[Outdated & Changed] Incognito's 2021 privacy roadmap for the world

Note: Roadmap updated.

The roadmap was changed to this since it’s better to only give and commit a plan/timeline for every three months. Ideas and priorities may change over time so a longer plan isn’t ideal for an R&D project like Incognito.

3 essential ingredients

Crypto has been rapidly capturing the attention of the public. Millions of individual balance sheets are now on the radar of those who seek control, tightening their leash on a movement that is fundamentally about freedom. In response, Incognito launched its mainnet in November 2019.

View the results of our first year >

Incognito is growing up quickly, but we are in a race against time. Welcome to our second year and second roadmap, with its 3 essential ingredients: Privacy, Resilience, and Ownership.

Here’s what goes into building a shield against surveillance.

1. Privacy

Every action taken on public blockchains is immortalized for the world to see. KYC requirements directly connect what you do to who you are. All public ledgers and centralized services are a goldmine for malicious players, who follow breadcrumbs plainly visible to anyone who knows what they’re looking for.

So let’s make sure you can have privacy if you want to – anywhere you want to.

Objective: Privacy for any cryptocurrency Date Status
One-time address Apr May 2021 Building
Viewing key (encrypted balances and user-controlled distributed access) Apr May 2021 Building
Confidential assets Apr May 2021 Building
Multisig Apr May 2021
Integration with hardware wallets Apr May 2021 Building
Incognito’s native stablecoin (private from the start, decentralized by design) R&D

Crypto is increasingly becoming a game of networks, with a combative winner takes all narrative. We don’t think this is constructive. Incognito will continue to build a privacy highway connecting all ecosystems.

Objective: Privacy for any network Date Status
Portal v3 (supporting Ethereum tokens as collateral) Jan 2021 Shipped
Portal v4 (multisig & beacon) Apr 2021 Building
pMetamask (shield directly from Metamask) Q2 2021 Building
Bridge to Binance Smart Chain Q2 Q3 2021
Bridge to Polkadot Q3 2021
Non-ethereum token (PRV, pBTC, pBNB) support on pEthereum Jul Q3 2021
Foundations for permissionless bridges (for anyone to build their own connections to Incognito) R&D

Incognito has already kickstarted many firsts in the world of privacy – a multi-currency wallet, decentralized exchange, hardware miner, and so on. This year, we’re focusing on ease of use, and expanding our reach via Incognito mode for existing applications and tools.

Objective: Privacy for applications and tools Date Status
One-sided pDEX liquidity provision Mar 2021 Designed
Privacy v.2 on the application layer May 2021 Building
Improved privacy for pDEX using one-time addresses May 2021 Building
Web app extension Dec 2020 Shipped
Web pDEX Mar 2020 Postponed
Full Node service May 2020
TOR integration for Node devices R&D
pCompound R&D
Oracle price feed R&D

2. Resilience

Privacy is key. But it’s only as strong as its weakest link. This year, we will test every link – an ongoing, difficult process that requires great care and consideration. No shortcuts.

Our strategy here is simple: what will it take to support privacy for the world?

Objective: Scalable privacy for every eventuality Date Status
Testing consensus framework Jan 2021 Shipped
Optimization of block creation to increase throughput May 2021 Building
Shard block validation using beacon fullnodes TBD
Batch transactions TBD
Improved Highway topology Jun 2021
New staking flow Feb 2021 Building
Slashing Feb 2021 Building
Node monitor (statuses) + support validators Mar 2021 Building
Dynamic committee size Jun 2021 Building
Random number Aug 2021

For the past year, the team has steadily worked towards removing central points of control. Now that our network has learned to walk, we’ll need your help so it can run.

Objective: Distributed privacy Date Status
Set up initial variables for decentralized tokenomic management Q2 2021
Release fixed validator slots Q2 2021
Node Tree launch for multi-node validators Apr 2021 Canceled

The next section is simple. We’ve written a lot of code – time to get it audited. We’ve got quite a few users – time for safer storage options and easier key management.

Objective: Secure privacy Date Status
Ethererum bridge security audit Dec 2020 Feb 2021 Shipped (report will be published soon)
Portal v3 v4 security Audit May 2021
Mnemonic key management Nov 2020 Shipped
Offline storage hardware options, starting with a cold card Q1 2021 Canceled
Key recovery R&D

3. Ownership

Ultimately, Incognito hopes to be run by its community. This year, we aim to put in place variables and structures to ensure it can take care of the people who power its reach.

Objective: Privacy that belongs to you Date Status
Provider-determined fee mechanism Aug 2021
Incognito DAO v1 Q3 2021
Voting on block reward distribution for custodians, validators, providers, core and community development Q3 Q4 2021

Core devs are just the first community members. They are also just the first builders. It may be helpful to think of everything done so far as samples; the first iterations of many possibilities.

Objective: Privacy that you can give to others Date Status
A reliable API layer for builders Dec 2020 Building
Read-only key May 2021 Building
Documentation & samples for pEthereum Dec 2020 Shipped
Devops for development and production, with a focus on automation Dec 2020 Shipped
Documentation (SDK, API, pApps + samples) Nov 2020 Shipped
Documentation for integration with external wallets Dec 2020 Postponed
SDK v.3 with Privacy v.2, with a focus on optimizing weight and speed May 2021 Building

Build with us

Incognito is so much bigger than the core team – this roadmap is just the vision of a few devs. So if you can advance the privacy movement, do. You don’t need permission, but you will always have help.

There are so many ways to get involved.

Share ideas >

Contribute to research >

Build privacy for the world >

And of course, hang out with all of us here at we.incognito.org.

81 Likes

Next Year RoadMap is just amazing! :slight_smile:

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that’s great, just tested to send out and receive from metamask wallet, affordable fee

12 Likes

Very impressive roadmap. Guys, keep going !!!

10 Likes

Great roadmap!!! Let’s begin 2021 asap! :smiley: :rocket:

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Good plan, hope everything will be on track

12 Likes

sick roadmap!

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And the beat goes on…the beat goes onnnnn… :wink: :sunglasses: :100:

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I hope everything works out.

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Let’s go incognito team. :crossed_fingers:

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Very promising! :camera_flash:

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Good plan, keep going, we support Incognito

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Privacy is the cornerstone of the blockchain world! let us look forward to Incognito!

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Exited to be here​:sunglasses::v:

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Glad to have you as well! What is it that you most like about incognito? Just curious.

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Hey Chuckie.Cause it’s time to bring back the power to the people and create many beautiful decentralized communities (Anonymously)…therefore incognito took my heart with storm.Win or Loose? Good time bad times…I’m all in.Bless you guys and thanks for having me​:pray::v::dizzy:

5 Likes

That sounds great, hope all goes well on track to the plan

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I love this! Thank you! Wow!

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I would say, it requires total collaboration and commitment from members. The law of synergy always works.

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Would someone briefly explain what “Slashing” and “New staking flow” means?

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