A Discussion With the Prolific Bitcoin Developer Unwriter
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A Discussion With the Prolific Bitcoin Developer Unwriter

THELOGICALINDIAN - This anniversary newsBitcoincom batten with one of the best abounding developers alive with the Bitcoin Cash BCH arrangement Over the accomplished few months the developer Unwriter has created a ample bind of censorshipresistant applications that are tethered to the BCH blockchain We absitively to get an central glimpse of all the absorbing platforms Unwriter has been ablution and the programmer tells us why they were conceived and how they accomplish

Also read: No Matter How You Slice It — Token Assets Are Coming to Bitcoin Cash

So far the programmer Unwriter has launched platforms such as Chainfeed, a Twitter bot alleged @_Opreturn, Read.cash, the Bitdb.network, and a few added applications that are accordant with the BCH chain. Moreover, Unwriter has additionally been accommodating with bristles added acclaimed Bitcoin developers and contributed to the alive cardboard alleged ‘The Simple Ledger Protocol,’ a abstraction that aims to actualize adumbrative assets application the Bitcoin Banknote network. With so abounding projects beneath this developer’s belt, we absitively to babble with Unwriter in adjustment to get some angle on some of these different applications.

Unwriter Has Launched a Flurry of Censorship Resistant Applications

News.Bitcoin.com (BC): Can you acquaint us about the aboriginal three applications you created?

Unwriter: Chainfeed.org is the aboriginal appliance I created on BCH. Chainfeed is a web app that delivers the abounding firehose of real-time Bitcoin OP_RETURN transactions. It’s appealing anesthetic to accumulate the armpit accessible and watch as letters breeze in, abnormally now that there’s added array in the types of apps actuality congenital on OP_RETURNs. Immediately afterwards I appear Chainfeed bodies started allurement for an API, and anon I appear the Chainfeed Firehose API. Now anyone with programming abilities could angle into the real-time Bitcoin OP_RETURN augment with aloof a distinct action call.

To authenticate the Chainfeed API I congenital a Twitter bot alleged @_Opreturn. The @_opreturn annual auto-replicates OP_RETURN affairs to Twitter via the Chainfeed API, finer creating a aperture from the Bitcoin apple to the “real world”. Currently, it imports agreeable from Memo.cash, blockpress, and Matter, a long-form blogging apparatus on the blockchain. But it may absorb added apps in the approaching whenever it makes sense, cull requests and suggestions are welcome. It’s open sourced on Github so anyone can aloof angle it and body their own custom bot too.

Read.cash was a activity I spontaneously congenital one afternoon because I bare it myself. A lot of Bitcoin-powered apps nowadays accept their own congenital wallets to accommodate a better user experience. You can see this in apps like Memo.cash and Yours.org. Whenever you accept money through these apps, you end up with abstracted wallets anniversary angry to its ancestor appliance website. As I started arena about with these apps, I acquainted the charge to accumulate clue of all of these wallets in one abode so I accept a absolute appearance of how abundant money I’m authoritative in total. And that’s what Read.cash does. It’s a read-only adviser that aggregates balances from all your wallets beyond the web and lets you accumulate clue of them calmly in one place.

You can add as abounding accessible Bitcoin addresses as you appetite and it doesn’t alike crave you to add any clandestine key or anything, it’s 100 percent powered by accessible bitcoin addresses and the armpit is absolutely accessible antecedent so there’s no aegis risk. Also, with the Money Button integration, you can alike allegation all your wallets in one abode with one click. Some of the approaching improvements would be accumulation Tipbots like Tippr or Chaintip. Currently, they don’t accommodate a accessible admission to user addresses so you can’t add them to Read.cash, but I heard some of them are cerebration about it, so I’m attractive advanced to that day.

BC: Just afresh you launched the Bitdb.network can you acquaint our readers about this activity and what it can do?

Unwriter: Bitdb is a all-around NoSQL database backed by Bitcoin and implemented with MongoDB. Bitcoin’s blockchain is the absolute abstracts anatomy to action as the distinct antecedent of truth, but it’s not at all advised to facilitate adjustable queries. And obviously, this is capital if you appetite to body any adult app. Bitdb complements Bitcoin by demography all the OP_RETURN affairs on Bitcoin and creating a accessible MongoDB basis that makes it hyper-queryable. This way you can body all kinds of apps calmly which acclimated to booty months to body because all you charge to focus on now are the agreement architecture and the frontend implementation. You no best charge to body out your absolute custom backend basement from scratch. For example, I afresh appear a new app alleged https://chaintrend.org – a “Google Trends for Bitcoin op_return”. Something like this would accept taken me weeks to body had I started from scratch, but it took me absolutely one day to body the accomplished affair acknowledgment to Bitdb. It was aloof a amount of a distinct map-reduce concern to the db.

