2019 was a year of progress with ArcBlock achieving several key blockchain product milestones and establishing the foundation for what comes next in 2020.

2019 - ArcBlock Blockchain Product Review

As we approach the new year and prepare our 2020 blockchain roadmap, it is also a good time to reflect and to look back and see 2019 from a fresh perspective. For ArcBlock, 2019 was many things - a year of firsts, a year of learning, a year of challenges, but most of all a year of progress. While we did not achieve every single product update on our proposed 2019 roadmap, we continued to move forward in what many would call a challenging year for the blockchain industry by focusing on our original goal of building a production-ready platform that includes easy to use developer tools and amazing user experiences that make it easy to build, run and use decentralized applications.

2019 was a foundational year, and an important one, for ArcBlock as many of the ideas and concepts that we outlined in our whitepaper back in 2018 became real products and capabilities that developers, customers, and the community could use to build their own blockchain-enabled services, Dapps and more. Could we have done more? We always believe that working with our amazing communities, partners, and customers we are always able to do more. During this next year, we will work even harder to improve on what we have done.

So, before we move into 2020, let’s take a quick look back at some of the product releases and updates that happened and were integral in getting us to where we are today.

12/30/2018 - ArcBlock updated its website to version 1.0

Release of new website design and developer experience that provide developers with the basic building blocks needed to build DApps successfully.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2018/12/30/ArcBlock-Website-2nd-Update

3/29/2019 - Release of the ArcBlock’s ABT Network, one of the first multi-chain networks focused on scale and interoperability.

ABT Network, the first-ever continuous blockchain network known as a “blockchain superhighway” is designed to expand and add new independent blockchain networks seamlessly while improving performance and capacity as the network grows. The ABT Network introduces several industry firsts to their blockchain network and redefines how blockchain networks can be built, managed and used.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/03/29/abt-network-launch

4/12/2019 - ArcBlocks Chain Node software is released

ArcBlock’s Chain Node is cloud-native and another key component of ArcBlock’s end-to-end blockchain development platform that combines all the tools and services needed to build, run and use DApps on top of the ABT Network including on-chain governance, decentralized identity, node management, block explorer and more.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/04/12/abt-node-launch

5/7/2019 - ArcBlock releases Developer Framework and SDK

ArcBlock has released the first version of its blockchain application development framework that is the easiest way for developers to create their customized blockchains and build decentralized applications on it. Similar to what Ruby on Rails did for web development, the goal of the development framework was to remove much of the complexity, and limitations of today’s existing blockchain development platforms, and put the power back into developer's hands by letting them do what they do best - write code.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/05/07/forge-sdk-launch

5/14/2019 - ArcBlock releases Decentralized Identity Solutions

ArcBlock has released critical components that enable businesses and users to leverage their new decentralized identity system and consumer-facing ABT Wallet. With the release of the new identity system, ArcBlock will fulfill its promise to be the industry’s first fully enabled decentralized identity network and any developer can immediately integrate decentralized identity (DID) services for their users by simply using the DID component in the developer framework and SDK.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/05/14/decentralized-identity

5/20/2019 - ABT Wallet is released in the Android and Apple stores

ABT Wallet is a first of its kind wallet leveraging ArcBlock’s W3C compliant DID (decentralized identifier) method and is a secure, fully decentralized mobile wallet application that allows any user to store their digital information securely on a personal device. It has been designed from the ground up to deliver a new type of user experience that makes blockchain usable, friendly and customizable around persons’ daily life.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/05/20/abt-wallet-launch

7/8/2019 - ArcBlock releases a new developer portal with guides, tutorials, and documentation in multiple languages

The new developer portal helps developers understand the broad capabilities, and tools available to developers including the ArcBlock SDK that includes support for Python, Java, Javascript, iOS, Android and more, and is broken up into several key development areas:

• Installation
• SDKs
• Developer Tools
• Architecture
• Transactions, APIs and more

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/07/08/arcblock-developer-page

7/30/2019 - Release of New Developer Tools and Transaction Protocols, ArcBlock’s new and improved smart contracts

ArcBlock releases upgrade to application framework and several new blockchain developer tools:

• Forge Simulator for easy scalability and load testing for DApps
• 20 Transaction Protocols for Smart Contracts delivering new functionality including creating an asset, deploy protocol, exchange and more
• Chain Node upgrades allowing developers to upgrade a blockchain node in real-time without taking the server offline during the upgrade

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/07/30/arcblock-release-forge-framework-upgrade

9/16/2019 - Release of ArcBlock Blocklets, a new way to build DApps

Blocklets are a new way of thinking about DApps. Blocklets are reusable building blocks that help developers and community users to quickly build new DApps and services on the ArcBlock platform. On its simplest level, Blocklets are ready-made starter kits that include components and modules, libraries, front-end views, and more that make it very simple to start building a DApp. After you’ve tried one, you can then combine multiple blocklets to build even more complex applications or DApp. The Blocklet does the hard work and lets developers focus on their business logic and code.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/09/16/introduction-to-blocklets

11/12/2019 - Product-Ready Platform 1.0 and ArcBlock SDK 1.0

ArcBlock’s platform now includes production-ready capabilities and many updates to their ArcBlock SDK, CLI, and a dashboard experience based on more than three thousand individual pieces of feedback from early beta users and partners. Developers are now able to:

• Create new blockchains in one-click;
• Use pre-built Blocklets
• Deploy blockchain node software into any cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments
• Benefit from On-chain governance
• Execute Smart Contracts on a trusted execution platform
• Dynamic Consensus
• Use many of today’s leading programming languages including JavaScript and Python
• Reload their code using Hot-Code Reloading to remain online
• And much more

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/11/12/arcblock-releases-blockchain-platform-10

11/25/2019 - ArcBlock releases new ABT Wallet 2.0 for Decentralized Identity

Our biggest update so far to the ABT Wallet app delivers improved usability and navigation, and the ability to make your phone your decentralized identity hub. Instead of focusing on blockchain, or other technical requirements, ABT Wallet 2.0 is all about users and helping them manage and interact with their daily lives.

https://www.arcblock.io/en/post/2019/11/25/introducing-abt-wallet-20-for-decentralized-identity

2020 and Beyond

In the next few weeks, alongside our community, we will look ahead and release our updated 2020 roadmap that continues to build on the foundation that we established in 2019. Our goal is to deliver significant platform improvements for developers, and in the near term, we will be releasing our interoperable token swap service, launching several new cloud-based products and services and more. As a community, and as a team, we appreciate your support over the last year and helping us build the next generation of blockchain services in 2020 and beyond.