ReddCoin (RDD) — Core Wallet 4.22 — Taproot: Efficiency, Security, Privacy
If the wallet looks the same, what’s the big deal about this upgrade?
This article attempts to share some of the key technical achievements and goals of incorporating the new code into our ReddCoin Core wallet.
If you have suggestions, feature requests, want to contribute or otherwise comment, please visit the GitHub repo we’re working in:
Compiled binaries may be obtained at https://download.reddcoin.com/bin/reddcoin-core-4.22.0/alpha/
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS IS NOT A MAINNET PRODUCTION READY WALLET. DO NOT USE THIS CLIENT ON EXISTING RDD WALLETS AT THIS TIME.
We’re making a few important cosmetic changes to the operation of the ReddCoin Core wallet, the cornerstone of the ReddCoin network, and the software responsible for autonomously operating and managing the RDD blockchain. Addition of staking info pane, network info pane, a maintenance tab, enhanced transaction records, and a new layout of existing and new menu items.
Most of the important changes we’ve made and are now testing in our uniquely different PoSVv2 testnet environment are “under the hood” improvements; meant to improve things like security, speed, performance, database management and integrity, staking reporting and information, and more to make the overall “ReddHead user experience” simply better.
Gone are the days of “wait for days while eight years of data syncs, while the wallet seems to freeze”. Full sync from zero now completes in minutes to a couple hours, depending on your bandwidth and ability to process the data.
Improved DNS seed handling, peer handling, and staking information display.
Orders of magnitude faster, and with a synchronization speed/info page to show exactly what status is. No more freezing, reinstalling, restarting, hoping to sync. Usability and speed have increased immensely. No more bootstrap files and endless waiting to process blocks on disk. Not only does headers-first and robust error-checking speed the sync process, but optimizations in disk IO, memory and database structures all combine to give a much snappier and performance-related feel to the Core wallet v4
Take a look at the short video below, reflecting a full testnet sync in realtime (some segments removed to make it viewable and shorter, but not sped up beyond actual speed. 17 weeks of testnet data syncs in about 19–20 minutes. Clicking through features and tabs while it syncs without a freeze or hang. Wow, right?
The new wallets support SegWit (Segregated Witness) address formats natively, but until we have appropriately activated that process on mainnet, legacy addresses are and will continue to be supported in all wallets old and new as the default to preserve function as we move forward. That will be the subject of a different publication in order to explain the process, which we’ve designed to be fairly seamless and transparent to almost all users.
When these features or modules are activated using the new signaling system, ReddHeads will be able to see features come online and new versions released taking advantage of the new scripting, addresses, multi-wallet staking, and more.
Memory usage and Management
While ReddCoin’s older v3 and v2 wallets suffered a lack of robust memory management and usage, the upgrade to the walelt brings down overhead required, limits RAM thrashing and overutilization of cache, allowing for a far smother and freeze-free experience, even with the most complex wallets. Open multiple wallets, lock some and stake some, as your Reddhead needs require. Multiple intuitive GUI enhancements have been added like direct click of icons on home page, additional staking insight, and a new toolset/maintenance page (not yet available) for commonly needed operations.
Future Extensibility
BIP9 implementation will allow for better soft fork management and ease of adjusting the network through user action according to stakeholders. This features allows signaling to activate or not activate certain features, and to report to the network that thresholds have been reached to activate certain modules or components. This allows in-place technology activation without requiring users upgrade to enable features as they are tested and released onto mainnet.
Additional extensibility and conenctivity features include CLTV (time lock), segwit, taproot and more. These advances allow for RDD to be connected to certain UTXO DEXes like AtomicDEX and other accessible decentralized platforms that require contractual timelock on transactions. To date, RDD has not had this capability, but the new wallets bring the ability to literally “timelock” a transaction and have it either expire or complete at some date in the future dependant on conditions elsewhere. This capability is part of a complex change of behavior to the way addresses are handled, and is the root of some of the delays in our Core work as we work our hardest to comprehend, integrate, test (and sometimes fix) the code that brings this all to life.
Please refer to technical documentation for an in-depth look at these fundamental chain technologies and how they fit into ReddCoin’s evolution. Keeping this update as non-technical as we can for our general Reddhead audience. :)
We’re also now able to reach a broader set of popular computers and mobile devices, and drive computing platform adoption with the new compilation and building process included with the new wallet work. A single build process will generate viable compiled binaries for Windows, Linux, OSX, PPC, RaspPI, embedded system and more, shrinking our time to release each time the software is updated. CryptoGnasher, our beloved lead technical dev, will be release a video walking through that build process and some of the issues encountered to share an inside view of what it takes to make ReddCoin software from code to “click here to run the wallet”. We’d love for nayone interested in learning to join us in the work, as many hands make light work, and speed our development with each addition.
We’d also like to acknowledge the complex and immensely hard work integrating these cutting-edge features while maintaining the integrity of our unqiue and beautiful PoSVv2 staking has been a battle of wits, skills, and ability to research deeply, understand deeply, and code well. Thanks especially to members of the BTC community, and our own John Nash and newcomer to our project BarryStyle.
