Request Network Project Update (May 25th, 2018) — New Roadmap Release, Crowdfunding Preview, AirSwap Cooperation, New Request Network Documentation & Recruiting Product Managers + Developers
The Request Network Foundation promotes the adoption of blockchain by providing a protocol which allows everyone to develop their own financial solutions based on the Request Network technology. The Foundation establishes a standard for blockchain transactions, shaping the future of payments (i.e. invoices, loans, payments, salary, donations) and their compliance for accounting, tax and audit integration.
In this blogpost we update you about:
- The introduction of a new roadmap: A way to track progression real-time
- A visual preview of the Crowdfunding Application built on the Request Network
- AirSwap and Request Network cooperate
- The new Request Network documentation
- Javascript Library updated to be more developer friendly
- API References available
- New Data Format for invoice data
- Request Network hiring Product Managers & Back-end Developers
- Crypto Art by Josephine Bellini
From Solid to Fluid, we’ve melted the roadmap. You can now track what we’re working on at the Request Network Foundation in real-time, at any time. This gives you the ability to discover our priorities of the past, today and the future with information that is accurate and open for all. The new roadmap will be dynamic, meaning it will keep changing based on learnings from the team and blockchain ecosystem as a whole.
The blockchain landscape is a highly dynamic environment, filled with lots of innovation on a daily basis. Blockchain technology development is evolving and so is the Request Network. We are expanding Request Network into a universal financial application ecosystem, interoperable with all blockchains.
To achieve this and rapidly scale as an organisation according to the current demand by real businesses to adopt blockchain technology, we have reimagined the Request Network roadmap to become progress based, rather than time based as it used to be until today.
Out with the old, in with the new.
The new roadmap allows for a more agile development and business environment. It allows the teams to react more quickly when they discover a new opportunity that contributes to reaching the foundation mission & vision.
Below you find the visualization of the new Request Network roadmap. A roadmap that is built for fluid development & priority shifting according to real world needs, which will be ever evolving as the Request Network ecosystem progresses. Any milestone that is listed on our roadmap will be subject to change, according to ecosystem priorities and learnings made by the team.
Any milestone that was listed on the old roadmap which is not currently listed on the new roadmap can still be added at a later stage, once we prioritize spending real resources on the development. Old milestones may also have been merged, for instance: ‘Add management of fiat-currencies to Request’ is now added under the Up Next status, merged into the bigger Supporting more currencies goal. This is the launch of the new roadmap. New goals will keep being added along the way.
How our roadmap flow works
To keep progression tracking as simple as possible for you, we’ve divided our roadmap into separate Themes. Each theme hosts its own set of goals, which will either be showing the status ‘in-progress’, ‘up next’ or ‘completed’, always contributing to the bigger thematic goal. The order of goals within each separate status block is not a representation of the priority we give them.
For instance, when looking at new roadmap below the Protocol Development theme, In-progress goal today are multiple scaling solutions, data-encryption for transactions, data sustainability and data formats specifications. The next up goals are Extensibility and advanced payment conditions extension, request explorer, cross-currency support and more currency support. The delivered goals, already reached, are the implementation of Bitcoin & ERC20 support, Improved JS Library usability, release mainnet and release testnet.
Goals might be merged over time to keep the roadmap clean.
This makes it possible to quickly discover the latest progress that is being made in real-time. When one or multiple goals are reached, they will move from in-progress towards delivered, contributing to the historical roadmap of the Request Network. A new (set of) goal(s) from the ‘Up Next’ section will simultaneously shift to in-progress, which the team will then spend their resources on. This way we can keep (re-)prioritizing goals to work on next, making the foundation a lot more agile on leading the way to a universal financial application ecosystem while giving you the most accurate state of development.
