On Monday (20 May), the brightest minds pushing forward the boundaries of blockchain development gathered at BSV DevCon 2024. This year’s DevCon took place at the London ExCeL and included presentations from partners including sCrypt, Project Babbage, Gate2Chain, nChain, Handcash, Jungle Bus, and Taal.
Some of the key topics which were discussed included:
- Why the BSV blockchain’s unbounded scalability is the only viable option for enterprise-grade applications.
- How the BSV network works.
- The practical tools you need to start building them.
You can find a more detailed recap of the DevCon and the different presentations below. A full live stream of the event is also available.
Introduction to the BSV Blockchain
- Thomas Giacomo (Director of Utilisation at BSV Blockchain).
- Darren Kellenschwiler (Utilisation Technical Lead at BSV Blockchain)
- Marcin Rzetecki (Technical Outreach Specialist at BSV Blockchain)
Giacomo began the presentation by giving an introductory keynote covering the key BSV blockchain’s capabilities and the developer tools provided by the BSV Blockchain. He noted that the BSV blockchain is unrivalled in speed, security and costs for enterprises and governments. ‘We are redefining scalability, security and efficiency in the blockchain space.
Giacomo also detailed the key features and abilities of the BSV blockchain, including:
- Smart contracts;
- Tokenisation ready;
- Regulatory compliant;
- Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) via the SPV Wallet.
‘We are setting new standards with unbounded block size and an efficient network topology. Users can experience unparalleled scalability with teranode, unbounded block sizes and specialised features on the BSV network allowing for unmatched transaction processing capabilities,’ he said.
Giacomo also detailed how the BSV blockchain is built on a foundation of trust and reliability through proof-of-work and set-in-stone rules. ‘The BSV Blockchain ensures stability via a stable protocol, and UTXO-based token model, ensuring a reliable and tamper-proof system’.
Giacomo also touched on some of the companies, enterprises and governments which are currently working with and building on the BSV blockchain, with some 414 vendors currently working in the ecosystem. This includes 183 application-level solutions in seven sectors across 38 different industries.
As part of his presentation, Giacomo also discussed some of the projects which BSV Blockchain is currently working on and the roadmap for the year ahead. ‘We are championing the shift from Web2 to Web3 with the BSV blockchain,’ he said. Some of the projects planned for the year include:
- One million transactions per second;
- Open-source tooling;
- New standardisation framework;
- A new integration program
- More developers and a better experience.
Kellenschwiler then took to the stage to discuss the current developer journey when using the BSV blockchain and how his team is working to improve this. He acknowledged that there are various pain points when onboarding developers, including educational materials, libraries and lack of knowledge around systems such as overlay networks.
To address these issues, Kellenschwiler detailed the different solutions which his team is working on this year to help alleviate these pain points such as:
- Improvements to core libraries;
- Improving token-specific protocol skills;
- Expanding options around embedded wallets
- Smart contract solutions;
- Expanding blockchain service platforms.
Rzetecki was next on stage to discuss the broader developer ecosystem and the work his team is doing from an outreach point of view. ‘There is no technology platform that has been successful without a strong and large developer ecosystem,’ he said. Some of the ways in which the BSV Blockchain is encouraging more developers within its ecosystem include:
- A developer relationship programme will provide a customised onboarding process for both individual developers and teams;
- This includes mentorship advisory including business and technical mentorship programmes;
- Financial support is available to those teams that offer the most promise;
- Developers can get exclusive Beta access to work with the latest and greatest technology.
Block Dojo presentation
De Cnuydt-Hope’s presentation focused on the work he and his team are doing at Block Dojo which includes seeking out the best early-stage tech start-ups across the world right now. Through its support, network of contacts, and the Dojo programme, Block Dojo accelerates startup development with extensive training, guides them through start-up obstacles and provides access to investment funding rounds.
De Cnuydt-Hope explained that the Dojo Programme is a 12-week intense, in-person, incubator programme. This is further broken down into key segments designed to incubate and accelerate their development rapidly.
An impressive 57 companies have already been incubated through this programme, with Block Dojo planning to ramp up activity within the coming year further, said De Cnuydt-Hope.
