Zcash SPV library and light wallet project roadmap

[AndrewGuarda]

Project Scope

The project is aimed to develop Guarda Zcash Wallet and open source Simplified Payment Verification library for community use. The project is supported by Zcash foundation.

Android Application

Single currency light wallet app, designed to store, send and receive Zcash coins. As an additional feature for some regions will be available the following: purchase ZCash with a banking card and swap their coins to and from Zcash using in-app Exchange service. Guarda Zcash Wallet will provide an intuitive interface to send and receive coins, view address and check the actual balance, perform shielded transactions. As far as Zcash is known as one of the most secure and anonymous blockchain, Guarda Zcash light wallet will become part of Zcash secure infrastructure.
The Android light wallet will be available for the download on Google Play Market.

SPV library

The project will realize the open source Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) library.
SPV library will grant the possibility to communicate with the full node wallet using JSON-RPC over SSL and can be used by other community members for own service creation.

High-level plan

The project consists of the following steps that are a subject to public reporting and discussion at Github repository and Guarda corporate blog:

1. Research

This stage is necessary for app concept creation. During this step, we set the goals of the project and establish the Roadmap. This step provides the basis for acquiring the resources needed to achieve a solution. Feature map for the app is already in place. Also during this step, we'll carry out the research for implementing shielded transactions in the app.
It includes several subtasks:

• Concept creation
• Project management plan developing
• Analyze customer behaviour and user scenarios
• Feature map creation
• Shielded transactions research
• Roadmap establishing.

The stage expecting to be finished by 29th of December 2017

2. Environment setup

The planning ETA stage is 5th of January 2018
This stage starts with the own Zcash blockchain node deployment. We have own primary and backup nodes for the wallet support. We are using the sophisticated proxy for the node balancing in order to get the actual blockchain connection.
The stage includes the following scope of works:

• Servers hosting
• Node setup
• Security settings.

The stage expecting to be finished by

3. App design (UX/UE/UI)

On this stage, we describe our potential customer behaviour, work on use cases and app logic. We prototype and design the user interface, simulate user experience. Using the Feature map we are working on users interactions within the app. Besides standard functions dedicated to cryptocurrency management, the core app functionality will contain Zcash purchase with a banking card and top up the wallet trough in-app exchange service. We are also looking for the suitable UE solution in order to fulfil the customer’s expectations as the shielded transaction will occupy the device resources for a long time.
The stage includes following activities:

• Use cases definition
• User interface prototyping
• Animations design.

The stage expecting to be finished by 22nd of January 2018

4. SPV library development stage

The next stage is Java SPV library implementation. It will be used by the Android wallet in the terms of the project to manage the transactions and wallet management. The library should include methods for wallet create/restore, send transactions, shielded transactions and etc.
It includes several subtasks:

• SPV library architecture development. We are going to make the process public. In that terms on the GitHub will be created the issue for the discussion library API methods. All community members are very welcome to take part in the discussion
• Java SPV library implementation.

The stage expecting to be finished by 31st of January 2018

5. Android App development

5.1. Core functionality
On this stage, we implement the application core functionality:

• The wallet create/backup/restore options
• Transaction sending (transparent and shielded)
• Transactions receiving (transparent and shielded)
• Transactions history.

5.2. Integration with third-party services
Third-party services integration is used to achieve max user stories coverage. The key features are Zcash purchase with a banking card, the wallet top-up using other coins and in-app support service.

• Purchase Zcash with a banking card
• Wallet top up through in-app Exchange service
• Actual Zcash to fiat rates
• Built-in support.

5.3. GUI implementation/realization

The stage expecting to be finished by 10th of February 2018

6. Quality assurance

We are using development practices for writing high-quality software. In the additional we’ll use following testing approach to find out the possible bugs:

• Functional app testing, manual tests
• Performance app testing, automated tests.

The stage expecting to be finished by 19th of February 2018

7. Project Delivery

SVP library will be available for Zcash community on GitHub. We'll deliver the wallet application release to ZCash foundation for the testing and surely listen to the community feedback. After collecting the feedback and approvals the app will be released in application stores.

The stage expecting to be finished by 25th of February 2018