We are happy to present to you an introduction to State Channels and the game Gomoku as a first hands-on example.

With the first live implementation of the æternity blockchain, the project has entered a new and exciting phase in which real-world use cases are being built upon the blockchain. In order to encourage the creation of these projects and to explore the vast opportunities æternity has to offer, the team has decided to put extra attention on each of æternity’s native features, starting with State Channels.

A State Channel is a two-way interaction channel between two parties. State Channels make it possible to execute smart contracts off-chain, without fees, while keeping the same level of security that the blockchain already provides.

A team within the æternity project has been created to work on several use cases. We plan to update you, bi-monthly on this blog, about the progress being made!

Explore State Channels

In order for you to get started with State Channels, we have created an introduction to State Channels in which you will learn how to open and close a State Channel, how to transfer tokens, and how to send generic messages.

In order to get started, you will need

• An æternity node
• The aepp-sdk-js with state channel support

We hope you are as excited as we are to explore the possibilities State Channels have to offer. The tutorial can be found here.

Gomoku: a Hands-on Example

Michal Powaga has created our first basic hands-on example Gomoku. Gomoku is a game that is as well known as Tic Tac Toe. In order to play the game, please make sure you:

• Are running node.JS (v8.0.0 or greater)
• An æternity node
• Create two æternity accounts
• Have some ættos which you can receive for testing purposes

You can find all the information on how to do this through the Gomoku repository. Please feel free to clone or download the game from GitHub.

Possible Use-Cases

Since we are always on the lookout for good use cases, we have created a dedicated topic in the Forum where you can contribute your ideas and suggestions of implementations and use cases for State Channels. We would love to hear from you!

We hope you can feel the excitement about the potential applications of æternity’s State Channels! Check back on this blog in two weeks for updates about the progress made by the team. In the meantime, enjoy playing around with the State Channels or Gomoku!

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