Roadmap
Introduction
The PKT roadmap is an overview of the PKT ecosystem development. It is separated into four phases: Launch, Utility, Scale, and Innovate. Each phase defines an era of focus. This provides a guide for community developers and contributors regarding what tools, functionality and capabilities are integral to each era.
While the phases of the roadmap are presented in order, contributors are working concurrently across multiple eras. This nonlinear development invites a wide range of community participation. While many projects cannot be developed in sequence, considering certain dependencies, this development style matches the project’s agile, open source ethos.
As you explore this roadmap, you will see the years of development effort that are represented across each phase. Each milestone is a community achievement. Each accomplishment moves the project towards its mission of building a decentralized media network. Since PKT has no central infrastructure, no company, no foundation, no DAO, and no bank account, this roadmap represents a collective vision that recognizes the PKT community’s contributions.
Origin Story
The PKT blockchain, along with the PacketCrypto proof-of-work was launched on August 20, 2019 by PKT lead dev, and cjdns inventor, Caleb James DeLisle. The PKT project was designed as a financial incentive to scale the cjdns mesh network. The launch as a proof-of-work enabled a fair distribution of the currency. Five years later on August 21, 2024, PKT changed to a token project on Coinbase’s Layer-2 Base blockchain that uses a Stake-to-Earn model to align with its core objective of offering financial incentive to scale the cjdns mesh network. This change expands PKT utility by empowering people to run the network’s infrastructure and stake PKT to earn rewards, instead of proof-of-work mining.
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Cjdns: Routing Protocol
Cjdns uses a novel routing protocol called Compact Source Routing. Compact Source Routing enhances network efficiency by including the directions that data must travel across the network, instead of relying on the IP address of the destination. This approach optimizes network performance and facilitates faster and more secure communication.
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Launch
01
Utility
02
Scale
03
Innovate
04
01
Launch
The PKT project evolved from the cjdns mesh networking project, which was created by Caleb James DeLisle circa 2011. The PKT project was designed as a financial incentive to scale the cjdns mesh network. Caleb created the PacketCrypt proof-of-work in 2019 to provide the economic incentive through mining. Proof-of-work is also known to be the fairest and most transparent way to publicly launch a cryptocurrency and build community. The PKT blockchain mainnet went live on August 20, 2019 (Paris Time).
The Launch era focused on establishing PKT’s decentralized infrastructure and distributing the coin supply by unifying around PacketCrypt’s bandwidth-hard mining algorithm. Major developments during this era included building multiple PKT wallets, launching the PKT block explorer, the PKT.Cash website, an OTC trading app, and funding the first projects via the Network Steward.
Work Scope
PacketCrypt Bandwidth-Hard-Proof-of-Work
PacketCrypt was the proof-of-work for the initial PKT blockchain. It was specifically designed to fairly distribute the PKT coin supply and economically incentivize people to connect their internet bandwidth to power the network. PKT mining yields were directly tied to each miner’s bandwidth and CPU power. PacketCrypt mining enabled a fair distribution of the PKT coin supply.
PKT Cash Cryptocurrency
PKT Cash is the native cryptocurrency of the PKT project. The inception of PKT Cash is rooted in the belief that access to the fast and censorship-resistant PKT Network should be universal. This vision is what has galvanized the growing PKT community to own and operate the peer-to-peer supported PKT network. On August 21, 2024, PKT Cash converted to a token on the Base blockchain. Holders of PacketCrypt mined coins became eligible to receive a 1:1 airdrop of the PKT token on Base. The airdrop releases in 3 stages that are 6 months apart. In each stage, every PKT holder is eligible to redeem ⅓ of their coins.
PKT Command Line Wallet
The PKT Command Line Wallet (CLI) was developed as the first wallet for interacting with the PKT blockchain. Its creation was driven by the necessity for a secure, efficient, and versatile wallet that could receive, send, and mine PKT. The CLI wallet could be installed and operated from a command line or terminal instance. It was also the foundational core for many graphical interface wallets.
Mainnet Launch
The mainnet launch on August 20, 2019 (Paris Time) marked the inception of the PKT blockchain. The mainnet launch was announced publicly as a fair mine, with no pre-mine, no founder shares, no team shares and no investors. By design, the PKT blockchain was built as an open source, decentralized blockchain project built on Bitcoin’s btcd code base. It replaced Bitcoin’s SHA-256 proof-of-work with PacketCrypt. The other key changes to the Bitcoin codebase were a 60 second block time and the addition of the Network Steward. The Network Steward is a wallet address that received 20% of every mined block, as a self-funding mechanism for network development. The Network Steward is still part of PKT, and its treasury still accumulates 20% of the daily yields.
PKT.Cash Website
The first www.pkt.cash website was built as a community-powered informational site about the PKT project. Contributors to the project still build and suggest pages to be added to the website. As an information hub, the website supports the growing PKT community as a platform for education, engagement, and collaboration within the PKT ecosystem.
