On September 26, the Stratis project announced its Q4 development roadmap, showcasing its ambitious and steady efforts to build a solid C# and .NET based Blockchain-as-a-Service platform for developers.
The roadmap covers several tasks, many of which have only just entered development this quarter.
Noteworthy efforts include smart contracts, sidechains, Breeze protocol (a privacy-enabling feature) and full nodes. These 4 features should be released for production by the end of the year.
Those not aware of what Stratis is may be left wanting as not many details are provided in the update, so we take a look at key items on the Q4 roadmap and what they mean for the future of the project.
The 3 most important upcoming milestones are undoubtedly smart contracts, full nodes and sidechains.
Stratis released an alpha version of smart contracts in May, the first of its kind to be programmable in C#.
As we’ve mentioned before, Stratis is targeting C# developers, who develop software and services for businesses. Having partnered with the likes of C# Corner, a global community with many millions of members, the team’s attention will be on bolstering the Stratis platform and setting it up for widespread use in the next few years.
The autonomous and versatile nature of smart contracts makes it suitable for innumerable industries and use cases and, without it, developers aren’t really making use of the emerging technology’s full potential.
If the team can deliver fully functional smart contracts by the end of the year, then the possibility of C# developers beginning to integrate blockchain services for their clients or employers increases greatly.
Until ICO launch platforms such as Stratis and Waves arrived, fully-compliant and trustworthy ICOs have been difficult to set up, requiring many resources and in-depth knowledge. But ICOs are such an effective way for entities to turn to the masses for funding, and any easing of the process would be of much help.
The Stratis ICO platform is one of the more complete ICO launch platforms available. It distinguishes itself from most of its competitors as it has been developed with accessibility and simplicity in mind — the team wants businesses to be able to jump right in and get going with a few clicks.
As a result, Stratis has already seen a few companies launch ICOs on their platform — at zero cost.
However, the true selling point of Stratis’ ICO platform is its high degree of customizability. It allows for quite a bit of tweaking in the parameters of the launch, such as the specific tokens that can be used to fund the particular project — over 50 of them, in fact. Integration via Onfido also means that KYC and AML services are implemented directly on the platform.
The one-click convenience and deep customization options will be furthered by the release of Stratis sidechains, which lets companies run their own sidechains outside of the main network, and decide block intervals and sizes.
As Stratis CEO Christopher Trew explains:
Sidechains provide a means to quickly provision, sandbox and deploy a bespoke blockchain tailored to specific enterprise processes. Because Stratis sidechains remain linked to the well-established Stratis mainchain, enterprises can be certain their blockchain implementations will continue to benefit from enhancements made by our core team of highly-experienced developers.
Together with cross-chain interoperability and smart contracts, sidechains will give companies a completely independent and fully fleshed out blockchain tool that they can integrate into their services and products.
The ICO platform is also being revamped heavily based on feedback from businesses, which should also enhance its usability.
Stratis made some headlines last month when it announced that Stratis full nodes will be available on Microsoft’s Azure, a move that introduces Bitcoin to the popular cloud service.
Full nodes have been under development for some time, but a production-ready release has been long due. As the production version of full nodes is launched, we should hopefully see more users considering adopting the Stratis network.
Apart from these three major features, Stratis plans updates and improvements to a host of other things on the platform.
Cold staking has been talked about for a while and while it won’t be the most impactful feature, it does give ardent crypto enthusiasts the option of staking their STRAT tokens using a cold wallet.
The Breeze privacy protocol will be implemented on STRAT tokens, and the Breeze wallet will also be updated.
Lastly, the Stratis Academy, launched in June, is being polished to make the educational experience for developers, with the goal of adding content and making it more user-friendly.
The Stratis project has experienced a remarkable 2018, hitting several pivotal milestones, including the release of the alpha version of smart contracts, a privacy protocol called Breeze that was released to the mainnet, sidechains and Stratis Academy.
The team has also explicitly mentioned that they expect to hit more objectives by the end of 2018. Given how much they’ve already accomplished this year, any further major milestones hit only further impresses the diligence with which the team is operating.
The release of smart contracts and sidechains are highly exciting prospects because they give developers tools to work with immediately, which should give us some tangible results as to how the Stratis platform fares.
In any case, whatever the market might say, Stratis investors have a lot to be pleased about — and all credit goes to the team for that.
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