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The Upcoming Bitcoin and Altcoin Wallets 6 for WordPress: What to expect!

wallets6 dashed-slug.net

The Upcoming Bitcoin and Altcoin Wallets 6 for WordPress: What to expect!

Many of you have been asking me what I’ve been up to these days. I’ve been busy with Bitcoin and Altcoin Wallets version 6.0.0.

WARNING: This article is going to be a longboi!

UPDATE: Some of you have been contacting me asking on the status of wallets6 development. Honestly am surprised at how many people are looking forward to wallets6, so thank you for this! I am currently working on rewriting the last extension, the Exchange extension. wallets6 is almost ready. Then there’s a few bugfixes across all products, integration testing, documentation, and website changes. It was a mistake to try to estimate development time. It will be ready when it’s ready!

Why?

Let’s face it: The plugin currently sucks, and it’s extensions also suck! You know it, I know it, the world knows it. Every day I’m amazed at how you, the brave admins and webmasters, put up with it!

Some time in August of 2020 I got fed up with the low quality, and decided to rewrite everything from scratch. The plugin, the extensions, the documentation, the build process, the website, everything…

For this, I had to put the existing plugins into “maintenance mode”: I stopped developing enhancements. I am now only fixing bugs to the existing codebase, when needed.

This is a normal thing that can happen in software projects. Incremental steps are safer, but too many things had to change all at once. A new design was needed to go forward. I hate refactoring because it’s risky. But sometimes you have to do it, in order to move forward.

I didn’t want to say much until now. I had to first prove that all of this can be done.

My main concern: The transition has to be painless for you, the brave webmasters.

The parent plugin is over 75% done now, and I have a clear plan on how to finish it and how to re-write the extensions. So now, I can rant about the reasons for my decision here, in one long paragraph:

I wanted to stop using error-prone SQL queries and start using post types for all the plugin data. I had to to re-think the coin adapters, so that ERC-20 can finally be incorporated. This meant decoupling the concepts of wallet and currency. I also wanted to do away with the fiat coin adapter extension, which was an ugly hack, and to integrate fiat coin support into the parent plugin. The frontend UI templates have terrible performance, and even worse code encapsulation. The JSON-API, being custom-made, also sucks; it should have been implemented as an extension to the WP REST API. Then, caching and authentication could be delegated to WordPress. Most importantly, I wanted to improve code quality: I wanted to reduce the number of issues/bugs that users are experiencing. To that end, I am improving unit test coverage, and am now also automating integration tests; I also do more and better static code analysis. As WordPress is moving away from PHP 5.x, there’s no longer a point in avoiding the new language constructs. Typing declarations in particular, can improve code quality by a lot. Finally, I wanted a clearer admin UI. And I wanted the plugin to be friendlier to PHP developers, and therefore to allow easy integration with other plugins. PayPal and other credit card processor integrations, which many of you have been asking for, should be custom “glue code” that anyone can write, not an entire plugin.

Here’s what you can expect from Bitcoin and Altcoin Wallets version 6.0.0, which will be out sometime in Q2 of 2021 (or Q3 at the latest!).

Post types

Up to version 5.x, as many of you know, the plugin data was stored in two custom tables: wp_wallets_txs and wp_wallets_adds. There was a custom .csv exporter/importer. Coin adapter settings were mostly stored as WordPress options (on the wp_options table). This is not ideal for a number of reasons. Custom SQL queries are error-prone and require a lot of maintenance. Code readability, maintainability, and safety suffered because of this choice.

All data is now implemented as WordPress Custom Post types:

Post TypeDescription
WalletEncapsulates the communication settings with a wallet backend.
CurrencyEncapsulates data related to the coin, token or currency itself.
TransactionA deposit, withdrawal, or debit/credit entry that affects the balance of the user to which it belongs.
AddressA deposit or withdrawal address, belonging to a user.
CPTs introduced in wallets6.

With this change:

  • You can now use the WordPress editor to edit wallet settings, currency settings, transactions and addresses.
  • Wallet connection settings can be backed up and migrated from one installation to another, like any other content.
  • An admin can create new transactions and thus modify the user balances.
  • Transactions and addresses now have their own taxonomies. This lets you and other plugin extensions to organize the data using tags.
  • Exporting and importing becomes a breeze using existing tools.

