ARK Monthly Update — June 2020 Edition
June is complete, and it’s time for a complete ecosystem overview! This blog post will cover last month’s highlights, activities, achievements as well as bring unique content. We are now bringing you a better categorized and more detailed update newsletter moving forward and producing monthly update podcasts on the ARK Crypto Podcast as well as update videos on the ARK YouTube channel. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on at ARK.io and in the ARK Ecosystem.
REMARKS
“We have been moving into Summer as economies around the world are starting to open back up amid the global health crisis. Our best wishes go out to the health care professionals who are monitoring the situation and other essential workers who are keeping pace with this ‘new normal.’ Fortunately, we have been able to work as hard as ever, collaborating online since the ARK.io business entity formed in 2017. June brought with it new listings at BC Bitcoin brokerage and on GRAVIEX exchange. The ARK Grants Program produced a new PoC called ARK Scooters, showcasing ARK technology in action. Of course, the big news of the month was the soft launch of Protokol, ARK.io’s subsidiary business entity focusing on enterprise services. On Blog.ARK.io we released an inside look at MarketSquare, the new homepage for the decentralized Web. June made big strides for ARK’s vision and master plan.”
Justin Renken, ARK.io Senior Brand Manager
ROADMAP PROGRESS UPDATE
The ARK Roadmap features various projects and sub-projects that ARK.io is working on. It is a percentage-based project dashboard for the developmental pipeline of ARK technology. Let’s look into a special update on the progress of our roadmap.
Protokol Soft Launch. During June, the ARK.io business entity launched a subsidiary that aims to handle enterprise blockchain design and consulting services. Under the name Protokol, this new business entity will service enterprise clientele who wish to integrate blockchain technology into their processes and services. Some ARK Team members transferred into the new entity to manage and run it, and some new faces joined the ranks as well. The needs of enterprises are diverse and warrant special attention, so it makes sense to create a separate business entity operating under the supportive umbrella of ARK.io. With the soft launch now behind us, Protokol will continue its preparations for hard launch later this year.
Read the announcement blog article here. Watch the special launch video on their new channel here, and listen to the full Protokol team interview podcast here (part 1) and here (part 2).
MarketSquare First Look. On ARK’s Roadmap, there has been an item called ‘ARK Marketplace.’ This refers to a platform designed to be a showcase and meeting place for Delegates, Blockchains, Plugins and Businesses in Economy 2.0. During June, we unveiled the official name of this marketplace, MarketSquare, and released details and screenshots of the completed platform for the first time in a blog announcement article. At this time, MarketSquare is a functional platform that has been tested by Alpha testers outside of the ARK Team, and the preparations for releasing a Public Beta are underway. It was a lot of hard work to bring MarketSquare from a twinkle in our eye all the way to a production-ready platform that interacts with the ARK Development Network. With the main design and development completed, we are now implementing the final features suggested by initial testers and squashing the final minor bugs to make MarketSquare as robust as possible. In parallel, we are setting up a social media presence for MarketSquare and preparing content for when the Public Beta goes live during Q4 of this year.
Read the announcement blog article here, and watch the logo teaser video here.
ARK Deployer Upgrades. We have been behind the scenes improving the process of creating a customized blockchain ever since the Alpha version of the ARK Deployer went public last year. In this new version, users will be presented with a far-improved web-based graphical user interface. One-click deployment is also possible with this upcoming version. The new ARK Deployer will support multiple hosting providers as well as provide users with the flexibility to easily deploy servers and entire networks with a few simple steps. Testing is ongoing, but we are pleased to report the main portion of the development has been completed during June. The one-click user experience is functional, the dashboard GUI is connected, adding new nodes after the fact works, uploading pre-configured specs is functional and Hetzner auto-deployment support is implemented. At this stage, the final tendrils are being connected to the ARK Deployer web application, and discussions are taking place on how to best present this new product to the world. Stay tuned on Blog.ARK.io for more details.
