Starname Tech Roadmap 2021 Q4

The achievements of the last quarter include, and are not limited to, the launching of the Starname (IOV) Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) capable chain, being pool #2 on the Gravity DEX, and having two incentivized pools on Osmosis. A huge shout-out goes to our Telegram community member Shop and Validating Chaos for driving the passage of the on-chain proposal that yielded the incentivization on Osmosis!

The technical roadmap that follows is divided into two sections: back-end and front-end. The back-end is largely opaque to users but it is what makes the Starname (IOV) blockchain possible. The front-end is the user interface to the blockchain and includes the Starname App and Big Dipper block explorer. The items in each section are in order of priority with the highest priority being at the top.

Back-end

Upgrade to Cosmos-SDK v0.44.x

• The chain’s code needs to remain up-to-date.

Escrow for swapping IOV tokens and starnames (95% complete already)

• IOV SAS envisions an enormous marketplace for starnames and digital art. Empowering starname owners to sell their starnames without an intermediary is a core use case for the blockchain.

Proper burn of tokens sent to blackhole*iov

• As chosen by delegators in https://www.mintscan.io/starname/proposals/10, we’ll truly burn tokens sent to blackhole*iov in order to have an accurate circulating supply on coingecko.com and coinmarketcap.com.

Real-time yield (APY) endpoint

• The yield of the Starname (IOV) chain is dynamic, see this. We’ll calculate the real-time yield on the back-end so that it can be displayed in the front-end.

Arbitrary message signing (90% complete already)

• One aspect of starnames that makes them special is the ability to attach cryptographically verifiable certificates to them. This feature is particularly valuable to businesses in order to establish trust with their customers. Arbitrary message signing for certificates needs to be ported from the old to the new application binary.

Creator starname type

• The first new feature that will be added to the chain is a special starname type for creators. Creators will be able to use it to have their starname signature on every NFT that they create, like blue-sky*aspiring_artist, sunshine-soaked*aspiring_artist, love-song*aspiring_artist, etc. The certificate attached to *aspiring_artist will guarantee that all the works associated with the starname are authentic.

Starname metrics collection

• Collection and aggregation of on-chain data into a database is necessary for analysis and user experience. Making starnames searchable while providing suggestions as a user types is an expected feature in general and for a marketplace in particular.

Front-end

Buy starnames with a credit card

• You can buy IOV tokens with a credit card already, but we’ll add the possibility to buy a starname directly with your credit card.

Allow starnames to be renewed for multiple years with one click

• Your starname is your universal identifier in the blockchain (and possibly Internet!) space, so it makes sense for you to be able to secure ownership of it for many years.

Polish the user interface for both desktop and mobile

• Mass adoption requires a smooth experience for users. Using GDrive for private key management means that the Starname App works on mobile devices — there’s no need to install an app from the app store!

E-mail notification for GDrive users

• Noobies to the crypto world use their Gmail account for starnames. They expect traditional account creation interactions like getting a notification that their account creation was successful. We’ll give them that.

Create a rudimentary marketplace for the re-sale of starnames

• The marketplace depends on the escrow for swapping IOV tokens and starnames from the back-end. The initial implementation of the marketplace will be very basic; however, we have plans to make it a first-class citizen.

Upgrade to Big Dipper 2.0

• Forbole completely rebuilt Big Dipper. The starname specific enhancements to it, like displaying starnames instead of addresses and properly displaying fees, need to be implemented.

Pop-up notification of starname expiration

• Starnames need to be renewed on a yearly basis. The Starname App will include a pop-up that informs the starname owner of upcoming expirations.

Internationalization of the Starname App

• The Starname App isn’t just for English speakers! We’ll add additional languages to the app with help from the community.

Starname (IOV) development is still going strong. Join our Telegram channel and let us know about any feature requests or ideas that you have for starnames! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!