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Elements Project blockchain platform
====================================
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[](https://github.com/ElementsProject/elements/releases)
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https://elementsproject.org
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This is the integration and staging tree for the Elements blockchain platform,
a collection of feature experiments and extensions to the Bitcoin protocol.
This platform enables anyone to build their own businesses or networks
pegged to Bitcoin as a sidechain or run as a standalone blockchain with arbitrary asset tokens.
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Modes
-----
Elements supports a few different pre-set chains for syncing. Note though some are intended for QA and debugging only:
* Liquid mode: `elementsd -chain=liquidv1` (syncs with Liquid network)
* Bitcoin mainnet mode: `elementsd -chain=main` (not intended to be run for commerce)
* Bitcoin testnet mode: `elementsd -chain=testnet3`
* Bitcoin regtest mode: `elementsd -chain=regtest`
* Elements custom chains: Any other `-chain=` argument. It has regtest-like default parameters that can be over-ridden by the user by a rich set of start-up options.
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Confidential Assets
----------------
The latest feature in the Elements blockchain platform is Confidential Assets,
the ability to issue multiple assets on a blockchain where asset identifiers
and amounts are blinded yet auditable through the use of applied cryptography.
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* [Announcement of Confidential Assets ](https://blockstream.com/2017/04/03/blockstream-releases-elements-confidential-assets.html )
* [Confidential Assets Whitepaper ](https://blockstream.com/bitcoin17-final41.pdf ) to be presented [April 7th at Financial Cryptography 2017 ](http://fc17.ifca.ai/bitcoin/schedule.html ) in Malta
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* [Confidential Assets Tutorial ](contrib/assets_tutorial/assets_tutorial.py )
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* [Confidential Assets Demo ](https://github.com/ElementsProject/confidential-assets-demo )
* [Elements Code Tutorial ](https://elementsproject.org/elements-code-tutorial/overview ) covering blockchain configuration and how to use the main features.
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Features of the Elements blockchain platform
----------------
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Compared to Bitcoin itself, it adds the following features:
* [Confidential Assets][asset-issuance]
* [Confidential Transactions][confidential-transactions]
* [Federated Two-Way Peg][federated-peg]
* [Signed Blocks][signed-blocks]
* [Additional opcodes][opcodes]
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Previous elements that have been integrated into Bitcoin:
* Segregated Witness
* Relative Lock Time
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Elements deferred for additional research and standardization:
* [Schnorr Signatures][schnorr-signatures]
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Additional RPC commands and parameters:
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* [RPC Docs ](https://elementsproject.org/en/doc/ )
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Testing and code review is the bottleneck for development; we get more pull
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requests than we can review and test on short notice. Please be patient and help out by testing
other people's pull requests, and remember this is a security-critical project where any mistake might cost people
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lots of money.
### Automated Testing
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Developers are strongly encouraged to write [unit tests ](src/test/README.md ) for new code, and to
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submit new unit tests for old code. Unit tests can be compiled and run
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(assuming they weren't disabled during the generation of the build system) with: `ctest` . Further details on running
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and extending unit tests can be found in [/src/test/README.md ](/src/test/README.md ).
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There are also [regression and integration tests ](/test ), written
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in Python.
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These tests can be run (if the [test dependencies ](/test ) are installed) with: `build/test/functional/test_runner.py`
(assuming `build` is your build directory).
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The CI (Continuous Integration) systems make sure that every pull request is built for Windows, Linux, and macOS,
and that unit/sanity tests are run automatically.
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License
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-------
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Elements is released under the terms of the MIT license. See [COPYING ](COPYING ) for more
information or see http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT.
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[confidential-transactions]: https://elementsproject.org/features/confidential-transactions
[opcodes]: https://elementsproject.org/features/opcodes
[federated-peg]: https://elementsproject.org/features#federatedpeg
[signed-blocks]: https://elementsproject.org/features#signedblocks
[asset-issuance]: https://elementsproject.org/features/issued-assets
[schnorr-signatures]: https://elementsproject.org/features/schnorr-signatures
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What is the Elements Project?
-----------------
Elements is an open source, sidechain-capable blockchain platform. It also allows experiments to more rapidly bring technical innovation to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
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Learn more on the [Elements Project website ](https://elementsproject.org )
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https://github.com/ElementsProject/elementsproject.github.io
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Secure Reporting
------------------
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See [our vulnerability reporting guide ](SECURITY.md )
