OST March 2018 — $OST Monthly Roadmap Update
Here is our monthly OST roadmap update for March 2018.
Please note: As always, all dates provided are directional and subject to change based on business requirements and macroeconomic conditions. While we intend to provide the community with detailed and highly transparent updates, information on some projects may be withheld due to confidentiality agreements or competitive market dynamics.
OST KIT⍺
OST is building the complete blockchain toolkit for business.
Our ambition is to be the blockchain platform of choice for forward-thinking businesses.
Our signature product, OST KIT, gives businesses all the tools they need to run a blockchain-powered economy on scalable OpenST Utility Blockchains, without requiring in-house blockchain developers. In fact, anyone can use OST KIT to setup a token economy and simulate transactions without needing any developer skills. Developers can take OST KIT even further with our robust developer APIs and SDK to integrate with any business, website, or app.
We are currently in private/closed OST KIT⍺ (alpha) testing and it is going quite well. Our focus this past week has been on performance and scalability, prior to opening OST KIT⍺ up to the public. One of the interesting technical challenges we took up with OST KIT⍺ is enabling thousands of people to simultaneously mint branded tokens and run thousands of simultaneous transactions. This has taken some significant innovation and optimization from our team.
We want to make sure that OST KIT⍺ scales to thousands of simultaneous companies and company-users, and that anyone anywhere can easily sign-up, mint Branded Tokens, and simulate transactions, via the OST KIT⍺ dashboard and via the developer APIs at high throughput. In recent internal tests we are tracking at 100 transactions per second (TPS) per sidechain (on testnet) and we’re working on parallel scaling towards maintaining such speed as we add thousands of Branded Token communities on multiple sidechains. (We’ll then look to exceeding 100 TPS per BT community on our way from alpha to beta, and testnet to mainnet.)
Barring any unforeseen challenges, we anticipate opening up OST KIT⍺ to public alpha users later this week. We hope you hammer the heck out of it, provide ample feedback, and help us build the most valuable blockchain management toolkit for all!
Following the public OST KIT⍺ release, we will be following a roadmap split evenly between user feedback and known features to be developed. Our April update will contain further roadmap specifics to guide us from alpha to beta.
OST VIEW
Alongside OST KIT⍺, we’ll also be releasing OST VIEW, a full featured block explorer for transactions on the OpenST utility blockchains.
The OST Technology Stack
Blockchain technology designed to scale with the needs and requirements of businesses
Concurrently with OST KIT⍺, our teams have been making good progress on defining and developing the complete OST technology stack. A summary is presented here, and more details will be provided in our enhanced Developer Resources and updated docs, launching soon.
Defining the Utility Blockchain
The OpenST Protocol establishes a bridge between the Ethereum value blockchain and a (number of) utility blockchain(s). Value tokens on Ethereum (e.g. $OST) are transposed into utility Branded Tokens of equivalent value (“BT”) on the utility chains and are at all times redeemable by the users for the staked value through the protocol.
Application developers can design the token behavior that applies for their specific utility token with transaction types. Users can stake $OST on Ethereum and receive an equivalent amount of BT within the application. The utility chains are powerful enough to host a decentralised key management smart contract engine that provides a smooth user experience for users within applications while retaining key ownership with the end-users.
Decentralised key management additionally avoids liabilities for application developers hosting keys on behalf of their users. To ensure user confidence in the growing token economy smart contract pricing engines provide a toolbox to application developers to layer additional behaviour on their BT, ranging from incentivisation mechanisms to price guarantee (wet) contracts.
Scaling Up Blockchains
OpenST Mosaic is an overlay-consensus engine that adds transaction throughput capacity to Ethereum by leveraging Proof-of-Work to secure a large number of utility blockchains. OpenST Mosaic introduces 2nd-layer consensus rules for open validators that provide economic finality for the transactions executed on OpenST utility chains with representations of the value that remains securely staked on Ethereum.
