Disclosure: I own stake in a variety of the assets related to Supernet projects.
Soft launch of the Supernet v0 wallet was announced November 14th by James on the Slack channels with a cheerful:
“Supernet v0 launched yesterday, took everyone by surprise. gotta love decentralization :)” -JL777
Users of the Supernet may now withdraw Bitcoin, Litecoin, Peercoin and NXT directly out to Visa and Mastercards around the globe! Payouts are done in US dollars and local banks set fiat exchange rate. This is a server provided by Coinomat.
Users can also be relieved to trade on the first live decentralized crypto currency exchange!
The software is available for download at the Multigateway website and functions similar to the NXT wallet client, with the exception of some Supernet magic.
The Multigateway (MGW) is not only safer, but it may also be the cheapest. It charges no deposit fees and the withdrawal fees equal the minimum transaction fee per coin. Currently, users must convert their coin manually, be it Blackcoin or Dogecoin to NXT, in order to transfer to another crypto coin. But will soon change with InstantDEX which expected to allow 3 second or less conversions, programmable trade bots and much more!
Investors can invest in MGW, but the real ROI is expected from InstantDEX which will have competitive fee and leverage MGW’s minimal fees and tech.
Under the hood
MGW works by creating assets on top of NXT’s long standing decentralized asset exchange.
Coin assets such as mgwBTC are traded for deposits of Bitcoin, Blackcoin, Viacoin, etc. at a ratio of 1 to 1. MGW is a full reserve, decentralized exchange with live proof of solvency!
Deposited crypto currencies are stored on server clusters of 3. These are secured through multisignature transactions, where 2 out of 3 servers must agree for withdraws to occur.
Each server is monitored and secured by an independent party, partnered up with the Supernet.
The number of Multisignature parties is not limited by MGW, but by the the Bitcoin protocol.
According to JL777, core Bitcoin devs have coded multisignature transactions beyond m of 3 as non standard. This means miners and nodes need to compile these manually or enable this feature on their own accord, which most don’t. It is not enabled by default. This may be driven by concerns of blockchain bloating.
Because of this, it takes a long time for greater multisig transactions to be confirmed by the BTC network, which would not allow MGW to operate properly and would be the end of InstantDEX. If this was to change or if coins that have solved this problem were to join the MGW then further distributed clusters could be set up, and the possible combinations are stellar.
Though going from 1 out of 1 one key or a central trusted party, to 2 out of 3 may seem like not that much of a change, it is actually massive. Its the difference between a central point of failure and a network. It is perhaps the simplest differentiation between a centralized and decentralized model. However, collusion among parties is still a concern, which is why reputation may be essential to this experiment of multi signatures.
With that in mind, I will highlight the core parties that have stepped up to secure the core MGW cluster as of time of publishing.
MGW clusters
There are two MGW clusters. MGW#0 controls BTC, LTC, DRK, BTCD and VRC coins. This is the main Supernet cluster and is secured by Coinomat, MyNXT.info team and Frohike.
Coinomat is an automatic crypto coin and fiat exchange that serves as a gateway from Visa and Mastercard to crypto currencies. It also provides instant conversions among various crypto currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Peercoin.
The second key holder of MGW#0 is MyNXT.info “a group of 15 people between investors, advisors, developers and designers,” says abuelau, a Sr. Member of the NXT community, early adopter, and member of the team. MyNXT.info is an NXT blockchain explorer, mobile wallet and web advertizment agency, fully powered by NXT.
MyNXT were motivated to join “after we saw the hacks on MtGox and Bter,” said abuelau, adding: “Every time I need to exchange NXT or other coins I am nervous with the possibility of losing my coins while they are at the exchange, so anything that helps make it more secure is welcome.”
Frohike is “a German unix server administrator. He specializes in server hardening and security. He’s been involved since June in the team… working with James and recently he joined SuperNET as server admin for the forum and websites,” said VanBreuk, Hero Member of the NXT community and general manager of the MGW development process.
I reached out to Frohike for comment but he did not reply but publishing time.
Unlike cluster number two, live proof of solvency for MGW#0 is not active yet, since they are migrating coins and assets to production servers. The website and api for this monitoring is expected to be available, soon according to VanBreuk.
The second cluster called MGW#2 is responsible for controlling Blackcoin, Viacoin and Dogecoin!
This one is secured by Cobaltsky, Hero Member of the NXT community, artist and developer. Along side Marcus03 Sr. Member who is also developing an NXT mobile wallet and Jeffdiesel, also a Hero Member.
Live proof of solvency for MGW#1 can be currently found here.
For more information on the progress of MGW clusters, follow the main NXT thread.
Decentralizing everything
Anyone can set up their own MGW cluster, as you would expect from a community focused on decentralization. However, for the time being, interested parties must reach out to JL777 or other core Supernet developers to be given access to the private repo. This might change in the future after the main development is finished.
Coin developers, businesses and individuals interested in joining the Supernet are welcome to reach out at the Supernet forums publicly or contact JL777 directly through a private message.
More blockchain technologies wanted!
The Supernet is putting out a call for innovative and active crypto coin communities. Its very difficult to be noticed and compete as a crypto coin these days; there’s over 500 coins on coinmarketcap and great coins may be getting lost among the masses.
The Supernet has some general standards by which to review coins. A solid answer to the question “What value can your crypto coin tech bring to customers?” may be all you need to join.
NXT Phasing
Keep in mind, however, that MGW is still in its beta stages. Compared to 1 out of 1 cold storage solutions for the average exchanges, or deposit accounts for bank like crypto coin organizations, MGW is many times more decentralized, both for its trading platform and its distributed multisignature servers.
However, until NXT releases its “Phased transactoins” feature, the NXT asset side of things will not support multisignature. This means that the coin assets that mirror each crypto coin are controlled manually and could be exploited by dumping them on the market.
MGW beta will end when phasing is live on the NXT network. Until than, each MGW key holder is responsible for a third of a hot wallet with relevant coin assets. The amount of coin assets on the hot wallet are the average expected volume per coin.
The remaining ‘unbound’ assets, which are not expected to be traded for the crypto currencies yet are currently being held in escrow by anon136’s renown escrow services.
Its time to take distributed finance to the next level, and the Supernet’s Multigateway has just raised the bar.
Worth a Tip? NXT-UWQK-YZ7T-GDS6-GMW8P
