The recent BSV Blockchain Townhall was hosted on the 25th of January by Brett Banfe, Head of Community. The event is organised quarterly to review recent progress, showcase innovations and set future targets, as Banfe outlined.
The inaugural Town Hall featured presentations from Cyrille Albrecht, Managing Director of BSV Blockchain, a guest presentation by Rafael Jimenez, CTO at HandCash, and further presentations from the team leads of the value streams at the Association:
Jake Jones, Business Programme Manager;
Thomas Giacomo, Utilisation Lead;
Darren Kellenschwiler, Utilisation Technical Team Lead;
Nicolas Wellinger, Outreach: Public Sector Lead;
Bryan Daugherty, Public Outreach;
Siggi Oskarsson, Solution and Enterprise architecture;
Connor Murray, Head of Protocol Stability;
Frank Dickob, Provisioning Lead;
Shawn Ryan, Private Outreach Lead;
Evan Freeman, Education Lead.
The event also featured a short Q&A session, so attendees could ask their questions via chat.
Overview and plans for 2024 by Managing Director Cyrille Albrecht
Cyrille began his presentation by reflecting on the achievements and challenges of 2023 and provided an overview of the upcoming plans for 2024.
He highlighted accomplishments such as progress in strategic projects like Teranode and Stewardship, the development of new products and services, integration into the ecosystem through initiatives like expert groups and slack channels, rebranding to BSV Blockchain, and outreach efforts including private and public sector engagement and education initiatives like courses on the BSV Academy.
Cyrille also acknowledged network challenges and emphasises the importance of standardisation, education, and development tools for the upcoming year.
Guest presentation by Handcash’s Rafa Jimenez on building BSV wallets
Rafa discussed the challenges of building BSV Blockchain wallets at scale, emphasising the lack of clear guidelines or instructions in the Bitcoin white paper for wallet development. He highlighted the absence of detailed instructions beyond references to SPV, and mentions the initial wallet in Bitcoin as more of a proof of concept rather than suitable for production. However, he asserted that Bitcoin is fundamentally software and should be approached as such.
Rafa shared insights based on his team’s experience in developing wallets for over five years, serving over 100,000 users with a daily volume of $100,000. He highlighted the need for wallets to not run Bitcoin nodes due to cost and complexity and instead focus on storing UTXOs, transaction history, and block headers.
Rafa advocates for peer-to-peer communication between wallets to minimise reliance on indexers and outlines two main architectural approaches: client-only and client-server. He compared the two approaches across various factors, including reachability, key management, debuggability, and finding qualified professionals. Rafa concluded by urging adherence to software principles for creating robust and reliable systems.
Wallet infrastructure – current initiatives
Jake Jones expanded on Rafa’s presentation, focusing on the big-picture perspective of wallet infrastructure and the Association’s current initiatives. He discussed the need to separate the functions of the BSV infrastructure, particularly the SV node and the wallet, to improve efficiency and streamline processes.
Jake explained that Teranode aims to split and specialise these functions, allowing different entities to contribute or participate in running them. He emphasised the goal of proving that small transactions with low fees are a viable alternative to larger transactions with high fees, highlighting the importance of overlay networks in facilitating this.
Overlays act as a layer between the node and wallets, allowing for more control and customisation in transaction processing. Jake also touched on the significance of IPv6 in providing larger address spaces and enabling peer-to-peer and indirect communication. He briefly mentioned the use of multicast in reverse content delivery models and concludes by mentioning advancements in identity management through hierarchical key trees and shared secrets in the New Libraries project.
Utilisation: new open source approach
Thomas Giacomo discussed the shift from a monolithic node approach to a novel approach within the Association, emphasising the development of open-source reference implementation wallets aligned with BRC standards. He introduced the SPV wallet as one of the components of the new network topology, aiming to reduce costs for wallet providers by utilising shared open-source components.
Thomas mentioned highlighted the ARC architecture as another key piece, which serves as a replacement for mAPI, with Handcash contributing valuable feedback. The goal is to finalise the beta phase of ARC and release it soon. He also touched on the scope delivery network, starting a proof of concept in Uganda to test the overlay network’s reference implementation. Thomas highlighted the importance of community feedback and collaboration in building developer tools and encourages participation through surveys and communication channels like Discord and Twitter.
