Burst Apps Team: 2019 Rückblick

The Burst Applications Team (BAT) has been working for Burst for almost a year now and we can look back on twelve rather productive months. After the previous developer group Proof-of-Capacity Consortium (PoCC) officially announced their exit from Burst on January 3, 2019, developers from around the world banded together to resume Burst development efforts. While Ohager and Blankey1337 completely committed themselves to a new, user-friendly wallet with the Phoenix project, the extremely talented Harry1453 took over the patronage of the Burst Reference Software (BRS). Zoh took the reigns on building a new blockchain explorer, and in the course of the year, Jjos joined in and launched the BlockTalk project: a developer kit for smart contracts.

The team’s strategic focus is on developing new use cases and providing the necessary technical tools. The main goal is broad adoption by other developers and end users. A notable example of this is the “BlockTalk” project with the Java-to-CIYAM compiler and the smart contract emulator, which makes it easier to develop smart contracts. In addition, there are various programming libraries for Java (burstkit4j), C/C++ (burstlib) and Javascript (burstjs), which simplify the creation of blockchain-based applications. The easy-to-install wallet of the Phoenix project is as much a part of the strategy as the specification of deep links (CIP-22), which enables more seamless interoperation between different applications in the future.

The activities in 2019 aimed to provide fundamental development components so that a number of new and novel (decentralized) applications will come onto the market in 2020.

On the day the PoCC was phased out, the BAT, in grateful cooperation with the previous developers, began handing over the components relevant for further development. The repositories, web pages, permissions, etc. were taken over in several days of work to ensure that operations could continue as smoothly as possible. In addition, the BAT has started the strategic reorientation and initiated various projects and applications. Looking back, an extraordinarily productive first year has been achieved.

January

The Burst Apps Team (BAT) is formed after the previous development team PoCC officially announces the resignation of all activities. The BAT joins with the Burst Marketing Fund (BMF) to form the Burst Alliance. The work on the Phoenix project is in full swing.

February

The new team is working intensively on several activities…

March

The first “BAT Version” (2.3.0) of the BRS is released, with an important security fix, improved blockchain synchronisation performance, the introduction of an additional API based upon gRPC, and several minor fixes.

April

The BlockTalk project is made accessible to the public. The project includes a compiler that translates Java program code into CIYAM machine code, and a graphical interface for emulating contract logic. From now on it is possible to develop Smart Contracts in Java, which reduces the entry barrier drastically. In addition, the BAT proposed a protocol change (CIP-20) to cheapen execution costs and increase logical complexity of smart contracts.

May

On May 6, the Phoenix Desktop Wallet is released for the public. Following the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) frequent updates iteratively improve the software. The new wallet focuses on improved usability and security. The wallet can be easily installed without the need of running a node. This lowers the entry barrier for non-tech-savvy users.

Together with the wallet a first version of the Javascript library BurstJS was published on npm. The new Burst Explorer developed by Zoh comes with new features, like badges, automatic NDS Award payment, and an update messaging system.

June

In June, the first non-fungible token goes live on the Burst blockchain. The token is a virtual variant of the Kho-I-Noor diamond. Using a simple rule system, you can become the owner of this token with the help of bids. The participation in the bidding for the Kho-I-Noor exceeded all our expectations. The current value of the token is 535595 BURST and the current owner is “Snow”.

July

The new version 2.4.0 of BRS comes with massive performance improvements, the implementation of MultiOut Payments (CIP-19), inactive CIP-20 implementation, and innumerous internal refactorings. Flipside Crypto, a company that provides crypto coin metrics and the FCAS rating on CoinMarketCap, works together with the team on integrating Burst more deeply. The FCAS Developer Behavior for Burst is about 890/1000 points (about 100 points behind the leader ETH).

August

BAT members Blankey1337 and Ohager talk at the DevCamp Developer Conference in Campinas, Brazil. One week later Ohager speaks at a meetup in Bratislava, Slovakia. Furthermore, Blankey1337 and Nixops help organize the tremendously successful 2019 Burst Summer Hackathon.

September

BAT member Jjos wins the first prize of the Burst Hackathon with his WooCommerce Plugin, which allows WooCommerce shops to accept Burst. The second place goes to BAT member Harry1354 with his Nano Ledger integration.

As part of the Hackathon contributions Curbshifter developed a DNS based on Bursts Alias System and prepared a document about exchange integration, which is being used by Eterbase Exchange later this year.

October

Blankey1337 made Phoenix Mobile Wallet finally available in Google Play Store and Apples App Store. BAT member Ohager proposed a specification (CIP-22) for so called Deep Links, which facilitates the interoperability of Burst applications. Blankey1337 integrated Burst into “unstoppabledomains.com” and the Phoenix Wallet, which allows .zil and .crypto domain aliases to be used with Burst.

November

The first alpha release of a BRS Version 3 is an entire rewrite in Kotlin with uncountable improvements. Ohager created a small service for simpler account activation, which makes the necessity of the traditional Burst Faucet almost useless. Flipside Crypto put the Burst Chainwalker live, which improved the quality of User Behavior metrics and give more detailed insights in the usage of the blockchain.

December

Last update (Beta.12) for Phoenix Wallet released this year, which has a revamped Account Creation Flow considering the new account activation feature. BurstJS has a major update (Version 0.5) pending, which adds support for Smart Contracts and Deep Links (CIP-22).

We expect 2020 to be a very interesting and great year for Burst. The development of further tools, and the improvement of existing ones, will continue. We are counting on the continued excellent cooperation with the community, especially the BMF, and expect more support, both in technical and non-technical ways. We still stick to the usability strategy to make Burst more attractive not only for developers but also for end users. From our point of view, the infrastructure can be described as very robust and stable due to the convincing preparatory work of the former development teams, so that the focus on applications and usability is more than reasonable.

What to expect from Burst Apps Team in 2020?

• As announced during the 2019 Burst Summer Hackathon, there will be a new major version of BRS, entirely rewritten in Kotlin with several substantial improvements.
• Phoenix wallet will be continuously improved, including better deep linking as per the CIP-22 specification. In general, we expect a series of tools that take advantage of the new interoperability features described in CIP-22.
• A decentralized application warehouse/registry, based on non-fungible tokens, is being developed to showcase Burst applications and dApps.
• As Smart Contracts are crucial for decentralized applications, the Burst protocol will be adjusted to permit more complex and less expensive contracts (CIP-20).
• In addition to all of these things, BAT team members may continue to work individually on several projects which are not under the flag of BAT.

And finally, we’re still sending Burst to space, literally.