wikideck/docs/real-xmr-pilot-plan.md

Get the real-XMR market running

Updated: 2026-10-22. Implementation plan for a private, operator-supervised functional pilot—not a public production release. Wallet access and fund movement require separate explicit approval.

Progress checkpoint — 2026-10-22

• Step 1 started; mock-only foundation implemented. Added a distinct pilot profile with its own network/genesis identity, explicit private-mock-only startup opt-in, separate local ledger/market/custody paths and browser wallet database, and a loopback-bound PostgreSQL sandbox stack. Setup and limits are in the pilot deployment guide. Testnet v6 and mainnet candidate identities/gates were left intact.
• Operator infrastructure update: a Monero full node is hosted on the operator's network and is intended to be reused; the pilot does not need to deploy or synchronize another daemon. Its network mode, RPC reachability from the pilot host/container, authentication/transport boundary and sync health still need verification. This does not provide Wallet-RPC, deposit observation, address allocation or a spending wallet.
• Next integration slice implemented: added an operator-triggered, read-only monerod get_info probe, opt-in Compose check service, and mocked regression coverage. The Linux test image builds and focused probe/deployment tests pass (6/6). The probe validates expected Mainnet/Stagenet identity and synchronization, but has not been run against the operator's node because its private endpoint/configuration has not been provided. It does not enable wallet access, addresses, deposits, or credits. See the probe setup and security boundary.
• Pilot identity/schema slice implemented: schema v10 additively records a separate identity binding wikideck-randomx-pilot-1 + current pilot chain ID to Monero mainnet, with an immutable identity-only activation status. Schema v11 adds separate immutable pilot reservation rows. Explicit pilot-only migration, identity, and reservation-role CLI actions require exact acknowledgements, reject non-pilot profiles, and refuse reused financial databases.
• Durable pilot allocation implemented: a signed pilot request now reserves the next never-reused index transactionally, serializes concurrent allocators, replays idempotently, and rejects request/beneficiary conflicts. PostgreSQL enforces the reservation's custodian, market-chain, and Monero-network binding with a composite foreign key to the immutable pilot identity. A dedicated role can read schema digests and pilot identity, execute the isolation check, and read/insert reservations only; it cannot read balances, register addresses, or access observation, credit, or withdrawal tables. This code does not call Wallet-RPC, return a Monero address, or connect to HTTP.
• Wallet-RPC address create/recover implemented: the operator/library-only function verifies the configured wallet fingerprint, checks the reserved index and stable allocation label, persists a create intent before create_address, then reads back and validates the exact Mainnet subaddress before registering it once. Lost responses recover by the stable label without repeating creation; ambiguous missing responses remain in a durable creating state and stop for operator reconciliation. No HTTP enrollment, observer, credit, withdrawal, or sale path is enabled.
• Validation: serial offline suite passed 189/189; disposable PostgreSQL suite passed 44/44, including schema v13 migration and the pilot reservation/address lifecycle tests. The focused address test verifies lost-response recovery and that an unresolved create is not sent twice. No operator database or real Monero node was accessed.
• Step 1 is not complete. The current pilot stack does not connect to that external daemon and still has no Wallet-RPC gateway, observer, real-fund deposit or withdrawal path. It is useful for isolated UI/mock-flow work only and must not receive funds.
• Validation history: earlier pilot-only checks passed 10/10. An earlier full-suite attempt had a transient RandomX peer-gossip failure; the most recent serial offline suite subsequently exited 0.
• Steps 2–5: not started. Existing deposit/withdrawal APIs still require the separately gated mainnet profile; the new pilot record is identity metadata only. Sale-lock transactions remain candidate-only and are not accepted by active consensus.

Finish line

Two browser wallets complete this flow on one deployed stack:

Buyer deposits XMR → available balance → fixed-price purchase → card ownership changes → seller receives proceeds → seller withdraws XMR.

Use the existing pooled-custody architecture, PostgreSQL accounting, native Monero integration and UI. Do not restart architecture research, introduce another payment provider or build a general-purpose payment platform.

