Over the past few weeks, our team has been diligently working on ARK Vault, aiming to seamlessly integrate it with the Mainsail network. We are excited to share that the initial version is now live on a dedicated domain for testing purposes, specifically designed for the Mainsail testnet. If you are interested in participating and helping us refine this integration, your involvement would be greatly appreciated. In this blog post, we will delve into the specific updates brought about by Mainsail.
First, if someone wants to get involved with testing, we invite them to join the community-run Discord in the channel #mainsail_testnet. The ARK Vault with Mainsail support is available at wallet-demo.mainsailhq.com , and the ARK Scan for the Mainsail testnet can be accessed at explorer-demo.mainsailhq.com .
In the Mainsail-enhanced version of ARK Vault, the Mainsail testnet network is pre-configured as the default setting. This allows you to begin creating or importing addresses immediately, without the need to adjust any settings.
Next, we’ll explore some of the distinctions and features that are either not included in this release or currently unsupported by Mainsail.
Usernames
One of the latest features supported by Mainsail is the introduction of ‘Usernames’. This feature allows any address to register a unique username, associating it directly with that address. Importantly, each address is limited to having just one username. However, you have the flexibility to update your username by overwriting the old one with a new choice, or you can completely dissociate a username from your address by resigning it. Once a username is resigned or overwritten, it becomes available again for anyone else to register.
The rules for registering names are outlined below:
- Minimum length of 1 character,
- Maximum length of 20 characters,
- Only lowercase letters, numbers and underscores are allowed,
- Cannot start or end with an underscore,
- Cannot contain two or more consecutive underscores.
Validators
The term ‘Delegate(s)’ has been updated to ‘Validator(s)’ across all applications and within the codebases. Consequently, you will now see options to ‘Register Validator’ or ‘Resign Validator’. These functionalities will be available in the same familiar location—within the three-dot menu on the address page.
One of the improvements in how validators operate here is that you will have a separate private and public key for the address you want the validator associated with. You will need to generate these prior to registering the validator, for which you can use the Mainsail transaction tester tool .
The use of separate keys is an improvement to the security of a validator. In the event of a security breach on the node operating the validator, the attacker won’t be able to access funds on that address, change usernames, or resign the validator as the keys are only used to forge blocks.
Users can vote for ‘Validators’ just as they did previously, using either the ‘Username’ of the validator, if registered, or the validator’s address if they have not chosen a username.
What’s Not Included in This Release?
This release doesn’t yet have these features:
- Multisignature signing and broadcasting
- Hardware Ledger support (which will require an update to the ARK app or a separate app)
- Dynamic fees (currently set as static on the network)
Additionally, Mainsail introduces some differences, which means certain functionalities will be deprecated and no longer possible, including:
- 2nd Signature registrations
- IPFS hash registrations
What’s Next?
Our next steps involve continuing Mainsail integration and addressing issues reported by internal testing and the community. We will also focus on additional integrations, such as:
- Developing a multisig server with Mainsail support and integrating it into ARK Vault to enable seamless signing and sending from multisignature addresses.
- Integrating custom fees once Mainsail finalizes its decision on how dynamic fees will work.
How Can I Help?
You can help by visiting wallet-demo.mainsailhq.com and testing all functionalities as you would in the production version of ARK Vault. This includes sending transactions, multipayments, voting, unvoting, swap voting, registering usernames, overwriting usernames, resigning usernames, and more. Please keep in mind the current limitations outlined above.
To report any issues you encounter, you can do so in the #mainsail_testnet community-run Discord channel or open an issue on GitHub .
We appreciate everyone who helps us test and contribute to improving ARK Vault’s Mainsail Integration.
