibilities). Use it here: https://qortal.link/crowetic

Additionally, Crowetic recently published instructions for setting up a gateway node here: https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=how_to_host_your_public_data

Sponsorship

MemPoW was implemented on October 22 and put into practice by consensus. Anti-self-sponsorship will be achieved by the MemPoW and the self-sponsorship algorithms working together in the following ways:

1. MemPoW added to consensus — this makes it so that only 2 accounts can be added to a single COMPUTER, regardless. Even if they try to get around it with VMs or containers, as the MemPoW uses memory bandwith, which is shared system-wide, to hash, and create a ‘nonce’ or ‘result’ with a statically assigned difficulty, essentially allowing us to say ‘how long’ it should take for a person to submit a single minting signature. It’s really quite brilliant.
2. Self-sponsorship algorithm — Designed to ‘seek and destroy’ those who have self-sponsored multiple minting accounts. This algo uses available data (more details will come AFTER the algo is live) to find, and apply a ‘blocksMintedPenalty’ to existing accounts proven by the algo to be self-sponsoring. This will completely REMOVE the minting rights of those accounts, by giving them a -5 Million blocksMintedPenalty. Therefore existing and previous self-sponsored accounts will no longer be able to sponsor, or mint. Any of the existing self-sponsors, and ALL of the accounts they have self-sponsored, will be -5 million blocksMinted, using the new addition to the db, blocksMintedPenalty. This is very close to complete, and will be implemented very soon.

With these changes and the network being comprised of only legitimate minters, the Qortal Voting System will be able to be implemented, which means that future changes to the system (such as the addition of new coins supported, etc.) can be made as they were always meant to be, by way of a vote from leveled users of the system. A user’s vote weight will be directly correlated to the number of “blocks” they have “minted” in their minting account; the more time they have dedicated to helping the network by way of minting, the more weight they will have in the voting system. A truly fair voting system for the future of the world.

Qortal Wallet App

Download the brand-new app! As the initial version of the wallet will employ a “hosted node” operated by Traxo, the app will initially only be a wallet and name registration service (items that only require transmitting signed transactions to the core). The option to add your own node and the use of “light nodes” will both be possibilities as the app develops, and when these things happen, more functionality will be introduced to the app as well. Dowload the App here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.qortal.qortalWallet

Another download location (on QDN and accessible on the internet through a public gateway) will be provided shortly for those among us who are “anti-Google.” Keep checking on the “Crowetic” name on QDN for that file to pop-up there.

Android Termux

We now have the ability for the tech-savvy members of our community to RUN A FULL NODE ON AN ANDROID DEVICE. A tutorial is now available. Please take note of the codes and stick to the guidelines here:

https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=android_termux

Qnect App

You can currently test the community-developed application, QNect private chat software, which is intended to be a solution for many issues with those powers that shouldn’t be snooping on our minds and activities, for Android and Linux OS systems (Microsoft coming soon).

View and test it out! the download instructions are here:

https://wiki.qortal.org/doku.php?id=qnect_app

Minting Rewards

Thank you, Qortians! A prior community vote resulted in a rise in our block reward percentages and a decrease for the founders. Here are the updated percentages:

Levels 1 and 2 minting accounts share 6% of the block reward
– Levels 3 and 4 share 13% of the block reward
– Levels 5 and 6 share 19% of the block reward
– Levels 7 and 8 share 26% of the block reward
– Levels 9 and 10 share 32% of the block reward
– QORA holders transitioning into QORT coin share 1% of the block reward
– Founders share a minimum of 3!% of the block reward, and/or the ‘leftover’ percentage, which initially will be higher when there aren’t users in all of the various level groups, and will decrease over time.

Please note: below are the original percentages for historical reference:

• Levels 1 and 2 minting accounts share 5% of the block reward
  – Levels 3 and 4 share 10% of the block reward
  – Levels 5 and 6 share 15% of the block reward
  – Levels 7 and 8 share 20% of the block reward
  – Levels 9 and 10 share 25% of the block reward
  – QORA holders transitioning into QORT coin share 20% of the block reward
  – Founders share a minimum of 5% of the block reward, and/or the ‘leftover’ percentage, which initially will be higher when there aren’t users in all of the various level groups, and will decrease over time.

Crisis Event

Don’t miss the inauguration of this event, which our friend Crowetic will be attending with the community, pirates, and freedom fighters. This event is a must-attend in order to have a real, frank discussion about our predicament and empower us all as one. Anyone who feels led to speak is welcome to do so; the event is free and open to everybody. The occasion is scheduled for the week of February 6–10. Find more details here: https://piratechain.com/events

Join their hangout hub headquarters on the open Guilded server: https://www.guilded.gg/r/zzyjKrQ0qE?i=d3737Nkd

Playing Qortal|Portal on New Earth

Simon James from Playing Qortal|Portal on New Earth offers his heart and wisdom from the mystique of the Himalayan mountains that surround him. He gives us a thorough explanation of the history of our system’s engineering, as well as its problems, successes, and potential outcomes. He also shed a great deal of light on how a world full of control mechanisms is no longer alluring or practical for the new generation of people looking for identity and a true and kind community thanks to his awakened mind.

With his Revolution of Values, Simon explains in great detail the causes of our existing financial system’s flaws and its impending demise, the myth surrounding Bitcoin, and the real solution provided by the decentralized blockchain that Qortal offers to all of mankind by bringing the money printer machine to your home. Watch the video up top to enjoy his kind and wise advice at your leisure!

https://odysee.com/@playingqortal:e/videoguide:a?src=embed

Aurea Interview

View Crowetic’s amazing conversation with The Awakened Journalist out from Aurea’s event. Crowetic dispels the myth of decentralization in the cryptosphere in this talk by pointing out that it is only achievable if you take the lead node position. He goes on to describe how Qortal actually accomplishes this in the field, not only in terms of currency but also by using the hardware in your own computer to power the entire internet cosmos: https://unite.live/qortal-blockchain-project/qortal?recording_id=1505

 

MarketWatch

New to Qortal? We’ve developed Qort’s MarketWatch app with all the toys for you to play with whether you’re into TA or just want to learn more about Qort’s history. Watch the video above for a tour of it and download the app here: https://github.com/uniteandconquer/Marketwatch/releases

Crowetic Hardware Development

By using our devices, you will speed up the Qortal network and boost computing power all the while making your rewards safe! For our devoted community, our outstanding devices are engineered to provide the highest performance! They are available at our online store, which also has a large selection of lovely Qortal clothing designs. Visit our fantastic online store right away! https://crowetic.com

Final Words

With several false flag operations and obscene subversion strategies deftly woven into our society, the battle for the money printer machine and mankind as a whole rages on. We don’t precisely know who will win, but we do know that as long as there is a power handling our currency, there will be plenty of possibility for greed or insensitivity to corrupt our handler’s heart because we recognize that power turns the wise into fools and the fool into madmen.

Our dedication to returning power to the people is committed and passionately maintained. Like all modest ideas, Qortal is just getting started, but it is a power that will endure long after we are departed. We anticipate Qortal developing into unthinkable and practical solutions for humanity as long as there are beings unified in goodness and fairness.

Let Us All Unite!

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