Community Update 196

Owned by Rao Bhamidipati
Nov 03, 2021
5 min read

General

  • Status of the networks and Releases
    • All Main net nodes are running RNode version 0.12.3 (with fix to alleviate the tuple space mismatch error and the  transaction API fix). This version includes the block merge code that does not require a hard fork, but block merge is currently disabled until we have the block merge version coming up in hard fork 2, aka block merge hard fork.
    • Current test net info is at RChain public testnet information
    • There are two planned hard forks: one for block merge (release versioning will be 0.13.x) and one for PoS changes (release versioning will be either 0.14.x or 1.x.x) to eventually enable a fully decentralized node with external validators.
    • A block merge test net (currently running the 0.12.3 version) is available for the community at node{0-4}.bm.testnet.rchain.coop, observer.bm.testnet.rchain.coop, faucet is available at https://status.bm.testnet.rchain.coop/testnet/faucet/ and Tomislav's (TypeScript) test page with block merge network support is available at https://tgrospic.github.io/rnode-client-js-dev-test/
    • Both *.bm.testnet.rchain.coop and *.llbm.testnet.rchain.coop are part of hard fork 2. the llbm version has the latest code. Having the two testnets will allow the community testers to trace any unexpected behavior in their tests to the latest code changes vs. the code that has been running on bm.testnet for a while. The *.llbm.testnet.rchain stability is much improved, but the team will be making further changes to it. It is available for community testing, to get early feedback. Community members interested in testing can request testrev for llbm in the #testnet channel. Once we determine llbm.testnet to be fully stable, it will become the sole testnet for hard fork 2.*.llbm.testnet.rchain.coop (Leaderless blockmerge testnet)

Sprint 101 in progress

Main Focus is to prepare the block merge Hard fork (hf2), specifically (a) merging REV balances directly - currently on hold until other llbm issues are resolved (b) leaderless block merge - work ongoing (c) a lot of testing + bug fixing and (d) performance improvements. Other work includes resolving any identified bugs,  hardening the network.  Current PR list is at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pulls .  

Block merge Hard Fork (hf2)

  1. The main focus is to stabilize the code, rewrite tests, make sure everything works as expected. The work is proceeding in two streams - a. stabilizing the llbm testnet and b. implementing the agreed modular design changes on the HF2 fork. This includes migrating parts of the llbm code base to the HF2 code base.  The HF2 branch will be the one that will be initially targeted for the main net.   Denis' work on improving the performance and storage optimization of History and Stanislav's work on improved BlockDagStore functionality (find function) will both be included in these changes. Denis' work is expected to help with llbm performance. Once the HF2 branch code changes and merging of the code bases are complete, the team will focus on refactoring the tests to work with this code base. 
  2. Denis is continuing storage optimizations in his algorithm for radixTree based History  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3515.
  3. Stanislav is making changes in response to comments on his PR https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3521 and has completed a preliminary performance test of different implementation methods.  He will be joining the team full time from Nov 15.
  4. At this time, the llbm testnet is more stable and it is ready for community testing. The team is making more changes as bugs or other stability issues are found. The team intend to create a different testnet version once the code base improvements and merging listed in item 1 above are complete.
  5. Nutzipper is working on simplifying Casper to be included in the HF2 branch https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3520 in addition to making llbm testnet stable.
  6. Tomislav is restructuring the code so that every can work with it in a modular fashion, while also working on his items like preventing double spend in the enhanced REV transfer operations.
  7. The tuple space error seems to be eliminated for now, after nutzipper fixed the thread safety issue in the hotstore. Will has been running the code for several days without the error appearing. https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3524/files  and https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3271  After further testing, this will be included in the next release.
  8. We discovered a new 'cost mismatch' error that occurred only once. The team is analyzing this. We expect this to be a tractable one even though hard to replicate.
  9. Status of various Block merge tasks is at
    1. https://github.com/rchain/rchain/projects/4

Release Plan for the rest of the year and beyond - for reference

Currently planned near term releases are

  1. Block merge release hard fork 2 plus any configuration changes that do not need extensive work - Leaderful and Leaderless block merge
  2. Configuration changes release,
  3. Performance improvements releases (one or more),
  4. Hard Fork 3 with PoS changes and other items,
  5. External validators process validation with trusted community validators (aka Friends & Family) on the test net
  6. Friends & Family validation on the main net
  7. External validators among extended ecosystem (e.g. exchanges, if they're willing)
  8. External validators in the wild.


Explanation of the different Hard Forks (for reference)

Proceeding further with block merge requires changes to the per validator vault to make it a per deploy vault/purse etc. We are currently finalizing the design for this. Actual code and test will take some time. We are potentially looking at this scenario:
1. First hard fork for balances and removing the slashed validator
2. Second hard fork for block merge - This is the fastest way to get block merge on the main net without holding it until the third hard fork. This includes REV balance merging (aka per deploy vault), attestation messages and the Tree depth being increased to 4.
3. Third hard fork with all other changes.  Third hard fork includes implementation of a lot of changes including the PoS contract changes, Soft fork process etc.  Design for soft fork process is complete and is being reviewed by the team.

(Hard Fork) TEST NET 2 ADVISORY: (for reference)

To test the version of block merge with data changes that need a hard fork, we are creating a separate feature branch and a TEST NET 2 as the testbed for this feature branch. This content will be left here until we are close to Hard Fork 2 implementation on the main net. TestNet 2 is now available for the community to test their contracts on.

  1. There will be no guarantees of data storage format compatibility on Test Net 2, as the data storage format changes are incrementally implemented. The anticipated changes are mostly storage level format changes visible only to node operators. We encourage the community to start using Test Net 2 in addition to the current test net, so that we can quickly identify and resolve any issues with the upcoming hard forks. All new development should be targeted to TEST NET 2 and all current code MUST BE tested against TEST NET 2 to ensure future compatibility. 

On all the hard forks on the main net, we will be starting from an empty state, with REV balances only. On Test Net 2, this 'loosing the state' will be repeated multiple times.

Tech-Governance meetings on Fridays 9:30 AM Eastern, 6:30 Am Pacific 

Mercury requirements and acceptance criteria

Details on the acceptance criteria: Mercury acceptance criteria

Please see the documentation at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/blob/dev/docs/features.md. 

Developer website

https://developer.rchain.coop 

Date