The two themes we have set up for launching the new roadmap are listed below, including a description of which type of goals they will include and its bigger thematic goal. The list of themes will change over time as bigger goals get reached, or new themes join the roadmap:
- Protocol Development
- App Development
Protocol Development
Thematic goal: Create an open-source and interoperable financial application blockchain protocol, to be taken advantage of by app developers without permission
The Protocol Development theme will track all development that is currently in-progress (or has been delivered) contributing directly to the protocol of the Request Network. The Request Network protocol will serve as the engine on which the Request Network applications will run. It gives app developers all the decentralized tools needed to build their own financial application without third party permission.
Development made here contributes to the thematic goal, increasing the robustness of the core and extension layers and is carried out by the core development team of the foundation. The development goals which are listed under the Protocol Development theme are focused on:
- Increasing Data Privacy & Security
- Expanding Protocol Extensions & Features
- Enabling Interoperability & Scaling.
App Development
Thematic Goal: Grow adoption, awareness and use of the Request Network ecosystem, by creating applications on top of the protocol.
The App Development theme will track all development that is currently in-progress (or has been delivered) contributing to developing and delivering successful financial applications that leverage the Request Network protocol. To keep it simple, this theme only tracks development made by direct team members and does not show outside community development.
Several app development squads, consisting of a product manager, an agile coach and team members work on an iteration of the use-cases earlier stated in our mind map. These teams will be supported by the foundation through knowledge and operational support, with the goal to become a self sustaining business with a legitimate business model & go-to-market plan.
The development goals that are listed under the App Development theme are currently focused on:
- Delivering the Crowdfunding Application
- Delivering the Payments Application
- Delivering the Accounting Application
The reformed roadmap will always contribute to achieving the long term Request Network Foundation’s mission. We reinvent how we experience payments, rebuild trust and integrity in the financial industry and are at the forefront of financial inclusion. We inspire and educate companies, developers and entrepreneurs to use the Request Network protocol and build an ecosystem of financial applications together that is open source, seamless and interoperable in a more global economy.
The new roadmap will be available and updated on the Request Network Roadmap documentation page.
Sneak preview: Crowd — powered by Request Network
We are happy to show our dedicated community a sneak preview of the Crowdfunding application. When launched, the Crowdfunding dApp provides an easy way to raise funds and/or donations paid with cryptocurrencies. The dApp will allow anyone to set up a crowdfunding campaign that is either campaign-based (within a specific timeframe) or continuous (open until paused).
Built on the Request Network protocol, there are two main advantages of the DApp:
- Raising funds in a decentralized way so that the funds go directly to the organization or the project leader without the need of a third-party.
- Fees are significantly lower compared to those of the current crowdfunding actors.
As talked about in our bi-weekly of April 13th this year, we want to take a role in decentralizing the way crowdfunding works today. We highly encourage anyone to develop their own Crowdfunding solution on the Request Network protocol and apply for the Request Network Fund to get financial support from the Foundation.
The first step to setting up a successful fundraising campaign is deciding how much you need to raise to ensure your project can reach its pre-set targets, setting up how you want to receive funds raised and create a catchy title that triggers the crowd to support your project. We’ve created an easy-to-use landing page for you to create a solid foundation for your fundraiser. These three indicators are what will make or break your campaign if not well thought out in advance.
After successfully setting up the crowdfunding campaign and creating an account to track progress of your funds raised, you can customize your page. On your fundraising page you can fully customize the page to be in line with what you want your crowd to experience. For example: Want to show your brand? Update the profile picture and cover photo to get your brand image seen. Want people to understand why they should support your project? Fill in detailed information to explain.
The crowdfunding page hosts information and creative assets that can be added without needing any experience in coding or web design.
Above is an example of what is possible while setting up your personal crowdfunding campaign using the Request Network Crowdfunding solution. The first version of the Crowdfunding dApp launched soon allows you to raise funds from your crowd in ETH. As we keep developing the product, updates we will focus on to roll out next are:
- ERC20 support
- Customization such as set hard cap, soft cap, start date, end date
- Fundraise tracking dashboard
If you are looking to start your crowdfunding campaign, make sure to sign up to access the Crowdfunding dApp Beta as soon as it launches.
