Ethereum Support

[crazysoldier]

Hey,
thanks for all the good work.
I just wanted to know, if i can use this on Ethereum rather than Bitcoin ;)
Cheers
Crazy

[jcnelson]

Hi @crazysoldier,

That's something we're going to add support for at some point in the future (not sure when yet), but it currently does not work with Ethereum. I'm going to spend some time this next month separating out the Bitcoin-specific logic from the rest of the package, so we can offer a blockchain plug-in model. Then, we'd implement a Bitcoin plugin, an Ethereum plugin, and plugins for any other blockchains of interest.

Thanks!

[southbite]

any updates regarding this? or do ethereum DAPPs kind of make the virtualchain obselete?

[jcnelson]

any updates regarding this?

I've made some progress separating out bitcoin-specific functionality from the higher layers of the stack, but it's not done yet. Since Bitcoin is by far the most secure blockchain for now and will probably remain so for all of 2015, this isn't a super-high priority. However, time will tell, and PRs are welcome ;)

or do ethereum DAPPs kind of make the virtualchain obselete?

Not at all. Even if Ethereum overtakes Bitcoin as the most secure blockchain, who's to say that it will remain so? A blockchain virtualization layer will always be necessary for long-running projects like Blockstack, since they tend to outlive the blockchains that secure them. Blockstack has already outlived Namecoin, for example.

[tthsn]

Is there any updates?

[muneeb-ali]

This is in the works and we'll start a broader discussion around how to implement this later this month. Join http://chat.blockstack.org if you haven't already.

[grctest]

The Gridcoin community is also very interested in blockstack (virtualchain) support - it would allow us to improve our distributed proof of research monitoring and decentralized voting mechanisms :)

#11

[grctest]

@muneeb-ali - was a broader discussion regarding the implementation of blockstack on altcoins held?

[grctest]

@crazysoldier Looks like blockstack's going ahead with Ethereum support, they've got an ethereum logo on this page: https://blockstack.org/intro

@muneeb-ali Is there an updated stance on removing reliance on Bitcoin in virtualchain/blockstack?

[muneeb-ali]

@grctest We're currently running the production network on Bitcoin and are exploring support for Ethereum and Zcash. The Zcash integration looks relatively easier because it shares the code-base with Bitcoin and is a UTXO-based blockchain.

https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack is probably a better place for this discussion. We can start a Github issue there and then move it to a RFC if/when things become more defined.