"[Tech Bureau] ... announced the highly anticipated public release of mijin v.2, also known as Catapult, a full-featured, blockchain engine delivering a new version of the NEM protocol for both public and private networks for enterprise. The company is also launching a self-service, on-demand developer lab that will enable companies and individuals to get started on Catapult quickly without having to manage their own infrastructure."The press release also mentioned that the Catapult project is open-source and implemented by Tech Bureau. It is meant to be used by both public and private platforms such as NEM and is best suited for distributed enterprise level solutions. The new mijin v.2 release features proprietary smart contracts that can be used to create and manage "digital assets" and by distributed accounting and business logic programs.
The latest version of the mijin blockchain has been released after almost three years of extensive development work. Per the press release, mijin v.2 was subjected to thorough testing before launch. It's also designed to work with permissioned and and hybrid blockchains, which can be a "mix" of both private and public blockchains.
This, the post says, enables "trustless swaps [and] automatic cross-chain transactions", which Catapult implements by issuing a "one-time disposable smart contract". Once this aggregated transaction has been validated by all the parties involved, it's processed immediately. According to the NEM medium post, Catapult is the first and only blockchain network that has implemented aggregated transactions of this type.
With Catapult, the aggregated transactions are simultaneously executed and this is what's referred to as a trustless swap. The multiple transactions being: 1) Transfer of 3,000 XEM to seller (payment), 2) Transfer of media license to buyer, and 3) Transfer of 6 XEM to exchange for usage fees. Using a "built-in escrow", Catapult processes all three transactions at once. Notably, all three transactions must be successfully confirmed in order to process the aggregated transaction.
In case any one transaction fails, the other bundled transactions will not be processed. One of the best things about this is that even though the transaction is done using an exchange, at no point does the exchange actually hold any private keys. This way, the funds are far less likely to be compromised.
References:
Tech Bureau Press Release: GlobalNewsWire
https://github.com/catapult-project/catapult