United States-based decentralized data relay project, NKN, has released a monthly update covering July and August 2018. NKN, which stands for a “New Kind of Network”, seeks to create a “network connectivity protocol and ecosystem powered by blockchain for an open, decentralized, and shared Internet.” The update covers progress in research and development, GitHub repositories, community events, and marketing.

Code Development

NKN have created an open source Javascript wallet repository on GitHub which includes a JavaScript-based software development kit (SDK) and application programming interface (API) instructions.

NKN claims that its TestNet has been expanded to “thousands of nodes” worldwide in order to test the network’s scalability. In addition, a file transfer usecase has been added to the NKN TestNet, joining a previously existing instant messaging use case.

A number of features and enhancements were added to NKN’s core repository in preparation for the “Lemur” milestone, expected for release at the end of August. Changes included: further development of the Cellular Automata-based consensus mechanism, including block synchronization based on neighbor voting, and the addition of dynamic neighbors; the addition of node synchronization states; implementation of gossip forwarding between nodes to share transaction and block information; code optimization for large-scale network deployment; and IPv6 support for nodes.

Community and Ecosystem

NKN also announced a partnership with Datapace, a decentralized data marketplace and sensor ecosystem. NKN co-CEO Zheng Li commented, “NKN’s network connectivity protocol will provide Datapace true peer-to-peer connectivity and extreme scalability for better customer experience.” The partnership seeks to give NKN access to Datapace’s “worldwide network of sensors” with the opportunity to monetize the data.

NKN was selected as one of 12 startups to participate in the Founder Friendly Labs Summer 2018 program. Founder Friendly Labs is “the equity-free startup accelerator for experienced tech industry professionals” and provides education from experienced startup founders. Partners of the program include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud.

NKN, QuarkChain and HyperLedger participated in hosting the ABC Blockchain Awakens Hackathon in San Mateo, California. The hackathon competitors used SDKs from NKN and the other hosts to build projects and compete for 5 BTC in prizes. Executives from NKN’s team were on the panel of judges for the event alongside Jannie Affeld, Google’s engineering director and Ella Zhang, the head of Binance Labs.

Finally, the NKN project made its introductory rounds on Youtube, with featured videos from crypto personalities Chico Crypto, TheCryptoLark, Crypto Zombie, CryptoCandor, and Blockchain Investors Community iTuber.

More information on the NKN project can be found at the links below.

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