Vessel 0.0.9 - Witness voting, improved delegation controls, auths, and custom_json ops

If you're active on a few of the various chats or github, you may have noticed that last week I released Vessel 0.0.9 quietly. This post is to announce that release and catch anyone up that may haven't noticed. This new release introduces a couple of new features, including witness voting, which was implemented by a contribution once again from @netuoso.

Before we dive in, the obligatory "halp what's vessel?" information...

What is Vessel?

Vessel is a desktop wallet for the Steem blockchain, which you can download and use on your computer. Vessel is free to use and open source, and is designed to be a way to help secure your account on the Steem blockchain. While using Vessel, your keys/password never leave your computer, transactions are signed within the app, and then broadcast to the network much like any other downloadable cryptocurrency wallet.

Here's a few of the other most recent updates, as well as the original announcement:

• 2017/10/19 - 0.0.8 Release
• 2017/09/19 - 0.0.7 Release
• 2017/05/20 - Initial Release

Download Vessel

Vessel is still beta software and it's recommended that you treat it as such. Before committing irreversible actions on your account (such as large outgoing transfers), please test with smaller amounts to ensure it's working properly on your computer.

Download available on github for macOS, Windows and Linux.

• Releases: https://github.com/aaroncox/vessel/releases
• chainBB Forums: https://chainbb.com/f/vessel
• Bug Reports: https://github.com/aaroncox/vessel/issues
• Source Code: https://github.com/aaroncox/vessel

What's new in 0.0.9

• Witness Voting
• Improvements to Delegation Controls
• Account Auth Overview
• (Developer Tool) custom_json operation creator

Witness Voting

Thanks to @netuoso for the implementation of this feature - it's a great addition and will help protect the keys of the average Steem user.

Within the Accounts section of Vessel there is now a Witness Voting section all accounts can use to cast or uncast their votes on a per account basis. The green + button on the right allows you to cast a new vote (by account name), and the orange trash button lets you remove a vote.

Improved Delegation Controls

Since the introduction of delegations in Vessel - the interface has been weird. This was in part simply because when it was built, I wasn't absolutely sure on how it functioned.

The controls in 0.0.9 have been updated to hopefully remove some of that confusion. You can now edit existing delegations instead of having to add another delegation (which you can't actually do), and the interface itself lets you specify exact amounts. The corresponding values will be automatically populated as you change the fields.

Account Auths

With the rise in usage of Account Auths through services like busy/utopian and SteemConnect, I felt we needed something to show what these applications are doing to your account.

The account auths section now outlines the keys and auths that control each account within Vessel. This release doesn't allow for modification of these values - but that will be added at a later date.

custom_json operations

This is more a developer tool than anything - but I'm hoping some other developers and services find it useful. You can create any form of custom_json operation and broadcast it with any imported account.

I won't dive too much into detail on the uses for this, but the next release of chainBB will illustrate it in action.

Thanks!

There are already a few features slated for 0.10.0, including a more advanced version of the custom_json operation creator. I'd expect this next version still yet in 2017.

Thanks yet again for the contribution @netuoso, and I'd encourage anyone else interested to join in and contribute. You're welcome to join us in the steemdev discord community chat or on the /f/steemdev forums on chainBB.com. I'll continue to share the rewards of these posts via beneficiaries with those who contribute :)