Hi guys! Thanks for all your questions yesterday in the developer Q&A. You can find the answers here: /r/IoP_Community/comments/719xqx/question_answer_with_the_devs/
From your questions and other community discussions, it’s clear a lot of you want to know more about the status of the IoP Community, the new Libertaria Initiative and what we have planned for next month and further into the future. There’s also some confusion about what’s happening in October, probably because the Libertaria launch and the IoP Community upgrade are scheduled for the same week and people have been working on both here in Budapest. So here’s a quick rundown of what Libertaria is, the Libertaria development schedule, the IoP development schedule and how all this will benefit the IoP Community. We hope you’ll be as excited about it as we are. Markus
P.S.: None of this is secret, but please resist the urge to share this outside the community. This information is aimed at the IoP Community, so it will be confusing to outsides. Our main Libertaria launch for the general public is coming at the end of next week, so there isn’t long to wait for more info!
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First things first: Some (very) brief history
IoP Community and Libertaria both evolved out of the Fermat project, a community-focused blockchain project which has now ended. The IoP Community blockchain is a continuation of Fermat’s IoP blockchain.
This is all in the past, and is only mentioned here for anyone who’s confused or who stumbled into IoP via old links and articles. In short: Fermat ended, most of the community (and the blockchain) transitioned to the IoP Community, while some of the ideas and technology are being expanded into the Libertaria project. What’s important to understand is that Libertaria and IoP Community are two completely separate projects, although they both evolved out of Fermat and share many of the same goals, philosophies and technological foundations.
Some developers from Libertaria are currently working with the IoP Community, but once the planned technological improvements are in place, we will step back so the IoP Community can be fully independent. We of course welcome and expect future collaboration between Libertaria and IoP Community, but it’s important for the community to get full control and responsibility over its future. Failure to transition to a true community model was a major reason why the original Fermat project stalled and had to be rebooted.
So what is Libertaria?
The Libertaria project is an extremely ambitious, multi-year open-source decentralized technology project which hopes to bring blockchain technology and the benefits of decentralization to communities around the world. We’ll be launching Libertaria on October 1st, so you’ll be able to read a LOT more about Libertaria in the coming weeks, but here’s a quick outline of three of the major technologies the project is developing and how they relate to the IoP Community.
What does this mean for IoP Community? We’ll get into the details below, but overall the main thing to understand is the scale of these two projects. Libertaria is a huge project which will support many different blockchain communities. IoP Community will be the first of those, and will benefit greatly from being the first community to get access to Libertaria’s technologies.
Project Mercury
Project Mercury is our decentralized peer-to-peer network. Users will be able to find each other and communicate without the need for centralized servers. You can build decentralized Apps on top of Mercury.
What does this mean for IoP Community? While parts of the technology behind Project Mercury is based on some of the same technology as IoP Connect, they are not the same. Project Mercury needs to handle all the different use cases for every community that eventually joins Libertaria, while IoP Connect is tailored to the specific needs of IoP Community. They are both rooted in the work done during the Fermat years, but Mercury is very broad in scope while IoP Connect is more focused. But much of the work on Mercury also applies to IoP Connect, so the IoP Community benefits directly from a lot of the development here.
Project Titania
The Titania boxes are cheap, robust, low-power nodes which will allow people and communities to quickly connect to a blockchain on Libertaria’s Hydra network or set up their own. Titania is designed to bring the benefits of blockchain technology to people across the globe who have limited resources, unstable or minimal infrastructure, or who simply want to protect their privacy and avoid government interference. This is a real game changer. The crypto world is currently running on dreams and promises. We are one of the only projects producing a real, physical piece of hardware which you can hold in your hands.
What does this mean for IoP Community? Many IoP Community members will benefit directly from Titania. There’s a huge overlap between the target audience for Titania and the IoP Community goals of helping people in poorer or politically turbulent countries. And once Hydra launches and the IoP Community blockchain is migrated to the Hydra network (see below), every community member using a Titania node will be helping to keep the whole system secure and decentralized.
Project Hydra
This is the key innovation of the Libertaria project. You’ll be seeing a lot more about Hydra in the next few months, but in brief Hydra is a protocol to connect multiple blockchains efficiently and securely. Chains which are connected to the Hydra network will receive the security benefits of a global blockchain while avoiding the speed, scaling and storage issues which plague Bitcoin and Ethereum.
What does this mean for IoP Community? The IoP Community will be the first chain to join the Hydra network, which will bring a lot of technological and security benefits. As the first to join, IoP Community will also benefit from increased interest and awareness.
IoP-specific Developments
As mentioned above, the developers have also been working on upgrades and improvements specifically for the IoP Community. These will be released over the next few months, in the hope that the IoP Community can be fully independent by the end of the year.
Here’s a brief roadmap of planned releases for IoP Community:
First of October: New better IoP client based on latest Bitcoin 15
End of October: Voting and contribution contracts
November: IoP Connect and Profile Server - big improvements for running smoothly on mobile
Yes, and after that we might be looking into lightning ;-)