Additional Upgrades and Improvements. Without leaking too many intimate details, you should know that the ARK Team is also improving and enhancing other products, services and projects in order to make the user experiences gel together. The goal is to create a more cohesive experience now that the ARK Deployer and MarketSquare will act as the bones for building a thriving ecosystem. Keep in mind, those products present an elevated user experience and vision for ARK, and thus improvements are underway to bring the other projects/products up to speed with them. More details on this will be released in due time, but we can definitely say we are talking about more than just a ‘fresh coat of paint.’ Stay tuned on all channels!
EXCHANGE NEWS
The ARK cryptoasset is available on over 30 exchanges and more exchanges are being added all the time — for a full list, visit ARK.io/Exchanges.
Content created by ARK.io is not investment advice nor a solicitation of investment. Consult your financial advisor.
ARK Listed on BC Bitcoin Brokerage. This month, we are very excited to announce that ARK has been added to BC Bitcoin, a professional cryptocurrency brokerage based in the UK. Their traders have over 30 years combined experience in trading and use this experience to best serve customers. BC Bitcoin offers GBP and Euro trading pairs as well as immediate fiat bank transfers.
Learn more about BC Bitcoin at their website.
ARK Listed on GRAVIEX Exchange. During June, ARK was listed on the GRAVIEX exchange, offering BTC, USDT and ETH trading pairs. According to their website, their main goal is to make trading affordable, safe and reliable. GRAVIEX is based in Russia.
Learn more about GRAVIEX at their website.
TEAM NEWS
ARK was founded by an elite team of blockchain experts and enthusiasts from around the globe. Now, with more than 30 core team members, from 12 different countries — we take decentralization to a whole new level.
Protokol Team Established. In light of the recent announcement of Protokol, a new subsidiary of ARK.io handling enterprise services, there has been some restructuring within the ARK.io Team as some members make the transition to Protokol. Collaboration between the ARK.io Team and the new Protokol team remains strong, and Protokol being a separate subsidiary entity of ARK.io means that the complex needs of enterprises can be met by a dedicated team. Of the current team at ARK.io, Lars Rensing has taken up the role of CEO at Protokol, with Kristjan Košič as CTO. Katie Phillips is the Chief Communications Officer and Kai Richards has become the Chief Marketing Officer. Some fresh faces round out the Protokol team, including Chief Commercial Officer Thijs van Dam and Head of Advisory Board Rik Bhattacharya. A previous intern of ARK.io, Žan Kovač, joined the Protokol team as well along with additional hires.
Brian Faust Transitions to ARK.io CTO. Brian has been immersed in the inner workings of ARK technology for a long time. He has been Lead Developer for the ARK Core, managing GitHub activity as well as overseeing collaboration between developers within the ARK.io Team. He is also the author of the six-part series highlighting ARK Core v3, the new iteration in development whose code is now publicly available. With Chris focusing more on the needs of the enterprise as Protokol CTO, Brian has transitioned into the role of CTO for ARK.io. Brian will continue managing the development of the ARK Core as well as other projects and products as we upgrade ARK technology throughout 2020 and beyond.
Start reading Brian’s ‘Let’s Explore Core’ series here.
ARK TECHNOLOGY USAGE
The ARK Core Framework is an open-source toolbox that developers can utilize to power various use cases using blockchain technology. The well-documented technology stack coupled with easy blockchain creation tools such as the ARK Deployer makes it simple for developers to dive into this emerging technology.
ARK Grants Program Funds ARK Scooters PoC. ARK Grants is a recently launched program backed by 1 million ARK designed to empower developers to showcase ARK technology in action. This recent month, a PoC called ARK Scooters received completion approval from the decision board. ARK Scooters is a rental solution utilizing a custom blockchain-powered by ARK Core.
View more details in the ARK Grants section of this update blog article, or skip ahead to the announcement blog article here.
nOS Project Building with ARK Core. During June, nOS has been very busy using ARK technology to integrate nOS into other services, bringing more power and versatility to its framework. Users can now utilize wNOS, an ERC-20 version of NOS on the Ethereum Ropsten Testnet. The nOS wallet now also has built-in swap capabilities courtesy of the Uniswap Protocol. As well, the nOS wallet now supports login via encrypted password as well as its standard mnemonic login. In a big move, the nOS wallet codebase has finished its migration to TypeScript, making it more secure and resistant to errors. Check the nOS blog article for screenshots, GIFs and additional details.
