from the ECC Team
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” — Coco Chanel
Hello ECC community — it’s been awhile.
We have a few changes to discuss today as far as how ECC is going to realize its vision of creating decentralized common network services on the blockchain. That basic vision is still intact as far as instituting messaging and file services are concerned, but the change is in how we plan on getting there.
Through research & development in getting the multi-chain going, some faults became very apparent, mainly around scalability.
There were other issues, of course. As one would imagine, sending a message through the blockchain wouldn’t be instant, as both parties would need to wait until the next new block is generated. Anyone currently using an instant messenger wouldn’t exactly be knocking on our door to use one that, although decentralized and open source, would be significantly slower.
Without getting too technical, it was becoming apparent that continuing to develop the messaging and file storage within a multi-chain concept would not have been in the best interest of ECC.
This is why we couldn’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. We have now officially switched gears. Our goal is the same — decentralized common network services on the blockchain, but the path ahead has changed. There remains a small part of the multi-chain aspect that remains in the code which may be used in the future in other ways — however, messaging and file storage will not be a part of that multi-chain plan.
So, what’s the next step?
Dev Update
AODV (Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing) determines the most efficient path for information to flow through nodes in a totally decentralized manner. ECC’s Messaging and File Storage are now being built upon two decentralized technologies — blockchain and AODV. No data itself is sent through AODV. AODV just determines the most efficient routes for node-to-node communication. This way messages and files could be stored/sent without compromising the speed of the financial chain. AODV protocol is currently in dev testing and will be issued in a later release. This solution solves the scaling issues with the multi-chain discussed above.
Some light reading for the more technically inclined on AODV can be found here.
So, the biggest change is that ECC is looking to become a range of decentralized technologies — blockchain, AODV, and other technologies such as DHT (Distributed Hash Tables) going forward.
ECC Daemon Update
An updated version of the full node wallet daemon (eccoind) which runs behind Sapphire has just been pushed to the master branch of the ECC GitHub this morning and will soon be compiled for release. This version, 0.2.5.15, has a few new minor features, a lot of performance improvements, some bug fixes, and greatly increased test coverage. This is an optional but recommended upgrade.
The largest noticeable change to the average user is a much quicker initial sync time when getting set up in Lynx or Sapphire. It will not be as fast as expected when we implement SHA-256 on release 1.0.0.0 — but it is a noticeable improvement.
Next up on the dev list is version 0.2.5.16. You can track it’s development progress here.
ECC & Electrum
We are also pleased to announce that ECC now has a light wallet, based on the famous electrum protocol!
Just start Electrum-ECC, create your wallet, then send and receive ECC immediately.
No long syncing necessary!
Electrum-ECC gives users a simple wallet app (Windows, MacOs, Linux, Android) that does not need a local copy of the blockchain. Rather than the lengthy blockchain synchronization process required to sync a full node, the Electrum-ECC client securely connects to an Electrum server for all its blockchain business whilst all crypto keys are held securely on the user’s device.
The Electrum-ECC wallet is created from a seed phrase consisting of 12 random words. This means that if the user’s device is stolen or experiences unrecoverable data loss, the exact same wallet can be re-created on another device simply by entering the 12-word seed phrase. And for the ultimate in cold storage security, you can securely delete your Electrum-ECC installation with your wallet seed phrase stored in a safe place for later re-creation.
However, because the Electrum-ECC client app is not a full node, it is unable to stake and supports only payment transactions. If you wish to support ECC’s network security by staking or access future network services, you need to run a full node. You can run both but bear in mind that even with both installed on the same device, the full node and Electrum-ECC wallets remain entirely separate.
Electrum-ECC has been adapted from recent versions of the ElectrumX server and Electrum client apps for Bitcoin. It is tried and tested software with a very large community of users. Rather than fork the ElectrumX server the changes necessary to support ECC were contributed back into the ElectrumX project, which already has support for a number of other coins. You can see those changes to add ECC support here.
The client app we decided to use (there are several) was not set up for multi-coin support, so it was necessary to fork that into the ECC project:
https://github.com/project-ecc/electrum-ecc
To get early access to Electrum-ECC for desktop or for your Android phone go here.
Based on Electrum we can develop many more light wallet applications.
Sapphire Update
Dylan (@Dolaned) and Nick (@zuc0001) continue to make gains on the Sapphire rewrite. You can see a list of the latest commits here. Dylan finished off a huge commit just this morning to help clean up the daemon connections in Sapphire. Sapphire also now has a proper auto-updater in it which will notify you as soon as a released is pushed.
Marketing Update
Exchange Listing
We have a new exchange listing to announce… ECC is soon to be listed on Txbit.io!
You can read more about Txbit.io here. It is a recently launched, and thus small (for now) dutch crypto exchange with no KYC requirements required to start trading, only e-mail.
Please show your support for this Txbit.io by registering and trading ECC there once available. For those curious about NEXT exchange, that listing will come later once the Sapphire upgrade is complete.
