ARK, often known as the “WordPress of blockchain” in that it makes blockchain accessible and easy to build on for novice developers, seeks to create a massive web of interconnected blockchains and dapps.
Pretty ambitious, given the scope and diversity of the sphere, but ARK is certainly making strides forward.
June was a busy month for ARK, with comings and goings of team members, sponsoring a summit, and their overarching dedication to the release of ARK Core v2.
Goodbye, Jeremy Epstein
First of all, there has been a shakeup to the ARK team, with marketing Advisor Jeremy Epstein reaching the end of his 6-month contract. Epstein is the CEO of blockchain marketing company Never Stop Marketing, and has a good 20 years of marketing and advisory experience under his belt.
He has also worked as an advisor for other blockchain startups, including IOTA and Zcash, and his expertise has been invaluable in helping ARK strategize and communicate what they have to offer the market. Following Epstein’s lead, ARK will see a massive push of articles, podcasts, interviews, and other media with regards to the unveiling of Core v2.
New ARK Core Commander
In the build-up to Core v2, the ARK team did a complete rewrite of Core Commander, so the two can be launched simultaneously.
The Core Commander is a shell script that provides ARK node operators with easy installation, configuration, monitoring, and other functions. The new Core Commander allows developers to run the basics of Core v2 by writing a single command, as opposed to going through each command manually.
The new version will also have a similar modular structure to Core v2, making the code easy to search.
Check out Ark’s blog for a walkthrough of how to install and start using the new version of the Core Commander, as well as a breakdown of each of the commands.
You can go to the following Github repository link to get started: https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/core-commander
ARK is also welcoming any critiques or reports of bugs and glitches, so this could be your chance to contribute to the community!
ARK Docs: All Essential References in One Place
In recent weeks, the ARK team and community have been curating and compiling a collection of documentation, references, and other resources that cover the entire ARK ecosystem. Now, with the debut of ARK Docs, users have an easily searchable archive of all their essential docs right at their fingertips.
Documents are made available to both community members and developers, and these will include articles, guides, FAQs, references with regards to the new plugin system s.
The ARK Library is divided into 4 categories:
- Documentation – guides, articles, and other references
- APIs – subcategories will include API 1.0 and 2.0, JSON-RPC, webhooks, and SDKs
- FAQs – frequently asked questions ARK receives via email, Slack, and social media
- Community discussions – a compilation of forums and discussions with regards to questions about ARK, which will expand into an in-depth knowledge base
ARK Docs will also include a feature to search by keywords, as well as the chance to give back to the ARK community by submitting edits, suggestions, or other feedback. As ARK Docs is still in its genesis, the team welcomes any help from their community to improve this valuable feature.
The Launch of ARK Core v2
Without a doubt the biggest Ark news in June was the launch of the public, open-source ARK Core v2, the long-awaited overhaul of the original ARK Core node. If you check out their blog post on June 14 announcing the launch, the team’s pride and excitement in this milestone is plain to see.
To sum up, the team spent many sleepless nights rewriting the codebase to be more scalable and efficient for its purpose of supporting new features in the upcoming v2.1. To put it into perspective, v2 involves 600,000+ lines of code (including deleted code), 74,500+ lines of code currently in Core v2, 770+ files in Core v2, and 2,950+ commits.
And while developers have put in countless hours testing Core v2, ARK welcomes community members to try it out, experiment with its features, and get back to them with any feedback or debugging you may have.
Get started by downloading Core v2 here.
What’s more, ARK is offering a bounty program on the Core v2 repo that will pay x2 for each code-related merged PR on ARK Core repository on top of other standard rewards. Not only is this an opportunity to make some extra cash, but you’ll also be contributing to the betterment of the ARK ecosystem.
Find out more about the ARK bounty program here.
ARK Sponsoring Korea Blockchain Summit
The ARK team is stoked to be heading to Seoul in July for the Korea Blockchain Summit.
This summit will include panel discussions, case studies, and technical forums between over 500 experts in the blockchain space, with 1,000 blockchain devotees in attendance. By all accounts, it should be an enlightening day, full of keynotes, fireside chats, and networking between industry enthusiasts from all corners of the globe.
Representing the ARK team, the ARK booth will be manned by co-founders Travis Walker, Chin Song, and Scott McPherson, as well as developer Simon Downey.
The summit will take place on July 12-13, 2018. If you’re interested in dropping by to say hello, you can register at the KBS website.
ARK Desktop Wallet Update
A final achievement ARK met before June’s close was their update of their desktop wallet to 1.6.0. Excitingly, this is expected to be one of the last 1.x updates before the anticipated release of v2.
1.6.0 of the ARK desktop wallet includes plenty of improved features since their last update, 5 months ago, which include:
- Changelly integration, which makes it easier to buy ARK through your wallet via credit card or by exchanging other coins
- Ability to send ARK to up to 10 different addresses in one transaction (standard fees are still incurred per transaction)
- Function for importing/generating BIP39 compatible passphrases in 7 different languages
1.6.0 also includes various enhancements and bug fixes that will streamline the service for users, including various improvements to the UI, a cleaning up of faulty translations, and providing error messages when a transaction doesn’t go through.
Check out the wallet’s new features and play around with it for yourself by downloading v1.6.0 here.
Related: Should You Invest In Ark? (Opinion)