PKT Block Explorer
The PKT block explorer was developed as one of the first Network Steward funded projects. It offered transparency and accessibility into the PKT Network's blockchain activities and was created as a user-friendly tool to foster trust and engagement within the community. The block explorer enabled users to easily track transactions, wallet balances, and network statistics. Now that PKT is on Base, it uses basescan.org.
Gridfinity PKT Mining Pool
The Gridfinity PKT Mining Pool emerged as one of the first community-operated PKT mining pools. Gridfinity was a pioneer in the early days of the PKT blockchain. The Gridfinity team also contributed resources to simplify wallet setup for new PKT miners interested in mining PacketCrypt.
Gridnode
Gridfinity sold the first consumer hardware device to mine PKT, called a Gridnode. The Gridnode was designed to minimize the complexities and technical barriers associated with setting up a PKT node for mining. Each Gridnode had a hardware wallet and began mining PKT as soon as plugged in, making PKT mining accessible globally. Its creation marked a significant step towards democratizing the PKT Network, enabling more users to benefit from and contribute to its decentralized infrastructure.
PKT Yellowpaper
The PKT yellowpaper outlined the technical specifications of the PacketCrypt proof-of-work. The paper was co-authored by blockchain architect Caleb James DeLisle and mathematician Vishnu Seesahai, who are both leading technologists and thinkers within the PKT community. The PacketCrypt proof-of-work was a cornerstone for developers, contributors, and enthusiasts to understand, develop, and innovate within the PKT ecosystem.
PKT Network Whitepaper
The PKT whitepaper is the seminal document articulating the vision, architecture, and economic model of the PKT Network. Crafted by founding community members Caleb James DeLisle and Jesse Berger, this whitepaper lays out the vision and aspirations of creating a decentralized network infrastructure powered by mesh networking and blockchain incentives. It provides a detailed blueprint for how the PKT Network aims to incentivize bandwidth sharing and serves as a manifesto for the new era of internet freedom and accessibility. The PKT Network whitepaper was updated on August 21, 2024 to coincide with PKT’s launch on Base.
PKT Electrum Wallet
The PKT Electrum Wallet was developed as a Network Steward-funded proposal to create a lightweight, secure, and user-friendly wallet for managing PKT Cash. Designed as a fork of Bitcoin’s electrum, the wallet mirrors the ethos of PKT, prioritizing decentralization and security. However, the wallet does not operate as a mining wallet. PKT Electrum has numerous features such as a 12-word seed, the ability to label wallet addresses and ease of managing PKT.
Zulu Wallet
Zulu wallet was developed as a Network Steward-funded proposal. It emerged from the necessity for a versatile and user-friendly graphical interface wallet that allowed PKT mining. It also addressed the needs of early PKT miners who needed to recover mining wallets that used the early hex seeds. The Zulu wallet was only maintained for 2 years and is no longer recommended for use.
Community Launch
The PKT community launch was a Network Steward-funded, team-driven project. It was orchestrated by a collective of passionate people who all contributed their mind share and consistent effort to create the social and web-based foundation of the project. This launch included publishing articles, explanation videos, influencer reviews, social content creation, and community management efforts emphasizing collaboration and open-source principles. This set the stage for the initial awareness, growth and development of the ecosystem.
OTC Trading Chat
The OTC (Over-The-Counter) trading chat is a telegram chat that was launched by community members to enable peer-to-peer trading prior to PKT listing on any exchanges. This initiative included software development to track price and build an order book for matching buyers and sellers. The OTC trading chat embodies the decentralized spirit of the PKT project and is still accessible via Telegram.
Mining Pool Software Update
The mining pool software update was released as improvements that resulted in a significant reduction in the time it takes to compute proof trees associated with block mining. With this update, in most observed cases, the tree is complete before the next block arrives. This helped pools ensure there is almost no time spent not mining. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
Pkteer Pool
The Pkteer pool was established in 2021 as a competitive mining pool in the PKT ecosystem. Its focus was to deliver high yields to announcement miners, incentivize infrastructure expansion of the network and to create inclusive and accessible mining for the PKT Network. Pkteer Pool assisted other competitive pools to start up. Aimed at democratizing the mining process, it enabled miners with varying levels of technical expertise and hardware to contribute to and benefit from the network's growth. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
PKT World Pool
The PKT World pool was launched in 2021 to compete for mining rewards and offer miners alternative mining pool choices. The PKT World pool launched with an open paymaker so miners could review miner share payouts via a transparent mining experience. The PKT World pool ethos was to ensure stability of the PKT blockchain and promote equitable rewards distribution. The PKT World pool promotes itself as an inclusive and supportive PKT mining pool. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
PKT World Block Explorer
The PKT World pool built a PKT block explorer as an essential tool for enhancing transparency on the PKT blockchain. The PKT World block explorer was the first platform to display PKT mining pool winning percentages. This provided the PKT community visibility into which pools were winning what percentage of the blocks. The PKT World block explorer also enabled miners to enter their PKT wallet address to track their mining yields and PKT pool payouts. The PKT World block explorer reflects PKT World’s commitment to transparency. It provided a valuable resource for users to navigate the PKT blockchain and gain a deeper understanding of the blockchain’s functionality.