Wallet post type

  • Wallets are now a custom post type.
  • A wallet is a post that holds connection settings to a hot wallet. (A hot wallet can be something like Bitcoin core, a Monero full node, a TurtleCoin full node, a CoinPayments account, or, in the near future, an Ethereum node.)
  • Wallets are now decoupled from currencies. This is the most major improvement in the plugin’s architecture!!!
  • You must create wallet posts for each of your hot wallets. This information will not be auto-migrated from 5.x (sorry).
  • You must create and assign currencies to your wallet(s). A wallet can now have one, or many currencies.

Coin adapters are out, Wallet adapters are in!

  • A wallet can have one, or many, currencies.
  • Therefore coin adapters are replaced with the new wallet adapters. This breaks compatibility with existing coin adapters (sorry).
  • All the coin adapters offered on dashed-slug will be rewritten as wallet adapters.
  • New wallet adapters can withdraw to multiple addresses at once to save on tx fees!

Currency post type

  • A currency has a name, ticker symbol and associated transaction fees.
  • A currency also holds current exchange rate data against a selection of other currencies.
  • You must associate each currency with a hot wallet that you have created.

Ticker symbols vs currency_id

In the past, coins were always uniquely identified by their ticker symbol (e.g. “BTC” for Bitcoin).

This is no longer viable. The number of cryptocurrencies has since exploded, and there are many collisions.

Now that currencies have their own post type, the post_id can be used to uniquely identify a currency. Shortcodes that previously accepted the symbol attribute, now also accept the currency_id attribute.

Example: Bitcoin on your system is the Currency with post ID #1234. Then, the following two are now equivalent:

[balance symbol="BTC"]

(loads the first currency with symbol “BTC”)

[balance currency_id="1234"]

(loads the currency indicated by the unique post_id)

Simpler exchange rates

In version 5.x, there were multiple exchange rate providers. Setting a custom, fixed exchange rate was a complex process involving filters.

The situation now is simple:

Currency typeExchange Rate Provider
Fiat/government currenciesfixer.io (requires free API key)
Cryptocurrenciescoingecko.com (free)

Now, only Coingecko is used for cryptocurrency exchange rates, and fixer.io is used for fiat currency rates.

For each currency you have two choices:

  • Associate your cryptocurrency with a CoinGecko ID. The plugin will help you in this. It does a fuzzy name match and gives you the most likely candidates for your currency. The plugin will then periodically update the exchange rate to those currencies.
  • Set the exchange rate manually. You can set the exchange rate of your currency some major cryptocurrencies and/or fiat currencies. Only one exchange rate value is needed.

For fiat currencies, only a fixer.io API key is required. Once you enter it, the plugin will start updating fiat currency exchange rates periodically.

Address post type

  • Addresses are now a post type.
  • Addresses are associated to currencies and to transactions.
  • Addresses belong to their authors/users.
  • Admins can create, edit and delete Addresses.
  • There can be deposit addresses, like before, and now also withdrawal addresses.
  • For fiat currencies, Addresses can be physical home addresses.
  • Old deposit addresses are migrated from wp_wallets_adds.
  • Old bank deposit/withdrawals from the Fiat Coin Adapter are also migrated.
  • Known withdrawal addresses are displayed as suggestions in the [wallets_withdraw] UI.

Transaction post type

  • Transactions are now a post type.
  • A transaction post is an entry in the plugin’s ledger that affects a user’s balance.
  • This can be a deposit or withdrawal or move as before.
  • An internal transaction (move) is either a debit or a credit entry, and does not correspond to a blockchain entity.
  • A wallet adapter can create and modify transactions freely. This allows more flexibility in adapter development.

As an admin, you can create, edit and delete any type of transaction. So be careful who you give the capability manage_wallets to!

“With great manage_wallets, comes great capability.”

Confucius, probably

Integers, not floats

  • All transaction amounts are now stored as integers internally. No more floats, no more floating-point errors.
  • Decimal denominations are displayed to the user by dividing these integers by the amount of decimals allowed by the currency.
  • For internal calculations/storage only integers are used. Not one Satoshi will ever again be lost (or gained)!

