Oyster Testnet A is Live!

Status of Testnet

We are thrilled to announce that the first milestone for Oyster Pearl, Testnet A is now live. Our current production architecture consists of four load balancers, eight broker nodes, and 100 IOTA Nelson / PRL Hooknodes distributed in 5 different data centers around the world.

See below for a video of a demo of a file being uploaded onto the Tangle using Oyster:

Below are some screenshots from the storage interface:

Oyster Storage Main Interface

Oyster Storage Upload Interface

Oyster Storage Retrieve Interface

As far as we know, this is the first time that encrypted file storage has been possible on the IOTA Tangle. We are able to slice, encrypt, and store any type of file on the Tangle and later retrieve and piece that file back together using only a hashed file handle.

Thank you to all of our supporters that have stuck with us thus far, we are excited to show you the first working stage in our developing product.

Alpha Testers Wanted

We’ve now invited a dozen alpha testers into our program to help us exercise the features and test the system for stability. We will continue to roll out access to more people every day. See the signup form for details.

Included in this first test group are few popular Youtube channels, including Altcoin Buzz and After School Hustle.

Hooknodes are Live

In order to support the IOTA Tangle and to increase the performance of the Oyster network, we have launched 100 full IOTA nodes using the Nelson neighbor system. We plan to bring many more online in the near future.

What is a Hooknode?

Many community members have been asking about the functionality of Hooknodes. Hooknodes are a split off of from our concept of Brokers — now the Broker is not responsible for attaching the file chunks to the Tangle. Instead, this job is completed by the Hooknodes.

Part of the modification to the Oyster Protocol is this introduction of the Hooknode concept

A Hooknode is first and foremost a full IOTA node. Secondly, Hooknodes run some of our open source code to power the attaching of data to the Tangle. Hooknodes get paid in PRL and any IOTA node can become a Hooknode with a simple script.

How do I run a Hooknode?

You can run a Hooknode right now; however, we haven’t yet opened the Testnet to public Hooknodes. Public Hooknodes will be incorporated into the system at a later date. If you would like to test out the Hooknode yourself, you can use our one-line install script for Ubuntu 16.04:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oysterprotocol/scripts/master/hk_install.sh | bash

Those individuals who are more tech-savvy are welcome to check out the inner workings of the Hooknode at our Github link here.

Upcoming Developments

In between the Testnet A and B releases, we will have continuous improvements and minor releases going on every week. One of the first features to be added is the ability for public Hooknodes to join the Oyster network.

Currently, uploading to the Testnet will be free, but we will be powering the network with our own PRL once the Hooknode network is opened.

Over the next few weeks, the Oyster development team will be focusing on two things:

1. the payment system of moving PRL throughout the network.
2. the reputation system that will make sure that all of the nodes that make up the network are performing in the most efficient manner.

Finally, we at Oyster extend our gratitude to all the community members who have supported us this far, and we will continue to keep you updated as the Testnet continues to progress.