Darren Kellenschwiler (aka Deggen) followed up with technical updates on the reference library, focusing on TypeScript and Go implementations. He explained how the library prioritises SPV by allowing transactions to be constructed and validated client-side, enabling devices to verify transactions independently before interacting with the network. Darren mentioned ongoing work on the overlays project, which is still in its early stages but aims to be released in the future.
Public Affairs: Recreating strategy and success from the US in the EU & UK
Nicolas Wellinger gave an overview of the public affairs initiatives, emphasising education and collaboration with the public. The Public Outreach Value Stream aims to expand the success Bryan Daugherty had in the US to other areas, particularly in the EU and in the UK.
He introduced key team members involved in these efforts, including Bryan Daugherty, Marcin Rzetecki, Patrick Prinz, and Sebastian Ploetzeneder, along with their respective support networks. Nicolas highlighted upcoming events like the London Blockchain Conference and partnerships with organisations like Wired for PR support.
Bryan followed up with highlights of the fourth quarter’s successes, focusing on the seven virtues that define the BSV blockchain’s advantages. He discussed market integrity, financial stability, tech efficiency, consumer protection, infrastructure resilience, data integrity, and energy efficiency. Bryan also mentioned upcoming events like Capitol Hill Demo day and the EU sustainability tender where proof-of-work was included, highlighting the importance of showcasing BSV’s capabilities to policymakers and stakeholders.
Teranode Project: Progress and challenges
Siggi Oskarsson provided an update on the Teranode project, highlighting recent progress and addressing some confusion stemming from a CoinDesk article. He explains that “UBSV” was an internal name for the project, not a final product name, and assured that no changes are being made to the Bitcoin protocol.
Siggi mentioned their successful implementation of a node capable of processing a million transactions per second and their ongoing efforts to test it, including some challenges with AWS infrastructure limitations. Despite these challenges, he expresses confidence in overcoming them and proving the viability of Teranode in the coming weeks.
Stewardship Project: Network Access Rules, alert system & protocol restoration
Connor Murray discussed the establishment of a value stream within the Association, focusing on stewardship of the Bitcoin protocol. He outlined three key components:
- Introduction of Network Access Rules: Formerly known as unilateral contracts, this concept outlines terms and conditions for nodes joining the network.
- Implementation of an alert system: Designed to enable direct communication with nodes for updates and safeguarding against malicious activities.
- Protocol restoration efforts: This includes documenting the Bitcoin protocol and planning changes yet to be executed.
These efforts aim to provide clarity and structure to the Bitcoin ecosystem, ensuring its integrity and security. Connor anticipates the release of materials clarifying these initiatives in the near future.
Base Layer Provisioning & technical updates
Frank Dickob provided updates on various technical aspects. He announced the appointment of another Oskarsson brother, Oli Oskarsson, as the Provisioning Value Stream’s new technical lead, emphasising the focus on implementing core network components and ensuring their proper functioning.
Frank mentioned upcoming releases focused on security enhancements and improvements to node documentation. Additionally, he discussed plans for protocol restoration and providing support to miners and other users through channels like Discord. Frank emphasised the importance of network health and outlined efforts to enhance monitoring and transparency regarding network status.
Public Outreach Value Stream: Engagement and successes
Shawn Ryan provided an update on the outreach team’s activities and initiatives. They have been actively participating in conferences and events to engage potential clients and partners. Key highlights included successful engagements at Gitex and a conference in India, where they made significant connections and signed agreements.
The outreach team consists of members covering various regions, with a focus on fostering partnerships and joint ventures. They have been working on restructuring their strategy to target specific industries for adoption and are in negotiations with a new market maker for exchanges. Shawn emphasised the importance of understanding businesses’ requirements and encouraged all to reach out for collaboration opportunities.
BSV Academy: Upcoming initiatives
Evan Freeman, Director of Education of the BSV Academy, provided an overview of recent and upcoming educational initiatives. In Q4 2023, they published a Bitcoin Script course, delving into transaction spending concepts. They initiated university courses in the Philippines and a webinar series on Web3 in sports management.
For 2024, they plan to launch ten more courses, targeting developers, product releases, and decision-makers. Two courses include wallet development and Bitcoin application development. They aim for more collaboration with universities and global tech consulting firms, aiming to elevate BCA’s status and foster adoption.
Request an invitation to the next BSV Townhall
To participate in the next, exciting BSV Townhall event, you can join the BSV Discord or you can email Brett Banfe directly at [email protected]. Thank you.
