Graft Blockchain Blog

We’re happy to announce that GRFT is now traded on Stocks.Exchange as our second external exchange with support for BTC and ETH pairs.*

External exchanges play an important role for any token by providing liquidity for miners and a way for new people to get involved with the project, and we want to offer a well-balanced, diversified set of trading exchanges with few more becoming available soon. Having said that, our main focus is on building out the product and the eco-system, including integrating with decentralized exchanges (DEX) in order to achieve the very important in-network interchange and payout functionality.

* Please note that current Stocks.Exchange integration is limited to CLI wallets for GRFT deposits. We’re working with Stocks.Exchange on implementing integrated addresses which include both the receive address and the Payment ID. Integrated addresses are already supported in all GRAFT wallet apps.

The upcoming GRAFT network update will take care of problems with hashrate attacks and instability of block intervals (in addition to ASIC resistance upgrade). We would like to share the most recent results of the new difficulty algorithm testing on the testnet. The first graph shows how the existing algorithm slowly adjusts to multiple spikes of the network hashrate: The second graph shows how the upgraded algorithm quickly reacts to virtually any change of the network hashrate: The release candidate build is finalized but we are still in a process of testing of the upcoming network update. We are still on track to release it next week, stay tuned to get further notifications about specific date/time. By the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, here is the most up to date and detailed GRAFT engineering roadmap.

The code release for the upcoming GRAFT network update, which includes ASIC resistance, enhanced difficulty adjustment algorithm, and minor bug fixes, is almost ready to go, and we are on track to release it on Monday, April 9th, with the actual switch scheduled to be triggered around April 16th (the block number will be announced later). Currently, we are conducting regression tests. The ASIC resistance code in conjunction with the new difficulty algorithm is supposed to minimize the possibility of hashrate attacks – when significant hashrate power (generated by ASIC or large GPU miner) is connected for relatively short period of time and making it difficult for other miners to compete and solve the blocks, until the existing algorithm adopts to a new hashrate and adjusts the network difficulty. This is how the existing algorithm reacts to sudden hashrate spikes in the mainnet: The following graph shows how the updated algorithm adjusts the difficulty much better after the simulated hashrate attacks: Although we think the upcoming network update will be sufficient to protect the blockchain from the majority of hashrate attacks, we are also working on original, even more enhanced version of the difficulty adjustment algorithm, which is supposed to provide even better, more “symmetrical” and balanced response to any hashrate fluctuations. Since such enhancements require significant testing, which is very time consuming, we are planning to include it in the next network update (the one after the upcoming update on April 6th), along with the merge of recent Monero changes. As usual, we will follow up with more details soon. Stay tuned!

As was promised in the last week’s post, we provide more details regarding the upcoming major network update. The mainnet release of GRAFT software update has been scheduled tentatively for April 9th, with the major network update to happen on April 16th (specific number of the block that triggers the update, which is hardcoded into the node, will be announced on April 9th).

As a reminder, major network update means that if you are running the GRAFT network node (graftnoded), you must upgrade to the latest software release between April 9th and April 16th. If you do not upgrade your node before April 16th, it will be disconnected from the mainnet. Note that users of mobile and desktop wallets are not affected by the network update and don’t need to do anything – as long as they are still connected to the default proxy supernodes (if you are connected to your own supernode, however, do not forget to upgrade the underlying network node).

This network update will include two major changes and some minor bug fixes. The major changes are the Cryptonight update (for ASIC resistance) and new difficulty adjustment algorithm (for preventing hashrate attacks and stabilizing the block intervals). We are still testing the new difficulty algorithm to determine the best set of parameters. The testing results will be published next week. Stay tuned!

GRAFT team shares the same concerns raised by Cryptonote/Cryptonight community associated with creating a special hardware (ASIC) for Cryptonight mining. We realize that enabling ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) at this point may introduce a risk to stability, decentralization, and even very existence of GRAFT blockchain. After thorough review we decided to support the anti-ASIC movement and add an ASIC-resistant code in the next fork. We will follow up with more details about the implementation and timelines soon. Thank you for your support, stay tuned!

