Darkcoin has suffered new setbacks stemming from the launch of its 'masternode' system for ensuring anonymous transactions, with the rollout requiring multiple hard forks and a reworking of the deployment strategy.

The darkcoin development team’s launch of the masternode feature took place as scheduled on 20th June, but issues similar to those that plagued a previous attempt to deploy the system reportedly resurfaced.

The masternodes act as transaction bundlers and mixers, preventing network actors from discerning the origin and destination of transactions within the darkcoin network. This feature, known as DarkSend, incentivizes masternode participation through a dividend-like payment system.

Lead developer Evan Duffield told CoinDesk that the process of hard forking a coin is risky, saying:

The event had an impact on the price of darkcoin as well. New figures from Coinmarketcap indicate the price had risen from an average of $10 to more than $12 in the two days leading up to the hard fork. However, the price has since fallen below $10 as the fork issue resurfaced.

At press time, the price of a single darkcoin (DRK) was roughly $9.60.

In a launch post-mortem, Duffield stated that a key function of the masternode protocol was malfunctioning, creating a situation wherein blocks were being rejected by some, but not all, of the network.

Duffield wrote that the problems were not as serious during the second launch, but that the team opted to disable the masternodes as a precaution, saying:

Some of the masternodes, Duffield continued, inaccurately processed select blocks as fraudulent due to an inability to tell certain blocks apart from others. This led to the creation of forks and necessitated a hard fork to disable the masternodes.

On the Darkcoin Talk forum, Duffield outlined the development team’s response to the masternode issue. A central part of the plan involves turning off a setting that triggered the block rejection.

As Duffield explained in the post, the action will allow the team to see how the network functions with masternodes without the risk of forks being created for the same reason as before.

He wrote:

The darkcoin development team has also added two new members to support the effort.

Speaking to CoinDesk, Duffield stated that anyone interested in helping out with the testing and deployment process for the masternodes should reach out for more details.

Image via Darkcoin