Why Stakenet (XSN) May Be The Altcoin Winner of 2018

8 min readJun 24, 2018

Stakenet (XSN) has a very promising future, and lots of new investors are coming in for its complete ecosystem of platforms, devices and innovations that go together as one. Stakenet recently broke into the top 200 cryptocurrencies and is now stable around 175, from a position of 325 just a month and a half ago. Among coins only, Stakenet is currently top 67.

Stakenet in short is an all in one ecosystem for holding, staking and spending your XSN and other supported PoS coins. Stakenet is a currency, the project is a banking system, a payment solution, and a means of trading between different assets in the upcoming Stakenet DEX.

Now, I will try to break down the roadmap in three different categories:

Stakenet Platforms
Stakenet Original Inventions (TPoS, CCPoS and CSE)
Other Tech Integrations

But before we dive in, make sure to join the discord and ask any questions you might have after reading this article. I’ve learned that Stakenet has a very professional team and a super kind community: https://discord.gg/BtUdfAS

Stakenet Platforms:

1. Staking Platform https://stakenet.io in Q2

On june 30th at midnight, https://stakenet.io went live, an online staking platform for multiple currencies. At launch, Stakenet only supported XSN, but through community votes, more was added, and more will be added as we go along.

On https://stakenet.io you can stake your supported coins, you can host your masternodes from all supported coins, you can manage pooled masternodes, execute atomic swaps, and host your Trustless Proof of Stake business. Here’s a preview of the staking platform Stakenet.io;

2. Multi Currency Wallet in Q3

The upcoming multi currency wallet is the next step for bringing Stakenet.io to a mobile user level, and combining it with some sort of a payment solution, allowing users to send funds or pay for goods using a simplified user ID instead of long and complicated wallet addresses.

This is a fairly complicated app to say the least since Stakenet states in their explanation of the multi currency wallet, that in order to make it possible, their masternodes will have to be able to send, receive and confirm transactions on separate chains from Stakenet’s own, and these 3rd party chains will be held on the second layer which will communicate with first layer nodes allowing users to hold multiple wallets in one place.

3. World’s first completely decentralized and trustless DEX in Q3

According to jstarhead, a very talented tech guy working for Stakenet, the Stakenet DEX will be the world’s first, truly trustless and decentralized exchange. No other DEX can compare to the level of security that their DEX brings to the crypto space, since no government, hacker group or even the Stakenet Team themselves will be able to take it down. That is due to the fact that the DEX will be run and operated by upwards of 2000 masternodes, spread around the globe.

From the DEX you will be able to trade your coin directly from cold storage, but more on that later. For now check out this Stakenet DEX explanation, and how they are different from current centralized and decentralized exchanges.

4. Original Stakenet hardware device in Q4

Stakenet aims to fulfill the ecosystem with their own version of the Ledger Nano S, but built in a different formfactor and according to John Draper, the mission with their original cold storage device is to solve problems of existing solutions. There aren’t much info out yet but this is a short summary of the announcement from John him self;

Stakenet has a dedicated hardware division whose mission is to solve the problems and bridge the gap between the blockchain digital world and the real world. Right now, it is difficult for users to safely access their assets on their cold storage device, let alone benefit from the features each coin has to offer. Our device will be more than just a “wallet”, but a means to enrich people’s lives in ways not yet realized. Everything around us is turning “smart” but we wont get there without some sort of secure and safe bridge of communication, which is the aim and purpose of the XSN Hardware Device. A fully functional product should be out before end of Q4.

You can read the full update here; https://medium.com/stakenet/xsn-operations-update-5-30-18-e41a23bde76

Now to the Original Stakenet Software Inventions;

1. Trustless Proof of Stake (TPoS) for staking from cold storage (arrived and working)

In Q1, Stakenet delivered the world’s first Trustless Proof of Stake (TPoS) update to the Stakenet ecosystem. TPoS essentially allows you to stake your coins directly from cold storage, such as from your offline computer wallet, Ledger Nano S, or the upcoming Stakenet Hardware Device, etc.

The staking is made possible through a so called Merchant, who runs a node for staking people’s coin without having any access to their spendable balances. All the merchant do is utilize the staking weight through a 3rd key called a “shared key”, from which only the user can receive and send coins.

For more info, check https://medium.com/stakenet/posw-weekly-big-brother-tpos-and-atomic-swaps-35642fddbd8d

For in depth comparison of current offline staking solutions, check https://medium.com/@jstarhead/stakenet-xsn-offline-staking-tpos-vs-lpos-vs-dpos-a82e3d2810b4

2. Cross Chain Proof of Stake (CCPoS) in Q4 for receiving stake rewards from coin X in another coin

Cross Chain Proof of Stake (CCPoS) is another Stakenet Original, which serves the purpose of allowing users to stake any lightning compatible coin, and receive stake rewards in any other coin of their desire.

