Community Update 209

Owned by Rao Bhamidipati
Feb 02, 2022
6 min read

General

  • Status of the networks and Releases
    • All Main net nodes are running RNode version 0.12.4 (primarily containing the PRs to update the Open API JSON and the 'find by blockhash' function). 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.
    • 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 0.12.4 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 test nets 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 (Leaderless block merge test net) stability is much improved, but the team will be making further changes to it. Nutzipper has updated the llbm testnet  with the latest version of the that integrates Denis' improved history work in its current stage. Community members interested in testing can request test REV for llbm in the #testnet channel. Once we determine llbm.testnet to be fully stable, it will become the sole test net for hard fork 2.

Sprint 105 in progress

Main Focus is to prepare the leaderless block merge Hard fork (hf2), specifically (a) merging REV balances directly - currently on hold until other llbm issues are resolved (b) Leaderless block merge (LLBM) (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. LLBM: The design for finalization frontier/barrier/fringe calculation and merging is refined and described at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pZDO6Jh5nfgr4tZDGdMJhWKm1rFSGcDghDNo4XVDrBc/ Nutzipper continues to make good progress on llbm. Stas has started to create the test environment for the llbm version using a simulator that uses automatic generation of a large number of DAGs to test the block merge code and catch any edge cases where there may be problems. This builds on his recently completed work to refactor graphz.
  2. Stas has now completed both the HTTP binding (https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3584)  and the grpc binding (https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3592) for getDataAtPar as well as the Command Line Interface (https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3594) using the grpc binding. The CLI interface is being reviewed and further tested. 
  3. Denis is updating the dev branch and the feature branch for RadixTree based History implementation and resolving conflicts. He and Tomislav will be working on further improvements to see if moving the cache to a higher level will give better results. 
  4. Tomislav has completed many PR reviews and is working on the updates to the last finalized state to work with the llbm algorithm. He has also started on a task to create a test case for the Rholang 1.1 'enhanced for comprehension' but we will schedule this for completion after the llbm tasks are completed.
  5. Rholang v1.1 is a Q1 2022 deliverable. We will be spending more time on this after the llbm work is complete. Meanwhile, Tomislav has published a docker image of RNode v0.12.4 with Rholang 1.1. To use this image in VSCode, just set RNode Docker Image settings in Rholang extension to: rchain/rnode:v0.12.4__rholang-1.1-rc1. Directions on how to use this extension are at https://github.com/tgrospic/rholang-vscode#how-to-use-this-extension . When code is evaluated, in output panel it will show desugared Rholang 1.1 to Rholang 1.0, together with the result as with any other RNode version.  If the community can test this image and provide any feedback, that will accelerate our completion of this deliverable. We  encourage all education efforts and new developers' learning to focus on the Rholang v1.1 version.
  6. Will and Tomislav are completing the double spend task as part of the improved REV transfer implementation (the rest of the tasks were completed a while ago and merged).
  7. Will and Gurinder have been working on getting RevDefine to work with testnet.  Because the testnet has been up for a long time, syncing the data for RevDefine is taking a long time - it's been going on for several days. Once this process is complete we will publish the method to access RevDefine on the testnet. In future, we will be bringing down the testnet once every month or so with a fresh start such that it's fast and easy for anyone to bring up a node and sync it with the testnet.
  8. Once the current tasks are completed, the team will look into the changes needed for RevDefine to work with the LLBM version.
  9. Support for external customers is ongoing. 
  10. Reminder: It's important for all Wallet makers to update their code to match the new implementation where minimum phlo price is a parameter. Please communicate this to any wallets you are using. We will start communications with exchanges also for HF2.
  11. Status of various Block merge tasks is at
    1. https://github.com/rchain/rchain/projects/4
    2. Current status of updated HF2 task list is at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/issues/3315

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 

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