Good news – the Apple wallet is available on iOS again!

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1354423228

How do merchant service providers, pay-out brokers, application developers, authorization Supernode owners all fit together on the GRAFT Network? How the network is scaled, regionalized, and managed? Find out!

GRAFT provides CLI wallet, mobile wallets, and desktop wallets for Windows and Mac. All wallet apps now are able to send GRFT to other wallets, which is functionality that initially was available only in CLI wallet. We also added support for longer integrated addresses required for sending funds to exchanges.

Send vs. Pay vs. Transfer

It is important to understand the difference between current Send function and future Pay and Transfer functions. To add to the confusion, Send in mobile and desktop wallets is the same as Transfer in CLI wallet. So let’s see why these three functions are different and what they are designed for.

Send (aka Transfer in CLI wallet) is “traditional” transaction between GRAFT addresses. It is implemented by creating a transaction and adding it to the next block on the blockchain. This is slow process which can take from 2 to 10 minutes (depending on current blockchain “traffic” and interval between the blocks). Also, the balance in the recipient wallet becomes “unlocked” (available for next transaction) only after 10 confirmations (10 blocks) which adds another 20-30 minutes. GRAFT Send is similar to bank wire transfer; however, it is still much faster than wire (minutes vs. hours) and cheaper (cents vs. dollars).

The good thing about Send is that it can move GRFT from any address to any address, no matter what GRAFT app you are using, including third party bodies such as exchanges. The downsides are low speed of transaction and the fee paid by the sender in addition to the transaction amount (although GRAFT set a very decent fee which is lower than in most other cryptocurrencies).

Pay is based on GRAFT RTA (real time authorization) technology and conducts a payment transaction between GRAFT wallet and GRAFT POS (point of sale), or any POS compatible with GRAFT or equipped with hardware payment terminal supporting GRAFT. Pay is currently only implemented on RTA testnet and still in alpha phase; it is currently disabled on mainnet. RTA is one of the most significant GRAFT features which facilitates instant payments between buyers and merchants using GRFT and other cryptocurrencies, both at brick and mortar stores and online. GRAFT Pay is similar to credit/debit card payment; however, unlike credit/debit card payment, GRAFT Pay is absolutely secure and private: the identity of sender and recipient, the transaction amount, and even transaction fee are invisible to the public looking at the blockchain.

Main advantages of Pay comparing to Send are instant authorization (within a few seconds) and no fee paid by the buyer (sender) as the fee is paid by the merchant.

Transfer allows limited number of transactions between user wallets free of charge (no fee paid by either sender or recipient). This function is available only to authenticated users, i.e. the users who agree to partially “compromise” their privacy in order to get additional benefits from the network, or to the VChain owners (you can find more info about VChains in the latest version of GRAFT White Paper).

GRAFT Transfer is similar to bank ACH transfer: both are free. GRAFT Transfer, however, is much faster then ACH (seconds vs. hours/days). GRAFT Transfer is scheduled for implementation before the end of 2018.

It is important to mention that all three methods of GRAFT transactions are still based on GRAFT Blockchain which means they provide full security and privacy to both sender and receiver.

What is Integrated Address?

Standard GRAFT Address contains a pair or public spend and view keys packed into a single string using special encoding. This is the standard public address you typically see when you want to receive GRAFT in your wallet:

Standard GRAFT address is 95 characters long and always starts from letter “G”.

Integrated GRAFT Address contains unique Payment ID in addition to the pair of public keys. Although integrated address does not hide your keys or payment ID from public view, it is always different because of the different payment ID. Many exchanges require using integrated address in order to top up the balance. GRAFT Integrated address is 106 characters long and also always starts with letter “G”.