Crown development update July 2021
Codebase update, DMNs and NFT trading, warts’n’all
tl;dr
we’re in a hole!
Keep reading for the how and why and what we’re doing about it.
Background part 1
In May 2019, around the time of the successful launch of MN-PoS we set one our next major development milestones: Bitcoin codebase update. In June 2019, after analysis by Ashot, we thought it would take 2–6 months to deliver an update to Bitcoin core v0.17.
By September 2019 it was clear we were struggling with development due to insufficient funds but we still believed Artem and Ashot would be able to complete their projects. By the end of January 2020, after several months of being “nearly ready for testnet”, the codebase update development effort effectively stalled with Ashot unable to spend any more time on it. We embarked on a fairly substantial marketing effort at this point, for products we expected to have ready “soon”.
Crown v0.14 “Emerald” did release in March 2020 but the codebase update wasn’t going anywhere from it’s estimated 80% completion. It couldn’t really because Ashot’s focus, of necessity, changed to fixing problems in the NFT framework.
An internal review of the state of development and the delivery failures identified the need for a proper project manager. An appeal was made for anyone in the community with relevant experience to step up and take on the role. No-one did.
Ashot continued to work on the NFT glitch issue in preference to the codebase update but also undertook a review of the possibility of including Dash deterministic masternodes (DMN) in the codebase update.
In August 2020 we finally released v0.14.0.2 to resolve the NFT glitch, and decided DMN inclusion in the codebase update was too risky and a step too far. The codebase update was finally available in testnet by mid-September and from the start problems cropped up and were not resolved.
Background part 2
Towards the end of October 2020 we entered into a relationship with a freelance developer with a view to him researching DMN implementation on the v0.14 codebase. At the same time Ashot continued to work on the codebase update. After a short review period we agreed a 0.35BTC fee with the freelancer for adding DMN to v0.14 with delivery expected in around two months. He would also assist Ashot with finishing the codebase update. How the two parallel development paths would be integrated was not specified.
The foolishness of this is apparent months later. In the absence of an actual project manager telling us it was madness, we thought we could make it work. We posted an upbeat review of the progress Crown had made up to that point in the year.
By January 2021 Ashot had faded from the scene and the freelancer agreed to implement a codebase update to Bitcoin v0.21 plus DMNs. He was optimistic it could be achieved in a couple more months. Good progress was made up until about mid-February when certain show-stopper problems were identified:
- testnet was broken/unavailable so all testing was in mainnet
- v0.21 systemnodes would not stay ENABLED in the v0.14 systemnode list
- v0.21 masternodes crashed on minting
No significant progress was made on these issues, and several missed deadlines later (towards the end of May 2021) we were approached by former key contributor Dan Ames, with an offer to take over project management. We (Crownfan, pjcltd, walkjivefly) were very pleased to accept the offer. After extensive discussions with the freelancer, Dan felt he could manage completion of the v0.21 codebase update with delivery on 8 July 2021. The pair entered into a formal agreement for a 1-month trial linking payment to delivery of the objectives. If that went well they would continue with DMNs expected a month later, and NFT trading another month after that.
The current position
The freelancer has been out of communication with Dan, and not responding to pings for the last week. None of the showstopper problems mentioned above have been addressed. His failure to deliver means he will play no further role in Dan’s development team and no further role in the Crown project.
Next steps
Dan has been investigating Plan B for the past month, and quite intently in the last week as it became apparent that the freelancer would not deliver. He will be posting a Medium article discussing the possible next steps for Crown development on 12th July. The aim of this article will be to trigger a discussion in the Crown community about what happens next.
After the community has had an opportunity to discuss the possible next steps, Dan will submit a proposal to the superblock seeking approval to implement a solution that achieves the following goals:
- An end to the legacy issues in the Crown code so that Crown Platform can look forward and not back.
- Uplifting Crown to current industry codebases in order to have better access to the development talent pool.
- Completion and extension of the current Crown NFT functionality to bring it in line with rival projects.
- Creation of a development roadmap that is not only achievable but also increases the technical capability of the Crown project.
We offered the freelancer the chance to comment on this article before publication. Despite not responding to Dan’s requests for updates for a whole week he managed to reply within five minutes.
