ARK Releases Major Desktop Wallet Update + What Are We Up To Next

It has been some time since our last Desktop Wallet release. We have been working side-by-side with our great community contributors to continue to upgrade, squash bugs, and improve our desktop wallet.

We have made extensive improvements since the last update which includes native LEDGER HARDWARE WALLET SUPPORT. Using Ledger adds another layer of physical security and eliminates the need to input your entire passphrase when sending funds or voting from within the wallet. The Ledger desktop wallet integration is complete on our end. It is currently awaiting the official software update from the Ledger team, now scheduled for September 1st, 2017 (*read more). Once Ledger releases the updated firmware to support ARK natively, ARK Desktop wallet version 1.3 and later will be able to recognize and communicate with the ledger hardware wallet.

The status of the Ledger wallet integration will be in beta and we would love to hear your feedback.

You can download the newest ARK Wallet Version 1.3 from here or use one of the links below :

https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/ark-desktop/releases/tag/1.3.0

#Downloads

• (44.2 MB) ArkClient-Linux-1.3.0.tar.xz
• (58.7 MB) ArkClient-Macos-1.3.0.dmg
• (44.2 MB) ArkClient-Ubuntu-1.3.0_amd64.deb
• (37 MB) ArkClient-Win32–1.3.0.exe
• (42.1 MB) ArkClient-Win64–1.3.0.exe
• Source code (zip)
• Source code (tar.gz)

#ARK Wallet Version 1.3 Changes

In the past 2 months, the ARK development team, in coordination with the ARK Community developers (thanks to each and everyone who contributed with code commits or reporting issues), have pushed over 100 commits to the desktop wallet code alone! While we can’t list every single change, here is a look at a few of the most noticeable upgrades:

• Improved account creation — When creating a new account, you now need to input several words from the newly generated passphrase in the confirmation step, as opposed to copy / pasting, to confirm that you have the passphrase saved.

• New version button — If there is a newer version of the Desktop Wallet available, you will now see a button saying “New version available!” in the upper left corner that opens the wallet release page on GitHub.

• Show Amount Sent in Local Currency - When sending a quantity of ARK, it will also show you the current market value in your local fiat currency. Your local fiat currency can be chosen in the settings menu.

• Verifying and signing of messages within ARK Desktop - With version 1.3, you can now sign, verify, and store any messages from the ARK Desktop wallet. Thus proving you are owner of an ARK address. It can also be used to pass along custom verifiable messages to other ARK users.

• Easier network selection - There is now a button in the top menu bar to change what network the wallet is using (main net, devnet, and custom private or public networks).

• You can now choose a different color theme. We have added an option for you to select different color themes for the ARK desktop according to your color choices and preferences (Settings →Appearance →Theme→Select theme you want and click on Save).

• Dynamic color palette. In v1.3, we have implemented an algorithm that can automatically adjusts the color palette of the client when you choose a new background. This update allows for a more appealing overall aesthetic with the different background options and allows for a better user experience. In order to test this out click on Settings →Appearance →Theme→Select ‘Dynamic’ and Save

• Added delegate drop-down menu for voting - as an alternative to typing the delegate name to vote for, a drop-down menu with all registered delegates is now available.

• Added a sound effect when receiving funds - by default sound is disabled, but users can enable it in the settings menu.

• Rewording of “Delete Account” to “Remove Account” - In the previous version, we didn’t like the phrasing of the “delete account” option. You are only “deleting” the account from displaying in the wallet, not removing it from the blockchain. The account will always exist on the blockchain, complete with current balance and transaction history. As such, we have changed the terminology to read “Remove Account” to better reflect what is taking place and limit confusion.

• Option to show/see inserted passphrase. When sending ARK you now have an option to display passphrase while writing or pasting it.

• Added language selector - Changing languages is now easier and offers a better UI.

• Address-Book - The ARK Desktop wallet now contains an Address Book with options to add, delete, and modify contacts. To open it you can click the book symbol in the top menu bar. It also features auto-completion in the send ARK function. When you start typing a username from your address-book, the text field will fill in the receiving address.

• Added tool tips to the navigation bar. Hovering over top menu icons will popup nice text on what clicking on icon will do.

• Option to clear localStorage - You now have an option to delete all locally displayed accounts and settings from the wallet.

• Lots of UI Improvements. Clicking on menu icons now has cleaner look as does when clicking button for options under ARK address.

• Adding / deleting new custom network is now easier — It is now a lot more UI friendly to add new custom networks to ARK Desktop Wallet (Settings -> Manage Networks ->New) as is deleting it (Settings-> Manage Networks -> Select the network you want to remove and press ‘Remove’ button and confirm).