Data migration

Existing data will be automatically migrated to Address and Transaction entities. The migration process deserves its own article, and will be detailed with the release notes for wallets6. This is something that works out-of-the-box, but as an admin you may want to know more about what happens to your user data. For now, you should know that transactions and addresses will be migrated automatically, but you will have to re-connect your wallets and currencies when the time comes. The migration will be extra safe and you will be able to revert to wallets 5.x if something goes wrong. No data will be deleted, only copied over.

Admin/Backend

The Wallets menu was getting too crowded. Here’s what’s new:

  • A more useful dashboard section. Actual statistics on recent plugin usage.
  • Metaboxes for the four new post types. Admins can now edit content like any other post.
  • All other settings are neatly organized, using tabs, under the WordPress Settings menu.
  • Fiat deposit and withdrawal tools are under the Tools menu. These are there to process bank transfers in a backwards compatible way with the Fiat Coin adapter. You may also create any deposits/withdrawals directly via the transaction editor.

Frontend UI elements

The frontend UI elements will keep the same appearance. The customizer settings will also remain unchanged for now.

Templates

  • The templating system, introduced in 5.0.0, is preserved and expanded.
  • A UI template now encapsulates the markup, and associated JavaScript and CSS styling.
  • When you copy and modify a UI, you now have more control. (Previously, part of the JavaScript was hard-coded. Now the JavaScript is part of the template and you can override it.)
  • You can now initialize many UIs to a particular currency, without using the ugly template="static"hack.

Shortcodes

  • The shortcodes remain backwards-compatible. There is no need to edit your existing shortcodes.
  • There is no longer a distinction between dynamic and static UIs.
  • A few new UIs are added. The [wallets_status] shortcode will display the status of currencies and whether their hot wallets are online.
  • Additional attributes are added. You can now specify a currency by its symbol OR post_id (see the discussion on currencies and ticket symbols, above).

WP REST API

The frontend no longer requires the old JSON-API, but is now communicating with your server via the WordPress RESTful API.

This brings several advantages:

  • No more caching issues
  • No more need for token bearer authentication. Authentication is delegated to WordPress.
  • A more uniform API experience. The RESTful paradigm is used in all endpoints.

Breaking changes related to JSON-API!

I realize that some of you may have built android applications communicating with the existing JSON-API. If you are depending on the JSON-API to continue to function as expected, please contact me. I’d like to know.

I may be able to re-develop the JSON-API on top of the new architecture, but it would be an enormous amount of work. Too many things have changed. Eventually the JSON-API has to be removed, either sooner or later. Again, if you think you are affected by this, please contact me.

EDIT: Turns out some of you have actually developed apps on the old JSON-API. The wallets6 plugin will feature a Legacy JSON-API that will be compatible with JSON-API v3, but works with the new architecture. It is marked deprecated and disabled by default, but if you have an already developed app that talks to the plugin, you can use this without changes to your app.

New cron jobs scheduler

  • Several jobs are required to keep the plugin running. Examples: data migration, emails, exchange rates, deposits, withdrawals, all are tasks that need to run asynchronously.
  • A cron job scheduler now handles task priorities – much like in an operating system. Helps with scalability.
  • Instead of a custom URL, you now must trigger /wp-cron.php to make the jobs ran fast. (This is not strictly necessary if your site is getting frequent traffic.)
  • Emails are no longer sent immediately. They are queued in a WordPress transient. A cron job sends them asynchronously in batches.
  • The cron job that processes crypto withdrawals is upgraded: it can now batch withdrawals of the same coin together, and save on fees. (This requires that the underlying wallet adapter supports transactions to multiple outputs.)

Capabilities/Access control

  • Access control is done via WordPress capabilities. The same capabilities are used as before.
  • The only exception is that the capability access_wallets_api is removed. This is due to the transition from the JSON-API to the RESTful API.
  • As before, there is a capability editor that allows you to assign capabilities to user roles.
  • The capability editor is extended. It now includes capabilities that control which user roles can edit the four post types, Wallets, Currencies, Transactions and Addresses. Most admins will not need to edit this.

Quality

This is where the devops fun begins!

