roadmap

Roadmap

This is our roadmap of waypoints, to be refined over time.

Contents

• Upcoming Waypoints
  • Short Term
    • Trafford Spec, Homu-CI, Alpha Bugs/Features
    • zcp2 Spec, Trafford Implementation
    • Bitcoin Low-Hanging-Fruit Phase
    • Tuning Phase
  • Long Term
    • Protocol Audit
    • Code Audit
    • Infrastructure Monitoring
    • Parameter Ceremony
    • Feature Complete Test Release
  • Launch Day!
    • Subsequent Launches
• Completed Waypoints

Upcoming Waypoints

Short Term

Trafford Spec, Homu-CI, Alpha Bugs/Features

Target Date: 2016-02-22 (2 weeks)

• zcp2 aka Trafford spec ready for scientist review.
  • Features other than selective transparency were done but not formally presented for review.
• Homu, docker build slaves, more betterer CI!
  • Basically done.
• Help users with bugs, common install snags, feature requests (eg: RPC improvement)
• Website Translations
  • Ready for translation.
• Deliver toy miner implementing "Generalized Birthday Problem" PoW
  • Mostly finished.

PR: Blog about Trafford improvements (Faerie gold fix, chained-Pours, etc...)

• Not done at all.

zcp2 Spec, Trafford Implementation

Target Date: 2016-03-21 (4 weeks)

• zcp2 aka Trafford spec (including decisions about selective transparency) ready for scientist review.
• Begin implementing zcp2 aka Trafford (Don't block on science review!)
• Update flaws found by science review or unanticipated impl constraints into zcp2.1 aka NOT-YET-NAMED.
• Website translation into Chinese. (Bonus: Spanish and Russian)
• Finish C++ stand-alone miner implementing "Generalized Birthday Problem" PoW; either make a decision to use GBP or a decision to consider other candidates.

PR: Blog about Trafford improvements (Faerie gold fix, chained-Pours, etc...), science review of Trafford, and how our implementation is coming along.

Bitcoin Low-Hanging-Fruit Phase

Target Date: 2016-04-04 (3 weeks)

• Incorporate new Proof-of-Work
• Decide if we rebase to upstream v0.12 or keep v0.11.2 for 1.0 launch.
• Select and incorporate any Bitcoin low-hanging-fruit features (eg: time-warp attack).
• Consider (conservatively!) adopting any farther out consensus features:
  • per-block difficulty adjustment
  • fundamentally different block resource limits (eg: Gavin et al's linear cost function with dynamic adjustment proposal).

PR: Blog about PoW and mining system. Blog about Bitcoin rebase decisions and cherry picking features.

Tuning Phase

Target Date: 2016-04-25 (3 weeks)

Adjust anything that's an "easy knob" based on projections and measurements:

• circuit arity.
• commitment tree depth. (Note: commitment tree hash function should have changed above, but we may make a late exception to circuit modification here?)
• block target time.
• block size constraints w/ separate Pour size allocation.
• improve serialization / compression of addresses, parameters, etc...
• improve UX "perceived performance" (eg: load verifying/proving parameters separately)

PR: Blog about tuning, predictions, measurements.

Long Term

Between short term and long term is a hazy cloud of uncertainty.

Protocol Audit

Target Date: ???

• Review our Protocol doc for security.
• Auditor awareness of Bitcoin consensus a major plus.

Code Audit

Target Date: ???

• Feature complete except for security flaws discovered by audit.
• Public testnet auditors may use. <-- PR: We need to make sure test users are aware of this.

Infrastructure Monitoring

Target Date: ???

Have features in place for infrastructure monitoring.

• Notice when testnet or prodnet nodes act unusually.
• Estimate network size / peer counts / block height, etc...

Parameter Ceremony

Target Date: ???

The Official Parameters are dropped on our door step by a magic stork.

Feature Complete Test Release

Target Date: ???

Called a "beta" in the past.

• It has all the features we intend for launch.
• It has the official production parameters. <-- Is this technically possible?
• It runs on stable testnet, not official block chain.
• Gather feedback from users.
• A good time to push forward any wallet implementations since the RPC interface should be stabilized.

Launch Day!

Target Date: 2016-07-01

1.0 launch.

• PR/community: Announce to current userbase / beta testers early.
• PR: Ensure all mining enthusiasts have correct expectations.
• PR: blitz.

Subsequent Launches

Subsequent launches with blog-worthy features can help the ecosystem grow.

Completed Waypoints

1. Private Alpha release - introduces a functional (although perhaps awkward) low-level rpc interface, the zc-raw-* operations.
2. Calgary Redesign - alters the protocol to integrate Zerocash operations in a more principled manner. Supports only the same zc-raw-* API.
3. Calgary Implementation - see: https://github.com/Electric-Coin-Company/zcash/blob/zc.v0.10.0.latest/doc/zcash/calgary.md#stage-1-foundations
4. Synchronization Point - Target Date: 2016-01-15: Website launch
5. Target Date: 2016-01-15: Public Alpha - zc-raw-* RPC interface. Few features.
6. Synchronization Point - Target Date: 2016-01-16? PR event - online article.
7. Synchronization Point - Target Date: 2016-01-20? PR event - print article.