Roadmap

Treasury

To help facilitate the distribution of development responsibilities, as well as give us the ability to fund new ideas, we will need to implement a treasury system. The treasury is a democratically governed smart contract that distributes its balance among stakeholders and spending initiatives. The treasury will be financed in different ways. Most of the funds will come from an additional Coinbase, while the rest will come from a modification of TX fees and stakeholder deposits.

New mining algorithm

One of the most shocking changes a PoW-based crypto project can implement to achieve its own unique identity in the blockchain space is to change its mining algorithm. In the Expanse repository there is a new mining algorithm that we call Frankomoto, and the only thing that needs to be populated is the mining and pool software. The new mining algorithm changes the keccak hash functions with sha512 and sha512-256, however in the future it is probably better to go further and remove the DAG functionality entirely. Other projects have discussed a similar implementation.

Cross-chain transactions

Blockchains in their current incarnation as autonomous distributed computers are great, but they can only do so much. The evolutionary point of blockchains that we find ourselves at today resembles the main framework of the early days. They can do a lot, but they are largely oblivious to the outside world. This leads to network congestion, high transaction fees, and the inability to act on the data outside of itself. We are basically in the “pre-internet” days of blockchain technology.

Cross-chain TXs are the internet of blockchain. By facilitating cross-chain transactions, we can balance the load to ease congestion, expand the usefulness of smaller ecosystems by linking them to larger ones, and expand the industry as a whole by connecting it all. Cross-chain TXs will link Expanse with larger ecosystems.

Open source software best practices

Historically, the Expanse team has taken on the burden of developing almost everything for the Expanse network. It makes sense why the development team had that responsibility, but going forward that just can’t happen. So, to facilitate a more inclusive taxpayer culture, we will combine open source best practices with a new communication strategy. So that we can all have a clear vision of what exactly we are building. In the past this is something we have struggled with and it is imperative that we make this shift in responsibility as quickly as possible.

Treasury

To help facilitate the distribution of development responsibilities, as well as give us the ability to fund new ideas, we will need to implement a treasury system. The treasury is a democratically governed smart contract that distributes its balance among stakeholders and spending initiatives. The treasury will be financed in different ways. Most of the funds will come from an additional Coinbase, while the rest will come from a modification of TX fees and stakeholder deposits.

POS Fase 0

With the implementation of treasury, we will be able to reward stakeholders on a large scale with relative ease. Shareholders who deposit their extension in the treasury contract will receive a participation token that represents their percentage of ownership. Phase 0 of this implementation only grants stakeholders voting rights and stakeholder rewards, however, in the later stages of development, a user participation will serve as the basis for a new consensus mechanism, as well as a total incentive of the node. So that’s something to look forward to.

New mining algorithm

One of the most shocking changes a PoW-based crypto project can implement to achieve its own unique identity in the blockchain space is to change its mining algorithm. In the Expanse repository there is a new mining algorithm that we call Frankomoto, and the only thing that needs to be populated is the mining and pool software. The new mining algorithm changes the keccak hash functions with sha512 and sha512-256, however in the future it is probably better to go further and remove the DAG functionality entirely. Other projects have discussed a similar implementation.

Incentivized Full Node Uptime (Guardian Nodes)

A blockchain, like the hydra, is only as powerful (distributed and censorship resistant) as the number of heads (nodes) it has. In our opinion, it is a drastic oversight to incentivize block creation while completely bypassing the very peer-to-peer network block propagation on which it is based. Being a full node operator is a huge responsibility and often an expensive and disinterested undertaking. If we can track and reward the full uptime of the node operator, the network will benefit even more from economical distribution as well as broader network coverage. Thus, the experience of expansive users around the world is enhanced.

Cross-chain transactions

Blockchains in their current incarnation as autonomous distributed computers are great, but they can only do so much. The evolutionary point of blockchains that we find ourselves at today resembles the main framework of the early days. They can do a lot, but they are largely oblivious to the outside world. This leads to network congestion, high transaction fees, and the inability to act on the data outside of itself. We are basically in the “pre-internet” days of blockchain technology.

Cross-chain TXs are the internet of blockchain. By facilitating cross-chain transactions, we can balance the load to ease congestion, expand the usefulness of smaller ecosystems by linking them to larger ones, and expand the industry as a whole by connecting it all. Cross-chain TXs will link Expanse with larger ecosystems.