Can Bitwasp Make a Comeback? Maybe.
Posted by: DeepDotWeb
March 26, 2015
Brought to our attention by Fred Rico – Computer Engineering Graduate from Europe currently working in the computer industry, who took the project of resurrecting Bitwasp (Open source marketplace software designed to use Bitcoin which was used by several failed markets over the past year):
Warning: Do NOT use any current version of Bitwasp to a live market – you WILL get hacked and lost all your BTC, as he have seen many times before.
In recent days the news of yet another marketplace or exchange losing millions of dollars worth of users Bitcoins catapults Bitcoins into the mass media yet again for the wrong reasons.
Since its peak in December 2013 at $1240 Bitcoin currently languishes at the lowly $240. Since those heady days countless Bitcoin exchanges have been hacked, numerous Bitcoin marketplaces have gone suddenly offline.
Each time Bitcoin hits the news headlines for the wrong reasons and people lose millions from theft the faith, the high hopes and expectation that captured the medias attention in 2013 that a cryptocurrency is game changing and revolutionary lessen.
When I first read in Forbes, BBC News and countless other outlets of the Bit-Wasp project and its attempt to create a free, open and secure marketplace i read on.
It was the desire to implement Multi-Sig Transaction Security into this free software that truly made me excited about the Bit-Wasp Project and its potential. Today far too many marketplaces , exchanges rely on a wallet.
As with any project that relies on one developer to devote all their time is impractical. With the lead developer’s workload Bit-Wasp is now dormant with many claiming it to be dead.
As a result several members of the Bit-Wasp forums have taken the practical steps to help out and attempt to resolve the current issues/bugs in the Bit-Wasp code in order to deliver an initial Beta release.
The currently group is comprised of myself Fred Rico (Computer Engineering Graduate from Europe currently working in the computer industry) and several Bit-Wasp ran site owners.
The current challenge for us is to identify as many of the bugs/issues and security holes as possible and this requires as many people as possible to test, identify and highlight these current issues to the team.
Q: So you guys continuing the project is not something “official” but a private initiative?
It started an something not official, but we now have Cameron (Bitwasp founder) on board who is contributing from a functional side and that should fit into his work schedule.
Q: Have you completed any work on Bitwasp so far?
So far our aim is to identify the major issues and draw up a roadmap. At this moment in time we are working to make the whole Bit-Wasp code cleaner, make it easier to install as we believe the more people who install it the more interest it will generate. We also have a issue to do with BIP32 which we are resolving. Other than that we are encouraging people to test, test and do more testing in order to help highlight issues and bugs.
Q: How long do you think it will be before we could try a fully functional new-bitwasp version?
Our hope is that within 90 days we should have fixed the 3 significant issues and hopefully have made it easier to install. Any other issues will have to be dealt with when we get to them.
Q: How is this project being funded?
The project at the moment is self funded ( myself coding and the other guys helping with ideas , testing etc). Our proposal is that after we have reached june target date and completed the items mention above , we can then start to ask for financial contributions. Myself I have a full time job so this is more of a side project.
Q: Anything else you want add or request from our readers that might help your progress with resurrecting bitwasp?
Nothing else required other than people to test and help us identify issues and make the software better. As I mentioned in the initial , without something secure that builds confidence bitcoin is never going to be taken serious.
Updated: 2015-03-26