Reuse what exists

• Exact atomic-XMR prices and fee calculations.
• PostgreSQL schema v11 and accounting/reorg records.
• Signed deposit enrollment, observation worker and reviewed credit/release commands.
• Signed balance reads and withdrawal reservation/cancellation APIs.
• Marketplace/custody UI and executable sale-lock/accounting models.

The missing work is integration plus two substantial features: actual withdrawal execution and activated NFT sale settlement. Current market commands remain sandbox-only; reserved withdrawals never send XMR; active consensus rejects sale-lock transactions.

Smallest useful scope

One Linux host, one authoritative market writer, one treasury tool/worker, fixed-price sales and operator-controlled accounts initially. Manual signed deposit approvals and operator-triggered sends are sufficient. Reuse existing UI components; no admin dashboard, unattended treasury or auction system is needed.

Implementation sequence

1. Make one pilot stack runnable

• Add an explicitly identified private pilot profile for the sale protocol, distinct from existing v6 and the final mainnet candidate.
• Bind signed market/payment requests to the pilot chain and custodian; select the Monero network explicitly. Real XMR requires Monero mainnet, not a public Wikideck launch.
• Give the pilot its own explicit genesis/startup configuration rather than inheriting the candidate's January 1, 2027 delay and public-peer requirements. Leave existing mainnet protections unchanged; do not fake review acknowledgements or alter v6 in place.
• Add one pilot deployment definition using existing Docker patterns: app, PostgreSQL, observer and private Wallet-RPC gateway. Reuse the operator-hosted full node over a verified private network connection; do not add a duplicate daemon service. Connect the observer/watch-only wallet and separate spending wallet explicitly. Keep daemon and Wallet-RPC endpoints private, authenticated and unavailable from the public Internet; supply credentials through protected files/secrets, not checked-in Compose values.
• Include schema initialization, role grants and required configuration in a short setup procedure. Keep spending keys outside the web app and Wallet RPC off the public Internet.

Progress: A separate mock-only pilot network/profile, launch opt-in, profile-isolated local storage, PostgreSQL deployment, and opt-in read-only daemon probe now exist. The probe awaits the operator's protected endpoint config. Additive schema v11 binds the pilot chain to Monero Mainnet and durably reserves signed beneficiary-bound address indexes in a dedicated database/role. The allocator stops before Wallet-RPC: it does not create/register or return addresses, start observation, credit funds, or enable HTTP enrollment. Observer, Wallet-RPC and real-fund integrations remain outstanding. See pilot deployment status and startup.

Result: start the stack, open the UI, create two wallets and obtain a test card; verify the hosted daemon's intended network, synchronization and private RPC reachability from the pilot runtime. Do not start a duplicate daemon. Prepare the watch-only/observer and separately controlled spending-wallet services while application development proceeds. A Stagenet rehearsal still requires a Stagenet daemon endpoint; an operator's Mainnet daemon cannot substitute for it.

2. Connect deposits to spendable balances

• Add a deposit panel that signs the existing enrollment request and displays the allocated address.
• Run the observer against the configured watch-only wallet and operator-hosted daemon; show pending and available balances. Explicitly bind the Monero network and refuse a daemon/wallet network mismatch or stale/unsynchronized RPC state.
• Support the pilot identity in the existing prepare/stage/release workflow. Keep approvals operator-driven rather than adding automation.
• Report capabilities truthfully as the flow becomes available; keep mock-credit controls unreachable in real-fund mode.

Result: a real Stagenet deposit is observed and approved into the buyer's available balance through the running application, using a Stagenet daemon endpoint. For the eventual real-XMR run, use the operator-hosted Monero Mainnet node only after network and synchronization checks pass. This is private development progress, not a reason to solicit real deposits before cash-out works.

3. Finish withdrawals with an operator tool

• Extend signed reservations with durable preparation, prepared-transaction, relay and confirmation states, including an uncertain/review outcome.
• Claim a request exclusively and block cancellation once preparation begins.
• Construct/sign using the separate treasury wallet, enforcing destination, amount and maximum fee.
• Record preparation intent before wallet side effects and retain the recoverable signed transaction identity/blob before relay. Reconcile ambiguous preparation before trying again.
• Relay and track the stored transaction. Retries reuse that transaction rather than creating another payment.
• Settle the reserved liability with the actual fee and return unused fee allowance; keep uncertain sends reserved.
• Add browser withdrawal inputs, status and receipt. A CLI command can process the queue; no automatic payout scheduler is needed.

