The road behind us

Around Q2 2018, the team started working towards identifying new market problems and product fits. After significant business and technological research, we have established the core pillars - the technology and the vision, that define Dfinance. As of today, we implemented:

• An operational testnet, built on Cosmos Tendermint consensus
• Integration of Libra's Move VM and the Move development language (developed by Facebook's Libra)
• Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) & Language Server (allows programming language support syntax to be implemented and distributed independently of any given editor or IDE) - Currently supporting VSCode, Intellij Idea
• Move Unscrambler Beta - Move Unscrambler is a tool that statically analyzes compiled Move scripts & modules (binary) and explains what they can do, writes in human-readable format - md, html, etc. This is part of the formal-verification initiative
• The Move Book, a book guide for developers to the Move language
• The Dfinance blockchain explorer (search functions, indexing, API)
• A rich set of documentation
• The Dfinance wallet - currently featuring authorization, sending and receiving supported cryptocurrencies, the PegZone and staking functionality
• The Proof-of-Stake mechanism (delegators and validators secure network, incentivized through inflation rewards)
• Pre-alpha version of Decentralized Exchange (DEX) which will enable the trading of assets created on Dfinance. Book matchmaking is done on the protocol level (decentralized)
• A basic governance mechanism accessible via CLI for managing protocol development and decisions (based on the Cosmos governance mechanism)
• Emergency protocols - Halts the blockchain under specific very severe circumstances (For example if a blockchain invariant [e.g state of synchronization] is broken. Dnode automatically detects corruptions in user balances and reacts by halting the network, giving time for developers to fix the issue)

Roadmap

This roadmap is subject to change without prior notice.

August

• Registration of nodes will be opened for the upcoming staking contest
• Release of the production version of the Move Unscrambler
• Stability and flexibility improvements to the current oracle system (SDK)
• Launch of Beta version of the oracles system including rewards mechanism for oracle providers
• Preview version of Dfinance Financial Library (DFL) - a collection of financial instruments templates that will enable the launch of new instruments by means of utilizing pre-created and tested DeFi oriented smart contracts
• Launch of the testnet nodes staking contest
• Release of an Intellij IDEA plugin for the Move language
• Beta version of the Dfinance seamless upgrade technology which will be used as a hard-fork prevention mechanism which will enable a smooth blockchain upgrade process in case of major code changes, preventing the need of a complete rebuild from scratch
• Move language Dfinance-specific syntax improvements
• An initial version of the Dfinance inflation model

September

• Ethereum PegZone production version, including an upgrade from the existing Proof of Authority (PoA) to Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus
• Initial UI for the Dfinance governance beta which will enable to submit and vote on new proposals to the Dfinance Financial Library - expanding it with new templates based on Dfinance coin holders consensus and other types of proposals (e.g hard fork)
• Liquidity staking beta release - this feature will enable Dfinance holders to secure the network through staking while at the same time also provide liquidity to the network using the same Dfinance coins
• High-Level Language (HLL) Beta version - a tool that allows users to interact with Dfinance using only suggestive text thus allowing them to design, verify and deploy new financial instruments to the Dfinance network without the need to code
• Seamless upgrade technology (hard-fork prevention) - production version
• Decentralized Exchange (DEX): financial instruments and assets (tokens, synths) will become tradeable on the Dfinance network
• Launch of the WINGS ERC20 to Dfinance ERC20 gateway (optional)

October

• Production release of the High-Level Language (HLL)
• Dfinance inflation model - final
• Security audit(s)
• Launch of the HLL promotion and education campaign
• Testnet heavy testing
• Security audit recommendations - integration of fixes and improvements
• Preparations for Dfinance mainnet launch, including the freezing of features
• End of the staking contest - results summary and rewards distribution

November

• Pre-mainnet final preparations
• Forming and launching of the genesis block (validators, balances, etc)
• Dfinance mainnet launch
• Close ongoing monitoring of the mainnet components and the overall network performance
• Post mainnet hotfixes and improvements
• Launch of the WINGS ERC20 / Dfinance ERC20 to Dfinance mainnet coins gateway (optional)

December

• Beta version of a yield optimizer HLL syntax template, which will enable the creation of yield farming optimization strategies for popular DeFi protocols
• Beta version of the Ethereum PegZone command & control extension which will enable cross-chain command execution support
• A production version of the UI/UX kit which will allow maintaining a coherent design language across the different existing and future interfaces
• Graphic rework of all existing interfaces to a unified design
  

In addition to the features described above in the monthly roadmap goals, we also conduct ongoing maintenance work on all services and maintain an updated version of the Move language, while remaining compatible with the latest Move language changes, including:

• Updates of the Dfinance Virtual Machine (DVM)
• Updating Documentation
• Maintaining the online Move guide (move-book.com)
• Updating the Dfinance Node (DNode)

Additionally, the team continuously works on fixes, improvements, code refactoring and updating to new Cosmos SDK versions as they get released. Lastly, the team is also gradually phasing out legacy code with every update.