By improving code quality on several fronts means less bugs, and therefore much less frustration for you, the users, and for me, the developer!

PHP versions

Version 6 of the plugin will require PHP 7.2. If you are still on 5.6, you may want to upgrade to something more recent. WordPress is moving away from PHP 5.x and currently recommends PHP 7.4 anyway.

The plugin will also be tested with PHP 8.

Rationale: Moving to 7.2 means that now code can be organized in namespaces. Also, types can be used in function/method signatures, preventing bugs. Static code analysis with phan works more efficiently with types, and now discovers more bugs for me early on.

Testing

Unit testing coverage is greatly improved. However, unit testing was never really that much useful in practice. Most actual bugs occur due to integration with WordPress and other plugins, not due to defects in unit implementation.

I have developed an integration testing framework that is similar to what other big plugins are using: A grunt target that installs the plugin into a WordPress and runs PHPunit. Instead of mocking WordPress functions and filters, it’s now possible to test the integration of the plugin with an actual WordPress instance, connected to a live MySQL DB and to the network. This allows me to catch even more issues before they arise.

This was one of the major challenges in this complex transition. It is also what will carry the plugin to the future! Rigorous testing is a necessity, not a luxury.

Extensions

Here’s what the fate of the existing extensions will be:

Fiat Coin AdapterFunctionality merged into the parent plugin.
ExchangeThere will be a new version, compatible with version 6.0.0. This version will also resolve the currently very poor performance of the frontend UIs. Orders and trades will continue to be stored in custom SQL tables for now. No changes to the shortcodes are expected.
Tip the AuthorThere will be a new version with minimal changes.
WooCommerce payment gatewayThere will be a new version with minimal changes.
FaucetThere will be a new version with minimal changes.
AirdropThere will be a new version with minimal changes to the end user. The backend will need to be reworked.
CoinPayments wallet adapterThere will be a new version compatible with the new system. It will auto-create enabled currencies, so that you don’t need to create manually every single currency that you wish to use.
Monero wallet adapterA new version will be developed.
Full node multicoin adapterMerged into the parent plugin. The plugin can now connect to any Bitcoin-like wallet, without installing additional wallet adapters.
TurtleCoin adapter.A new version will be developed.

Documentation

I am rewriting the documentation to be clearer, more concise, easier to read. There will be a 1-1 relation between admin screens and documentation chapters.

The existing PHP-API has been re-developed for backwards compatibility, where possible. The new way to interact with transactions and addresses via PHP is an Object-Oriented API, but most of the old hooks are preserved, where they make sence.

The developer’s documentation will be centered around practical code snippets on how to do simple tasks.

The road ahead

I want to release all of this by the summer of 2021. Please realize that this is an ambitious goal for one person, but I can do it! If I can’t, then Q3 at the latest.

At first, many of you will encounter difficulties with the transition to wallets6. (again, sorry for this!)

My focus immediately after the release, will be to help you with these issues.

Once the dust settles, this is my plan:

ERC-20

Clearly, the ERC-20 saga has to come to an end. Ethereum full nodes and ERC-20 support will be top on my priorities.

In the past, many of you have requested this. But with the old coin adapter architecture, it was impossible to have currencies that incur a deposit fee. A deposit fee is necessary for ERC-20 tokens, because these must then be transferred from the user deposit address (account) to the site account. This costs gas which needs to be deducted from somewhere.

Game

Several of you have observed that this platform is mostly suitable for games, such as games of chance. I intend to create at least one casino-type game. This will be profitable on its own, and will be an example of how to develop other games.

Things I can’t work on right now:

I can’t do everything! Sorry! All of the above is already a lot for now.

PayPal, or other credit card or fiat gateways

As I mentioned several times before, I do not intend to work on a gateway to credit card processors.

However: The new documentation will showcase example code on how to easily create deposit transactions. If your payment gateway plugin emits a WordPress action, you can attach a few lines of code there.

DeFi or non-custodial wallets

I am aware that some of you are asking for MetaMask integration. However this is out of scope of this plugin. This is a plugin for custodial wallets. Also, this is not a plugin that has anything to do with smart contracts or the recent DeFi craze. It’s just too much of a stretch to include any such features right now.

