Gateway: A New Kind of Bitcoin Peer Client Today marks the first public rollout of this EARLY alpha-test version of Gateway. You can try it here: github.com/Blockamoto/gatewa… This version is about proving BITCOIN PEERS ON-DEMAND. Ask a peer and blocks shall appear! 🟧 FEATURES (v.0.7.0) 🔸 Connect to Bitcoin Peers 🔸 On-demand blocks from Bitcoin peers 🔸 Standalone Full Node capability 🔸 Bitcoin Core connector (optional) 🔸 Bitcoin Block explorer 🔸 Bitcoin Positional System (BPS) 🔸 BPS Address Browser Extension (experimental) 🔸 Auto update options 🔶 CONNECT TO BITCOIN PEERS 🔶 Gateway is a Bitcoin client at its core. That means it connects and fetches data directly to Bitcoin Peers. No third party indexer or server. Just you, and your Bitcoin Peers. 🔶 ON-DEMAND BLOCKS FROM BITCOIN PEERS 🔶 The standout feature is Bitcoin On-Demand, which is at the heart of all downstream features to come. In Bitcoin Core, you sync concurrently, block-by-block. In Gateway, you choose exactly what you want, when you want it. Specific blocks, block ranges, or the full chain. Ask a peer and blocks appear! 🔶 STANDALONE FULL-NODE CAPABILITY 🔶 Whilst Bitcoin On Demand is a unique feature of Gateway, it retains the ability to be a full Bitcoin node just like any other compatible client (such as Core). That means that not only can you build a fully sync'd and updating chain in the same way as Core, but you can also serve that data back to Bitcoin Peers like any other Bitcoin client. 🔶 BITCOIN CORE CONNECTOR 🔶 If you already have Bitcoin Core, you can connect your existing node and/or data store to Gateway. 🔶 BITCOIN BLOCK EXPLORER 🔶 Gateway has a built-in Block Explorer which can function using your nodes data, or by fetching data directly, on-demand, from Bitcoin Peers. That means you don't have to sync Bitcoin to use Bitcoin, or rely on a third party explorer and trust their data. 🔶 BITCOIN POSITIONAL SYSTEM 🔶 This address schema gives each position upon the blockchain a simple human readable address. 404 = block 400 0.404 = tx 0, block 0 0.0.404 = output 0, tx 0, block 404 500.0.0.404 = satpoint 500, output 0, tx 0, block 0 It is impossible to fetch transactions on demand using hashes only, without a fully sync'd node, because there is no function to ask a peer for transaction ID's, only from your own node. The BPS solves this problem with a simple positional system. You can also replace the blockheight or index numbers with the relevant hashes. This gives us full-range addressability on-demand. 🔶 BPS Address Browser Extension 🔶 Upon setup, or in settings, you may register .bitcoin domains and install a browser extension (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Chromium) to handle them. This allows you to use BPS addresses above, appended by .bitcoin. For example, 404.bitcoin, or 0.404.bitcoin, etc. This is an experimental feature, as with everything in these early test versions but it is extremely useful. 🔶 Auto-update Options🔶 You can choose whether the client auto-updates, notifies you of new updates, or just keep to manually check for updates. You can update from within the app, no need to come back to GitHub. This was a prerequesit for this public test release so I can make sure we are all on the same page without friction as I rollout features. 🏛️ This pillar marks the first feature set for Gateway, but there is so much more to what is building. Much of it is already built, but I locked it down to just Bitcoin on Demand for the first public test so we can rollout carefully, and users can understand the benefit of Bitcoin on Demand as vital infrastructure, before we pile on the additional indexing and peer features. ROADMAP 🔸 Deeper indexes 🔸 Ord features 🔸 Bitmap features 🔸 Gateway peers for index sharing 🔸 Index validation rooted to Bitcoin Peer proofs I won't go deeper in to the ROADMAP as I will have a lot to say about them each as they rollout. For now, what we have a fully on-demand Bitcoin client, which by itself is already a unique proposition. Because now, you can seek the exact data directly from Bitcoin peers without sync'ing the entire chain. This has some really cool implications for features related to Ord. For example, inscription resolution can happen directly from Bitcoin peers by using the BNS schema. Whereas Ord asks you to sync the entire blockchain and Ord, Gateway just needs a block number, transaction number, inscription index. But we'll get to those features as I rollout the Ord phase. An interesting tidbit... upon researching if this kind of Bitcoin address schema had been proposed before, I found @rodarmor had almost the exact same schema design in his early 2022 Ord BIP drafts. The only difference is, Casey's version was in reverse order, which is fitting, since I feel like I'm bookending the work he started there, and in our general work, Casey has been working from sats upwards, and I've been working from blocks downwards, so there's something poetic here. Maybe @realizingerin can appreciate this too. With all that being said, thank you all for sticking with me. I have so much more to contribute, but for now... 🟧 PLEASE ENJOY GATEWAY v0.7.0 🟧 For windows, it's the installer.exe for full features. github.com/Blockamoto/gatewa… 🫡 Signed, Bitoshi