Developers or companies who are interested in joining Block Dojo’s programme are encouraged to sign up here.
Smart contracts with sCrypt
Šinkec began his presentation by giving an overview of sCrypt and its capabilities. sCrypt is a high-level programming language for writing smart contracts on the BSV blockchain. It was created to make it easier for developers to write and deploy smart contracts on the BSV blockchain.
sCrypt aims to provide a familiar programming experience similar to mainstream languages like JavaScript, making it more accessible to developers who are not necessarily experts in blockchain or cryptography. Smart contracts written in sCrypt are executed on the BSV blockchain, enabling various use cases such as tokenisation, decentralised finance (DeFi), and more.
The BSV blockchain supports smart contracts with its Forth-like stack-based Script language, but writing smart contracts in native Script is cumbersome and error-prone. sCrypt is designed to facilitate writing complex smart contracts running on-chain.
Smart contracts on the BSV blockchain are meticulously designed to meet the needs of enterprises, institutions, government agencies, and individuals, providing a comprehensive tokenisation solution that emphasises safety and security. While referred to as smart contracts, they are more accurately described as “self-executing digital agreements” rather than legally enforceable contracts.
The implementation of the smart contract protocol on the BSV blockchain is powered by sCrypt, a programming language tailored to ensure the seamless execution of blockchain smart contracts in the digital domain.
Šinkec explained that numerous projects leverage the smart contract functionality provided by the BSV blockchain. These range from accounting and consulting to NFT platforms, entertainment, education, and tools that support individual learning. The BSV blockchain hosts a diverse array of projects that benefit from secure, automated business processes enabled by smart contracts.
Šinkec concluded his presentation by giving technical presentations using sCrypt, including:
- TimeLock Contracts;
- Stateless vs Stateful Contracts;
- Limit orders;
- Loans;
- Bonds;
- Options.
BSV tokens with 1Sat Ordinals
1Sat Ordinals is an implementation of Ordinals running on the BSV blockchain. One of the standout features of 1Sat Ordinals is its cost-effectiveness, needing just one Satoshi in output compared to the original protocol’s minimum of 546 Satoshis. Additionally, 1Sat Ordinals uses a more efficient indexing system, tracking the origin of individual UTXOs instead of global numbers, which enhances performance.
Case began his presentation by explaining how 1SatOrdinals came to be and some of the technical aspects behind ordinals. Ordinal theory concerns itself with satoshis, giving them individual identities and allowing them to be tracked, transferred, and imbued with meaning. Ordinal theory does not require a sidechain or token aside from the original one and can be used without any changes to the BSV blockchain.
Case then discussed how his team is working with sCrypt to empower developers. This integration boosts efficiency while empowering developers to use sCrypt’s layer one smart contract platform for sophisticated token management. By separating token representation from control logic, developers achieve unmatched flexibility, fostering innovation in various fields such as decentralised finance (DeFi) and gaming.
The presentation then closed with a Q&A which discussed some of the applications currently using 1Sat Ordinals, scaling with 1Sat Ordinals, and his team’s future plans.
BSV indexers with JungleBus
Wuckert Jr’s presentation focused on the services offered by his team at GorillaPool as well as its JungleBus service. Wuckert Jr. explained that Jungle Bus aims to provide logical and efficient access to blockchain data, defines logic for different protocols, and offers decentralised data access in a documented manner. In this way, Jungle Bus both simplifies and reduces costs for businesses.
He specifically pointed to how the BSV blockchain and his platform can tackle vast amounts of data and spam. ‘Every day over a trillion megabytes of data is created globally. g, and specifically proof-of-work, was designed to tackle these problems. Bitcoin not only solves the problems of spam but also data integrity and high transaction costs while giving native digital cash to the Internet.
‘We are not focused on just being a significant Bitcoin mining operation. That scape is too small and we don’t see Bitcoin miners as our competition. At scale, our competitors are Google, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.’
GorillaPool’s JungleBus is an indexer that indexes all the transactions on the BSV blockchain. All transactions are parsed and processed into a database, with special indexes created for data transactions.
