6 Roadmap

Stage 1: Battle-Test the Basics (tbd by March 2024)

The first incarnation will be a functional sidechain for transactions of KSM tokens on Kusama only. No privacy will be available at this stage. In order to foster trust in our technology, we will start with a transparent deployment that allows all users to query the inner workings of the sidechain. This also allows us to rescue funds based on balance snapshots if necessary.

Moreover, we will only allow to shield limited amounts. This is a precaution in the beta phase against both loss and legal issues. Limits are set high enough to endow accounts and be active, but low enough to hinder money laundering once we switch on privacy.

From a user perspective, we will only offer a command line client for power users at this stage.

Stage 2: Some Privacy (tbd by March 2024)

We will switch to a first privacy-enhancing mode. From now on you can only query your own account’s state along with some public information like sidechain block height.

Stage 3: Better Privacy (tbd by April 2024) In order to protect privacy further, we will provide tooling to assist mixing to obscure the trail left by amounts and timing from shielding to unshielding.

Stage 4: More Assets (tbd by April 2024) At this stage, we will open our sidechain to all fungible assets on Kusama Assethub. This means you will be able to transact stablecoins as well as all other tokens on Kusama parachains that are available on Assethub.

Stage 5: Better UX (tbd by May 2024)

Our sidechain API will be compatible with js/api json-rpc at this point and integrate well with established wallets. This may involve that we upstream our authentication procedure for queries, so we will be looking for collaborations to make private transactions as smooth as can be.

Stage 6: Audit (tbd by July 2024)

The solution should be audited by a professional team to make sure we can operated it without concerns on Polkadot to offer it to a wider audience.

Stage 7: Rollout (tbd by August 2024)

Finally we would also roll it out to Polkadot and its Assethub to make all assets available on our Privacy Sidechain.

Stage 8: Enabling Law Enforcement Access (tbd by 2025)

We shall allow law enforcement to request selective disclosure of certain data concerning certain accounts. A governance process needs to be specified that ensures due audit of such requests. We will seek community feedback as well as legal opinions on the requirements for compliance. After these questions are clarified, we may be able to lift amount limits for shielding transactions.