PKT Pool
PKT Pool launched its competitive mining pool in 2021. Initially powered with substantial infrastructure, PKT Pool offered PKT miners increased yields based on its winning percentage. PKT Pool operated using an open paymaker, allowing miners to transparently view miner share payouts. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
PKT Pool Dashboard
PKT Pool launched a block explorer and custom dashboard for the PKT blockchain. This user-friendly interface included several compelling features, including a node explorer. The node explorer provided a visual representation of the PKT blockchain and its associated wallet addresses. The PKT Pool dashboard also provided comprehensive insights into mining performance, earnings, and network status. The PKT Pool dashboard is no longer accessible.
Zetahash Pool
The first iteration of the competitive Zetahash pool began in 2021. Powered by substantial processing power and high throughput bandwidth, Zetahash was a force within the PKT blockchain ecosystem. Zetahash used numerous proprietary techniques to achieve high win rates without providing a publicly available paymaker. Zetahash also used a variable miner-share to reward miners that follow its recommended mining settings and prioritize Zetahash in their mining pool order. Zetahash offered alternative mining end points that favored miners with lower bandwidth or higher bandwidth. This versatility was beneficial so that miners on lower throughput residential connections are able to participate. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
Minr
Minr is an app built by PKT Watch to streamline and enhance the PKT mining process. Recognizing the complexities and technical challenges faced by PKT miners, Minr was developed as an easy solution to provide a more intuitive and efficient mining experience. This app was designed with the goal of making mining accessible to a wider audience for a broader token distribution. Thereby it provided a user-friendly mining interface that was accessible from both Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems. The interface enabled miners to control their PKT pool configuration, change CPU allocation, and choose which wallet address to mine into. As of August 2024, with PKT’s move to Base and new focus on Stake-to-Earn, PKT mining is no longer applicable to the project.
PKT World Wallet
The PKT World wallet is a desktop wallet for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. The PKT World wallet included fast sync technology, which is useful when recovering seeds from legacy wallets or mining wallets that have a lot of transactions. The PKT World wallet can sync 12-word and 15-word seeds, as well as hex seeds used by legacy wallets. The PKT World wallet also used built-in PKT mining capabilities for increased coin distribution. Users could choose how many CPU cores to allocate and can mine directly into a wallet address.
Anode iOS Wallet
The Anode iOS Wallet was developed to meet the growing demand among PKT users for a mobile PKT wallet on iPhone. The Anode iOS wallet was built to expand PKT utility and accessibility, including a future integration with PKT VPN.
PKT Cube
The PKT Cube was developed by community-member company Routie. The PKT Cubes were designed as the first Edge Point nodes in the PKT Network (as referenced per the PKT Network Whitepaper). These devices functioned as turnkey, dedicated PKT mining devices, without requiring any software installation and run a proprietary operating system called PkteerOS. PkteerOS was designed to push new software features as development of the project continues. The device also uses PKT Network for connectivity and has a wifi chip, so it can do wifi sharing as the PKT technology evolves. The PKT Cube now supports PKT’s new Stake-to-Earn utility and provides infrastructure to the PKT Network.
WPKT - Binance Smart Chain
WPKT was an integration with Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It strategically bridged PKT in the ecosystem of EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and the broader ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi). Recognizing the opportunity to connect to BSC's efficient, low-cost transaction environment and expansive user base, the creation of WPKT on BSC aimed to enhance liquidity, accessibility, and utility for PKT holders. Now that PKT is on Base, the use case for WPKT is being reimagined.
ODapp Bridge
ODapp is a bridge that enables people to swap PKT into WPKT and WPKT into PKT. The ODapp bridge provides seamless interoperability between BSC and PKT. The bridge was developed as a decentralized application dApp. This innovation represents a strategic move enabling users to effortlessly move assets between the PKT proof-of-work network and BSC, thereby expanding the utility and reach of PKT. Now that PKT is on BASE, the use case for WPKT is being reimagined.
PKT Watch Website
PKT Watch is a community-member operated website that serves as a comprehensive resource for the PKT Network. PKT Watch features several modules, tools and services for monitoring the PKT ecosystem. These include a mining calculator, which computes projected mining yields based on different hardware CPUs. Decimation Tracking, which provides a real-time countdown until the next decimation. PKT Documentation is a repository for documentation relating to the PKT project. There are also links to unique apps developed by PKT Watch for the PKT ecosystem, including the mining app Minr, the wallet tracking app Watchr, and the blockchain explorer Packetscan.io.
Exchange Listings
The community created a listing support team to help onboard PKT into exchanges. Since PKT is a fully decentralized project, the effort to list PKT requires a community effort and investment. The team has overseen exchange integrations and ensured that exchanges listing PKT get the technical and documentation support they need. Exchange listings enhance the visibility of the PKT project, thereby supporting the growth and adoption of the PKT Network.