Community Update 238

Owned by Rao Bhamidipati
Aug 24, 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.
    • 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 123 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. 

The team continues to resolve the bugs encountered last week (after 5000 blocks) in the RNode 0.13.Beta1 release code for finalization and Block merge (LLBM) with simple protocol (i.e. potential network partitioning ignored).

Stas' PR for one of the bugs https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/3803 'Fix of sync issue when block is received but not added to DAG' is ready for review. Once this is reviewed, corrected and merged, we may issue 0.13.Beta2 release to the testnet. 

The analysis on the other more complicated bug continues. Upon successful block creation, at replay after merge, we see coop.rchain.casper.rholang.types.SystemDeployPlatformFailure$ConsumeFailed$: Platform failure: Unable to consume results of system deploy.   Current suspicion is that either peek or cost accounting may be exposing some issue in block creation under some edge conditions.  Nutzipper and Tomislav are continuing to diagnose and resolve this issue. Nutzipper is refactoring RSpace to see which code may be causing the unusual scenario (edge condition). It's likely that Stas will join this debugging effort.

Recognizing that we need more tracing and debugging tools, Jim Whitescarver from the community has taken it upon himself to produce a simple tracing tool that shows what code was executed in what order up to the point of interest such as a bug.

Denis is on vacation for two weeks. Tomislav has been participating but under the weather.

Gurinder is getting ready to test linear scaling of performance with increased number of nodes using the 0.13.Beta1 release. Additionally, he has been busy with making sure backup, archival and disaster recovery procedures are in place (the main net was down for 3 hours or so the other day due to some network issue).

Isaac is working on the Proof of Stake contract to enable external validator bonding. There is a lot of testing that needs to be done in this area. The process for external validators needs to be documented. The community has stepped up to help with the development team acting as a guide/reviewer.

I'm very proud that the dev team remains laser focused on delivering the commitments of LLBM and external validators despite challenging circumstances.

We are considering reducing the frequency of these debriefs to once every two weeks instead of the current 'once every week' - most likely the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Be on the alert for this change.

Everything you can do on Ethereum and more, you could do on RChain for more than a year. Please build your awesome apps on the main net so that the full functionality and capacity of the network can be used.

Current closed list of PRs is at  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

External validator engagement as well as customer/market engagement continues.


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. All PoS contract changes initially intended for hard fork 3 are also included in this release, including enabling future updates to be least disruptive. (in progress)
  2. External validators (only with trusted community validators  and third parties, aka Friends & Family) on the test net (in progress)
  3. Friends & Family + trusted third parties validation on the main net
  4. Potentially one or more releases for Configuration changes and/or performance improvements,
  5. External validators among extended ecosystem (e.g. exchanges, if they're willing)
  6. External validators in the wild
  7. Hard Fork 3 is only if absolutely required (see note 1). We currently do not anticipate a need for this.
  8. Feature releases driven by external market engagement

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

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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