Roadmap 2017 status report! I have to report that things are looking pretty good right now; the implementation of mutex, which was one of the very innovative approaches to Vault 3 and masternodes is a success so far. Also, the patch from Zerocoin which was reported the last time as a fix to a wekness will be implemented using the github merge procedure, so it is no longer an issue.

We also had an issue with block timing, which has been corrected just today; we are currently testing internally the latest daemon to make sure it is running smoothly - last time it was with this testing that we isolated certain problems that we are correcting now.

Another team is working on the GUI interface (the "qt"), and putting together the new visuals for CBXi: no longer gold, we are turning to a "platinum" look - but shhhhh. I will let you discover the rest when the Vault 3.0.0 rolls out.

Still no final date for the alpha testing phase, but it's coming...

The Crypto Bullion Team

Roadmap 2017-2018 status report! Coding a complex masternode coin such as what CBX will be, while meeting some "outside requirements" is never an easy thing.

Things are once again looking a lot better now than at the last post, however.  The hashing issues we were having while wanting to keep the old blockchain were fourfold: to say it in crypto programming terms, they were: transaction offset problem, stake modifier problem, time spacing problem and checkpoint problem. I am being told that these 4 issues have now been addressed, and undergoing testing as we speak.  Looks like we will be able to keep the old blockchain going, and, more importantly, it's not going to cost us too much precious time.

I would like to welcome malafaya to the coding team. While very experienced outside crypto and a longtime fan of Crypto Bullion, malafaya is a programmer who wanted to know more about the intrincasies of crypo coding.  He has accepted to give us a hand with this project, and his contribution can be felt significantly already. Alex4J will continue to be the main coding developer of the Crypto Bullion project.

Good luck with this challenge, malafaya!

The Crypto Bullion Team

Roadmap 2017-2018 status report!

Latest progresses include the following:

- we added the Bootstrap loading tool directly in a Vault menu; also we provided a default-checked option that automatically download the bootstrap upon launching Vault 3 for the first time was added to the installer.

- masternode operations are being tested internally, making sure that no more than 125 BPN's can operate at any time, done through "mutex",

- we are applying final touches to dialog text strings in 4 languages,

- most of the development work is carried out in Linux environment, we still have to succesfully compile the new codebase Vault in Windows/MacOs environments; this is an important next step.

No new major problems have been encountered yet with new codebase, you will see Vault 3.0.0 pop on and off at the blockexplorer as we are testing each new feature.

The Crypto Bullion Team

Roadmap 2017-2018 status report!

Development of Vault 3.0.0 continues, as promised, and as I am always in touch with Cryptopia and our coding team here are the latest developments:

1) After discussing with a few officers from Cryptopia and confirming with them that CBX Vault 3 will not be a swap, we have now 99.5% chance of implementing our desired name change with new logo. I still did not get the final OK however, as we all know Cryptopia's responsiveness has suffered greatly recently. I know my way around with Cryptopia to get things done, just right now they are really swamped.

2) In the previous update, I revealed that we were testing the staking capability of Vault 3; in this test we hit a bug however, our new codebase Vault 3 is somehow infringing one or more rules when attempting to form new blocks, and existing Vault 2.4.3s are rejecting blocks generated by Vault 3. We are conducting extensive tests to find out what rules are being infringed and how to solve this issue.

3) We were able to successfully compile the new Vault 3 code for Windows OS, so this is a major step.

4) Current Vault 2.4.3's loading time has been greatly reduced in Vault 3, using the fastindex function instead of making the Vault extensively recheck things that were checked already, on every launch. Vault 3 launches in under 1 minute now, close to 15 seconds on a SSD drive.

That's it for now, enjoy the rest of the week!

The Crypto Bullion Team

Roadmap 2018 status report!

Good morning fellow Bullionaires; here is a significant step towards the new CBX network, as we had imagined it a while back.

The link to the new codebase Vault 3.0.0 alpha2 is the following: http://node.alex4j.cryptobullion.io/v30/bullion-qt.exe

Important notice: we have been testing internally this new software for two weeks and have not encountered any major issues that would have led us to lose CBX coin, but before you go ahead and use it with your own CBX address it would be important that you backup your wallet.dat file; if you are unsure how to backup that file, please ask.  Wallet.dat files should be backed up periodically with all coins, in any case.

This public alpha test is the occasion to try out the new codebase and give us feedback, if you see anything that could be improved. You may occasionally find references to non-implemented features in the software, we will correct this as we go. 

One major thing we have to warn people about this new codebase is that the new Vault is now able to sync organically, which no Vault has been able to do for some time now; syncing organically takes some time however, so this new Vault has an auto-bootstrap feature to speed up this process. The auto-bootstrap feature still has issues with Windows: we are aware of this problem and will be fixed shortly. Since we still have to apply a bootstrap manually if you don't want to sync organically, here is the link to current updated bootstrap: http://node.alex4j.cryptobullion.io/v30/bootstrap.zip.

This new codebase Vault software is a major step towards our planned roadmap as outlined in the OP of this thread, it does not yet however have the BPN (or masternode) capability. We are still working on our unique approach for CBX masternodes and will have a better idea regarding timing of this development next week.

