We’re excited about improving peer-to-peer transactions and providing a great platform for identity. In following this passion, we’ve iterated on Gliph by adding new features and changing the way the system works.

Some of the additions were in response to insights along the way. For example when we learned that  the majority of Craigslist deals were handled via email and lacked privacy, we built Cloaked Email to make that a better experience. Later, we realized Bitcoin would be a a fantastic way to close transactions and built in simple Bitcoin transfer into Gliph secure messaging.

We’ve learned a lot about email and believe communication can be faster and better than that. GliphMe‘s secure and private instant channel is the first of our efforts here.

Adding these capabilities over time caused a build-up of technical debt. And like any debt, it can not be ignored. But unlike some debt, it wasn’t the type of thing that could be paid off slowly over time. As a result, this re-factor was focused on two areas of the Gliph platform:

the backend application and the iOS application. On the backend, we re-worked the API which now allows us to build the Android, iPhone and web clients more consistently. On the iPhone client, we’ve changed how data flows internally. To get very specific, we’ve moved to reactive programming, making Gliph more event-driven and providing us a more responsive user experience to work with.

Because you can only make so many major changes at once, we did not focus on updating the Android app to leverage the new API during this project. However, now that the backend is completed, documented and working, we will be tackling this as well. We’ll announce the release of the iOS app as soon as it has been approved.

This release will have few outward facing changes on the web, Android or iPhone. However, it did involve a great deal of effort from our team and has set the Gliph platform for a solid march forward.

Please join me in congratulating the Gliph engineering group on completing this challenging and important development cycle. Say hello on Twitter.

The entry was published in the official MongoDB MMS Blog and focuses on how MongoDB Management Service (MMS) can help track system stats and handle unexpected loads.

Here’s a paragraph from the entry:

“A service like Gliph has fairly complicated components, including user data encryption, messaging with scheduled delivery and expiry, integration with major wallet providers (each with their own API), among many other pieces. We’re a small team adding features quickly, and iterating is easiest when your system is stable. But our system wasn’t always as robust as it is today!”

Read the complete writeup at the MMS Blog