Introduction
In this blog post, we announce the release of the Request Protocol v2.0 beta, detail the progress that has been made and look at upcoming development.
A little background on Request Protocol v2
V2 of the Request Protocol is the second major iteration on the protocol. While working on the first version of the Request protocol, we realized that important features were missing for the protocol to be adopted and used by real businesses. The release of V2 and further development of this new version addresses these requirements, such as the need for high scalability and data privacy options. V2 was originally introduced in October of last year. The initial release, v2.0-alpha, was shipped in February of this year for internal testing.
Announcing v2.0 beta
Today, v2.0 is ready for testing by everyone on testnet! After having tackled the important feedback raised after testing internally, we now need to challenge the implementation with a broader audience of developers.
During this phase of testing the new protocol, we will make ourselves available to answer all implementation questions on the Request Hub and will continue to improve the documentation.
What is included in the V2.0 beta release?
V2 is a complete redesign of the Request Protocol. The initial release, v2.0, is the core foundation of this redesign and the start of a scalable, secure and privacy compliant way of storing invoices on the blockchain.
Below are the features you can expect to find and test in the v2.0-beta release:
- Storage on IPFS and proof on Ethereum
- Create, retrieve, update (accept, cancel, change amount) requests for payment
- Content data: the standards for the data of the Request Protocol
- BTC payment detection
- Declarative requests: requests without automatic payment detection
- Request node: Web server that accepts transactions and saves them on IPFS while saving proof on Ethereum. The node aims to simplify using the Request Storage layer.
- Request Client js: A web and node.js library to connect to Request Nodes, meant to simplify the use of the protocol.
What is worked on next:
Now v2.0 is in beta for testing purposes, we will work on:
- Requests batching: increase throughput and decrease fees by grouping requests on Ethereum
- ETH payment detection
- ERC20 payment detection
- Encryption: make content in a payment request only accessible to the concerned parties
Additionally, the Request API will be released soon to lower the barrier of entry using v2.0. The API enables developers that don’t have blockchain development experience to access and use the core functionality of the Request network.
What happens to v1 of the protocol?
The v1 smart contracts stay on Ethereum and will remain usable. The v1 library stays on npm and will be minimally maintained.
We will not deprecate V1 until request batching, ETH payment detection and ERC20 payment detection are implemented and operational on v2.0 mainnet.
How to get started:
- Visit the new Documentation page here.
- Check out Request Node and deploy a node in local
- Check out request-client.js and especially test/index.html and start using v2.0!
- If you need help, come find us on the Request Hub
How to contribute and how to report a bug
- Submit an issue to discuss your idea or bug
- Have a look at the contribution guidelines
- Get in touch on the Request hub