‘JungleBus uses a proprietary method to index every possible variable and sort them, giving priority to common protocols and serving them via API to paying customers. This is instead of running high-power nodes at a cost of thousands of dollars per month. Clients can query JungleBus for data validation and serve just the data they need at a low cost with guaranteed availability,’ he said.
This approach eliminates the need for running a full node and provides reliable data access with reputation, guarantees, and potential insurance. Wuckert Jr explains that JungleBus is a unique product among mining pools that no competitor offers at the moment. It is a proprietary solution for utilising blockchain data effectively in business operations.
Gaming wallets for developers with HandCash
Jiménez began his presentation by giving an overview of HandCash and how it is geared towards helping developers build a product using the right tools. The HandCash suite of products offers a range of ways to interact with the BSV blockchain, with the HandCash wallet providing a sleek and feature-packed application for end-users. HandCash Connect forms part of this suite of tools and is made up of a set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that developers can use to integrate HandCash wallet functionality into their applications. This allows users to sign in to their HandCash wallet from within third-party apps and perform transactions seamlessly.
Jiménez also detailed the HandCash SDK: HandCash offers a software development kit (SDK) for developers, providing libraries, documentation, and code samples to facilitate the integration of HandCash wallet features into their projects. The SDK helps developers streamline the process of building applications that leverage HandCash’s capabilities.
When deciding to build any new startup Jiménez noted that entrepreneurs primarily need to focus on three key areas:
- Users and a ready market;
- The correct tools and underlying technology;
- Time-to-market and the ability to scale rapidly.
With this focus in mind, Jiménez announced that starting this summer HandCash will offer a USD-backed stablecoin based on the BSV blockchain. His team will also begin offering a ‘wallet-as-a-service’ function so that businesses do not feel like they need to be tied into the ecosystem or long-term contracts.
BSV standards with the BSV Technical Standards Committee
This presentation focused on the work being done by the BSV Blockchain Technical Standards Committee (TSC). The TSC promotes technical excellence and further increases the BSV blockchain’s utility by enhancing interoperability through standardisation, facilitating industry participation in the development of global standards and ensuring technical standards are maintained and freely available.
The TSC provides an out-of-the-box toolset to fuel industry growth through compatibility and interoperability between different businesses.
‘The TSC promotes technical excellence and further increases the BSV blockchain’s utility by enhancing interoperability through standardisation,’ said Brown. ‘We facilitate industry participation in the development of global standards and ensure technical standards are maintained and freely available.’
While standards can be seen as a boring topic, Brown noted that standards are required for any communications, ideas and information and have been used throughout history.
Brown noted that the TSC is a committee which governs the standards within the BSV blockchain ecosystem. He added that these standards are not formed by the TSC itself but come directly from the community which submits its ideas and proposals. There are now some 50 proposals before the TSC which will be debated and considered before implementation.
‘The members of the TSC are nominated to the BSV Executive Committee, with evaluation on technical and business acumen, and appointed for fixed terms. They are volunteers and not employees of the BSV Association. The committee has a mix of technical and quantitative people with business skills and experience working at the industry level,’ he said.
Brown further touched on the governance role of the TSC, including IP protection, accessibility to all developers, encouraging technical debate, and improving transparency.
nChain Product Suite Platform (PSP) demo
Moretti began the presentation by giving an overview of the various ongoing products at nChain and how they utilise the BSV blockchain.‘nChain’s Product Suite Platform (PSP) is a platform supporting the development, deployment and installation of Web3 infrastructure and applications in an easy-to-use manner,’ he said.
Moretti added that the friction of web3 development is impacting developers around the world. There are approximately 27 million global developers, with just 20,000 of these developers working on web3 projects. This is due to several key issues including a growing skill gap, fragmented ecosystems and complex tooling. This needs to change if the technology is to be adopted in earnest, said Moretti.
