Community Update 90

• Release

  • Node version 0.9.13 is the current release in testnet  RNode-0.9.13 release plan

  • Note that RNode-0.9.13 is NOT BACKWARD COMPATIBLE with previous releases of RNode due to refactoring of the dagstore as described in https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2696  and  

    
    RCHAIN-3800 - Revamp DAG storage to minimize duplicate code and use scodec for data structure serialization DONE

    The 0.9.13 release includes many bug fixes, optimizations, refactoring changes in addition to a lot of metrics and instrumentation implemented to enable faster analysis and resolution of problems like the Long Proposal Times issue we encountered.

• Sprint 37 in progress
  
  

  • Main focus on (a) long proposal times - implementation of synchrony constraints solution (b) cost accounting specification and implementation (d) Specifying Casper tests independent of network layer (e) Increased testing including validator slashing (f) completing peek merge functionality (g) API to replace ListenForData@name (off-chain observability of deploy results) (h) Mechanisms for Network safety, reliability and hardening

  • Ongoing implementation of hardening.

  • Launch readiness planning is ongoing

  • Cost accounting - implementation ongoing. 

  • Progress in investigating long propose times: Synchrony constraints using number of parents based on stake weight is implemented, merged and tested. We see some improvement in proposal times. Results are being further analyzed.  A second part of the solution is being implemented to promote efficient use of the network by sending block hashes instead of whole blocks to all the nodes. Details in https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3819 

  • In RSpace, an API implemented for DAG discovery and block discovery, to enable an alternative to ListenForData@Name (Off-chain observability of deploy results). Relevant tickets are https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3760 https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3661 and  https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3762 and https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3812 The changes are now being tested in development as well as in use cases like Rcat. Necessary changes to Rcat being made to use the new API, so it can be tested.

  • In Casper, ongoing work on pre-requisites for non-game-able source of randomness for the validator to use, to pick a new validator from the 'bonding draw set' https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3195

  • Design and Implementation of mult-sig vault features is ongoing (should be ready for review soon) as detailed in https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3392 https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3196 https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3223 and https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3773.

  • Increased testing by Dev team - ongoing

  • New API has been implemented with type safety, responding to community requests. Tomislav and others from the community are engaged in review and comments of this PR  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2729. Please join in the conversation in the #development channel in Pub-Rchain. We want as wide a feedback as possible. Will be merged only after we get good feedback from the community.  https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3839 

  • Peek Merging rules https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2692 is complete.

  • Another community request, for Websockets interface for light clients is a future consideration.  

  • Refactoring, Optimizations and bug fixes - ongoing 

  • Exploring technical options and planning for Rhoc to Rev conversion, wallets and third party readiness - ongoing

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. 

• Testnet status

  • Please see RChain public testnet information to learn more about public testnet as well as a FAQ.

• Community testing
  
  

  • Sept 19 at 14:00 UTC. Please see RChain community RNode testing for more information.

• TBD

• Evaluating backlog vs current velocity 

• https://developer.rchain.coop