View the nOS blog article on June improvements here.
Unikname Launches Community Bounty Program. On June 10th, Unikname announced a new bounty program for both developers and non-developers. Contributors can earn UNS by participating in tasks relating to Unikname Connect, the My Unikname app and uns.network. Unikname is searching for developers, testers, writers and translators. Earn UNS and contribute to the growing ecosystem of chains powered by ARK technology!
Learn more details about the UNS Community Bounty Program here.
ARK WALLET UPDATES
The ARK desktop and mobile wallets are highly secure. The desktop wallet even integrates with Ledger Nano hardware wallet devices. They are extremely easy to use and launch instantly with no need to sync. Plus, with the ARK Public Network having eight second block times, you can even see your transactions occur in near real-time. Whether you’re checking your balance, sending and receiving funds, or voting for your preferred delegate — ARK wallets make it as easy as possible.
DESKTOP WALLET
ARK Releases Desktop Wallet v2.9.2 with User Experience Improvements. This release focused on the user experience when executing certain tasks within the wallet. With the completely new version of the wallet well into the development phase, we haven’t forgotten about improving and fixing the current one. Along with this release, we are pleased to announce that Ledger hardware wallets now support Schnorr signatures. ‘Send’ transactions are now signed using our Schnorr model that was introduced as of ARK Core v2.6. To take advantage of this, update your Ledger to the latest firmware and 2.1.0 of the Ledger firmware ARK app (a June release). Keep in mind, Ledger hardware wallet devices don’t support multipayments yet.
What’s New At-A-Glance
- Multipayment and Transfer UI Merge. Executing a simple transfer and executing a multipayment have been combined into the same screen. Declare your recipient and amount, click ‘Add,’ and if you wish to turn it into a multipayment, just repeat that process to add additional recipients and amounts.
- No Connectivity Alert. If there is no Internet connectivity, the application alerts you of a potential connectivity issue and to check your connection.
- Multisignature Icon & Tooltip. The application now displays an icon and tooltip indicating which addresses in your list are multisignature.
- New Plugin Display Options. When browsing the displayed Plugins in the Plugin Manager, you now get additional filter options beyond simply ‘All’ or ‘Installed.’ We added ‘Official’ to show you which Plugins were published by ARK.io, as well as ‘Funded’ to show you which Plugins were made possible by the ARK Grants Program.
This is a shortened list of improvements for ARK Desktop Wallet v2.9.2. For a full list of improvements, check article here. Download the latest version here.
MOBILE WALLET
During June, a very minor update to the ARK Mobile Wallet became available, fixing the empty state height on the Profile sign-in page. This brings the current version to 1.8.1.
The version v1.8.1 is a minor upgrade, but it’s recommended to stay up to date on your version. For a full list of improvements from v1.8.0, check article here.
ARK CORE NEWS
ARK Core is a lightweight but very powerful codebase that functions as the base component of the entire ARK Ecosystem. Developed in TypeScript, the ARK Core’s modular architecture empowers developers to modify, configure or extend all aspects of the codebase with ease.
ARK Core Version Releases. Taken from the Development Report, the following minor Core releases were made public during this previous month:
Learn more about the ARK Core from this announcement blog article and on the six-part Let’s Explore Core series from the ARK Blog, starting with Part 1 — Infrastructure.
DEVELOPMENT REPORT
The ARK Monthly Development Report covers public releases among ARK open source projects, all pull requests (opened, closed, merged), all issues opened and closed in every ARK Ecosystem public repository, the number of contributors during that month, the number of new stargazers and total lines of GitHub code added or deleted. The report has intricate links to GitHub repos, events and releases. We’d like to extend a huge thanks to all our contributors!
