|
1 | | -Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree |
2 | | -===================================== |
| 1 | +Elements Project blockchain platform |
| 2 | +==================================== |
3 | 3 |
|
4 | | -[](https://travis-ci.org/bitcoin/bitcoin) |
| 4 | +[](https://travis-ci.org/ElementsProject/elements) |
5 | 5 |
|
6 | | -https://bitcoincore.org |
| 6 | +https://elementsproject.org |
7 | 7 |
|
8 | | -What is Bitcoin? |
9 | | ----------------- |
10 | | - |
11 | | -Bitcoin is an experimental digital currency that enables instant payments to |
12 | | -anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate |
13 | | -with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried |
14 | | -out collectively by the network. Bitcoin Core is the name of open source |
15 | | -software which enables the use of this currency. |
| 8 | +This is the integration and staging tree for the Elements blockchain platform, |
| 9 | +a collection of feature experiments and extensions to the Bitcoin protocol. |
| 10 | +This platform enables anyone to build their own businesses or networks |
| 11 | +pegged to Bitcoin as a sidechain or run as a standalone blockchain with arbitrary asset tokens. |
16 | 12 |
|
17 | | -For more information, as well as an immediately useable, binary version of |
18 | | -the Bitcoin Core software, see https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/, or read the |
19 | | -[original whitepaper](https://bitcoincore.org/bitcoin.pdf). |
| 13 | +Confidential Assets |
| 14 | +---------------- |
| 15 | +The latest feature in the Elements blockchain platform is Confidential Assets, |
| 16 | +the ability to issue multiple assets on a blockchain where asset identifiers |
| 17 | +and amounts are blinded yet auditable through the use of applied cryptography. |
20 | 18 |
|
21 | | -License |
22 | | -------- |
| 19 | + * [Announcement of Confidential Assets](https://blockstream.com/2017/04/03/blockstream-releases-elements-confidential-assets.html) |
| 20 | + * [Confidential Assets Whitepaper](https://blockstream.com/bitcoin17-final41.pdf) to be presented [April 7th at Financial Cryptography 2017](http://fc17.ifca.ai/bitcoin/schedule.html) in Malta |
| 21 | + * [Confidential Assets Tutorial](contrib/assets_tutorial/assets_tutorial.sh) |
| 22 | + * [Confidential Assets Demo](https://github.com/ElementsProject/confidential-assets-demo) |
| 23 | + * [Elements Code Tutorial](https://elementsproject.org/elements-code-tutorial/overview) covering blockchain configuration and how to use the main features. |
23 | 24 |
|
24 | | -Bitcoin Core is released under the terms of the MIT license. See [COPYING](COPYING) for more |
25 | | -information or see https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT. |
| 25 | +Features of the Elements blockchain platform |
| 26 | +---------------- |
26 | 27 |
|
27 | | -Development Process |
28 | | -------------------- |
| 28 | +Compared to Bitcoin itself, it adds the following features: |
| 29 | + * [Confidential Assets][asset-issuance] |
| 30 | + * [Confidential Transactions][confidential-transactions] |
| 31 | + * [Federated Two-Way Peg][federated-peg] |
| 32 | + * [Signed Blocks][signed-blocks] |
| 33 | + * [Additional opcodes][opcodes] |
29 | 34 |
|
30 | | -The `master` branch is regularly built and tested, but is not guaranteed to be |
31 | | -completely stable. [Tags](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tags) are created |
32 | | -regularly to indicate new official, stable release versions of Bitcoin Core. |
| 35 | +Previous elements that have been integrated into Bitcoin: |
| 36 | + * Segregated Witness |
| 37 | + * Relative Lock Time |
33 | 38 |
|
34 | | -The contribution workflow is described in [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). |
| 39 | +Elements deferred for additional research and standardization: |
| 40 | + * [Schnorr Signatures][schnorr-signatures] |
35 | 41 |
|
36 | | -Testing |
| 42 | +License |
37 | 43 | ------- |
| 44 | +Elements is released under the terms of the MIT license. See [COPYING](COPYING) for more |
| 45 | +information or see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT. |
38 | 46 |
|
39 | | -Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more pull |
40 | | -requests than we can review and test on short notice. Please be patient and help out by testing |
41 | | -other people's pull requests, and remember this is a security-critical project where any mistake might cost people |
42 | | -lots of money. |
43 | | - |
44 | | -### Automated Testing |
| 47 | +[confidential-transactions]: https://elementsproject.org/features/confidential-transactions |
| 48 | +[opcodes]: https://elementsproject.org/features/opcodes |
| 49 | +[federated-peg]: https://elementsproject.org/features#federatedpeg |
| 50 | +[signed-blocks]: https://elementsproject.org/features#signedblocks |
| 51 | +[asset-issuance]: https://elementsproject.org/features/issued-assets |
| 52 | +[schnorr-signatures]: https://elementsproject.org/features/schnorr-signatures |
45 | 53 |
|
46 | | -Developers are strongly encouraged to write [unit tests](src/test/README.md) for new code, and to |
47 | | -submit new unit tests for old code. Unit tests can be compiled and run |
48 | | -(assuming they weren't disabled in configure) with: `make check`. Further details on running |
49 | | -and extending unit tests can be found in [/src/test/README.md](/src/test/README.md). |
| 54 | +What is the Elements Project? |
| 55 | +----------------- |
| 56 | +Elements is an open source, sidechain-capable blockchain platform. It also allows experiments to more rapidly bring technical innovation to the Bitcoin ecosystem. |
50 | 57 |
|
51 | | -There are also [regression and integration tests](/test), written |
52 | | -in Python, that are run automatically on the build server. |
53 | | -These tests can be run (if the [test dependencies](/test) are installed) with: `test/functional/test_runner.py` |
| 58 | +Learn more on the [Elements Project website](https://elementsproject.org) |
54 | 59 |
|
55 | | -The Travis CI system makes sure that every pull request is built for Windows, Linux, and macOS, and that unit/sanity tests are run automatically. |
56 | | - |
57 | | -### Manual Quality Assurance (QA) Testing |
58 | | - |
59 | | -Changes should be tested by somebody other than the developer who wrote the |
60 | | -code. This is especially important for large or high-risk changes. It is useful |
61 | | -to add a test plan to the pull request description if testing the changes is |
62 | | -not straightforward. |
63 | | - |
64 | | -Translations |
65 | | ------------- |
66 | | - |
67 | | -Changes to translations as well as new translations can be submitted to |
68 | | -[Bitcoin Core's Transifex page](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/). |
69 | | - |
70 | | -Translations are periodically pulled from Transifex and merged into the git repository. See the |
71 | | -[translation process](doc/translation_process.md) for details on how this works. |
72 | | - |
73 | | -**Important**: We do not accept translation changes as GitHub pull requests because the next |
74 | | -pull from Transifex would automatically overwrite them again. |
75 | | - |
76 | | -Translators should also subscribe to the [mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bitcoin-translators). |
| 60 | +https://github.com/ElementsProject/elementsproject.github.io |
77 | 61 |
|
78 | 62 | Secure Reporting |
79 | 63 | ------------------ |
80 | | -See [our vulnerability reporting guide](SECURITY.md) |
| 64 | +See [our vulnerability reporting guide](SECURITY.md) |
| 65 | + |
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