DERO Monthly Update

Published in

DERO

4 min readNov 1, 2019

October 2019

The DERO Project team has been working diligently on building the most private and secure platform to service individual and business class users. Recently, we have researched more ways to improve decentralization and participation within the network. While we are still actively working toward providing solutions that align with our security mandate, we have encountered some setbacks, but none that will prevent the project from moving forward. This project update will aim to provide details on how we will proceed and what to expect in the future.

RandomX

We recently released an analysis of our Golang implementation of RandomX. For those that have not been able to read about it, we found an issue during testing that would have compromised the security of our blockchain. As far as we know, the issue outlined in our analysis only affects the Golang-based DERO architecture, so other projects will likely remain unaffected. We have also included details about a broader security concern, which resulted in a decision to not implement the algorithm. Additionally, the DERO RandomX implementation has been open-sourced, so we hope that a solution can be found with the help of other bright minds in the crypto space.

For more information and to read about our proposed use of RandomX, please click on the link below:

Analysis of RandomX

Proposed use and analysis of RandomX on the DERO network.

medium.com

As stated previously, the project is moving forward and we are looking into alternative ways to further decentralize our network and provide more avenues for participation.

Omniring

The Omniring RingCT scheme is continuously undergoing evaluation for use on the DERO network. Many of you may have noticed that we have kept details about this protocol change quiet. That is because there are many ways for this scheme to go awry, so the development team has reserved additional time to properly validate the cryptography, functions, and model to ensure that they perform as intended. In the wake of our RandomX analysis, we want to make sure that there are no surprises.

We will be releasing an analysis of Omniring once the evaluation and testing period has concluded. If you are hearing about this for the first time, please see our June monthly update, or visit the linked publication below to learn more:

DERO Monthly Update

June 2019

medium.com

What is Omniring? https://blockonomi.com/what-is-omniring/

Research and Development

Technology today is moving at a very fast pace and is constantly progressing forward. We would like to start sharing with you some of the areas of focus that we are diving deeper into. Please keep in mind that our ongoing research topics are meant to inform the community about the possibility of implementing new technology, but first need to be evaluated and tested. Whether these technologies are implemented or not, we hope to gain more insight and to help better inform our community.

Hybrid PoW and PoS

A cryptocurrency that utilizes a Hybrid PoW/PoS is one that allows consensus to occur through both proof of stake and proof of work mining.

This method allows for mining and staking to create a balance between the miners and for those inside the community that are staking their coins.

Many feel that a hybrid consensus system is safe, secure, and stable and that the chance of anyone manipulating the blockchain is effectively zero. Our research and development will aim to confirm such claims and evaluate use on the DERO network.

Homomorphic Encryption

The development team has also been researching homomorphic encryption as an avenue for making smart contract privacy even stronger. The capability to compute a completely encrypted data set for smart contracts would bring an unprecedented level of privacy and security to the platform. This capability would enable sensitive data to be handled by the DERO network without exposing the data to the network itself.

For an in depth read on Homomorphic Encryption please see:

Homomorphic Encryption for Beginners: A Practical Guide (Part 1)

I will first go over the basics of homomorphic encryption, followed by a brief overview of the open source homomorphic…

medium.com

Homomorphic Encryption for Beginners: A Practical Guide (Part 2: The Fourier Transform)

In Part 1 of this guide, we covered many of the basics of homomorphic encryption. In Part 2, we will discuss a…

medium.com

Moving Forward

The evaluation of Omniring or any of our research and development projects will not impact the main goals of the project that are outlined in our whitepaper. We aim to provide an environment that embodies the following characteristics:

Censorship resistant
Open and globally accessible
Permissionless
Secure
Privacy preservation
Scalable

At the core of our long-standing ambitions, implementing private smart contracts on the DERO mainnet will be the primary focus of the development team for the rest of the year. We realize that many are patiently waiting to start deploying private decentralized applications, so please stay tuned as we continue to build the most advanced platform for privacy and security.

A note to developers:
Please use the Atlantis codebase when developing applications on our platform. There are numerous changes being made to the Stargate codebase that will impact your applications.

Thank you all for your continued interest and support!