WAVES Weekly No. 23

From the original post here: http://coremedia.info/index.php/waves-news/item/374-waves-weekly-no-23

Welcome back – we hope you enjoyed your Christmas!
Development Update
Waves’ DEX (decentralised exchange), aka Matcher was released on testnet two weeks ago and is going through review/testing process. You can download the update here and help with testing. Please join the #fullnode and #testnet-maintainers channels on our Slack. As ever there are bounties for identifying replicable, serious bugs. In the meantime, Mass Payment and Asset Burn features were released on testnet and will be available on mainnet soon.

Our aim with the Matcher is to build something both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the existing decentralised exchanges offered by other platforms, let alone centralised exchanges, with a view to mass-market adoption. Differences include:

• Speed. Waves assets are structured on a simplified payment verification (SPV) scheme that is based on improved authenticated dynamic dictionaries approach, which allows the system to scale with ease. Furthermore, a combination of the DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) and LPOS (Leased Proof of Stake) approaches will allow for processing the transactions faster and more efficient. Moreover, we are creating an order matching service that will allow trades to be executed in near-realtime, whilst they are still settled on the blockchain for security. This combination is unique.
• Flexibility. Instead of trading against a single reference currency (the native token of the blockchain platform), Waves will allow any token to be traded against any other token. As well as offering greater utility, since it will be possible to exchange currencies like CNY, EUR and USD directly, it avoids the problems associated with assets being priced in a single, rising or falling currency.
• Flexible fees. Orders (bids, asks and cancellations) can be placed without cost. The only fees are paid upon execution of a trade. Fees can be also paid in any token accepted by miners while WAVES token is being converted in the background and still used as a fuel.
• Increased Safety. Whenever user chooses to provide mining or matching services to earn fees, his tokens may reside in personal account all the time thanks to LPOS and assets specs. Furthermore, Waves team is aiming to bring 2FA on the blockchain.

Business Update
We are actively working on setting up gateways. This is largely an organisational rather than technical matter. We have a series of related initiatives in the pipeline, though the community will appreciate that we cannot give details until these have been confirmed.

In the ICO space surrounding Waves, the Tokes Platform and ChronoBank are currently holding their crowdfunds. Both projects are aiming to launch their tokens on Waves platform. Tokes aims to capitalise on the growing legal/medical marijuana movement in the US. Funds will be used for ‘acquisition and development of a state-of-the-art cannabis cultivation, production, and dispensary facility in the state of Nevada. Capital raised during the ICO will be dedicated to procuring the licenses and facilities necessary to operate a 100% state-legal medical marijuana enterprise.’ Profits will be shared with token-holders via dividends or buybacks, pending legal clarification.

ChronoBank seeks to disrupt the short-term recruitment industry, by connecting freelancers with employers. The ‘Uber of time’ will use time-based cryptocurrency tokens to pay workers. These stable, inflation-proof Labour Hour (LH) tokens will trade on a decentralised exchange in return for labour and other currencies. The result will be something like a decentralised version of Upwork, for many key professions. LH will be a robust store of value and will appeal to crypto traders seeking to park funds without withdrawing them from the crypto ecosystem. 5% bonus is still available.

Anyone who would like to work with Waves is invited to join our Slack to discuss it further, and for technical assistance. Please email [email protected] for an invitation.

Waves Nodes and Lite Client Reminders
If you would like to run a full node, please download the latest releases at https://github.com/wavesplatform/Waves/releases/. Anyone can run a node, but you will need at least 10,000 WAVES to generate blocks. You can read the installation guide here.

For regular users the Lite client can be downloaded from https://wavesplatform.com. Do not download the client from other sources for security reasons. (Please be aware that there have been issues with fake github repositories, as well as fake Twitter accounts and Slack identities.) Alternatively, the standalone Chrome app will automatically update as new versions are released.

Waves Weekly Crypto Roundup
Due to the Christmas break there is no episode of WWCR this week. If you haven’t already watched it, take a look at our festive episode #13, which features ChronoBank as well as giving our regular market roundup and bitcoin market analysis from Brian Beamish.

Lastly, Sasha recently held an AMA answering a number of common questions about Waves. You can see the recording here, or read the full transcript here.

Happy new year to all of the Waves community!