The SHIELD community has a lot to look forward to. SHIELD is planned to be updated to version 3.0 at block #800,000, but what will it deliver for users, and what kind of performance can the community expect from the upgraded network?
The gist
It is fast. SHIELD 3.0 will start up faster, sync faster, and just feel faster. Though SHIELD’s code was originally forked from Verge’s outdated codebase, the new SHIELD 3.0 has been completely revamped and is now based on the latest version of Bitcoin’s time-tested and actively maintained code: version 0.16.
This not only closes old vulnerabilities and adds new optimizations, but gives a clean, stable checkpoint for development on SHIELD Core going forward. For example, the Verge code seems to be a codefork of Peercoin, and their patching out of Peercoin’s proof-of-stake (among other things) has led to many scattered code leftovers that are difficult to work with. Though adapting SHIELD to the new codebase was indeed tough, it will pay off in spades; future core development is now made more efficient, thanks to the well-documented and publicly-scrutinized Bitcoin code.
Pools that autodump and autoconvert XSH have decreased profitability for the honest SHIELD miner by exploiting the old difficulty algorithm. A complete reworking of the difficulty algorithm in SHIELD v3.0 makes it more practical for miners to participate in securing the network, regardless of what pool they choose to mine with, promoting decentralization.
The introduction of SHIELD masternodes with this update will bring features such as InstantSend and PrivateSend. This will allow users the possibility to send and receive SHIELD even faster than before.
More features that SHIELD 3.0 has will be released over the next few weeks!
A little extra…
With SHIELD 3.0, not only our team will step into the light, we’re also rebranding. Rethinking our brand direction, a new website is in the works, and our logo has also been tweaked:
Along with the shape, we have also adjusted the colour to a slightly brighter shade. The new website will be up within a few weeks; further details will be made public along the way.