See the Development Report for the recent month here.
NETWORK STATISTICS REPORT
This network statistics report summarizes network activity on the ARK Public Network for the recent month.
Total Network Transactions
Total: 53,940
Avg per block: 0.1666
Per type:
Transfers: 50,108 (92.90%)
Multipayments: 3,267 (6.06%)
Votes: 557 (1.03%)
Second Signatures: 5 (0.01%)
Delegate Registrations: 2 (0.00%)
IPFS: 1 (0.00%)
2,401 unique wallets sent an outgoing transaction.
Total Blocks
Full: 89 (0.03%)
Empty: 312,791 (96.61%)
Non-empty: 10,897 (3.37%)
Total: 323,777
Missed: 223
Total Network Fees
Total: 2,387.18189399 Ѧ
Per type:
Transfers: 1,647.88212944 Ѧ
Multipayments: 521.71167000 Ѧ
Votes: 165.48809455 Ѧ
Second Signatures: 20.1 Ѧ
Delegate Registrations: 27 Ѧ
IPFS: 5 Ѧ
Total Network Votes
Voting Wallets: 41,707
Voting Wallets > 1 ARK: 18,624
Total ARK Voting: 84,829,139.69934367 Ѧ
FRANCE ACTIVITIES
ARK.io is incorporated as an SCIC in France (ARK Ecosystem SCIC), giving us a leg up when interfacing with the legacy financial system. This SCIC is the first of its kind for crypto in France. The business entity is also a founding member of ADAN, an association of blockchain technology companies designed to further the mission of the technology in France and the EU.
ARK SCIC President Francois Thoorens B Smart TV Interview. On June 23rd, an interview took place on B Smart TV, a European news channel for economic and financial news. ARK SCIC President Francois Thoorens appeared on the Delphine Sabattier’s ‘Smart Tech’ program, which is a show about innovation, medical research, education, cybersecurity, mobility and finance. Thoorens spoke on the topics of digital innovations concerning the means of payments and transactions, as well as identifying what is changing thanks to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
ARK TIMELINE
ArkTimeline.com is a community resource built and maintained by the ARK Community Committee. The entire history of all ARK achievements and accomplishments are available there, and they are both sortable and filterable.
Here’s a quick rundown for this past month, excluding events mentioned elsewhere in this update article:
- On June 22nd, ARK.io published a general article titled What Happens to Your Crypto When You Die? The article addresses issues and answers questions about the process of passing cryptocurrencies on to loved ones and other beneficiaries. It addresses the inability for exchanges to properly address this, and touches on concepts such as dead man’s switches and inheritance solutions. Check out the full article here.
- On June 29th, ARK.io published a general article titled How Blockchain Can Resolve Legal Disputes. In part one of the two-part series, the concept of resolving legal disputes concerning copyright infringement using blockchain technology is explored. In the past, courts and content owners had to rely on notaries and third party organizations in order to verify ownership of content. However, in order to combat the growing number of cases and the rights of content owners, courts began to look towards blockchain technology as a way of preserving evidence. Check out the full article here.
- All other events and activities are listed elsewhere in this monthly update. All caught up!
- See years of achievements for ARK at ARKTimeline.com.
- See what the future holds for ARK at Roadmap.ARK.io.
- Subscribe for real-time news at Twitter.ARK.io.
VIDEOS
ARK has a growing YouTube channel that features technical discussions and updates, motion graphic explainers, community videos, tutorials, crypto adventure vlogs and more. Watch our videos at Youtube.ARK.io and subscribe to our channel in one click using this special link.
ARK.io Monthly Update May 2020 Video. If you missed it from last month, check out the May 2020 edition of the ARK.io Monthly Update video:
MarketSquare Intro Logo Video. When we released the first look blog article for MarketSquare, we accompanied it with an intro logo video. Take a look here:
Watch our videos at Youtube.ARK.io and subscribe to our channel in one click using this special link.