The PSP solves this problem by acting as a one-stop shop for building web3 applications in a simple way, said Moretti. ‘We remove the complexity from web3 development by creating streamlined, user-friendly and intuitive tools that empower developers,’ he said. ‘nChain’s PSP offers unparalleled flexibility in deployment, ensuring every organisation finds their perfect fit. Users can demo, test and deploy their own web3 applications without having to interact with intermediaries.’
Other unique features which form part of the PSP value proposition include:
- A simplified developer experience;
- Rapid and flexible deployment;
- Digital sovereignty.
A demo system and an overview of the PSP tools can be found here.
Smolenski followed Moretti by giving an overview of nChain Sign. is a digital signature solution that creates tamper-proof, secure and transparent verification of documents. It does this by utilising the unique benefits of the BSV blockchain to provide a secure, immutable, and transparent method for signing and verifying documents.
nChain Sign is designed to offer individuals and organisations the ability to execute signatures on digital documents with the assurance that once a document is signed, it cannot be altered without detection. This aligns with the principles of web3 and Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), emphasising user empowerment.
Technical breakthroughs in the Bitcoin CPU solving multi-stage contracts and general computation
Everett began his presentation by discussing some of the issues with multistage contracts and how this can be addressed through Solver’s Bond and State Resets. He explained that multi-stage contracts involve complex sequences of transactions. However, malicious actors can broadcast partial solutions, making future solutions untenable.’
The solution to this is a combination of a Solver’s Bond and State Resets, said Everett. ‘Solvers put up money when they have the solution. A timer is then started and they describe their solution across many transactions. If the timer expires before conditions are met, the bounty is forfeited and the state is reset,’ he said,
While this is largely a theoretical consideration it has many real-world implications, explained Everett. This includes people who want real-time data sources that might impact a contract as solutions are being found and worked on.
Other possible use cases include:
- People who don’t know exactly how many steps might be involved in finding the best solution to their problem;
- People who want custom sequences of steps or dynamic solutions to generalised computational problems;
- People who want to make simulated universes that model their problems and rules for checking solutions.
Everett then gave an overview of designing a Bitcoin CPU architecture, which includes four registers, a stack and a heap. He then gave a demonstration of how exactly the CPU would work and how it would address the issues of multi-stage contracts as above.
Other implications for this CPU include:
- Unlimited heap and stack memory;
- Dynamic sizes for all memory elements;
- Anyone can do memory-mapped I/O;
- Everett ISA and assembly language.
- Easy to build compilers for any language.
Explorer services with WhatsOnChain
WhatsOnChain provides access to BSV blockchain blocks, transactions, address activity, on-chain data, stats, insights, and much more via a simple API. ‘WhatsOnChain provides an unbiased view of the blockchain by using independent infrastructure,’ explained Hanzevacki. ‘The statistics dashboard shows the status of the network in the last 24 hours, updating every few seconds, allowing users to dive deeper with dedicated metric pages.’
Hanzevacki also detailed the WhatsOnChain Plugins Platform which allows users to extend their experience by supporting transaction-level and output-level plugins. He added that the platform allows users to publish their plugin or keep it private, with easy-to-build functionality.
Hanzevacki also detailed his team’s efforts to replace ElectrumX by developing the UTXO store. ‘This is an in-house solution that scales beyond the capabilities of ElectrumX together with the growth of the BSV network,’ he said. ‘This is already being used by big wallets and other apps to power their systems.’
Hanzevacki finished his presentation by discussing API pricing and community resources. You can learn more about WhatsOnChain here.
Development suite with Gate2Chain
Gate2Chain offers developer tools and APIs for integrating their blockchain solutions into existing systems or developing custom applications tailored to specific supply chain needs.
Its goal is turning company data into evidence and facilitating the integration of integrity layers with existing systems.
It does this by removing the friction associated with the base layer protocol and reducing the development costs and time to market. The G2C Development Suite allows you to connect new or existing apps, websites, games, or any other system to the BSV blockchain.
Some of the key features include:
- Wallet infrastructure: This includes complete white-label non-custodial wallets in your apps and Hierarchical Deterministic Keys (HD Wallets) for enhanced privacy, UTXO management, digital signatures, data encryption and access permission management.
