[12/10] #7 Development Update on Verge - Android Redesign, TOR, iOS and Multi-Language

TOR layer One of the most user friendly upgrades besides the design, is the integration of the TOR client as a built-in component of the Android Wallet, which translated means that Orbot, as useful as it is, is no longer required. This means our Android app stands alone! * previously we depended on Orbot for the Wallet to work through TOR. Check them out for your other privacy needs! The integration was made possible thanks to the rework by Tom Bailey on the Tor Onion Proxy Library (link to the GitHub repository here) which allows to easily set up a connection to the TOR network. Refer to the GitHub repository for more insight! General development status Since the Android wallet is in an early development stage, we have not set up any milestones, and as such is not open for contribution. We will create the guidelines, and then we can open it for contribution.  Nevertheless here is a summary of the current development status. None of these points are in any particular order and if you notice something is missing, it is because we haven’t worked on it yet. Wallet first launch/setup process : done Main wallet view : in progress Transaction views : not begun yet Receive funds view : done Send view : in progress. QR Code reading is missing as well as confirmation Pin view : done, custom design still missing Biometrics : not begun yet Settings View : in progress Tor integration : done. Needs further development like disabling on user demand Integration with blockchain : In progress. The JavaInsightClient will be used for this purpose Verge iOS Wallet: Ongoing process Swen has set up a milestone for the development progress of the upcoming iOS wallet. The goal is to work up to a Beta 1 status as soon as possible. The milestone now contains global features, issues to tackle and the previously shared features. The milestone can still be adjusted with other issues and features if they are needed for a basic working Beta product. Tor Integration One of those issues to be solved was the Tor integration. As you might remember that we said Tor was integrated a while ago. A while later we discovered it had a serious issue which caused the application to crash and forced an application restart. Well we’ve had a very thorough look at the integration and fixed the big issues! The application doesn’t need crash and restart; only sometimes, Tor might need a manual restart within the app. As we strongly encourage to use TOR (to hide your IP address) it is turned on by default, but as always you have the possibility to turn it off and connected to the public internet. (clear-net) We created a map which shows you what the outside world can see based on your IP. You can also see the status of the Tor connection as a lock icon at the top. If you see a red eye, it shows you that your transactions are public (clear-net). Who will be Beta testing? We have decided that a set of random 20 followers of the following twitter handles: Swen, Marvin, Verge Currency or myself (Manuel) will be asked to join the beta program when it is released. So follow all of us to increase your chances to become a BETA tester! Furthermore to take part in the beta program, you will need to have an Apple iOS device running iOS 11.4 or higher, and download the TestFlight application on the AppStore. After this we will need to add you to Apple’s website :App Store Connect; don’t worry about it right now. We will provide you with more details when the time comes; as we don’t know when we reach the milestone yet! Stealth addressing As for the future development of our wallet services, we plan to integrate stealth addressing into the current “xvg-bitcore-lib” based on a native language basis. This will be freeing the process from requiring involvement of the core-node. Here we’ll have to clarify: how to establish such a system on each device’s platform. The first step to create running stealth address has been built on a JavaScript-based system. From this, we can transfer that knowledge into other languages like Java and Swift. Furthermore, stealth addressing is very important for Verge and as such, all of our upcoming releases; so we will invest a lot of time to make this as stable as possible. We believe in quality over quantity, so we will deliver finished products, and not good-enough products. Multi-language To support our pioneering of #massadoption, we have invested time in creating a fully translated international webpage. This started with a google spreadsheet, to having a dedicated tool provided by POE Editor! They support our community effort, by providing their services for free with unlimited amount of translations. Thanks for the help! Consider accepting XVG as a payment for your amazing service! Here’s the list of languages that are being in the work: Access to the public language repository: https://poeditor.com/join/project/9nK5XYdOLG Before I leave, I want to do a shoutout to Arend, our awesome payment integration specialist, representing us in Barcelona for the Blockchain conference in Barcelona next week! Link to the tweet hereAlso, while I’m shouting out to the amazing community, here are two volunteers that definitely deserves a hand of applause, Roman for Russian translations , and Deep Blue Box for French. You guys are fantastic! Thanks for reading, if you want to help out this amazing community of volunteers, be sure to reach out to us, either via github, twitter, discord, telegram or facebook!