PODCASTS
The ARK Crypto Podcast releases weekly episodes all about ARK, featuring interviews, monologues, tutorials, reports, presentations and more. The show aims for a 30-minute runtime and releases new episodes every Friday. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Spotify, Castbox and more. Details, external links and show notes are available at Podcast.ARK.io.
Check out the episodes released this recent month:
Subscribe and see details, show notes, related links, timestamps and more at Podcast.ARK.io.
COMMUNITY SERVICE SPOTLIGHT
Some members mentioned in the Community Service Spotlight are ARK Delegates, who secure the ARK Public Network and provide community services. Their inclusion here is in no way an endorsement from ARK.io to vote for any specific Delegates, and you should always do your own research and consider all the options when voting for a Delegate. ARK.io does not run the ARK Public Network.
Here’s the Community Service Spotlight for this month:
- Delegate ‘Fun’ continued to run ARK games online with daily ARK prizes.
- Delegates ‘Biz_Classic’ and ‘Del’ ran ARK faucets here and here.
- Delegate ‘Alessio’ located and reported vulnerabilities.
- Delegates ‘Goose’ and ‘ArkMoon’ continue their service, ARK CSV Generator and Income Estimator, to aid in trading and income reporting.
- Delegate ‘Jarunik’ ran a general bounty service, get involved here.
- Delegate ‘Cryptology’ continued operating the ARKTippr tip bot.
- Delegate ‘Yakety_Yak’ released German ARK podcasts.
- Delegate ‘Rising_Sun’ continued to run a treasure loot program, update here.
- Delegate ‘Deadlock’ continued maintaining ARKStats.Live.
- ‘CryptoMC’ continued to run Arkifier Delegate email alert service.
- ‘Gonggrabber’ grabbed a Cameo encouraging the ARK.io Team featuring Chuck Norris. Thanks!
- Delegate ‘Cams_Yellow_Jacket’ released a new video as part of their Delegate service. This video covers multisignature transactions with ARK. Check it out here:
The Community Service Spotlight pulls entries from Reddit.ARK.io. To get something featured here, simply make a post there, and subscribe there for more community content and discussions.
NOTABLE REDDIT POSTS
The Ark Ecosystem Subreddit is a great place to seek ARK knowledge, and you can always find new and engaging content there. New to ARK? Check out my Welcome to ARK Reddit Post with simple instructions to follow.
Here are some notable posts this month:
- A discussion about companies using ARK technology
- A post relating to the future of ARK
- A question about introducing more privacy to ARK
- A technical help question about Ledger not showing up in desktop wallet
- A discussion surrounding monetization for enterprise
- A question about an issue where transfer transactions could not be created
- A summons for any Arkies out there to make themselves known
- A tech help question about sending a transaction
You can browse more content and contribute your own voice to the ARK Subreddit at Reddit.ARK.io. You may even receive an ARK tip from a community member using Delegate Cryptology’s intuitive ArkTippr Reddit tipbot.
AMAs
Ask-Me-Anythings are periodically conducted where ARK team members answer questions by community members and developers, as well as 3rd party organizations taking questions from the community as well.
During June, there was a type of AMA, although not in the traditional sense. Community questions were submitted to the ARK Crypto Podcast to be asked to the team of Protokol shortly after its soft launch. Over a half dozen team members were guests on the podcast and answered community questions. Check that interview out here (part 1) and here (part 2).
These AMAs take place on Slack.ARK.io. Follow ARK on Twitter for invitations to join future AMAs. AMA Transcripts are available on the ARK.io resource ARK Answers or by reviewing chat history of the #AMA channel in Slack.ARK.io.
BOUNTY & SECURITY PROGRAM
ARK runs monthly bounty programs for coders who contribute to our codebase on the ARK Ecosystem GitHub. Independent programmers can work side by side with our international team and make the ARK toolkit even more powerful and stable.
For this recent month, we’d like to give a shoutout to ‘deanpress’ of nOS who earned ARK while interacting with our open source code on GitHub. Nice work!