- Direct and conditional payment: Once users have wallets, they can use peer-to-peer direct and conditional payment functions. This includes the easy creation of configurable escrow accounts with programmable payments.
- Payment channels: The G2C Suite allows for the opening of payment channels between users, allowing developers to build apps with totally new features such as pay-per-minute services and real-time auctions.
- Data integrity and storage: The G2C Suite uses metanet trees to organise your information in a structured way on the BSV blockchain.
- Digital assets and tokenisation: The G2C Suite infrastructure allows users to legally issue and manage unique digital assets on the BSV blockchain. This includes everything from tickets to securities, and redeemable products and services.
Gate2Chain also showed off its Trace platform which allows users to create digital twins for any product and track them across the entire supply and distribution chain. Trace, leveraging the BSV blockchain, eliminates the need for native tokens, miner fees, and the typical volatility encountered with blockchain technology. With the Trace platform, users can generate a digital twin, akin to a token, for any object and securely store essential data within it.
The presence of a digital twin enables the electronic management of physical objects, ensuring transparency for all participants within the supply chain.
Finally, Gate2Chain showcased its digital passport features which allow governments and businesses to manage certificates, invoices, diplomas, and any other kind of document that can be time-stamped to ensure data integrity.
Developer courses with BSV Academy
- Kevin Healy (Content Specialist at BSV Blockchain)
- Todd Price (Curriculum Specialist at BSV Blockchain)
The BSV Academy has curated a range of educational information and resources to establish a complete curriculum, from which training modules and courses have been developed to best serve the needs of the BSV community. Healy began the presentation by giving an overview of some of the topics and courses which are offered by BSV Academy including:
- Micropayments;
- Timestamping;
- Programmable money;
- Optimisation problems;
- Directed Acyclic Graphs and associated structures.
Price then gave an overview of different transaction structures including an explanation of several complex concepts including:
- Coinbase transactions;
- nLockTime transactions;
- lockScripts and unlockScripts;
- Output and input structures;
- Block headers.
The BSV Academy is an online education platform focusing on BSV and blockchain which offers academia-quality, university-style courses and learning materials categorised under Theory, Development, Infrastructure and Enterprise, in addition to several short courses covering specific concepts and content in more detail.
TAAL’s ARC services
Boeckli began his presentation by discussing ARC and how it connects to mAPI.
‘ARC is a transaction processor that keeps track of the lifecycle of a transaction as it is processed by the BSV network. Originally ARC was planned as a replacement for mAPI. Later it morphed into one of the key components of the BSV network topology,’ he said.
ARC is designed to connect to every mining node on the network and includes peering logic, retry logic for transaction tracking, transaction validation, and an API for clients. It also calculates Merkle paths for broadcasted transactions.
ARC’s microservices include the API server, validator (with the ability to scale for increased workload), metamorph for managing changing transaction statuses, and a peer manager to handle connections. Additionally, ARC stores a new format of blocks containing transaction IDs rather than full transaction data.
Boeckli noted that TAAL operates ARC on Kubernetes with a focus on high scalability – another key advantage over mAPI. Notably, ARC doesn’t encounter the same challenges as mAPI because it can scale to meet increased demand by deploying multiple Metamorph instances.
Although the BSV network might face delays in reaching consensus and confirming transactions into blocks, ARC consistently manages the status of these transactions. Even during heavy load, a transaction might remain in the “announced on the network” status for hours, but it will eventually be mined and its status updated.
Unlike mAPI, ARC takes care of the retry logic and the complexities of the peer-to-peer network for applications. This delegation of responsibilities allows applications to function smoothly without dealing with these complexities, enhancing the user experience.
You can find out more about ARC here.
Introducing the Mandala upgrade and the BSV blockchain roadmap
- Thomas Giacomo (Director of Utilisation at BSV Blockchain).
- Darren Kellenschwiler (Utilisation Technical Lead at BSV Blockchain)
- Jake Jones (Head of Infrastructure at BSV Blockchain)
In the penultimate presentation of the day, Giacomo, Kellenschwiler and Jones provided an update about the upcoming Mandala upgrade, developer tools and open-source roadmap.
