Pirate (ARRR)is an independent block chain based on Zcash's zk-SNARK (zero knowledge proof) tech and created using Komodo Platform. Pirate is a forced Z transaction coin. No transparent transactions are possible apart from Komodo's Notary Nodes. Notary Nodes have hard-coded transparent addresses that are required in order to conduct delayed Proof of Work services.
Currently, Pirate's transactions are using sprout parameters which can take a very long time to process, ranging from half a minute to an hour in some cases if you have a lot of UTXOs or mined funds. Sprout is not very efficient in sending private Z transactions. Having a powerful computer or server helps but most users may not have that kind of computing power handy. So, currently, users face slow transaction times using Pirate Chain.
We now have a solution. Earlier this year Zcash team finished preparation of the ceremony for Sapling which solves these issues. Sapling will make things work faster. With the Sapling upgrades implemented into the chain, Z transactions will be processed in seconds and not minutes or hours. Here is an informative article written by John Westbrook explaining the benefits of Sapling.
Currently pools, exchanges and other service providers who are running Pirate Chain, handle heavy loads when sending and receiving transactions. The upgrade will make things operate smoothly and without such computational load. Pools, exchanges and other service providers won't need to invest in high-end servers. The Sapling upgrade will keep the chain running and operating efficiently using normal computers. Currently it requires about 3GB+ RAM and a lot of computational power and time to process a z transaction. Sapling will make this happen with only 40MB of RAM and in a split second with very low resource usage.
There are more benefits with this upgrade. Komodo source code is being upgraded to increase block size from 2MB to 4MB. That doubles the capacity. Also, a single transaction size is being increased to 200KB, the current limit is 100KB. Currently you can send Pirate to roughly 50 addresses within a single transaction. After the sapling upgrade, this will double, giving the ability to send funds to 100 addresses.
The sapling upgrades will also make it easier to implement zSPV (Z Simple Payment Validation). This will enable the implementation of mobile wallet apps and point of sale options.
Users must migrate funds from their current sprout addresses to the new sapling addresses prior to the 15th of February 2019. On that date, all sprout addresses will be unusable and any funds in those addresses will no longer be usable.
Key information about the next network upgrade at a glance
- Sapling activation on the 15th December 2018
- Sprout address deactivation from the 15th of February 2019
- Block size increase from 2MB to 4MB
- TX size increase from 100kb to 200kb
- Z transactions in under a few seconds
- Low resource usage; even a Raspberry Pi will be able to handle Pirate Chain
# Frequently asked questions
How to identify or differentiate Sprout and Sapling addresses?
Sprout addresses starts with zc and Sapling addresses starts with zs. Below are examples of valid sprout and sapling address:
Sprout: zcaBDGXgR5WkfViXoGjyh57oxDoSGFEne633FjxqPVzm3yVNiwnpKXxcKEcAYyzCyQKivcSnPZgPrMR5rvxuFY16s4JrJc5
Sapling: zs1fp7h7y348l6nm4qwwqq2ntu8vjtsgkmf7ghntsd72tef2wkzdh8ppyeegv9klaj4zzcpupfr0kd
Are my coins safe?
Your coins are safe as long as you keep a backup of your wallet.dat and/or private key of the address(es) that contains your funds, in a secure place. You will also need to move all of your coins to a new Sapling address by the 15th of February otherwise they will be unusable.
What should an end-user do?
All you have to do is, download the PirateOceanQT wallet and keep using it. For CLI users, compile your daemon locally and keep using it.
If you are storing coins in your computer, after the Sapling activation, you must to create a new Sapling address and use zmigrate dAPP to migrate your funds from your Sprout addresses to a new Sapling address by 15 February 2019. Any coins left in Sprout addresses after that date will be burnt, and completely unusable.
How to migrate funds from zc to zs address using ZMIGRATE dAPP?
1. You need to create a Sapling z address which starts with zs prefix
2. Download the zmigrate dAPP with required Komodo binaries from here
3. Start your Pirate wallet using latest PirateOceanQT or CLI and make sure you are fully synced
4. Copy the zmigrate dapp to the same directory as komodo-cli or komodo-cli.exe in Windows
5. Start the migrate process with the following command ./zmigrate PIRATE zs1fp7h7y348l6nm4qwwqq2ntu8vjtsgkmf7ghntsd72tef2wkzdh8ppyeegv9klaj4zzcpupfr0kd (replace the address with your own zs address that you created in step one)
6. Follow the process until you have no funds left in sprout address
7. Use z_listunspent call and search for and address that starts with zc. If none, that means the migrate has been successful for you. CLI command ./komodo-cli -ac_name=PIRATE z_listunspent
N.B.: Make sure you create the zs address in the same computer you want to migrate from. Otherwise, it will not work.
What happens if I don't move my funds to sapling address before deadline?
You will lose your funds. There would be no way to recover them. There is 2 months to complete this. We recommend you to complete the coin migration at your earliest convenience and remind others to do so as well.
Where can I get help if I need it?
Reach out to the #support channel of Pirate Discord to get support and help if you need any. The team would be happy to help.