Technical Roadmap & Current Version
This is the roadmap outlining technical features for each stage. Please note that everything is work in progress and the roadmap is subject to change.
2021
- Alpha 1 - Command-line only.
- Supports only direct connections where port is externally accessible (forwarded)
- Proof of concept of the communication protocol and initial peer discovery.
- Alpha 2 released on 10.05.2021: Improved connectivity.
- UDP hole punching
- UPnP support
- Alpha 3: Released on 29.07.2021:
- Built-in debug tools
- New analytics site -> https://1.peernet.network/
- Alpha 4: 11.10.2021
- User blockchain.
- Dummy API for search and other browser functionality.
- Alpha 5: 14.12.2021: Launch of MVP! Peernet Browser with basic features - search, explore, and share files!
- Alpha 6: 31.12.2021: Bugfixes and setup improvements
2022
We have a new roadmap for 2022! We identified 4 major releases until Beta 1 in August 2022 (which should reach product market fit). We are currently fundraising and publicly share the timeline once raising the seed round is complete.
- Alpha 7: 27.02.2022
Fixes: * Performance improvement in UDT implementation a. New lite protocol b. Implementation improvements * Browser: Debug terminal fixes. * Browser: Refactoring code, remove unnecessary bulky framework. Fixes tab switches usability. * Browser: Upgrade to .NET 6 * Browser: Fix when closing via Alt + F4. * Setup: Delete cache folders. Features: * Browser: Plugin System including SDK at https://github.com/PeernetOfficial/SDK * Browser Plugin: Video Player (initial version)
Comments
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Current high-level todos:
Improving Connectivity
- UDP hole punching: Since most regular machines will be behind a NAT and firewalls, we need embedded UDP hole punching support in the protocol. Tracked here: https://talk.peernet.org/discussion/15/udp-hole-punching#latest
- UPnP: Use the UPnP protocol to forward ports at routers when supported.
Both these tasks are part of the alpha 2 release.
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Just released alpha 2! As per the roadmap it provides improved connectivity. It supports UPnP and UDP hole punching.
You can try out Peernet by using the command-line client: https://github.com/PeernetOfficial/Cmd
See the thread "Command-line Client" in this forum on how to compile it, where to download the binary, and how to use it.
The core library is here: https://github.com/PeernetOfficial/core
Next alpha version 3 will include:
- Minor code cleanup (removing some complexity around sending packets)
- Embedded debugging tools: Granular log output, packet decoding visualization (for troubleshooting), connections tests
- Root peers: Collect statistics of daily/weekly/monthly active peers and output as HTML graph
The previously planned next version that includes the blockchain for publishing files metadata is pushed back one release. The slide with the timeline in the first post will be updated to reflect that. This intermediate release will make sure that the Peernet network remains easy to maintain and debug.
As more users will join the network there will be more complex edge cases to handle that will include special firewalls, symmetric NATs, special local network setups, corporate proxies, DMZ, all kinds of infosec appliances, network rate limiting, etc. Embedded debug tools will be essential to troubleshoot these cases.
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Alpha 3 was released on 29.07.2021! It has embedded debugging tools that will help in debugging issues like connection problems, finding keys in the DHT, etc.
With it comes a new analytics site https://1.peernet.network/.
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Alpha 4 release to be announced.
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Alpha 6 was just released. Changes:
---- Alpha 6 Fixes ---- Release date: 31.12.2021 Fixes: * Setup: .NET was not installed * Setup: Missing option 'Pin to taskbar' [to be deployed 03.01.2022] * Browser: Crashes when sharing large (2 GB+) files * Browser: Unexpected status from backend resulted in crash. Now it shows an error notification that is expandable. * Browser: Icon badly visible on dark status bar -> switched to light blue icon. * Browser: Handle file extension on upload as separate field resulting in less confusion. * Browser: Theme option is not remembered. * Browser: Better exception handling. * Backend: Detect if firewall exception was not set during setup and auto-set firewall flag. New: * KPIs "Files Shared" and "Bytes of Content" via 1.peernet.network [to be deployed 02.01.2022] * Browser: New frontend log file storing error messages. Internal: * Initial mobile client proof-of-concept (Android).
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Alpha 7 was just released.
---- Alpha 7 Maintenance ---- Release date: 27.02.2022 Fixes: * Performance improvement in UDT implementation a. New lite protocol b. Implementation improvements * Browser: Debug terminal fixes. * Browser: Refactoring code, remove unnecessary bulky framework. Fixes tab switches usability. * Browser: Upgrade to .NET 6 * Browser: Fix when closing via Alt + F4. * Setup: Delete cache folders. Features: * Browser: Plugin System including SDK at https://github.com/PeernetOfficial/SDK * Browser Plugin: Video Player (initial version)
The portable version is available to download at https://peernet.org/dl/Peernet%20Browser.rar
Make sure to manually first download and install the .NET Desktop Runtime from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-desktop-6.0.2-windows-x64-installer.
The setup of Peernet is being released next week. Changes to the setup are necessary to download the Media Player plugin which is about 300 MB. The plugin is part of the portable version linked before.
Howdy, Stranger!