The Mandala upgrade broadly consists of three key components:
- Teranode: Teranode stands at the centre of the new upgrade and is responsible for keeping a global record while dealing with standardised transactions and high throughput capacity.
- Overlays: Overlays allow the distribution of that demand across many services as well as the empowerment of individuals having ownership and agency over their own identity and personal information. This distribution of agency and demand with the ability to granularly purchase only what’s needed works together to minimise waste and provide superior service and superior quality products When you only pay for what you need, only what you need is manufactured and sold.
- SPV Wallet: The open-source reference implementation SPV Wallet clarifies the state-of-the-art technical architecture of BSV wallets through its open-source, non-custodial framework, enabling seamless transaction verification and management at significantly reduced costs. Designed for exchanges, wallet providers and businesses running BSV applications, it offers a reference implementation of simplified payment verification (SPV, section 8 of the Bitcoin white paper) for enhanced efficiency and security.
Giacomo explained that the Mandala upgrade will fully unlock the BSV blockchain allowing it to dynamically scale at an exponential rate so it’s ready to meet the growing demand for trusted data. A Mandala network is a network that forms recursively from an unbounded number of smaller networks of the same form as itself. It uses a base topology that can be stacked on top of itself allowing the network to dynamically grow and contract based on need or resource availability.
As this P2P topology gets stacked as a result of more complex and frequent interactions like what you would see in an app for example, the pattern becomes more complex and that forms another layer of the network. Kellenschwiler explained that SPV Wallets are the base P2P layer at the edges of the network, overlay services form the more complex centre that is a coalescence of P2P transactions from SPV Wallets, and the network of nodes and specialised nodes that will run Teranode from the complex centre of the mandala network.
BSV blockchain’s Mandala upgrade is the network topology change from a web2 client-server approach where nodes were responsible for all functions of network operation including data storage and access, in addition to their proscribed function of block ordering and transaction timestamping and ordering. With the Mandala upgrade, nodes are free to focus on being nodes with all other functionality being pushed out to an overlay service layer and wallets.
You can find out more about the Mandala upgrade here.
The BSV blockchain, with Teranode at its core, will be the backbone infrastructure for a global system of multiple specialised overlay networks. BSV Blockchain is planning for specialised nodes to complement the core services provided by miners running Teranode.
Dedicated overlay networks operated by enterprise infrastructure providers will communicate with the network core. End-user applications will leverage SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) to interact within the Overlay Network.
Below is the BSV Blockchain’s planned roadmap for 2024, with a focus on Network Topology, Protocol Stewardship, and Marketing & Education.
One million transactions per second on a layer-1 blockchain with Teranode
In the final presentation of the day, Siggi Oskarsson discussed the unrivalled scalability that is offered by Teranode. He kicked off the presentation with a simple statement:
‘By the time you have read this slide, Teranode has processed 15 million transactions’.
Oskarsson then provided some of the more technical details about how this is possible and his team’s plans for the future. In January, the BSV Blockchain R&D team announced groundbreaking features for Teranode that will significantly boost network efficiency and speed, pushing BSV’s capabilities to one million transactions per second in the not-too-distant future.
Such technological leaps will enable mass transactions on blockchain-based infrastructure, supporting data processing on an unprecedented scale, at a fraction of traditional costs, while laying the foundation for a more secure financial ecosystem.
Teranode solves vertical scaling challenges on the BSV blockchain by serving high-volume transaction nodes for enterprise and government use. Whether contracting with nodes or running their own, these clients drive the Teranode initiative.
Teranode was recently extended and sustained testing on a Proof of Concept implementation began at the end of February, with a full node release later in 2024. This is a ground-up rewrite of the BSV blockchain architecture, designed to scale horizontally and provide new microservices for developers, applications, and users.
Protocol custodian BSV Blockchain revealed a more service-oriented approach to the network’s work. The new features include ‘modularised’ functions such as transaction and block validation, plus block assembly into services that run only when required.
The Teranode upgrade is critical for the BSV blockchain’s unbounded scaling potential and will deliver faster, more secure and cheaper transactions for all.