Feedback

Thank you to all of you providing constructive feedback on the forums and over email. I respond to all queries at least once a day on working days.

I remain available to give advise and answer questions about the plugin. If you have a cool idea, you can always share it with me, but know that I probably don’t have the resources to implement it at this time.

If you spot a defect with any of the plugins, or if you encounter other issues, please contact me.

I am opening a new forum on the website, so we can discuss the Transition from version 5.x to the new version 6.0.0.

Comments:49

  1. whoa this is gonna wreck our business! we use a custom coin adapter in our POS and ATM at over 10 Brick and mortar Locations. we use the javascript move and wd functions mainly in the background but this sounds like we will need to rewrite everything we have in place. i hope there is TIME b4 this is mandatory to switch over so we can get this working 🙁

    1. Not to worry. The upgrade will take months to complete and in any case it is not mandatory. You can first take your time to test the new version on your integration environment, and only deploy once you are certain that everything works.

    2. Hello, just to keep your worries at rest, please see the edit to the article regarding the JSON-API. There will be a legacy JSON-API that is 100% backwards compatible, as well as a legacy PHP API that will be very similar to the old one.

  2. Bold and risky, but exciting !!! I am sure that your vision and passion will be rewarded! Thank you for all the work and effort. You are a great man. It is natural that the plugin has an evolutionary development and it is logical that there will be a transition period. Better quality than quantity.
    The best is ahead. Good luck and inspiration to you!

  3. Sounds Great Alex, Can I volunteer to be a test subject 🙂
    I have a few domains used purely for development testing and have a small team of testers who can put the code through its paces on a “semi-live” closed test environment.

    1. Thank you. When the time comes, I may send you a release candidate. For now my main worry is to get it all done in a reasonable amount of time.

  4. hey Alex, this sounds very, very good, I’m with a project on hiatus because I haven’t had an ERC20 for 1 year. what do you say, put the waiting list project back to coming soon. Thank you very much for your effort and dedication, I will be very vigilant to launch a project that will help millions of people around the world. Also think of a cardano plugin please. And if behind the erc20 plugin you could work on a cardano node adapter. Thank you Alex, Thanks from my heart. Long live the slug.

    1. Hello and thank you!

      To give you a general timeframe, assuming I can do this release by summer of 2021, I’m then hoping to release an ERC-20 adapter by the end of the year if all goes well. A Cardano adapter is unfortunately out of the question at this time. I am no longer accepting suggestions or feature requests, as I will be busy with the things I mentioned in this article. Good luck with your project, sounds great!

      with regards

  5. Hi Alex my site is https://ezcryptodeal.com/

    I want to promote the exchange to attract users, but i have some problems, there on system its showing some user balances but actually there is no actual btc or ltc in the wallets, how do i edit or delete those balances that do not exist? do you have any email address where you can be reached?

    1. Hello,

      IF you are 100% certain that you understand WHY you have wrong balances, then you can also restore the issue. Balances are simply the sum of user transactions (deposits, withdrawals, internal transfers and trades). If you have edited transactions, simply restore the transactions to their original state. Do not cancel deposits, do not delete transactions, etc.

      If you do not understand why you arrived at a state with wrong balances, post a new thread on the forums, or contact me by email.

      My address is here: https://www.dashed-slug.net/contact/

      with regards

    1. Good question. It is probably a good idea for me to upload a few RC versions (release candidates) for 6.0.0 on this site before the final release. This will let people who want to help, report any integration issues that I may have missed. As we get closer to the release I will put out an article about this. In any case, you don’t need to worry about the release, because it will not break any old data in the database, and it will be super easy to revert to a 5.x version if anything at all goes wrong. Hope this answers your question. I will post more information on the blog when the time comes. I am still a few months away from being ready to upload 6.0.0 RC1.

        1. Thank you. When the plugin is out, I will upload an RC (Release Candidate) version on the website before the final release on wordpress.org. There will be a blog announcement and everyone will be able to test and give feedback.

  6. It would be nice to add function that allow user to earn interest once reached an amount of crypto

    1. Thanks, I can see the usefulness of this. It sounds like something that can be added to the Airdrop extension. A recurring airdrop could have a “mimimum balance” and a “maximum balance” fields. I am taking a note for it in the backlog and will look at it after the release of wallets6.

