Incognito's Q4 2022: Technical Roadmap

[duc]

Hi Incognito community,

In this topic, let’s conclude things the team has completed in the past quarter (Q3) and discuss initiatives we are going to build in this quarter (Nov - Jan).

Conclusion of Q3 (Aug - Oct)

In the last quarter, the following things have been completed:

1. Instant Finality V2
2. pEthereum improvements
3. Blocktime reduction to 20s
4. Avalanche bridge
5. Near bridge
6. SpookySwap integration (Fantom)
7. Uniswap integration (Ethereum)
8. Trader Joe integration (Avalanche)
9. Swap function on the website (with new pEthereum workflow)
10. Swap function on the mobile app (with new pEthereum workflow)
11. Swap aggregator (calculated the rate across multiple integrated DEXes but not split swap into multiple smaller ones yet)
12. Reduce fixed node dominance to 34%
13. A design for decentralizing Beacon chain

There are 3 things that we couldn’t ship yet:

1. Aurora bridge - Shipped
2. Trisolaris integration (Aurora) - Shipped
3. Blocktime reduction to 10s

Development of the first two has been completed, unfortunately, we’ve identified an issue with a weird transaction type in the Aurora network that needs more work to support. The 3rd one will be implemented in Q4.

Apart from those, there are 2 other things that we decided to put on hold because of Solana’s network/operation issues:

1. Solana bridge
2. Raydium integration (Solana)

Initiatives the team will be working on in Q4 (Nov - Jan)

In Q4, we are planning to build:

1. a more decentralized network
2. better privacy products
3. a privacy app store

with an aim to acquire and onboard new privacy-minded users.

Decentralization

The main goal of decentralization in this quarter is to implement the design for Beacon chain.

Initiative	Description	Ship date
Decentralize Beacon chain	Allow community validators to participate in new Beacon block creation	Jan 2023
Update node monitor tool to support Beacon validators	Allow community Beacon validators to monitor and manage their nodes with node monitor tool	Jan 2023

Better privacy products

Privacy products for privacy-mined users will need to meet the following requirements:

• Security
• More privacy
• Better experience

Initiative	Description	Ship date
Interoperable liquidity pools	Enable a swap to use liquidity from both pDEX and integrated DEXes in a single transaction (for instance, the swap of XMR for ETH will use pDEX liquidity for XMR > USDT then use Uniswap liquidity for USDT > ETH)	Dec 2022
Hardware wallet (phase 1)	This is pretty big, in this quarter we target to have an MVP of the hardware wallet so that beta users can try it out	Jan 2023
De-google services	Remove all google services on the mobile app so that de-googled phones can run Incognito app	Jan 2023
Support shield, unshield, swap & masterless key import on Wallet Extension	Support the functions in Wallet Extension	Jan 2023
Block time reduction (to 10s)	Reduce block time from 20s to 10s to improve UX	Dec 2022

We also plan to support Incognito wallet extension on other browsers such as Firefox, Onion for a better privacy level. However, it depends on when the browser supports Manifest V3 standard that was implemented in the current Incognito extension. (Mozilla said that they will release a Manifest V3 beta version at the end of 2022)

Privacy App Store

By leveraging pEthereum and Incognito’ privacy, we would be able to bring privacy to any popular Web3 dapps in EVM-based networks. In the past couple of quarters, the team has built several ones and integrated them into the Universal Swap function.

However, it will be more scalable if developers from the community give a hand to build more privacy applications then we can position Incognito as a Privacy App Store for Web3.

For that reason, we will be resuming the Builder Rewards program to incentivize community developers to build privacy dapps for the Incognito App Store.

Initiative	Description	Ship date
pDAO	A tool for Incognito community members to anonymously vote on their favorite proposals. We are decentralizing decision-making as a DAO	Dec 2022
Builder Rewards 2.0	Resume Builder Rewards program to incentivize developers to build privacy dapps for Incognito App Store	Dec 2022

That’s what the team has planned to build in the next quarter, but we are still open to listening to suggestions from the community. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments to make sure we are building the right things for the community’s needs.

Thank you!

[3ncrypt3d]

Congrats on the all accomplishments in Q3!

[CryptoWizard]

I appreciate all the continued work on the Incognito eco system.

For my personal use, as previously mentioned elsewhere on this forum, a Cosmos/IBC bridge would open all ibc compatible chains to Incognito.
Seems an obv step forward.