Because OpenST Mosaic asynchronously couples the value chain with a utility chain, the number of utility chains that Ethereum can simultaneously support is not tightly bound. OpenST Mosaic further amplifies the growing capacity of Ethereum itself as an overlay network of blockchains. The OpenST utility chains also extend the established ETH gas market to pay for transaction fees (using OST to pay for gas on OpenST utility blockchains), but the utility chains can run at lower cost because OpenST Mosaic validators can operate in a collaborative environment guarded by Ethereum’s adversarial Proof-of-Work.
Empowering Developers
OpenST and OST KIT provide robust RESTful APIs to integrate advanced blockchain functionality with ease while observing the highest security standards. Or, use SDKs to get started even faster. Identity solutions allow the application to know their customer and calculate the correct taxes on services delivered.
Universal wallets will allow users to seamlessly manage their funds and keys and transact across token economies. Exchanges will allow users to move in and out off fiat and crypto currencies effortlessly and intuitively. We invite developers to connect with us, and to follow our documentation, guides, and recipes that make building any blockchain experience simple and easy.
EXPLORE DEVELOPER RESOURCES (will launch with OST KIT)
OST Brand Refresh
Close followers of OST |Simple Token will have already noticed that we are in the process of rebranding from Simple Token to OST (stands for Open Simple Token). That process will culminate later this week with the launch of the all new https://ost.com website and propulgating of OST branding throughout all channels.
OST KYC
OST KYC is the first plug-and-play KYC/AML management solution for token sales. Process thousands of applicants smoothly and securely. Developed for the Simple Token “OST” ICO. Now available for any company to use.
When we launched OST KYC in January 2018, it immediately provided all the back-end admin tools any company would need to manage the KYC and whitelisting process.
Last week we updated OST KYC to provide a completely customizable front end solution as well, enabling companies to offload the entire ICO registration, whitelisting, and KYC process to OST.
Team OST
This is still the very beginning of blockchain and cryptocurrency and for OST.
Today blockchain holds enormous potential for future decentralized applications. Tomorrow, if we execute well, OST can herald and power widespread adoption of and benefits from blockchain technology, making connectivity and commerce more convenient, more transparent, more empowering, more fair, and more rewarding for businesses and individuals.
As OST transitions from early-stage startup to high growth company, from initial utility to live product, from enormous conceptual promise to partnering on real projects with great brands, a major focus this year is on building a professional company that is ready and able to scale with the opportunity and challenges ahead.
We have three Company Building Goals for OST. Notably, these are not revenue goals and they are not specific technology goals, they are company-building goals. If we build the right company, the rest will follow.
- Build the best blockchain company to work at. A workplace where everyone loves their job, enjoys coming to work, respects and appreciates their colleagues, and where everyone is constantly challenged, learning and growing.
- Build the blockchain company that is renowned for its professionalism. The blockchain company that gets it done, fairly and properly. The company everyone can trust, depend on, and collaborate with for mutual benefit. And, in a noisy marketplace, the company the industry looks to as blockchain business done right.
- Build the blockchain company that is memorable for the right reasons. The blockchain company that is respected (and feared) for the quality of our technology, products and solutions, and for producing real meaningful results and value for our stakeholders.
With these goals firmly in mind, we have made great strides the past couple months with building out Team OST. By April 2018 OST will have grown to more than 50 persons, up from 30 during the ICO. We’ve added people at all levels and in all areas of the business, and we’ve established OST offices in Berlin, Hong Kong, New York, and Pune. By the end of 2018 we plan to have around 80 team members, enabling us to build, market, and deliver OST solutions worldwide. New team members will begin to appear on the all-new OST website this week and then as the new team members join the team. I’ll also be introducing several of our new executives in future blog posts.
Interested in joining Team OST? We invite you to discover our many open positions.
Thanks OST Community
OST is a community driven project. Your feedback is the engine that will drive the project forward. We invite you to connect with us, become a link in our chain, and help us unlock the power of blockchain for all.
With the launch later this week we’ll also be opening up new feedback forums at https://help.ost.com.
