<commit_before>---
title: Announcing Sidechain Elements: Open source code and developer sidechains for advancing Bitcoin
source:
github: 
---
We're excited to announce the release of Sidechain Elements. Sidechains extend
Bitcoin functionality through interoperable blockchain networks and today's open
source release includes an
experime[![elements_logo](https://www.blockstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/elements_logo-300x78.png)](https://www.blockstream.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/elements_logo.png)ntal
sidechain that has a number of new working capabilities. With the release of
Sidechain Elements, Blockstream is moving this effort into the community. We're
inviting developers to work with us, to test and use the code for their
projects, and to share their proposals and code for additional capabilities.

Sidechains are decentralized, peer-to-peer networks that provide useful
security, risk, and performance enhancements for global systems of value
exchange that don't need intermediaries, central banks or other third parties.
They are distributed ledgers that are interoperable with each other and with
Bitcoin, leveraging the most secure blockchain and code infrastructure in an
additive way. Sidechains enable innovators to safely develop new applications
without jeopardizing Bitcoin's core code and putting billions of dollars worth
of digital currency at risk.

We began our work on sidechains almost one year ago first through extensive
discussions and debate with others in the technical community, and then in the
publication of a
[whitepaper](https://www.blockstream.com/2014/10/23/why-we-are-co-founders-of-blockstream/
"Why we co-founded Blockstream") and [launch of
Blockstream](https://www.blockstream.com/2014/11/17/blockstream-closes-21m-seed-round/
"Blockstream closes $21M seed round"). Over the past several months, we've been
coding and testing initial implementations all in preparation for today's
release.

Sidechain Elements consists of several components: the core network software to
build an initial testing sidechain, eight new features not currently supported
by Bitcoin, a basic wallet, and the code for moving coins between blockchains.
We've selected a collection of elements chosen to be both exciting and useful to
three audiences with overlapping interests: the broader Bitcoin community; core
technologists and smart-contract programmers; and businesses just starting to
explore blockchain use cases. The new elements include Confidential
Transactions, Basic Asset Issuance, Relative Lock Time and several others. We've
posted a video of our CTO, <NAME>, walking through all of new
capabilities.

The initial sidechain included in Sidechain Elements works on a federated
security model; while it's still peer-to-peer and consensus-based, security for
the blockchain is provided by a set of predefined functionaries in an
arrangement called a Fed-Peg. A number of academic groups and individual
contributors have agreed to run the Sidechain Elements Fed-Peg, including
blockchain groups at Stanford, MIT, and Princeton. The sidechain does not
include mining or proof-of-work at this point.

In the coming weeks, we'll be publishing an early draft of a proposal for a
fully decentralized, two-way peg and merge-mined sidechains, which will enable
us to test other types of sidechain functionality.

Sidechains are an emerging technology, and this work is in its early stages. The
code and working sidechain provide a basis for research and prototyping. We'll
undertake many of these efforts, and anticipate many others will happen
independent of Blockstream with over 30 major financial institutions launching
blockchain innovation projects, as well as interest in this tech from other
Bitcoin and blockchain-based ventures.

**Here be dragons:** While much of the underlying science isn't new, this is an
alpha code release. We've intentionally focused on a Testnet sidechain and
strongly urge others to avoid implementations that involve bitcoin or other
real-world assets. Fiduciary code like this requires significant peer review
before moving onto production environments.

Sidechain Elements is available under the MIT open source license, along with
initial documentation, on Blockstream's code repo. We'll make ourselves
available to work with developers, and we invite the technical community to join
the discussion and get involved in moving sidechains and distributed ledger
technology forward. Complete info and links can be found on our new
[Developers](https://blockstream.com/developers/) page.<commit_msg>Refactor post to be about incubator.<commit_after>---
title: Announcing the New Elements Project
subtitle: Open source code and developer sidechains for advancing Bitcoin.
source: https://github.com/ElementsProject/elementsproject.github.io/blob/hexo/source/_posts/announcing-elements.md
edit: https://github.com/ElementsProject/elementsproject.github.io/edit/hexo/source/_posts/announcing-elements.md
author: martindale
---

We're excited to announce the release of [the New Elements Project][elements].
The Elements Project is a community effort to create and test new extensions to
the Bitcoin protocol.  Core Developers have already announced several of these
new Elements, including [Confidential Transactions][confidential-transactions]
by <NAME> and [Segregated Witness][segregated-witness] by <NAME>.

Along with this new release comes three new community initiatives: **A New
Sidechain Developer Community**, **A New Developer Sidechain, "Bedrock"**, and
**The Bitcoin Incubator Project**.

### New Sidechain: Bedrock
Bedrock is a new sidechain that implements _______ and ______, two Elements that
were not previously available on Alpha, our previous developer sidechain.  Alpha
will continue to operate and be maintained, but we encourage all developers to
begin using and testing with the Bedrock sidechain.  Many consensus-critical
changes are included in the new sidechain, and future work will be based on the
`betanet` branch on GitHub.

### Sidechain Developer Community
We've created [a new public Slack chat][slack] dedicated to connecting
developers working on Elements-related projects.  Slack is a convenient medium
for communication with a broader community, and does not supplant the in-depth
technical discussion that takes place in the #sidechains-dev channel on IRC.  In
fact, we've even opened up IRC access (SSL only) to the Sidechains Developer
Slack, for which you can find connection details on [the Sidechains Gateway
configuration page][sidechains-gateways].

### The Bitcoin Incubator Project
With the support of Bitcoin Core Lead Developer <NAME>, we are
pleased to announce that a new initiative for testing changes to Bitcoin Core
has begun.  Elements that "graduate" from testnet status will enter a new
incubation period on testnet before their deployment on the main Bitcoin
network.  We hope this forms a clear path for repeatable, tested iterations and
improvements on the Bitcoin Protocol that will benefit users of all interests.

### What are Elements?
Elements are bundles of code that extend Bitcoin functionality, and today's
release includes new developer documentation on how the existing Elements work,
in addition to [a new community-managed index of available
Elements][element-list].  Everything on the Elements Project website is stored
in [the ElementsProject.org GitHub repository][github] and can be edited and
contributed to by the community. We hope that you will join us.

[elements]: https://www.elementsproject.org/
[slack]: https://chat.elementsproject.org/
[confidential-transactions]: https://www.elementsproject.org/elements/confidential-transactions
[segregated-witness]: https://www.elementsproject.org/elements/segregated-witness
[sidechains-gateways]: https://sidechains.slack.com/account/gateways
[element-list]: https://www.elementsproject.org/elements/
[github]: https://github.com/ElementsProject/elementsproject.org
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