Result: deposit → signed withdrawal → operator send → XMR received, with correct balances and fees.

4. Connect purchases to NFT delivery and seller earnings

Start this alongside steps 2–3 after defining the pilot identity. Do not wait for a separate release-hardening phase.

• Integrate the existing lock/completion/cancellation/expiry model into pilot transaction validation, state commitments, mempool, canonical indexes/events, peer processing and restart replay. Use the existing RandomX ledger, not a toy substitute.
• Adapt custody listing/purchase commands for real balances and fresh signatures. Atomically reserve buyer funds with the order; exclude mock funding/payment authorizations.
• Collect seller/buyer lock consent, submit the lock and have the host attest completion only against the funded reservation.
• Feed actual canonical outcomes into PostgreSQL settlement instead of synthetic rehearsal witnesses.
• Credit seller, author and host once after configured confirmation depth; release buyer funds only after safe cancellation/expiry/non-admission evidence. Hold conflicting reorg outcomes rather than paying/refunding again.
• Allow withdrawal of legitimate sale and fee earnings. The current own-deposit backing limit prevents a seller who never deposited from cashing out. Replace it with pooled-backing accounting covering liabilities, pending sends and fees—not merely removal of the check.
• Apply existing accounting checks and incident holds to the connected sale and treasury writers.
• Adapt the existing marketplace UI to show funded checkout, lock/completion progress, delivered ownership and proceeds.

Result: seller lists → buyer buys → card changes owner → exact seller/fee balances appear → seller withdraws, even without a prior seller deposit.

5. Exercise the complete deployed flow, then test real XMR

1. Run deposit → purchase → seller withdrawal on Stagenet using the actual browsers and deployment.
2. Include focused implementation checks for duplicate requests, restart after preparation/relay, cancellation versus send and canonical sale disconnect. These protect the flow from duplicate money/asset movement; they are not a separate certification program.
3. With explicit wallet/network/amount approval, configure Monero mainnet and repeat with operator-controlled accounts and a small amount sufficient for fees.

Result: a functional private real-XMR market with repeatable startup and operator commands. Public launch is outside this increment.

Parallel work

Workstream	Start	Delivers
Pilot identity + deployment	First	Running stack and unblocked integration
Deposit UI + reviewed credit	After identity/setup	Funded buyer balance
Treasury tool + withdrawal UI	Alongside deposits	Actual cash-out
Sale-lock activation + custody settlement	After identity is defined, alongside payment work	Paid NFT delivery and seller earnings
Browser end-to-end flow	As slices connect	Deployable functional pilot

Build each slice with its actual callers. Do not spend another increment adding a disconnected model or endpoint.

Move out of the functional critical path

Track these separately as public-release/hardening follow-ups, rather than front-loading them as engineering phases:

• Broad audit/certification and release evidence packets.
• Production-scale benchmarks, SLOs, HA, multi-host operations and additional orchestrators.
• SBOM/provenance automation, comprehensive scanning programs and artifact signing.
• Automated certificate rotation, backup scheduling, off-site recovery certification and full on-call systems.
• Automatic credit approval, unattended signing, batching and admin dashboards.
• Auctions, fiat conversion, alternate processors and final public-mainnet launch preparation.

Keep the functional essentials: signed authorization, correct network binding, private wallet access, exact balanced accounting, one-time settlement and recoverable sends. Deferring broader hardening does not make this production-ready; public/customer-fund rollout still needs the separate policy/legal/security decisions in the production plan.

Next coding task

Next: add an operator-only CLI entrypoint for the pilot allocation/create-or-recover path, then test it end-to-end with the private mTLS Wallet-RPC gateway. Keep HTTP enrollment disabled. Review actual protected wallet configuration, wallet type, and external-daemon network binding before creating any addresses. Deposits remain unusable until observation, reviewed credit, withdrawal execution, and recovery are all connected.