  7. new user, looking forward to implementing this into my business. Love that you have Turtlecoin, that is a coin that is going places.

    1. Hello and welcome. Yes Turtlecoin is pretty cool. Thanks, my biggest hope is that 2022 will be the year when I provide integration with ERC-20.

    1. Well, in the past I’ve made the mistake of giving out some time estimates, even though normally I never do this. My hope was to release this sometime this summer, but now this seems impossible. The parent plugin is 95% done, and four out of the eight extensions that will be released are 100% ready, with the other four in the analysis and design phase. Then there’s the documentation which is halfway done, and the website changes which are still in the design phase. Long story short, wallets6 should be out by the end of this bull market. Hopefully people will again lose interest in crypto for a couple of years, giving me time to iron out issues with the new plugin and to integrate with ERC-20 and build a sample game of chance on top of the plugin’s APIs.

      If you have more questions about the transition to the new plugin, I have set up a support forum for this: https://www.dashed-slug.net/forums/forum/migration/

  8. I hope to see this new plugins sooner.
    This is a whole lot of work for you, but you are strong. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Long live the slug!

    1. Hello and thank you! I have mistakenly given an ETA for the new plugin and its extensions. It is now apparent to me that I must stick to my original stance, and not give estimates. Not only is it hard to estimate how long development tasks take, but more importantly it’s hard to estimate how much time other things in my life take from my work. The good news is that the work is 90% done. The bad news is, I don’t know how long the remaining 10% will take! So, it will be done when it’s done!

  9. Hey Alex, your plugins are amazing man. My website is built around them. Really looking forward for the upcoming new versions. Are you aiming to release in 2021?

    1. Hello,

      Thanks man! Unfortunately I can’t say for sure. All I can say is that I was wrong to give out a time estimate. So I won’t do the same mistake again.

      with regards

    1. Hello,

      Yes, this was also my hope. However this now seems unlikely. It will be a few more months. Sorry about that. I will not give out any more estimates, so that I won’t be wrong again!

      with regards

      1. Do you do Custom Development on a per-deliverable basis by chance? Gamipress integration would be killer for this plugin

    1. Hello, unfortunately no. I am currently not adding any user features. Just rewriting the codebase so that it’s future-proof. After wallets6 is released, I may look at this at some point, as it’s a good idea.

      1. Any chance of a MetaMask integration in the future? Do you do freelance custom development? I’ve got a team of 12, we can afford a nice sized contract.

        1. Hello Ryan.
          No, unfortunately there will not be MetaMask integration. Any non-custodial solutions are incompatible with the plugin architecture. Furthermore, I am not available for any custom development. This is in the FAQ.
          with regards

  10. Hello Alex…
    Just checking up on you. What’s the heads up? I’m madly waiting for an enhanced Payment option (gateway) integration. This manual stuff is a time killer. Let’s add that code.

    1. Hello,
      Still working on wallets6. It will be a few more months before the release. There will be news on the blog when it’s ready.
      Not sure what you mean by “manual stuff”? Are you referring to manual deposits/withdrawals of fiat currencies? If so, I will NOT be providing any other options for fiat currencies any time soon. But here’s the good news: The next iteration of the plugin brings improvements not only in the code, but also in the documentation which will be online and ultra-clear. Step-by-step instructions for everything. (This is one reason why it’s taking so long.) Developers will be able to easily create wallet adapters (wallet adapters replace coin adapters). Sorry if I misunderstood your question, please post more details on the forum if you meant something else!
      with regards

        1. Hello and thanks! No updates yet, just working on wallets6! Only minor tasks remain, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple of months, hopefully, if all goes well. I am not interested in NFTs and they are out of scope of this plugin.

  11. Alexg (I’m building a new site and looking into using your extension so if you are looking for testers I’d love to try out the beta and get feedback to you). It’s a small project without a lot of users so not huge problem if something doesn’t work right away.

  12. Hello AlexG, being a lot while. How are you doing? And how’s the project?
    The comment section looks dry.

    1. Hello, this comments section is not where you will find news about the update. You can follow the facebook or twitter account. I have recently posted an update on the progress for wallets6.

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