In a real world scenario for example, a user would stake his XSN and choose to receive his rewards in PIVX, seamlessly and without any struggle. Stakenet likewise enables its users to flexibly and autonomously switch staking rewards, if they so desire. A user can therefor also stake PIVX and receive 40% of stake rewards in XSN, 30% in Dash, and 30% back into PIVX.

For more info, check https://medium.com/stakenet/posw-weekly-ccpos-cross-chain-proof-of-stake-de1ac87055cd

3. Trading directly from cold storage via their DEX in Q4

Just like TPoS, Cold Storage Exchanging (CSE) is the next step in making the entire Stakenet ecosystem a more safe and secure place for coinholders. This technology integration essentially allows users to trade and convert coins with the security provided by the hardware devices and offline wallets.

Other top of the line Stakenet Tech Integrations (SOURCE — jstarhead);

1. SegWit in Q2

Segregated Witness, or for short, the so called SegWit, is the name used for a technology that is implemented in the transaction format of the Bitcoin.core blockchain architecture. The implementation of this new protocol in the Stakenet blockchain architecture will be a fundamental for many more future functionalities within the Stakenet ecosystem.

2. Lightning update in Q2

The lightning network is dependent upon the underlying blockchain architecture. By using real Bitcoin.core based blockchains and using their native smart-contract scripting language, it is possible to create a secure inter-chain network of different participants. The implementation of this ability will be fundamental for the 4th generation meta-network, provided by Stakenet.

3. Masternode watchtowers in Q3

Masternode Watchtowers have an important job, since they are backbones of this cross chain ecosystem and are fundamental for their trustless cross chain swaps when they swap one coin to another.

4. Masternode Lightning Channels in Q3

There will be requirements for Stakenet masternodes to have light channels open totaling a minimum of X amount of XSN per IP. As they expect approximately 2000 masternodes to be online, and this will give their network a robust backbone to provide instant transactions and liquidity on their lightning network.

5. Autoupdates for Masternodes in Q3

Due to the rapid rate of technological advancement, soft/hard forks are a natural part of any emerging network. They will incorporate an optional auto update system for their masternode holders that allow core team to update nodes automatically. They will secure the auto update system with state-of-the-art technology to ensure stability and reliability and to protect the masternodes from malicious updates and man-in-the-middle attacks. This way their investors can passively run nodes without having to constantly concern themselves with mandatory upgrades during initial periods of rapid network development.

6. Autonomous Atomic Swaps executed by masternodes in Q4

Once Zeus(Q3) is in place they will begin programming their second layer to trustlessly handle cross chain light swaps utilizing Masternode Quorums. As of now a human or merchant is needed to convert your TPoS stakes into a new currency, but with Merlin this will be autonomously done by the network with no human needed in the process.

7. Enhanced Privacy in Q4

Utilizing Lightning Network and an inter TOR network they will be able to give their users the option when converting wealth to do so publicly or privately in real time. These can also be combined with emerging tech such as bulletproofs and zkSNARKs.

8. Sharding in Q4

On chain scaling, or Sharding is a technique that allows the network to be divided into several shards. This sharding mechanism can improve the on chain capacity and throughput, allowing for DApps and high tx functionalities.

9. DApps in Q4

DApp is an abbreviation for a Decentralized Application. The backend code of the DApps will be running on Stakenet’s decentralized peer to peer network. The DApps’ frontend code and user interface can be written in any language, that can make calls to the backend. Stakenet’s DApp framework will enable 3rd parties to develop powerful tools to provide their service in and for Stakenet.

Team

The team currently consists of a total of 33 members. Some names shown below are discord member names.

4 core developers; John Draper, Shahab Behzai, Nathan Faust and Carlos Melo

11 developers; Benjamin Wang, Yura Oleksyshyn, Alexis Hernandez, Eloy Gil Guerrero, Andrii Diachuk, Rostyslav Antonushyn, Xhiroz, AlexITC, 1stallways, Andron, Lee Nux

5 Community Moderators; Paul Freeman, Emil Sterndorff, Andy Osborne aka Kuosumi, Skadoosh1, and Harper

Technical analyst and spokesperson (translating techy language to non-technical people); jstarhead

Visual Designer; Andriy Yurchenko

Marketing Specialist; Rebecca-C

PR Specialist and XSN Army Commander; Wesley Forgione

XSN Army Officers; Emil Sterndorff, Marcdk, TheHoneyBadger, KingK, GRX, Celebroom

YouTube Marketeer: Andy Osborne aka Kuosumi, Wesley Forgione

Advisors; Frank Amato

Others; Yankeeruinx, Bluster11, SecureNetworker