Over the course of the last month, our developers have been hard at work and have made great strides in optimising the Light Wallet and DEX core functionalities.
In addition to this, we have opened up the DEX to sub-testing groups which include 20 members from our Discord who are diligently putting it through the ropes and relaying feedback to us to ensure the DEX is not only optimised but user friendly as well.
What’s Been Happening Recently?
We are now on version 0.2.8.6 of the Light Wallet and over the past month, our developers have accomplished (and not limited to):
- The ability to extend rental channels which allows a user to extend the life of a rented Lightning Channel.
- Fixed issues that reduced performance on Lightning Swaps and prevented some users from trading.
- Fixed issues with invoice generation for refunding DEX trading fees.
- Migrated Lightning Network Transactions to the main wallet page so they are displayed with on-chain transactions.
- Enabled Multi-Path Payments, which allows a user to use their balances which are spread across multiple Lightning channels.
- Improved sync time for Windows wallets.
Check out below for an overview of the Light Wallet and its current features.
Overview
We have completed the core functionalities of the DEX and users are able to send one of the supported currencies to their Light Wallet (LW) and use this to trade on the built-in DEX interface.
What is the Stakenet Wallet?
The Stakenet Light Wallet is a multi-currency wallet that will allow users to store multiple currencies within it, which includes coins and tokens. As it is a light wallet, the user will not need to download the respective chains of the assets they hold within the wallet. These assets held within the wallet, can be traded within the built-in DEX interface.
The Stakenet Light Wallet / DEX is non-custodial, which means that the user is the sole owner of their private keys and has full control over their funds at all times, without any middleman or third party such as a centralised exchange (CEX) to hold their funds as they do peer-to-peer trades.
With this in mind, a user is easily able to recover their wallet and restore their balance on another device through the use of a Seed Phrase. This restores their on-chain balance easily and they are able to restore the funds held off-chain (in their Lightning Network channel) through the Lightning Network backups. No third-party/middleman needed to keep your funds.
How Will The DEX Work?
Initially, the DEX will launch with one hub, and then we will gradually expand the number of hubs that run the DEX. Once we have a network of hubs that can scale with the DEX, we will then seek to migrate the entire network and infrastructure into our XSN Masternode Layer.
This will mean that XSN’s Masternodes will be one massive network of our DEX hubs. These Masternodes would then be able to participate in the fees earned from the DEX hubs, and follow a simple principle that means they have to convert a certain % of the fees collected, to not only buy back XSN but burn a portion of this to reduce global supply and reward the community & network.
Following these rules would allow them to join in on the profits and strength of the XSN DEX hub network, a highly liquid arm of the Lightning Network where our collateral is helping provide liquidity and hubs to specialise in swapping (turning the entire network into a DEX).
We will release complete information of how this architecture will work once we begin migrating the network and infrastructure to the XSN Masternode layer.
Breaking Down Barriers
Using the Lightning Network (LN) to transact upon is always seen as a complicated task and often deters users away from it; however this is no longer the case.
Auto-Pilot Feature
- Within the Stakenet wallet, we have automated the process of opening Lightning Channels to a simple toggle which will allow users to turn the Auto-Pilot feature on or off. Auto-pilot is a fully configurable feature and will allow users to use their desired percentage of their on-chain balance to open their LN channel which they can then use to trade on the DEX interface, rent LN channels in different currencies, or even settle LN invoices.
Channel Renting
- As it stands, users are able to send their chosen LN compatible currency to the Stakenet Wallet and once their LN channel has opened, they can then use this currency to rent a channel in a different currency. This means they can then rent a BTC channel and head over to the DEX interface and trade their chosen currency against BTC.
- It may sound a little technical but it’s really simple and after a slide of a couple toggles and the press of a button, they’ve successfully rented a channel and set to go trade on the DEX. We will simplify this even further for the user where everything will be automated and require very little to no user interaction required.
Lightning Channel Backup
- We’ve integrated measures to ensure that the funds held in LN channels are safe and should something happen to the computer you hold the Stakenet LW on, you can easily recover the funds held in those channels.
- Essentially, when a LN channel is created within your wallet, an automated backup is created for you which you can save in a secure location (such as a USB stick) and use in conjunction with your wallet Seed Phrase to recover the LN funds and bring them back on-chain.
It is important to note that only the user who owns the Seed Phrase under which the LN channel was created, can recover the funds held in that channels backup. This means that if someone gets hold of your LN backup, they cannot recover the funds without knowing the Seed Phrase.
DEX — Trading Interface
We have simplified the DEX User Interface (UI) so it stands out to the user whilst retaining the core components they are used to from a CEX. It’s this familiarity that add to the intuitiveness of using the DEX.
When a user places a trade on the DEX, it feels exactly the same as when they trade on a CEX. The main difference is that behind the scenes, it is two LN swaps between two different users without a middleman holding your funds.
We are continuously working to improve upon the UI layout of the DEX interface to ensure it remains user friendly and easy to use.
DEX Liquidity
We believe that an important part of a good exchange is to have high liquidity and depth on the orderbook.
In order to address this, we have enabled Arbitrage / DEX aggregators which bridge the DEX to other Exchanges (Decentralised and Centralised).
What does this mean exactly? This essentially means we can transfer the liquidity from multiple exchanges into our own DEX and ensure that there will always be orders and orderbook depth for users to trade against.
What’s Next?
We will shortly be running polls on our Twitter account to allow crypto communities to vote on the next LN compatible coins to be added to our DEX so make sure you’re watching our posts!
Is your project a token on the Ethereum chain? That’s not an issue either as our developers will be working on Raiden integration which will allow us to include Ethereum and all Ethereum tokens.
P.S. You’ve made it to the end of the article, keep your eyes peeled as we have a new exchange listing on its way!
For more information, updates, and news follow us on Twitter or join the Stakenet Discord.