We’d also like to highlight Delegate ‘Alessio,’ who earned ARK bounties by participating in the development program, and also reported five security vulnerabilities:
Get started earning ARK bounties by going here. To report an issue or suggest a feature for ARK projects as a non-coder, follow the video tutorial here.
ARK GRANTS
ARK Grants Launched a 1 Million ARK Fund. ARK has always placed a large focus on our community of developers. From our Development and Security Bounties to our previous Tier zero program, we have a wide range of opportunities for developers to get involved in the community and get paid to contribute to ARK. The ARK Grants program is an expansion and refinement of our current offerings, providing a war chest of funds to show our dedication to our community and the ARK Ecosystem.
Technologies and frameworks, applicable project types and proposal submission process can be found in the ARK Grants launch article here.
ARK Scooters PoC Released, Funded by ARK Grants. On June 12th, we published an announcement article for ARK Scooters, a rental solution using IoT and powered by ARK Core. This PoC (Proof-of-Concept) uses a combination of IoT hardware, ARK’s Generic Transaction Interface(GTI) and a mobile application as UI. It runs on a blockchain powered by ARK called Radians to manage registration, locking, unlocking, location and management of scooter rentals. Concepts like ARK Scooters are exciting, but also important because they illustrate practical applications of blockchain technology in ways that are easy to visualize and understand.
Learn more details about ARK Scooters and the people involved in the project via the blog article here.
ARK COMMUNITY COMMITTEE
The ARK Community Committee creates and deploys community resources through anonymous and sponsored ARK donations.
Completed ACC projects include:
- ArkTimeline.com — All ARK’s achievements and accomplishments in one place. Searchable, filterable and linkable by the query string.
- ArkThoughts.com — Community opinions on 30 ARK concepts, including the Core, wallets, Explorer, SmartBridge Technology and media channels.
- Crypto Trivia Night Questions — Trivia questions for Crypto Trivia Night
During this recent month, I have taken the results of ‘Project VIDERE II,’ consisting of market research and I am taking action accordingly. Also there will be a new phase of the project coming to the committee soon, allowing committee members to earn even more ARK, no coding involved! ‘Project Videre III’ is starting in early July.
To join the ACC, locate me ‘(Justin (doubled1c3)’ on Discord.ARK.io.
ARK COMMUNITY FUND
The ACF is like the community version of ARK Grants and is not managed by ARK.io. If you have an idea for an ARK project, large or small and you are looking for funding, consider submitting a proposal to the ARK Community Fund for review. The ARK Community Fund started as a community initiative and the elected board reviews ideas and projects that enhance ARK. Their website is ArkCommunity.Fund.
The ACF is running some giveaways on the #ark_community_fund channel of Slack.ARK.io. Join and check out the chatter in the channel.
WHAT’S NEXT
The team at Protokol is gearing up. With the soft launch now behind them, Protokol will continue its preparations for hard launch later this year. MarketSquare’s main design and development is completed, and a first look featuring screenshots and details went out during June. We are now implementing the final features suggested by initial testers and squashing the last minor bugs to make MarketSquare as robust as possible. In parallel, we are setting up a social media presence for MarketSquare and preparing content for when the public Beta goes live during Q4 of this year. For the all-new ARK Deployer, the final tendrils are being connected to the web application, and discussions are taking place on how to best present this new product to the world. The ARK Team is also improving and enhancing other products, services and projects in order to make the user experiences gel together. The goal is to create a more cohesive experience now that the ARK Deployer and MarketSquare will act as the bones for building a thriving ecosystem. Stay tuned on all ARK channels for more updates.
FEEDBACK SURVEY
Take a short three-minute feedback survey so we can learn more about your opinions on how we’re doing. We review and track this feedback and use it to further improve our efforts.
GET INVOLVED
Here’s a quick list of what your first steps might be to get involved with ARK:
- Join our community on Slack or Reddit
- Launch an ARK community service
- Contribute code and earn ARK
- Apply for an ARK Grant to fund your idea
- Learn more with ARK documentation
- Launch an ARK node and campaign for forging status
- Create a blockchain in three simple steps
Looking forward to July! Stay safe!