Visit us on http://crowdfunding.request.network
Request Network cooperates with AirSwap
We are happy to announce that we are working together with the AirSwap team to positively impact decentralized marketplaces across the world. Our belief is that the DEX landscape will have a leading role in the forward progression of tokenized asset transfers.
AirSwap is a decentralized global marketplace for Ethereum tokens. The marketplace operates as a searchable bulletin board that uses smart contracts to allow direct peer-to-peer trading of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.
After meeting the team at their beautiful headquarters last week during the New York Blockchain Week and seeing how similar our visions are, cooperating with the AirSwap team is a great way to increase the security of exchanging tokens between two parties, without needing an intermediary or any other third party. Facing similar challenges in the future, we will also be looking into ways to cooperate on the technology side, sharing knowledge and helping accelerate each others development. This relationship helps to solidify the positioning in the American market, giving direct access to the burgeoning hub for financial blockchain innovation — New York City.
The utility token of the Request Network, REQ, is available to trade on the AirSwap platform here.
Want to learn more about the AirSwap? Join their community on Telegram, follow them on Twitter and discover more on their subreddit.
Documentation for the community, by the community.
We have set up the Request Network documentation on GitBook so everyone who creates a Github account can contribute to the creation, addition and rectification of everything that is related to the Request Network.
To decentralize the way we educate the use and understanding of the Request Network, and stimulate developers to collaborate and unify with the foundation, the documentation on GitBook will host all current and future documentation related to the Request Network ecosystem. Alongside technical documentation, docs.request.network will be a perfect place for the wider community to spread knowledge, insights, and platforms used to communicate.
We have started to integrate the Request Network documentation on GitBook ourselves as of last week, but highly encourage you to gather and create additional educational content that is currently missing to make this a knowledge hub for, and by the community.
Discover the Request Network documentation on GitBook here: https://docs.request.network
Javascript Library improvements, API references, standardized format for invoice data
- To be as developer friendly as possible, the Request Network team has spent time on enhancing the Javascript Library. The new Javascript Library is now available for use on Github by anyone, with detailed documentation on how to get started using the library through npm here.
- We now have API references for both the Javascript Library and the Smart Contracts, which can both be found here: https://docs.request.network/development/api-references
- A standardized format for invoice data is now available using the the Request Network protocol, based on learnings from the foundation while researching official invoice specifications. By having this data format standardized, invoices created through the Request Network can now be considered formal and official in the eyes of an auditor and/or accountant. This is an essential step in the acceptance of financial transactions carried out through blockchain technology by the current financial industry. As this is a first version, we invite anyone to investigate and enhance the standard. To get in-depth insights in how this works, please visit the Using Request Network Data Format documentation.
Looking for Product Managers and Back-end Developers
We are scaling the organisation. As many of you have noticed, the Request Network Foundation is now actively looking to onboard multiple Product Managers who will lead the financial applications built on top of the Request Network protocol to success. As mentioned in the new roadmap above, we are scaling the organisation which will create new positions.
We are looking for product managers who have strong interest in managing blockchain technology products. Are you able to work autonomously, do you value integrity and are you excited about building a more efficient financial future through blockchain technology? You might be the product manager we are looking for.
Find the Product Manager description and apply here
We are also actively looking for back-end developers who have a passion for blockchain technology, open-source development, decentralization, security, and testing. Are you excited to create and release blockchain projects and do you have a deep understanding of the blockchain architecture?
Find the Back-end Developer position and apply here
Alongside the Product Manager and Back-end developer positions, we are still actively looking for all talented people that want to bring their unique skill set to the team. Make sure to let us know what your dream job would be at the Request Network Foundation by mailing your resume & motivational letter to join@request.network or find all open positions on our Careers page.
Thank you Josephine Bellini for this amazing crypto art piece
There was no way we could keep this art piece for ourselves. The foundation wants to show a big thank you to Josephine Bellini, the artist behind this amazingly detailed crypto art piece. The artwork below now has its own dedicated spot in our Singapore office. It is again a reminder of how awesome and engaged our community is. Make sure to follow Josephine on Twitter to see discover more crypto art.