• Network token name — When adding other coins that are using the ARK ecosystem, it will change to their preferred token name and symbol when accessing other tokens to differentiate it from ARK and not cause confusion.

Last, but not least - LEDGER HARDWARE WALLET SUPPORT. Once theLedger team releases the upgrade to their software enabling ARK , you will simply need to connect your Ledger device to your computer, and a new menu will be shown with your Ledger ARK addresses, from which you can send your ARK.

#What’s Next?

If you have spent any time in our Slack, you know we are constantly asked what we are working on and when we will release the next feature/update. To be honest, we are always working on many upgrades in parallel and don’t like setting specific release dates. You can always see the most up-to-date list of current projects on our roadmap , but here is a list of current top priorities:

• Mobile wallets for Android and iOS - A few weeks back we introduced our newly developed TypeScript ARK API , which will be a main “ingredient” for our upcoming mobile wallets.
• Setting up legal entity in France — We have hired a law firm in France to set up a legal entity so ARK can contract with partners in a more formal manner, have more contractors working on ARK, and interface with other business entities.
• Designing and coding a new website — We had our new website designed. It is currently in transition from design to code. After we are done, we’ll need your help translating to a few of the most common languages used worldwide as we want to make it multilingual.
• Pushing DEVNET (developers network) in the hands of community members —We want to continue to solidify and push DEVNET moving forward. In the short term, our current goals are replacing genesis nodes with community nodes and building out a full how-to guide. We also just launched an official DEVNET explorer with snapshots for quicker synchronization. DEVNET will allow us to start testing new protocol changes, ARK core improvements, and several key innovations. Community members running DEVNET nodes will play a major role in testing and helping to find any bugs that may occur while advancing ARK further.
• Some upcoming protocol upgrades include:

1. Reducing fees in ARK core (transaction fees, voting fees, 2nd passphrase registration fees and delegate registration fees), enabling fees market.
2. Implementing *IPFS .
3. Upgrading time-stamping protocol to support time verification of document integrity and native immutability via ARK blockchain.
4. Increasing the number of transactions per second and reducing the payload circulating on the network.
5. Adding a mechanism to safeguard payments on Point of Sale (PoS) terminals.
6. SmartBridge improvements and integrations.

#Updates made to Typescript, GO, Python and JavaScript for ARK

There have also been numerous updates and improvements made to:

TSARK (Typescript API for ARK):

• Replaced rx-http-request dependency to request.
• Optional network param for HTTP service.
• Typescript target change from ES6 to ES5.
• Replaced typed json dependency to json-typescript-mapper.
• Get all default networks.

ARKy (Python framework for ARK) :

• Added network, delegate and account command set.
• Improvements made for postData and broadcastSerial.
• Added autoconfigure feature.
• Only up-to-date peers selected for broadcasting.
• getHistory fix.
• Added plot2D,``getBalanceHistory,``getVoteHistory.
• Added network wif ,network browse command.
• fixed vote -d behaviour.
• pypi wheel universal fix.
• Wiki updated.
• cli can now execute arky scripts.
• Toonsbuf protocol implemented.
• OSX compatibility issue fix.

ARK-GO (GO library for ARK):

• Fix wait and devnet delegate address.
• Improved documentation and formatting of responses.
• ArkGO update server with new services and DB storing logic.
• Move to ORM implementation STORM.
• Adding DB payments, and voters logging to DB.
• Custom loop send tx function.
• Added a loop TX send method to test performance.
• Adjusting test methods to test — goark-node.
• Improving deserialization — from bytes.
• Enabling CORS.
• Adding REST server for pools, adding blocked list settings.

ARK-JS (Ark native library in JavaScript):

• Added capabilities to switch network version.
• Added deserialisation function.
• Improved TX parsing.
• Added multisignature deserialisation support.
• Fixed issue on deserialising keysgroup for multisignature.
• Add Travis-CI Support and ESLint, disable Lint.
• Send transaction as array, updated in README.

We are hard at work improving the ARK core network, and are actively looking for community members and outside development teams to work on key pieces of the extended ecosystem. The best way to keep up to date on our progress is to check our roadmap, blog, and join our Slack . In slack, you can always read the #announcements channel to see the latest news and releases.

P.S. : We are always looking for ways to improve our user experience in the ARK Desktop Wallet and implement cool new features. If you’ve got a suggestion or notice a bug, don’t be shy! Submit an “issue” here : or join ARK Slack (#development channel).