From the Gulden Advisory Board:

PROGRESS ON WITNESS SYNC DEVELOPMENT

Desktop “witness sync” (actually a complete rewrite of how the wallet synchronises, witness sync just being a small part of it) with new 5 phase sync is for the most part done:

1. Downloads first all the checkpoints that are built into the software when it is release, before doing anything else [done]
2. Then in parallel from multiple peers fetches all the headers in a special accelerated process (it had to get these from a single peer previously which slowed the sync a lot) [done]
3. Then determines (via our existing SPV process), which blocks are of interest and fetches only those. This allows for more reliable recovery from phrase and also to see transaction history sooner in the sync process [in progress]
4. Then fetches all the remaining blocks that fall behind the last checkpoint using an accelerated process [done]
5. Then fetches all new blocks since the last checkpoint, using witness sync to speed this up [done]

As seen above, Malcolm is currently only working on the SPV part (at point 3) of the update. This is mostly finished but certain cases require more testing. It is mostly fine tuning in terms of shutting down and starting the wallet during the synchronization process. It is very important that everything is stored on the hard disk and continues in the right place when the wallet is restarted. The only solution to make it go faster is to have more developers. As the only core developer, Malcolm also loses time providing technical support to users with problems and delivering bug fixes in the form of updates to the wallets.

Jos asks if periodically there can be more feedback from the developers about the status of the development of a particular project. Rijk will discuss this.

In addition, the GAB wants to focus on Electron and other visually noticeable developments instead of only developing the core (which mainly takes place in the background and is not visible to users). This would require looking for a frontend developer to help with this. Both Rijk and Malcolm are already looking, without results. In addition, it should be considered how an extra (temporary) developer can be financed.

WHEN WITNESS SYNC IS READY, WHAT TO DEVELOP NEXT?

After discussing the status of witness sync, the meeting continues with a brainstorming session on what can be developed next. Here is a summary of the ideas discussed.

– Expanding witness functionality
With witness, Gulden has something unique, so expanding/developing this functionality will help Gulden distinguish itself from other coins and make it more attractive.
Jos states that the witness and mining components could be even more user-friendly. Rijk agrees and points out that user-friendliness has always been one of the pillars of Gulden. Bart says it would be nice if you could also put Gulden in witness from the mobile wallet (via cloud witnessing G-dash). After all, the more Guldens that are fixed, the scarcer the Gulden becomes. In addition, you should be able to find all kinds of other information easily on your mobile. Think of an overview of the rewards, the duration of the account, etc.
On the other hand, the witness system could also be extended in terms of features. No concrete ideas about new features were put forward during the meeting.

– Expand functionality of the wallet
Robby brings up the expansion of the Gulden wallet. He meant that, for example, other coins such as Bitcoin and Litecoin could also be stored in the Gulden wallet, possibly with the option of exchanging them directly in the wallet via BTC Direct. Most attendees find it a nice idea but it will take time to develop. A few GAB members do not see the use of it. They do not expect that BTC/LTC holders will download the Gulden wallet to store BTC and thus also get into NLG. The general public will want to be able to buy and sell Gulden easily and quickly with euros.

– Tokens
Running Tokens on the Gulden blockchain is a development that has been on the agenda many times and has also been discussed frequently by the previous occupation of the GAB. The GAB is not negative towards other transaction types on the Gulden blockchain but questions whether this should be a priority at this time. Rijk is in favor of only developing tokens on the Gulden blockchain if there is actually a meaningful use case for it, e.g. from the business community. The consensus is that we should not put valuable development time into something for which it remains to be seen whether it will actually be used.

– User-friendliness of wallets
Within the GAB there is a majority support for the idea of further developing the user-friendliness of the Gulden wallets, including the look ‘n’ feel. In other words, making what we have better. This also includes the full rollout of Electron.

GULDEN IMPROVEMENT PROPOSALS

Jos asks if it wouldn’t be a better idea to develop a long-term vision (e.g. for four years) on the direction of Gulden and to communicate it. That would give a better and more stable picture of the direction of Gulden in the longer term. It also prevents us from thinking up development paths and saying we want to carry them out, only for them to gradually fade into the background due to shifting priorities.
At the previous GAB meeting in Amersfoort, Paul already indicated that the development direction of Gulden, just like Bitcoin, should be outlined. Bitcoin does this with BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal). Something similar could be set up for Gulden. A platform where improvement proposals for Gulden can be proposed, discussed and upvoted. Slack is not suitable for this as contributions there disappear after a month. Some GAB members (Martin & Bart) have already set up a platform for this, namely Gulden Improvement Proposals (GIP). It is decided to present this platform soon and to start with a pilot phase to see if it works well. The platform is already available to interested parties at www.guldenip.com.

PIGGY BANK FOR BITVAVO LISTING

Now that Bitvavo has made it clear to the Gulden community that there will be no listing for the time being, there is a lot of discussion in the community about how to spend the saved amount of roughly 1 BTC.
Robby is now successfully running a trading bot developed by Paul on Stex, which has led to a sharp increase in the volume there. Robby proposes to buy one or two listings on smaller exchanges and use them for market making. Rijk proposes to find out which exchanges are in the picture, what a listing will cost and whether the community supports it. All attendees agree. Robby will come back to this. Following on from this, Rijk asks Roy to ask Bittrex about the possibilities of a market making account (without a fee). Roy will discuss this with his contact at Bittrex.
Rijk proposes to keep the saved Bitcoin in portfolio and possibly use it in the future (when BTC is worth more) to buy up and a large sum (millions) of NLG and burn them. This is to contribute to even more scarcity of Gulden. No concrete decision was made during the meeting what to do with the saved Bitcoin and so it will remain in the management of the GAB for the time being. Only when all the options are on the table and the community has spoken will a decision be made on how to spend (part of) the piggy bank.

PRICE

The GAB meeting ended up taking a total of 5.5 hours (spread over two evenings) because there was a lot of discussion about one of the most important issues in the Gulden project: price. Despite the fact that the GAB was initially created to allocate development resources, this topic still comes up often. This is also due to the simple fact that the price has an impact on everything including development. Everything becomes easier if the price is higher. With the higher dev reward, more developers can be hired, more marketing can be done, more listings on major exchanges can be bought, etc. Olivier suggests that this discussion is to be continued in a separate working group set up for this purpose because it is not a task of the GAB. The same applies to the topic of marketing, for example. Both are a responsibility of the community and should therefore be discussed there.

WHAT ELSE CAME TO TABLE

Erik asks Martin what progress he has made with the Woocommerce plugin. There were some problems with WordPress but they have been solved. Martin expects to need another 2-3 weeks.