I’ve long been waiting for Incognito to support Cronos, which would ease the Shielding route for crypto.com on-ramped funds. Cronos supports ibc txs,as do a growing number of chains…

[Linnovations]

In the spirit of Thanks Giving, I am so grateful for all the team at Incognito. I’m amazed how far this project has come and how the roadmap continues to move forward for an exciting future.

Some highlights from the Q4 roadmap for me are…

@duc

The main goal of decentralization in this quarter is to implement the design for Beacon chain.

WOW!!! This is HUGE and so very very very important. Thanks for making “decentralization” a focus in Q4. This is a very important step in the right direction. I hope this remains a focus in subsequent quarters given what has happened with Tornado Cash.

@duc

we target to have an MVP of the hardware wallet so that beta users can try out

AWESOME STUFF! This has been a long time coming. I remember Ledger Hardware Wallet integration was HUGE focus a few years agos ( Ledger hardware wallet support? - a post by @Wallart ) , but then got dropped. I’m so happy to see that it’s back on the roadmap.

Let’s give this a THUMBS UP incognito Community.

Once there’s Ledger Hardware Wallet support, I’ll feel more safe using the Browser Wallet Extension (just too many hacks going on IMO). Until then, I prefer using the Mobile App.

@duc

Remove all google services on the mobile app so that de-googled phones can run Incognito app

This too is AWESOME news. In today’s world of BIG Tech censorship, this is critical moving forward. Being able to run incognito on de-googled phones is essential for the hard cord privacy minded folks (which I presume many of us are).

Put me down for BETA testing on a Graphene OS phone.

Last but not least…

@duc

we will be resuming the Builder Rewards program to incentivize community developers to build privacy dapps for the Incognito App Store.

This is incredibly important as there needs to be more developers working on 3rd party integrations with Incognito App. So I was very happy to hear the Builder Rewards program is coming back even better with a V2.0 . I’m not a developer, but I’m sure many in the community are and this will be welcomed by many.

Thanks for these detailed roadmaps and progress updates @duc

[deivisson]

We appreciate the great work and efforts of the Incognito team.

I’m planning and developing a strong Dapps, which will make people live in a community with technological resources in a decentralized and safe way.

We’ve already developed some features, which I can name in advance. We have our own ‘‘alternative internet network’’, that is, Dapp will be able to market and use its own domains based on our ‘‘TLD .ln’’. In addition to MVNO Network, based on the VOIP protocol for user communication.

[Linnovations]

@duc

A tool for Incognito community members to anonymously vote on their favorite proposals. We are decentralizing decision-making as a DAO

Thanks for providing these detailed Roadmaps @duc.

I am very excited about Incognito moving to a DAO and fully decentralising in the near future. IMO, this will be critical to this project’s future given all the focus on CDBCs and taking away people’s freedom and privacy.

However, I don’t think we are starting with a blank sheet of paper. There are plenty of examples out there that the Incognito Team could learn from.

Here are 2 such examples:

1) ViteX
Here’s a nice article on how ViteX (a decentralised exchange) approached progressive decentralisation

https://medium.com/vitelabs/progressive-decentralization-of-vitex-41e31c7823f0

2) Shapeshift
Another project that has been through the process of moving from centralisation to decentralisation is Shapeshift. Here is a good article -
https://medium.com/@erikvoorhees/shapeshift-is-decentralizing-639bb4c82fc8

I hope the Incognito Team are talking to and learning from other projects that have done and have already been though with regards to decentralisation and moving to a DAO.

@duc, can you share with the community whether the Incognito Team are talking to in other projects that have transitioned successfully from a centralised entity to decentralisation/DAO?

[Jared]

@Linnovations

AWESOME STUFF! This has been a long time coming. I remember Ledger Hardware Wallet integration was HUGE focus a few years agos ( Ledger hardware wallet support? - a post by @Wallart ) , but then got dropped. I’m so happy to see that it’s back on the roadmap.

I think you might be interested in this

Incognito Nano App Guide

Hello privacy community! We are happy to announce that the Incognito Nano App has been submitted to the Ledger store and is under the review stage. Due to the Ledger store review process can take a long time to complete, you could also side-load our app to your Nano device (developers only) to try some features such as: View your hardware wallet account’s balances; Confirm the transfer, swap, unshield transactions with your hardware device. Do note that the current version is only under the …

[key]

@duc

|De-google services|Remove all google services on the mobile app so that de-googled phones can run Incognito app|Jan 2023

Status update please?