Josh_Hamon - Nito - a Telegram Bot for push notifications

[Edited to reflect that the proposal system is deprecated.]

1. What privacy problem are you solving?

In the testnet version of the phone app, users could see the status of their nodes. That was eventually removed, in part because users had a hard time understanding the statuses. Tools like https://incognito.mesquka.com/nodes from @mesquka and https://watch.incognito.market/ from @raz have given users back clarity.

The next step is a way for users to have notifications pushed to them, preferably without it being tied to their phones. In the spirit of the pNodes, they also shouldn’t have to be super technical.

This work is already in development and I’m close to being ready to launch an MVP for people to give feedback on.

2. What is the solution?

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A telegram bot would allow device-agnostic notifications to be pushed to users.

3. Which solutions do people resort to because this doesn’t exist yet?

Current options are:

4. Why do you care?

A notification system would help me stop looking at my phone every 5 minutes. Also, I think it would nice to share with other people.

5. What’s your roadmap? (**Updated** 1/29)
Ship Date Deliverable Status
15 June 2020 Bot MVP available Done
1 July 2020 v1 available Done
1 Aug 2020 v2 available Done
25 Sept 2020 v3 available Done
1 Jan 2021 Nito fully open source In Progress

MVP -

  • Users can add, delete(one or all), list their nodes by the public key DONE
  • Users can request the current status of their nodes DONE
  • Users can add feature requests for possible development DONE
  • Users can review the feature list DONE
  • FAQ page available DONE

v1 -

  • Validation testing for adding nodes DONE
  • Users can send me tips :wink: DONE
  • Users can enable the bot to send them notifications when their node changes status DONE
  • Users can mute the notifications DONE

v2 -

  • Push notifications include PRV earned when vNode goes from Earning back to Waiting. (edited 7/31) DONE
  • /price command brings up current PRV price DONE
  • /ping users can check if the status of the wallet app fullnode DONE

v3 - Available Now

  • Fix bug causing Nito to loop messages and commands - DONE
  • /network tells the user the total number of nodes Nito is watching and how many nodes are on the network - DONE
  • Add PRV to push notifications - DONE

v4

  • Current incscan price added to PRV notifications - *DONE
  • Nito fully open-source - In Progress
  • Update backend to remove API service limits - In Progress
  • Increase Nito performance, especially of /status command

KNOWN ISSUE

Not all users are receiving notifications. This has my attention until it is fixed. Please message me if this issue affects you.

Features being considered:

  • Give users multiple notification options
  • Nito can withdrawal PRV from your node to your wallet automatically Requires Nito to have your private key.
  • Get the status of a single node by name
  • Price alerts

How do I add a feature request?

To let me know your feature requests use Nito’s /request feature: " /request-Your request here" Note, no dashes in the feature request.

6. I’m having trouble with Nito, is there help?

Yes, there is a FAQ

7. Is Nito open source?

It’s a work in progress, but yes. Source code: https://github.com/joshhamon/nito

8. How many people are using Nito? (last updated 1/29)

October 2020: 90 active users
November 2020: 92 active users
December 2020: 100 active users
January 2021: 112 active users

Active is defined as anyone with notifications turned on or has used Nito in the last 30 days.

29 Likes

I like this idea, I have made a Slack bot that sends me updates on role and PRV earned, but a Telegram bot would make more sense since community is already on Telegram.

I assume there is a backend that is polling the validators/incognito APIs so an individual would not have to leave a website open to get the notifications, right?

4 Likes

Correct, when you add the node you add a name and publickey. It grabs your telegram id when you send a message to the bot. When you request (or in future get notified) the status, it returns node names linked to your telegram id.

5 Likes

@Josh_Hamon COOL IDEA! :muscle:

9 Likes

I’ve updated the original post now that the proposal system is deprecated. I should have no issue launching the MVP by the middle of the month.

3 Likes

I could use 2-5 beta testers to help get MVP ready. Anyone interested?

4 Likes

Sure thing, just let me know… I have 2 vNodes and 1 pNode I can test with

3 Likes

Thank you testers for finding bugs and being awesome! I believe MVP will be available a little bit ahead of schedule, as early as this Friday.

5 Likes

Today, I’d like to introduce little baby Nito, the MVP telegram bot:

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Please check it out when you have a moment. Thank you @doc and @Mike_Wagner for your excellent help so far!

I’m going to keep updating the roadmap in the main post and have set up an FAQ post.

13 Likes

Over the weekend Nito hit 100+ nodes being monitored! :100:
I’m excited to keep adding features and squishing bugs, thanks everyone for your support! :partying_face:

4 Likes

Hey @Josh_Hamon,

I would very much like to use your awesome TG Bot. Unfortunately, it seems there is no “incognito” mode for it ^^

Is something like a self hosted deployment will be possible in the near future?

Thank you!

2 Likes

Self hosted is something I will look into in the future but there is a lot I want to perfect before heading in that direction. Telegram probably isn’t the platform to support an incognito-Nito.

3 Likes

Voting has opened! Please consider supporting Nito development with your votes.

Voting instructions

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The most important thing to do is to vote, even if you vote some of the other cool tools that have been developed.

3 Likes

Tips feature added. You can directly support future development. Push notification testing is underway and will be delivered on-time.

2 Likes

Push notifications will be a great feature, so I don’t have to do this anymore:

3 Likes

Push notifications are now live!

(Use /notify to turn them off or back on.)

4 Likes

I’m going to make a Nito command to ping the node the app is using. Is /ping the right command? Open to suggestions.

2 Likes

/ping is live

This will check the response code of https://lb-fullnode.incognito.org/fullnode, which the incognito app uses to interact with the chain. If it gets a 200, then your app experience should be normal. If it doesn’t get a 200 back, then it checks the mainnet fullnode. If mainnet gets a 200, then the network itself should be fine and Nito should work as expected, even if the app doesn’t. If mainnet doesn’t get a 200 the recommendation is to come to the forum to investigate.

This gives non-tech users and even non-validators an easy way to check if there is a problem and if it’s just with app or something larger.

Let me know your thoughts and future improvements that will help make Incognito more accessible and powerful.

Thanks!

4 Likes

Hi @Razia, yes Nito is a telegram bot at t.me/nito_the_bot

3 Likes

What’s work this bot, Sir?

3 Likes