Signum Development

Roadmap

---

The roadmap is a planning document that shows the current development focus for Signum in the context of planned development, current projects, recent accomplishments, ongoing refinements to existing products, and ongoing promotional activities.  It helps us share what we have accomplished, what we are working on now, and the general direction we are taking.  The roadmap is intended to be accessible and clear enough to open and facilitate a practical dialogue with the community.

Upcoming

---

Mainnet release of Signumart.io, Signum’s blockchain-based platform for creating, displaying, and trading NFTs.

Current Development

---

• Signumart.io:  feature build-out and testing.
• BTDEX:  web application to allow DEX trading without installing the software.
• Smart tokens (layer 1 with features of layer 2 incorporated).
• Native liquidity pools on the Signum blockchain.  Native liquidity pools do not require smart contracts to run.
• Phoenix (desktop and mobile):  feature implementations with Signum JS adjustments.
• Smart C smart contract compiler:  further development.
• Node and wallet stability:  improve overall, maximize security and network reliability, and better logging and debugging.
• New wallet software:  languages other than Java, better flexibility for the end-users, and potential performance gains
• Unit tests:  to achieve development efficiency.
• API endpoints:  new endpoints and improvement to existing endpoints.
• Dynamic node capabilities:  configurable mempool size according to node capabilities.
• Phoenix desktop software:  synchronized node installer, automatic updates, multi-signature verification, node rotation, and customizable dashboards.
• Distributed network explorer:  ultra-scalable, distributed peer discovery, querying API, and notifications.
• Mobile payment infrastructure:  bring Signum closer to the real economy, a vital feature for future merchant adoption.
• Cross-functionality:  expanding core features with deep linking.

Recent Accomplishments

---

• Deep-linking integration with Lootboy (3rd party application integrations).
• Integration with Cryptocurrency Checkout.
• Rebranded as Signum, including all software, applications, services, websites, documentation, Github, etc.
• Upgraded consensus algorithm to proof-of-capacity-plus and implemented the corresponding staking transactions.
• Smart C smart contract simulator made available online, a more powerful way of writing smart contracts.
• New blockchain explorer hosted by Signum Network.
• New pool software (licensed under GNU GPLv3).
• Fee structure changed to a fully market-based structure to reduce the per-line cost of smart contract execution and avoid fee slot enforcement congestion.
• Signum Node refactoring (updated dependencies and resulting security warnings)
• Green contracts (aka carbon contracts), a feature allowing past identical code to be executed by reference rather than redeployment.
• Automatic software updates:  a delivery system coupled with multi-signature signing to keep nodes up-to-date and protected.
• Multi-signature signing process:  to safeguard against malicious software modification and distribution.
• WSIGNA (wrapped Signa), giving access to Signa on the Binance Smart Chain.
• BSC liquidity pools (Pancake Swap).
• Dynamic blocks:  to better handle transactional load variability on the blockchain.

Continuing

---

• A reward program for creating YouTube videos about Signum, its software, features, and benefits.
• Exchange listings focusing on expanding Signum to fiat pairs, geographic availability, and accessibility to underserved user groups.
• Increasing brand recognition with a coordinated social media presence.
• Encourage Signum-related community articles with paid advertising to reach a larger target audience.
• Organizing and promoting bounty programs for software development, retail adoption, and general promotion.
• A Minecraft plugin – an application that allows Signum to function as an in-game currency.
• A monthly node operation award – provides an incentive for synchronized public nodes meeting minimum up-time requirements.
• A bounty program to encourage completion of specific tasks supporting software development and Signum retail adoption.

 

Signum History

---

2021 June

Burstcoin rebranded as Signum and The Signum Network.  A new logo, based on a Celtic knot, was adopted to replace the existing Burstcoin logo which was represented as a stylized letter B within a blue or black circular background.

     

2020

The Blockchain Privacy, Security & Adoption Alliance (BPSAA) aims to educate the public on privacy and security issues and solutions in blockchain and to facilitate a common forum for developers to create open-source privacy and security technologies for public use. (November)

In July, BTDEX as released BTDEX, a decentralized exchange system running on the blockchain.  It implements a unique non-custodial exchange method for cryptocurrencies and conventional fiat currencies based on BlockTalk Smart Contracts and on-chain encrypted messages.  The exchange method is serverless.  Fees are distributed among Trade Token (TRT) holders.  Built using BlockTalk Smart Contracts, on-chain encrypted messages, and a new code library bringing better accessibility to Signum smarts contracts.

June 20th, a successful hardfork at block 765,000 was initiated to implement CIPs 20, 22, 23, 24, and 25. The two main goals of the hard fork were to stabilize the 4 minute average block time and improve the smart contract framework.

March 3rd: Version 2.5.0 updated smart contracts, allowing for 50 times larger complexity with lower fees

2019

With the release of the mobile version of Phoenix, CIP-18 was implemented.  Phoenix is a Cross-Platform Wallet Application developed to support mobile devices, including iOS and Android.  This wallet feature increased security and a refreshed look and feel. (November)

Burstcoin listed on the Eterbase exchange with FIAT and stablecoin pairings (October)

New pool software released, giving pool operators the freedom to operate pools without license restrictions.  Burstcoin listed on the STEX exchange (BURST/BTC).  BRS 2.4.0. released with integrated Multi-Out payments giving recipients the ability to see these transactions alongside other transactions.  (CIP-19) (July)

BlockTalk released, an extended smart contract framework that aids in the creation and deployment of contracts.  The Koh-i-Noor, Burstcoin’s first NFT, was created using BlockTalk.  Block Talk is now known as Signum SmartJ. (June)

