Community Update 227

Owned by Rao Bhamidipati
Jun 08, 2022
6 min read

General

  • Status of the networks and Releases
    • Main net is running RNode version 0.12.8 ( https://github.com/rchain/rchain/releases/tag/v0.12.8). This version resolves a bug around hashing of the blocks. The code will choose between the previous hashing scheme or the new hashing scheme based on the version of the node.
    • Testnet 0.13.0 had been running Since about March the 10th. All block merge code is now on the testnet, but finalization needs to be worked on and that is the current focus of the team. Current version on this LLBM test net is 0.13.0-alpha3. This version enables testing the sharding related behavior. Dappy (fabcoTech) and other community members are currently testing this version.
    • There were two planned hard forks: Hard Fork 2 for block merge (release versioning will be 0.13.x) and Hard Fork 3 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.  Most of the Hard fork 3 changes are now likely to be included in Hard Fork 2.  We will do a Hard Fork 3 only if needed. 
    • There is a separate test net running the 0.12.8 version, to support those using the current main net. To access, point to  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.

Sprint 116 in progress

Main Focus is to prepare the leaderless block merge Hard fork (hf2), specifically (a) complete the finalization feature for multi-parent block merge for release to Test net (b) a lot of testing + bug fixing and (c) performance improvements (d) Completed - Adding shardId inside the signatures, to enable multi-shard operation and prevent reusing of deploys from one shard in another shard (e) sdk project to make the code more modular and serve as a base for RNode domain logic with corresponding data types (f) Prepare for trusted external validators in order to decentralize the network.

Other work includes resolving any identified bugs, hardening the network and working with external customers. 

As part of his finalization work, Tomislav has completed fixing block reciever. The PR is reviewed and now merged. He is now proceeding with trouble shooting and finishing up block processing, so that he can get back to the main work on finalization using the simple protocol. Code for finalization is mostly ready, he has to integrate all these pieces and complete writing the tests. Nutzipper has done preparatory work for merging of state when Tomislav is ready.  When all these changes are completed, finalization code will be ready for deployment to test net.

Several PRs that were discussed in the last few weeks are now merged, including some refactoring PRs and/or clean up PRs https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pulls?q=is%3Apr+sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Aclosed

Current full PR list is at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pulls?q=is%3Apr+sort%3Aupdated-desc+is%3Aopen .  Project progress is at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/projects/4  Latest updates to the issues list are at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc

Will's and Max's work on updating the random seed calculation is nearly complete. Their work needs to be reviewed and approved or comments addressed by the team. https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3720  and https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3729

Max has also merged the PR to add genesis-pos-vault-pubkey parameter in genesis configuration https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3703  The issue is described at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/issues/3571  This was necessitated as part of the PoS contract update to create PoS vault based on unforgeable name https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3559

Will has started on the preparatory technical work for bonding of external validators.  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/issues/3714 . This will be used as a test case to test the registry update process.

Gurinder is migrating the various networks to AWS.  With this, we will have the procedures to run nodes on two to three cloud providers in the US. He has moved parts of the dev environment, is working on moving the test net and has some main net observer nodes running on AWS already.

Stas' work on enhancing 'property based testing' is nearly complete  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3725 (in review) and https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3727 (merged) . He has to complete the reviewing process and address the comments. Meanwhile, during the work and testing he was doing with an external customer, Nutzipper identified a memory leak in the recent code. Stas is looking into where the memory leak is occurring - this seems to have been recently introduced in the dev version, so there should not be an impact on the other versions. 

Denis continues his work on implementing the BigInt type in Rholang, which is a multi-PR task.  https://github.com/rchain/rchip-proposals/issues/51  His initial description is at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/issues/3699  The draft PR on BigInt is available at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3728. 

External customer/market engagement continues.

Note:

  1. 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.  Wallets will have to call /api/status to get min phlo price accepted by the validator and put that value in deploy data instead of the currently used constant 1.Tomislav has updated the wiki at https://github.com/rchain/rchain/wiki/Cost-accounting-in-RChain#phloprice We will start communications with exchanges also for HF2.
  2. 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

Development Plans for the rest of the year and beyond - for reference

Near term plans and releases are as below:

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


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 four.
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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