OpenST Protocol v0.9.4

In order to make it simple for Token Economy managers and economy participants to interact with Token Economies, we have added a number of usability-enhancing features in OpenST Protocol release v0.9.4. These features support the ownership of Tokens while also enforcing the utility aspect by ensuring that Tokens can only be used in the specified economy, and as intended by their creators.

OpenST Protocol release v0.9.4 introduces TokenHolder Contracts, TokenRules Contracts, and Token Rules.

TokenHolder Contracts are designed to enable mass-market apps to facilitate end-users owning and transferring tokens without requiring end-users to have to directly manage their private crypto keys.

In addition to ownership keys, also referred to as “wallets” that control the value in the TokenHolder contracts, Ephemeral Keys are introduced in order to sign transactions in the economy. These keys do not represent ownership of the tokens held by the TokenHolder, rather they represent the ability to spend a predefined amount of Tokens in the economy.

The TokenHolder contract leverages Multi-sig logic and requires multiple owner/wallet keys to sign transactions involving the addition of owner-keys, and authorization of Ephemeral keys in order to support multiple devices. Multiple ownership keys are also required to authorize spending by Ephemeral keys. This authorization can, however, be revoked by any one key.

With OpenST v0.9.2, the protocol enabled enriched token transfers between holders of tokens. With OpenST v0.9.3, gateway was introduced, to fully decentralize interaction between the value and utility chains. The addition of the TokenRules contract in OpenST v0.9.4 represents the decentralization of rule design and allows every economy administrator to add rule contracts that serve their users.

TokenRules contract serves as the repository of all the Rules added by the economy administrator. These Rule contracts can be designed by the economy administrators to best represent their business logic.

This release also includes a simple TransferRule which supports token transfers between internal users in an economy.