In accession to the affluence of use, a added important account of Bitdb is that it provides a connected way of querying Bitcoin OP_RETURNs, which is article that never existed before. Afore Bitdb if you capital to body an OP_RETURN based application, you would accept had to body an absolute backend basement to crawl, process, index, and abundance OP_RETURNs in your own custom database in a queryable manner. This is absolutely what the Memo.cash aggregation did and it’s a lot of work. Furthermore, this is absolutely bombastic for every developer who wants to assignment on a decentralized app powered by Bitcoin OP_RETURN. They would all end up architecture their own custom basement that are absolutely adverse with one addition alike admitting they’re all architecture on top of absolutely the aforementioned balance — Bitcoin.

This is area Bitdb comes in. It takes all the OP_RETURN messages, chunks them into pieces, and food them beneath attributes with a connected allotment assemblage that goes: “b1”, “b2”, “b3”, etc. There are abounding allowances to this approach:

Here’s a abundant example.  

BC: How do you feel about the bulk of development demography abode with the BCH ecosystem back the May adamantine fork?

Unwriter: Two things:

BC: If there was article specific you capital to add to the abutting adamantine angle what would it be?

Unwriter: To succeed, I anticipate Bitcoin at this date needs to focus on the appliance ecosystem advance instead of its own growth. This is because I accept exponential advance will appear NOT from alone merchant adoptions but from entrepreneurs and developers architecture advantageous things on top of Bitcoin. These bodies are acceptable at creating exponential achievement from beeline input, accordingly are the ones Bitcoin needs to win assurance from if it wants to abound best efficiently. So in my apprehensive opinion, the top antecedence for agreement changes should be the appearance that advance on these fronts — accepting assurance and absorption from entrepreneurs and developers (instead of alone users and merchants). Alone users and merchants will chase back there are added advantageous things they can do with Bitcoin. Until then, individuals will alone see Bitcoin as a abstract asset no amount how abounding buzzwordy appearance it adds. 

And to win assurance from these bodies Bitcoin needs to appearance that it’s scalable, stable, and permissionless. After scalability, it’s not so adorable to these bodies because they would rather absorb their activity architecture things on added platforms that they can account exponentially from. And after the acumen of permissionless addition and stability, astute developers will not appetite to decay their activity architecture being on top of Bitcoin because they don’t appetite to deathwatch up one day to acquisition that the rules of the bold accept afflicted brief and all their accomplishment has gone to waste.

So for example, I anticipate the contempo advertising and conflicts about tokens on BCH is actual advantageous and desirable. ICOs accept acquired a bad acceptability because best of them are scams, but I do accept it is a all-important angry because it will allure the blazon of bodies who are gluttonous exponential growth/returns on their projects and businesses. It will accept been a success alike if 0.01% of them end up acceptable a success and the blow of them are scams or failures. Especially on BCH, back it’s all about scalable usage.

BC: As far as the BCH and BTC animosity is anxious how do you feel about this accountable as far as the approaching is concerned?

Unwriter: We can apprentice a lot from history. I anticipate the French anarchy provides a lot of acumen into the future.

BC: How can added developers advice you with your projects if they capital to coact with you or the new applications you’ve built?

Unwriter: I anticipate the best way to get started is absolutely body your own apps application all the accessible sourced accoutrement such as Chainfeed API and BitDB. There are so abounding air-conditioned things you can body TODAY, alike after active your own bulge but artlessly application BitDB/Chainfeed combination. Eventually, as you alpha application them you will appear beyond affliction credibility and maybe alike advance ideas. Feel chargeless to accomplish suggestions, ask questions, and accelerate cull requests. I’ve done my best to be accessible as abundant as accessible through the buzzer chatroom and Twitter, so ability out anytime.

In fact, all this is already accident organically and it’s amazing. There are some absolutely air-conditioned projects already application the Chainfeed and Bitdb infrastructure. One such archetype is the Chainbet protocol. It uses the Chainfeed API to accord with real-time messaging. Also, the accessible Simple Ledger Agreement will use a different aegis archetypal that takes advantage of both SPVs and BitDB to accompaniment anniversary other. Also, the accepted Memo addendum by Modulus makes use of Chainfeed/Bitdb API. Lastly, I additionally apperceive of a few bodies alive on a Google-like chase agent on top of Bitdb. But these are aloof some of the projects I’m acquainted of, and I’m abiding there are abounding added bodies alive on their air-conditioned projects, would adulation to apprehend from them.

Some bodies are alike bifurcation Bitdb for their own altcoin blockchains and I absolutely animate them. If you’re cerebration of accomplishing this, amuse do so and ability out. The codebase is modular for a acumen so any Bitcoin-like chains can accommodate easily. I booty this abolitionist accessible access because I accept acerb abundant in Bitcoin that I apperceive it can do no abuse but alone accompany good. I additionally accept the best able way for Bitcoin to abound at this date is to accretion as abundant alien developer/entrepreneur mindshare as possible, and interface with as abounding alien technologies as possible.

What do you anticipate about all the applications Unwriter has launched? Let us apperceive what you anticipate in the animadversion area below.

Images via Chainfeed, Read.cash, Bitdb.network, and Twitter. 

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