Sunsetting Incognito   

Incognito 2024: Technical Roadmap

#1

Hello Incognito community,

In the past few years, Incognito has been striving to establish itself as a privacy hub for various blockchains (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, etc.). Privacy enthusiasts have been bridging their assets to Incognito to utilize features such as private transfers, swaps, etc. and most recently, private inscriptions. While these features have been functioning effectively for years, there is a downside to the approach: it is somewhat ad-hoc and does not scale well, as only the core team has the capability to develop new on-chain features and release network upgrades. This limitation exists because Incognito does not support smart contracts, preventing developers from innovating independently.

This leads to a new line of thinking: while Layer 2 blockchain is a major narrative in 2024 due to its superiority over sidechain solutions in terms of scalability and security, why doesn’t Incognito adopt a multichain approach by supporting Layer 2s that provide privacy and speed to every blockchain?

Over the past few months, the team has been conducting experiments to build a privacy Layer 2 for EVM chains to assess its feasibility. It turns out that it is indeed possible. Today, we are excited to discuss the roadmap for 2024 as follows:

  • April 2024 - Launch a privacy Layer 2 for Ethereum. Ethereum users will be able to privately and trustlessly bridge assets into the Layer 2, benefit from fast transactions, and trustlessly and privately withdraw assets back to Ethereum. Additionally, Ethereum developers can seamlessly deploy existing dApps to the Layer 2 because it is EVM compatible.

  • August 2024 - Launch a privacy Layer 2 for Bitcoin. Recent research on BitVM has opened up numerous development possibilities for Incognito to build a privacy and scalability solution for Bitcoin, enabling Bitcoin assets to benefit from these improvements through the support of a trustless bridge.

  • October 2024 - Launch privacy Layer 2s for other blockchains. After successfully bringing privacy to the two largest blockchains, the team will explore bringing similar solutions to other blockchains based on market demand.

  • Finally, later this year, we plan to release a new token for the Layer 2s. Details of an airdrop plan for Incognito validators and users will be announced at that time.

Your feedback is invaluable to us. Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions with us as we continue to innovate and evolve to make our roadmap even better.

Thank you for your support

12 Likes
#5

Thanks for this long awaited update @duc.

I think I maybe missing something here… Right now I can send my ETH into my Incognito Wallet and this then allows me to swap/trade/provide liquidity privately via the Incognito DEX.

I don’t quite follow as to what the benefits is for a Privacy Layer 2 for Ethereum.

To ne honest, one of the very important reasons that I love Incognito DEX so much is the fact that there is limited Smart Contracts, hence less likelihood for hacks.

We have all heard about smart contracts being hacked and millions have been lost. What are the risks of this happening on Layer 2 solutions?

#6

How will L2s be connected? Or will they be connected? For example, can a smart-contract DEX on the new Ethereum L2 be used like pDEX which is a multi-chain DEX? In that case, will pDEX be obsolete?

#7

We will publish an official technical design document. As for pDEX, we have not yet made any decisions regarding it.
I believe it will depend on the demand at the time of launching the new chain.

1 Like
#8

Great questions by @abduraman :point_up::point_up::point_up:

I have a few more questions about the 2024 Roadmap…

  1. What happens to utility of PRV and whether there are any changes to the tokenomics of PRV as a result of the Layers 2?
    – A) Will PRV be used for paying fees on the Layer 2s?
    – B) Will any current features in the Incognito App change (E.g. EARN or PROVIDE features) with the focus shifting to Layer 2s?
    – C) I was asked a question by my friend who I was onboarding to Incognito. I showed him the “PROVIDE” feature in the app and how I was earning 10% interest paid in PRV for my BTC. He replied “How are they earning the PRV to pay you?” I was unable to answer him.
    — Where is the funding coming from the pay for PROVIDE interest?
    — Will the interest rates on PROVIDE be lowered now that there is a focus on privacy Layer 2 developments?

  2. The Incognito privacy Apps (E.g. pPancake, pUniswap, pCurve, pSpooky, pTraderJoe, pTrisolaris …) approach to trading was a very clear and clever strategy in my opinion.
    – Will the Incognito Team be abandoning support for these given the new focus on Layer 2s?

  3. I thought the focus for the Incognito Core team was on “decentralisation” and moving toward a DAO. We all witnessed the risks imposed on teams working on other mixer type services (E.g. Tornado Cash).
    – Is “Decentralisation” still a top priority as it’s not mentioned anywhere in the roadmap for 2024?

  4. Given the limited number of developer working on the project, I assume there will be a lot of resources allocated to building out these Layer 2s. As I’ve worked in the software industry for many years, I know that this will mean less resources to focussed on previous roadmap features and functionality.
    – @duc , can you please outline what features/functionality that were outlined in previous roadmaps will be put on hold or dropped as a result of taking the new direction in 2024?

