Tixl Testnet RC “Altona” — Sneak Preview
Tixl has a special day coming up - the release of the first version of the Testnet. It’s called Altona - named after a beautiful district of Hamburg, and the home of Tixl. With this sneak preview, we would like to give you an insight into how we are progressing with product development and what you can expect from the Altona version.
Tixl Testnet RC “Altona” vs. Tixl Prototype
Up until now we’ve focused on the 19th of December as the date for the launch of the Tixl prototype. However, over recent weeks we have come to realise that the current stage of development already goes beyond a prototype, and we should consider this accordingly when naming. Therefore, we will release the first version as “Testnet Release Candidate”. We will give unique names to the different releases and we’ve decided to name the releases alphabetically according to Hamburg districts.
What can you expect from Altona?
Altona is the first version that will fundamentally demonstrate that it is technically possible to combine the three core characteristics of today’s cash -transactions that are private, instant and without transaction fees. To allow you to test this, we are going to provide a web wallet. With the web wallet you can send Tixl tokens to others. The Tixl tokens are available on the Testnet free of charge from a Telegram bot. These tokens only work on the Testnet and have no real value. Transactions in the network can be tracked via the Tixl Testnet Explorer (as far as it is possible with a privacy coin).
In the background, the web wallet talks to the Tixl Gateway. The Tixl Gateway distributes the new blocks to the validators in the network. The new blocks are then checked and persisted by the validators using the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP). Altona will start with a Tixl Validator network with four validators and one witness node.
What is not part of the Altona release?
On the way to a finished product, we still have a number of tasks to complete. To name a few:
- Use Stealthchains appropriately
- Implement cut-through transactions
- Mini PoWs for spam protection
- Performance & load tests
- Fault tolerance/recovery features
- Security audits
- Network privacy
Also, some parts of the system aren’t scaled yet - this mainly affects the gateway and the witness node. Those parts are relatively easy to scale in the future, but we’re not doing this now in order to save costs. The gateway and the witness node are mainly used in the explorer and the GUI wallet. At this stage, possible performance problems may occur due to accessing by a lot of users.
When can I use it?
We have set very high-quality standards for ourselves. For this reason, we will use the Altona-Testnet ourselves over the coming days to intensively test it and discover any possible errors. On the evening of December 19th we will make the Altona-Testnet publicly available.
About Tixl
Tixl is a new digital asset that allows private, instant and zero-fee transactions. In a world headed more towards digital currencies, we must secure and preserve the essential properties of traditional money. None of the popular digital assets allow private, instant and zero-fee transactions at the same time.
Tixl uses the most sophisticated technologies to have emerged from the blockchain world over recent years. It uses a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) data structure together with the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) to support fast transactions. Tixl also uses Zero-knowledge proofs with a commitment scheme to enable confidential transactions (hiding transaction amounts). To protect transaction senders and receivers, Tixl uses stealth addresses and coin shuffling. Also, to ensure that transactions stay private in the future, quantum secure or upgradable cryptosystems are implemented to encrypt transaction details.
About Hamburg-Altona
Altona is located in the west of Hamburg, only a few minutes away from the city center. Supposedly, the name Altona comes from the Hamburg merchants who considered their rival to the west ‘all zu nah’ (‘far too close’). Nowadays Altona is known as a lively neighborhood with a slightly alternative lifestyle with many students, and for the long-distance train station. Read more about Altona on hamburg.com
Thank you Bernd & Tammo
At this point, we would like to express our special thanks to Bernd and Tammo. Both have done an impressive job over the last few months building Altona.
Let’s shape the future together 🥳
