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	Author	Topic: Byteball: Blackbytes FAQ (Read 27755 times)
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LoyceV (OP)

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Byteball: Blackbytes FAQ

July 14, 2017, 04:29:41 PM
Last edit: November 10, 2020, 12:17:37 PM by LoyceV

Merited by dbshck (5), BitcoinHodler (5), NeuroticFish (3), coingrow (1)

Very quick summary
Byteball has two build-in currencies: bytes and blackbytes. Bytes can be traded at Bittrex, blackbytes are untraceable and can't be traded at an exchange (yet). They can only be exchanged after pairing wallets. The Byteball wallet has a chat in which you can do this.
For general information on Byteball, go to the main thread. My thread is meant to understand blackbytes.
Until recently, blackbytes were a bit of a mystery to me, so I did some experiments. I can recommend it: create at least 2 new wallets for testing purposes, send a small amount of bytes and blackbytes, and play around with the features Byteball offers.

Nomenclature
bytes = base unit
kB = 1 thousand bytes
MB= 1 million bytes (currently worth about $0.50)
GB/GBYTE = 1 billion bytes (currently worth about $500)

blackbytes = base unit
kBB = 1 thousand blackbytes
MBB = 1 million blackbytes
GBB = 1 billion blackbytes (currently worth about 0.02 GBYTE ($10) according to Slack)

Fees
Byteball requires 1 byte fee (paid to the Witnesses) per byte of data it stores in the DAG. A GBYTE transaction costs about 600 bytes fee ($0.0003) without special conditions, a GBB transaction can be larger, say up to 10,000 bytes ($0.005), depending on your exact payment. Low enough to neglect, just remember keep a few bytes in your wallet if you want to send blackbytes.

Blackbytes trading
Slack channel #trading_blackbyte has a bot that shows BID and ASK orders, but you need to do manual pairing. Byteball Wiki explains how.

My test setup:
Image Loading...

These 4 light wallets all run as a different user.
I can definitely recommend playing around with a Byteball wallet with just some play money in there. I installed a VM for this, created 4 Byteball wallets under 4 different usernames, sent 8 MB and 16 MBB (worth only a few bucks) to one of them, and played around with many of the features. It gives more confidence in understanding the wallet, without risking my real wallet.

Test results
Q. What happens when I restore an old backup after receiving blackbytes?
A. The blackbytes are gone!
Q. After restoring my backup (see previous Q.), I request the sender to click "re-send private payloads". Do I receive my blackbytes again?
A. Yes.

Q. What happens if I restore an old backup after sending blackbytes?
A. The wallet shows the wrong number of blackbytes.
Q. After restoring my backup (see previous Q.), I try to send blackbytes. Does this work?
A. No. Failure: "Could not send payment: precommit callback failed".

This is crucial to understand: after restoring an old backup, the receiving party can restore his blackbytes if the sending party re-sends them. If the sending party restores an old backup, he loses the blackbytes he had in a change address.

Q. Would a 1 out of 2 multisig wallet solve this?
A. Yes!
Suppose your computer crashes right after sending or receiving blackbytes. That means your latest backup doesn't have them. But, if you have a 1 out of 2 multisig wallet on another device, that wallet still holds your new blackbytes! After restoring the backup you have 2 different amounts of blackbytes (one correct, the other incorrect). After I've sent all blackbytes from the correct wallet to another wallet, the incorrect (multisig) wallet also shows 0 blackbytes. Problem solved, blackbytes saved!

Q. What happens to a 1-in-2 multisig wallet when blackbytes are sent when one of the two is offline?
A. Payment arrives in the online wallet. When the other wallet comes online too, it quickly updates it's blackbytes balance to the right value.

Q. Why can't I send a certain amount of blackbytes?
A. User "glitch" (on Slack) explained Blackbytes very well: "it (Blackbytes) exists in pieces of 1 2 5 10 20 50 100 etc. i figure it is like when you get your money at the start of a game of monopoly..."
From the 16MBB I sent to my test-wallet, I couldn't make any transaction for less than 100kBB. I know it is possible to make smaller payments, but only if you have the "smaller units" in your wallet.

Q. Why can't I remove a device from my paired devices list in chat after a smart transaction?
A. I don't know. User "slackJore" (on Slack) has a workaround: "you can rename the device to zzAnnoyingDevice or something and sort it to the bottom"

Q. What happens when 2 wallets connect with the same pairing code?
A. Only the first one who uses it gets paired. Each device needs it's own unique pairing code.

Q. Can I test this and send you some (black)bytes?
A. Sure! Pair your wallet with mine, ask me for my payment address, and send me any (black)bytes you want to get rid of. I might send some back. For testing: just stick to small amounts, see how it works. First, choose a pairing code:
A8JlWkrGQd9XxG7VPAtyWs2uzVuVqMlJOBpu8rusG8v0@byteball.org/bb#h4VO6hp/BJHS
A8JlWkrGQd9XxG7VPAtyWs2uzVuVqMlJOBpu8rusG8v0@byteball.org/bb#zYUIllnVzkc/
A8JlWkrGQd9XxG7VPAtyWs2uzVuVqMlJOBpu8rusG8v0@byteball.org/bb#CLZm7uPmOR7I
A8JlWkrGQd9XxG7VPAtyWs2uzVuVqMlJOBpu8rusG8v0@byteball.org/bb#3BxgIHacjYV6
If it connects to "New", that means someone used it already. Remove "New" and use another one.
If it connects to "test1", you've reached my testing wallet. Say hi!

Analogy^*
Think of Blackbytes as a post-it handed to you by the previous owner. The post-it says: "you are now the new owner". Together with handing you the post-it, the DAG registers that the previous owner is no longer the owner of these Blackbytes. The DAG does not register who received the post-it.
Now, if you lose this post-it, the previous owner can simply give you another post-it that says: "you are now the new owner".
If you want to give your Blackbytes to someone else, your post-it contains all the information you need to create a new valid post-it for the receiving user, and to register the change of ownership in the DAG.

No spam
All my threads are now self-moderated to stop signature spam. I will remove all irrelevant posts. If you quote the entire OP, your entry will be deleted.
Once in a while I'll summarize posts and clean up this thread.

Disclaimer
Use this information at your own risk.

Further reading
Hiding entire content of on-chain transactions (by Byteball dev Tonych)
Byteball Wiki on Blackbytes

You're more than welcome to add more knowledge on blackbytes to this thread!

^* tonych: "Very good analogy!"

¡uʍop ǝpᴉsdn pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ ɥʇᴉʍ ʎuunɟ ʞool no⅄

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LoyceV (OP)

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Activity: 3766
Merit: 19518

Thick-Skinned Gang Leader and Golden Feather 2021