Phoenix Wallet powered by BurstJS released.  BurstJS was a powerful JavaScript library for building Burstcoin applications.  It was replaced with SignumJ and SignumJS.  ( CIP-18 )  (May)

The PoC Consortium stepped back from the role of development.  The Burst Applications Team and Burst Marketing Fund became the lead developers. (2019 January 3rd)

2018

Hard fork at block 500,000 to implement multi-out payments increasing the maximum transaction per second from approximately 1 per second (255 transactions per block of 44,880 bytes) to 80 based on an adjusted block size of 1020 * 176 bytes (179,520 bytes), a minimum of 367,200 on-chain transactions per day, up to a maximum of 6,912,000. (2018 June 11th)

Replaced the minimum fee of 1 Burst per transaction with a slot-based dynamic fee schedule starting with .007357 during periods of low network activity.  The previous fee had been set as a disincentive for denial-of-service attacks on the network.  With the new schedule, transactions could be initiated for the lowest fee even during periods of high network activity but were delayed until a slot for the transaction become available.  As of 2021, fees are now fully market-based.

POC1 to POC2:  Transitioned from PoC1 to PoC2 protocol:  A minimally invasive way to achieve time-memory tradeoff resistance while preserving the utility of existing plots.  This update was made preemptively to address a theoretical vulnerability referred to as a grinding attack.

2017

The PoC Consortium developers released a new white paper titled The Burst Dymaxion.  It described implementing a tangle-based lightning network allowing for arbitrary scalability and anonymous transactions and payment channels using directed acyclic graph (DAG) technology on top of the Burstcoin blockchain.  Although the focus of development shifted away from this white paper’s end goal and toward Burstcoin’s smart contract functionality, many of the required preparatory improvements were made and continue to benefit development.  One example is the development of the PoC2 protocol, which eliminated the theoretical vulnerability of PoC1 to grinding attacks. (December 27th, 2017)

Coin of the day:  Burstcoin — First truly Green coin and most overlooked coin. Uses 400 times less power than Bitcoin. Super secure and private. Includes smart contracts, encrypted messaging, decentralized wallet, libertine blockchain—most undervalued coin.        — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 22, 2017

In the aftermath of the spam attack, the Proof-of-Capacity Consortium (PoCC) was formed to continue developing Burstcoin.  The original announcement was posted on August 11th of 2017, the third anniversary of the Burstcoin blockchain:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2080040.0  (August)

A denial-of-service attack (DoS) was launched against the network, causing many nodes to crash and the network to split into multiple forks.  Poloniex disabled deposits and withdrawals until August 10th while the network stabilized.  In response to the attack, Burstcoin initially implemented a hard cap on the number of unconfirmed transactions that a node could hold in memory.  Subsequently, a configurable limit was made available so that each node could set independently set limits according to their own memory and computational resources.  (July 22nd)

2016

Because of differences within Burst Team, several members started Burstnation by the end of 2016.  The differences continued until leading Burstnation members announced their retirement from the Burstcoin community after the release of the Dymaxion white paper.  Burstnation can be credited with expanding the Burstcoin community through its leader’s prolific and sometimes colorful promotional activities:  https://github.com/burst-apps-team/CIPs/blob/master/cip-0001.md

2015

After the original developer of Burstcoin disappeared, a community quickly formed under the name Burst Team in August of 2015. Development of the wallet software continued as a fork of the original project on Github: https://github.com/burst-team/burstcoin  (August)

Burstcoin makes history:  Initiated the first Atomic Swap, together with Qora, pioneering the basic concept of a decentralized exchange:  https://www.ccn.com/qora-burst-now-able-make-cross-chain-transactions/  (May)
2015-04-20: V 1.2.3 further refined ATs and the asset exchange:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg11142412#msg11142412

2015-02-06: V 1.2.2 refined ATs  (smart contracts):  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg10370645#msg10370645

2014-12-22: V 1.2.0 added Automated Transactions (ATs):  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg9910950#msg9910950

2014-11-04: V 1.1.5 update to Nxt 1.3 (added subscriptions, updated escrow):  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg9430317#msg9430317

2014-09-17: V 1.1.0 back end updated to NXT 1.2.8 to enable new NXT features (encrypted messaging, DGS):  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg8741673#msg8741673

2014-09-27: V 1.1.3 added escrow transactions:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg8988688#msg8988688

2014-08-27: V 1.0.3 changed protocol for V2 pools:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg8550499#msg8550499

2014-08-20: First pool available:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg8448276#msg8448276

2014-08-17: V 1.0.2 adjusted difficulty:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=731923.msg8404060#msg8404060

2014-08-22: BURST/BTC market added to the C-CEX exchange: https://twitter.com/CryptoCurrEncyX/status/5027879276470763522014-09-06: BURST/BTC market added to the Poloniex exchange (BURST/BTC):  https://twitter.com/Poloniex/status/508398805793140736

2014-09-16: Burstcoin added to the Bittrex exchange (BURST/BTC):  https://support.bittrex.com/hc/en-us/articles/202991514-All-things-NXT-related  &  https://twitter.com/search?l=&q=%24burst%20bittrex%20until%3A2014-12-31&src=typd

2014-08-11: Generation of the Genesis block:  https://explore.signum.ro/block/3444294670862540038

Burstcoin, rebranded as Signum in June of 2021, was launched in 2014.  It was released to the public on August 10th of that year on Bitcointalk.org by the original developer using the pseudonym “Burstcoin”.  The original developer disappeared without explanation.  Their identity is unknown.