Also, the ECC foundation website is ready however, it remains inactive for now. The donation address for the foundation will be set up after some tax implications are worked out.
ECC + Brave Browser
We have integrated with Brave as a rewards participant. This means Brave Browser users will now be able to leave tips in the form of BAT Tokens which will go towards supporting the development of ECC via the Growth Fund. To make it even easier you can enable auto-contribute within your rewards dashboard.
To further support our project we have set up a referral program. For every unique download and install of the Brave Browser, both on desktop and mobile, ECC will receive the equivalent of $5 US in Brave Tokens.
It’s never been easier to support us so let’s make the most of it. You can download the Brave Browser here.
To qualify as a payable referral the user needs to not only download but also mildly use the browser. Referrals are paid out after a 30 day period.
A little about Brave
Brave is a web browser project headed by Brendan Eich, the co-founder of Mozilla and inventor of the JavaScript programming language. What sets Brave apart is its aggressive anti-ad attitude. The browser was built to strip online ads from websites and its maker’s business model relies not only on ad blocking but on replacing the scratched-out ads with advertisements from its own network.
Users are paid in BAT Tokens to watch these ads which are then used to tip content creators that are verified by Brave, such as ECC.network!
Brave Rewards is an anonymous donation system integrated directly into the Brave desktop browser. Brave Rewards is a new way to fund content on the internet and to reconnect creators with their audiences. Brave Rewards currently has a community of over 55,000 publishers, YouTube creators, and Twitch streamers.
One final thing worth mentioning is that you can also give one time tips, Brave gives out grants of 20–25 BAT that can only be used for tipping. This grant is not able to be withdrawn or saved. The grant funds expire after 30 days so use them while you can.
ECC Joins CoinGecko Beam
You may have noticed a while ago we were one of the lucky teams to be chosen to be a part of CoinGecko Beam’s Beta.
CoinGecko — an application that ranks cryptocurrency by various metrics such as developer repository activity, social media shares, and many others, have unveiled its latest feature Beam.
Beam will offer only authorized token project and exchange administrators to interact directly with the broader audience. Sharing project updates on the web have become chaotic with the rise in fraudulent activity.
We look forward to sharing our news and updates via CoinGecko as well as many other platforms.
The Bull Pen Podcast
Everything in the podcast world is going great from both a content and stats perspective. Amazing guests and increasing downloads and streams seem to be a part of the norm for the podcast and we couldn’t be happier.
We are currently testing Mondays and Wednesdays possibly being the new episode release day (Tuesday is currently our release day) to maximize exposure. Also, as time passes and things become more concrete on the back end you will see the marketing ramp up and there are some huge surprises that we have in store for the listeners and crypto world altogether. *wink wink*
Huge thanks to Glenn (@BreakingDead) who is the podcast’s Digital Media Manager and a master networker. Most of the amazing guests that you’ve seen appear on the show has been directly due to his hard work, dedication, and persistence.
Latest Episodes
In Episode 33 of The Bull Pen Podcast (part 1 of a 2-part series) The Crypto Bully steps into the Bull Pen with Morgan Steckler who is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of iTrustCapital. As Morgan hops onto the call Lyndon expects for things to be “business-as-usual” in comparison how his podcast conversations generally go, but that was in NO WAY how things panned out. Completely unexpected, Morgan starts to go into detail on the things that took place on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, and caught Lyndon by complete surprise hearing that Morgan was, unfortunately, sim swapped and then swatted. These happening along with why Morgan believed they took place points out a frightening yet important reality on being involved in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space that is sometimes overlooked.
They also, have an amazing episode dropping this Monday with Jeremy Horton (CEO) and Stephen Harano (COO Lead Analyst) of Block Society. Block Society is cryptos first SEC licensed and registered cryptocurrency financial advising team, which means the consumer has extra protection and they don’t have to say the commonly heard phrase,
“This is not financial advice.”
Because if you are a paid customer of the Block Society platform then it is indeed financial advice. Click on the image below to learn more about Block Society and schedule a free consultation.
All other episodes can be found here.
Late Night Crypto Chat with theCrypto Legends
The Crypto Bully, aside from cranking out episodes for The Bull Pen Podcast, also is co-owner of a private blockchain and cryptocurrency community on Facebook known as Crypto Legends.
You can find him and the co-host Ross Alex pumping out live chats via YouTube every Wednesday and Friday at 10 pm CST. The live chats are all inclusive with a primary focus on crypto. They like to have informative discussions while throwing plenty of humor into the mix, and later in the show, invite in guests to chat with them live. ECC has found its way into the discussion on more than one occasion as well. Click on the image below and feel free to check out their YouTube channel to see how fun things usually get and subscribe to the channel.
As you can see, even through the bear market, ECC has remained intact and constantly developing and improving. Things have slightly shifted from its original route but all for the betterment of the project and the community as a whole. Until next time!
Brent (@Mr. Plow), Glenn (@BreakingDead) and Lyndon (@MrCryptoCarlton)