  5. Airdrops later this year sounds good, but if it’s going to further erode the value of PRV, this I see that being a huge risk to the overall ecosystem. Community participants (like myself) who are running several validator nodes are most likely running them at a loss at the moment given the price of PRV (surging electricity costs where I live is the culprit). However, because I believe in this project and want Incognito to succeed I’m happy to run them at a loss to help secure and decentralise the network.
    – I do missed the “PRV Holders” calls where Andrey would present monthly numbers of Incognito nodes globally, liquidity pool growth etc. Is there any plan in the roadmap to provide more regular updates to the community?
    – One of the major reasons I got involved in this project was for the “Node Tree” vision. But that has since been buried. But the idea for a plug-n-play node that made earning crypto easy for the normie whilst helping to create the world’s most secure and decentralised PoS network seems amazing at the time. Is there any focus in 2024 on Driving more adoption of nodes to further decentralise this network?

  6. Will the Core Incognito Team hold a meeting with the community?
    This could be on Telegram or X spaces (formerly Twitter) to field questions from the community. If the thought of that is a little intimidating, then perhaps at least publish the roadmap as a presentation on YouTube outlining what has changed in the roadmap of 2023 and 2024 and explain to the community why the changes.

  1. Can the community get an update on who makes up the core leaders in 2024.
    For example:
    – A) Who are the core developers
    – B) How many Full Time vs Part Time vs Volunteer Devs working on the project
    – C) Who leads marketing & communications
    – D) Who leads business development and partnership
    – E) please share any other significant persons on the team

  2. How much budget does the Incognito Project have to audit the code for these privacy Layer 2?
    The reason I ask is I have grave concerns about hacks occurring and people losing funds on the platform. That would spell the end of this amazing project that is mean to help people maintain their Financial Privacy. Security is paramount in my opinion.

Please don’t take my questions as being negative.

I ask these questions as a committed long-time community member who cares deeply about this project. I still believe Incognito is the BEST decentralised DEX that has Privacy as it’s core. With the roll out of CBDCs across the globe and the fact that Bitcoin, Ethereum and other open blockchains do not protect user’s financial privacy, Incognito is going to play a critical and essential role for the maintaining the Freedom of humanity. But it has to be sufficiently DECENTRALISED AND UNSTOPPABLE. I am worried that these is no enough focus placed on this in the 2024 Roadmap, but perhaps I could be mistaken.

I encourage other community members that care about this project to chime in with your thoughts and questions on the 2024 Roadmap. :pray:

13 Likes
#9

interesting thread. Will PRV still power the different layers? I want to feel like all the PRV I’ve accumulated will serve a purpose.

4 Likes
#10

@duc @khanhj @Jared

I second @GoldFella 's question. Can you confirm that we did not waste the last few years accumulating PRV and holding it for nothing?

Also… and this is not meant to be an inflammatory question, but a serious one… why are there all these plans to add things to incognito, when the basic function of the pDex has not been working properly now for what… 2 years? Why is it not the number 1 priority of the team to get this fixed and working so that people can swap and trade on incognito without it being a hugely difficult task to complete a trade, and then at the same time, losing so much on slippage. If the issue is liquidity, then the team should be focusing on improving the liquidity in incognito. If the issue is something else, then they should be focusing on that.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why this problem has been mostly ignored for 2 years and continues to be so. Why is this not the one and ONLY priority of the incognito team above all else?

4 Likes
#11

I think these are all really good questions that sum up the concerns many of us are feeling. I think the community at large is still here hoping for the best and still committed to the project. But the lack of response on this tread while simultaneously answering others is discouraging. It’s been almost a month since these questions were posed and not even a comment made by the team. @Jared have you guys at least seen this thread yet ? I think we’re all still here just hopeing to hear something.

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#12

I hope we can get a response on this. @Support

1 Like
#13

Yeah I agree. They probably don’t have an answer yet. I’m thinking if it’s a new layer of ETH, they can simply bridge PRV to the new layer.
IDK how a layer of BTC is supposed to work. Sounds interesting

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#14

@khanhj @Support @Jared @duc

1 Like
#15

Hello all,

I’m speaking with the team on getting answers to these questions.

3 Likes
#16

Indeed, the general crypto market has recovered from the winter and yet Incognito continues to languish, despite having a huge utility. I think the answer is that there just isn’t any liquidity and the developers are not willing to put up any of there own to support the project. There is also zero effort to market the project. There used to be liquidity pools outside of the pDEX where you could buy or sell PRV but those are gone.

I would tend to agree that engineering success will not work if the team isn’t going to support the functionality we already have.

I continue to run my 15 vnodes at a loss, but I am no longer accumulating PRV and spinning up new nodes. I’ve basically lost hope, why would I continue to invest in a project that is dying when there are gains to be had in the broader crypto market? This just seems like a toy to the current devs, and nothing more. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

2 Likes
#17

The team runs a certain number of nodes that provide the PRV for the PROVIDE interest. I would also argue that you are not making 10% on your BTC as the price of PRV is continually eroding.

3 Likes
#18

@khanhj @Jared @Support

Are we going to get a response regarding the concerns brought up in this thread?

So far the Incognito Team has remained mostly silent on this. We are all awaiting a substantial response from the team to address these very real questions/issues.

#19

I want to start by apologizing for the delay in addressing your concerns. I understand that it’s frustrating not to have clear and immediate answers, and I appreciate your patience and continued dialogue.

Currently, the team is reviewing all the questions and concerns raised here. While I can’t provide specific answers to each point right now, please know that your input is being taken seriously. We are working to gather all the necessary information so that we can provide comprehensive responses.

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