After a productive holiday season, the Quai team is looking forward to rolling out many large initiatives in 2023.
Overview
With a holiday season filled with code commits, Quai is prepared for a 2023 of testing, building, and shipping. Core protocol improvements, including cross-chain transactions, are undergoing devnet testing prior to the Iron Age Testnet. Quai’s full-stack team has also been testing the tooling & infrastructure surrounding the core protocol that has been built to facilitate the Testnet experience.
In addition to development work, the Quai team has been focused on connecting with ecosystem partners and potential builders in order to spur project development and deployment to start during the upcoming Iron Age Testnet.
Core Protocol
Core development has focused on final preparations for a public Testnet. Internal devnets have allowed for the identification and addressing of bugs in peering, external transaction (ETXs), and more.
Miscellaneous devnets have been consolidated into two distinct and ongoing developer environments for testing: Colosseum and Garden. Colosseum, the main branch, will be the public release that is used for the Iron Age Testnet. Garden is an experimental development environment, where changes/upgrades are tested before being merged into Colosseum.
Progress on the core protocol can be followed by viewing the go-quai public repository on GitHub.
Tooling
Quai’s full-stack team has been testing the tooling that has been built to facilitate a smooth Iron Age Testnet experience, including a wallet, faucet, Quai Javascript SDK (quais), node discovery (disco) service, block explorer, and a command-line interface for node/miner operation.
Wallet
The wallet built for the Iron Age Testnet utilizes MetaMask Flask, the development build of MetaMask, to manage private keys. MetaMask Flask allows a single private key to be used to manage many different accounts on Quai. The Iron Age Testnet wallet will reside in the Quai Dashboard.
MetaMask Flask allows for the inclusion of external code, known as “snaps,” to be added to MetaMask functionality. A dedicated snap for Quai, known as QuaiSnap, has been written and tested in preparation for the Iron Age. Quai’s Dashboard wallet will not support contract interactions, leaving plenty of room for competitors and improvements.
https://github.com/dominant-strategies/quai-snap
Faucet
The faucet built for the Iron Age Testnet will allow users to quickly receive small amounts of Testnet Quai at no cost. The faucet will have certain throttles to protect the integrity of the Testnet.
Quais
Quais is a JavaScript (and TypeScript) library containing a complete Quai wallet implementation and miscellaneous utilities. Quais is a downstream fork of Ethers v5.7.2. While Quais will be under ongoing development as Quai progresses towards mainnet, it will be made publicly available for developers to use in the Iron Age Testnet.
Disco
Quai utilizes a node discovery service (disco). Disco stores data about nodes connected to Quai Network and allows both developers and users to query this data.
https://github.com/dominant-strategies/discv4-dns-lists
Block Explorer
QuaiScan, the block explorer used during Quai’s Bronze Age Testnet, has been upgraded to recognize which chain an address resides on. Previously, each Quai chain had distinct block explorers that would not redirect to each other if an external address/external transaction was input. Now, the block explorer will display address/tx information on the correct block explorer automatically, without requiring users to keep track of which block explorer they’re using.
Quai Hardware Manager
The Quai Hardware Manager is a command line interface (CLI) that allows users to easily install, update, start, and stop Quai nodes and miners. The CLI makes the process of setting up and maintaining Quai hardware significantly easier and more straightforward.
https://github.com/dominant-strategies/quai-node-cli-tool
Ecosystem
The Quai team has been preparing a grants program for the Iron Age Testnet, and has begun connecting with builders around the world that are interested in deploying on Quai. With a formal announcement of the grants program on the horizon, the team is excited to begin publicly discussing projects that will be integrating with Quai.
“We’re talking to some incredible teams right now who are interested in building on Quai. I’m super excited for testnet and the public Quai Genesis (grants program) announcement. Lots to get done in the coming months.”
-Brennie, BD Manager
University Calls
The Quai team has launched a new initiative, Quai University Calls, to educate the community on the technology behind Quai. Hosted by Dr. K, a co-founder of Quai, these University calls offer a low-pressure way to learn and ask questions about Quai and blockchain technology as a whole.
University calls are hosted live in the Quai Discord, and are also recorded and posted to the Quai YouTube channel.
Community Hangout
The Quai team welcomed members of the community to the second monthly Quai Community Hangout, hosted at Hold Out Brewing in Austin, Texas.
Conclusion
With lots of work completed on the core protocol and surrounding tooling, the development team is now primarily focused on tying everything together for the upcoming Iron Age Testnet. The team has also continued the process of cultivating an ecosystem, with a grants program around the corner. With many initiatives coming to a head, 2023 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Quai Network.
Join us to build a better blockchain.
Quai Network is an open-source Proof-of-Work blockchain network utilizing the capabilities of merged mining to increase throughput and security. Users of Quai Network will enjoy fast transaction times without compromising decentralization and security. Miners will have competitive mining opportunities across the many blockchains within the network.
Capable of thousands of transactions per second, the Quai Network is a Proof-of-Work solution to scalability that is soon to be ready for Mainnet release.
Disclaimer
Opinions, ideas, and statements shared in this update are delivered with numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties which are subject to change over time. There are multiple risk factors, including those related to blockchain, cryptographic systems, and technologies generally, as well Quai’s business, operations and results of operations, that could cause actual results or developments anticipated not to be realized or, even if substantially realized, to fail to achieve any or all of the benefits that could be expected therefrom. We reserve the right to unilaterally, completely, or partially change plans, expectations, and intentions stated herein at any time and for any reason, in our sole and absolute discretion, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. ACCORDINGLY, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT RELY ON, AND DO NOT MAKE ANY FINANCIAL DECISION OR INVESTMENT BASED ON, THE STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS UPDATE OR ANY OF OUR UPDATES/ARTICLES — INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY SELLING OR TRADING OF QUAI TOKENS, ETHER, OR ANY OTHER CRYPTOGRAPHIC OR BLOCKCHAIN TOKEN, OR THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY.
The views, opinions, and statements made in this update are those of an individual author and not those of any institution, University, or legal entity operating within the jurisdiction of The United States or beyond. There is no association between these views, opinions, and statements and any for-profit or non-profit entity, particularly with Universities, Foundations, and other Agencies located within the United States. Any perception of such an association is purely accidental, and will be rectified immediately if brought to our attention by the reader.