We are also using this new Vault opportunity to gradually modernize/rebrand our image; you will already be able to see the new name and logo for CBX in this new Vault. Has anyone noticed that Cryptopia has changed "Crypto Bullion" to the new "Bullion" name already?

The Crypto Bullion Team

2018 Roadmap Development Update!

Well, sorry, it has been too long since I posted any new article regarding the current state of BPN development; last week was pretty much taken by this unwanted CBX fork situation, to which I think we responded quickly and efficiently - kudos to Alex4J and Malafaya!

Development for BPN is going well - as you will be able to witness from this very detailed status from our lead coder dev, Alex4J:

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# Where we are now  - After a long investigation, I finally found the issues I was having with regards to coding the upcoming hardfork; as we stand now, I can trigger a hardfork on demand, so this aspect of BPN is stable and repeatable;  - Hardfork and the new versions of blocks used to cause blockchain corruption on disk: this was fixed also;  - I am currently rechecking the validation process of Mutex Blocks with their own new constraints and needs we added, I expect to finish checking this tonight;  - The BPN PoSP Blocks will have their own difficulty system, which is not influenced by the PoSP difficulty, basically CBX wil run like a hybrid coin with PoW and PoS - except now its going to be PoSP and BPN PoSP running side by side;  - New "Keep-Alive" block for the BPN network (basically just PoSP with extra data concerning the Mutex they are maintaining);  - The BPN queue system has been implemented, using the Mutex blocks. Also, invalidation of Mutex if no Keep-Alive are made or if the user is moving his coins [yet to be validated];  - The validation of Mutex Blocks also requires the BPN queue system to work, so again, I expect to finish this tonight (or perhaps a bit later, as I leave this part for polishing soon);  - I started to add specific rules for the wallet BPN address, as the Vault app should not use these coins automatically for live transactions or regular non BPN staking;

# What remains to be done  - BPN PoSP block with its higher pay-rate (basically very simple to do, once the Mutex is fully validated)  - [A bit technical here] Indexations/mapping of all TX's related to a Mutex block or which is keeping alive a Mutex Block or which is generated a BPN PoSP have to be implemented more efficiently on Vault app load  - Few control systems for the Proof Of Mutex to be more reliable (pretty easy to add once mutex block and BPN queue systems are implemented)  - Quit function for BPN (just need to make a TX to an other address from BPN address, not rocket science tho)

# Polishing a few things...  - GUI Interface for when people are creating a BPN  - Most probably things that you will find useful for user experience

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Additionally, here is a quick glance of the new personal yield metrics section we are also working on at the moment:

Thank you for your continued support!

The Crypto Bullion Team

Roadmap 2018 Development Update!

As promised, here is the report about where development of CBX stands at this moment. This report touches essential 2 aspects of software development: the basic Vault 3.0 code and the BPN coding development.

At my last post, I had highlighted the recent issue we had discovered while testing Vault 3.0, the reason for which we needed to compile a new "Alpha 5" version with this issue solved. Well, after some internal testing, it turns out we cannot yet publish the new Alpha 5 Vault for public testing, as we have found more problems that require our attention. This process should not take long as these problems have been clearly identified, so stay tuned for a new Vault 3.0 "alpha 5" in the coming days.

Regarding BPN, Alex4J is currently working on the custom, and distinct, difficulty calculation for the BPN block, which is a distinct value, separate from the main blockchain difficulty, and the validation that goes with it. This means that, if the block bpn is validated and authorized at a given time, a BPN queue client is permitted to generate a block and gain the reward.

A side note to coding development, we invite all Bullionaires to pay a visit to our new, rebranded, CBX Facebook page.

With the new name of CBX, "Bullion", comes a new look and URL for our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bullionCBX/, please pay us a visit and drop us a line!

The Bullion Team

Bullion 2018 Roadmap Update!

Fellow Bullionaires, this has been an extremely long and challenging road, but we are indeed getting very close to our goal of becoming a fully operational masternode cryptocurrency. Need we say again that BPN will be implemented in a way that remains unseen in any crypto; CBX will become a masternode coin, but with very different objectives in mind and an innovative solution to make it work, when compared to current mastenode coins. As a reminder, participants will need 2000 CBX to form a BPN (masternode), and there cannot be more than 125 masternodes at any one time - thus ensuring strong passive income for those who commit to invest. CBX maintains its target low 2% inflation.

As elambert has mentioned very recently, we are currently internally running a low-level test of Vault 4.0, our implementation of BPN. This test will go on for about 2-3 weeks, and necessary fixes will be applied as we go - but at this point we do not anticipate the same level of hurdles we have dealt with before. 

What we have left to do is the GUI (user interface) surrounding this new software, as right now the BPN part of Vault 4.0 only runs on console commands. But Bullionaires do not worry, final product will be easy to use and user-friendly!

Once we have a tested stable software to run the BPN network, we will allow 2 weeks of notice to all so everybody (including exchanges) have time to update to new software. Naturally, installing this new Vault 4.0 software will be a mandatory update as it will only be this Vault that will have the capability of connecting to and parsing the new CBX blockchain.

So we are looking at 4-5 weeks wait until hardfork. More updates to follow soon!

;D ;D ;D

The Bullion Team