Community Update 102

General

• Release

  • Node version 0.9.18 is the current release - public beta - that includes per validator vaults to improve mergeability RNode-0.9.18 release plan

  • Testnet is running rnode version 0.9.18

  • Rnode 0.9.18 includes per validator vaults. This is the public beta release.

  • We are aware of a bug that brings down the Testnet if someone runs contracts with insufficient Phlo. Normal behaviour is that the system state is rolled back when such a situation occurs. We suspect the roll back is not occurring properly in some parts of RSpace. We are investigating and working on fixing this.

• Sprint 43 in progress

  • Main focus is (a) further improvements to mergeability (b) feature cleanup, testing, hardening, security, bug fixing (c) Network safety and reliability (d) getting ready for exchanges and dApp developers

  • Mergeability

    • Per Validator Vault  feature is in.  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2808  Explanation of the problem is available at https://gist.github.com/tymm/c98acf4f91b1fca8cbd48c02c21e3472 

    • Additional mergeability designs being considered, based on potential improvements to Tuple space merging in Rspace RNode feature gaps.

    • Refactor (modularize, decouple) PoS.rho proof of stake contract to minimize mergeability conflicts.

  • Hardening

    • In Progress - PR to secure access to protocol-private PoS methods  https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3888  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2781

    • Currently being analyzed - One bug since Cost accounting release is being addressed. Some times, if there are problems with a particular contract (e.g. insufficient funds, the node is unable to move forward with other deploys). We're investigating the issue and enhancing exception handling to catch and isolate such situations to not impact node https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3923  https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3912  and https://rchain.atlassian.net/browse/RCHAIN-3937

    • Planning a combination of Scala property and law testing + generative tests + formal methods to get high coverage in a cost-effective manner.

    • Addressing critical issues with Mercury_Stability label.

  • Improve upon and simplify tools and documentation for dApp developers. 

    • Addressing dApp developer needs for HTTP interface  https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2811 

    • Restarting Rcat (digital asset management) work to rebase on current code base. This should help dApp developers as well as help debug/harden the code base by exercising it.

    • Identified initial documentation needs for exchanges + developers, will be working on these.

    • Working on providing a two node network for dApp developers' exclusive use.

  • Performance improvements

    • Ongoing - Using flamegraphs to identify bottlnecks and adding improvements as possible. An example is improvement of ReplayRspace matching https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2812 Currently seems to provide variable performance improvement. 

    • Investigating performance degradation noticed since the https://github.com/rchain/rchain/pull/2637 PR

  • Refactoring, Optimizations and bug fixes, hardening - 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.

Blockers to testnet-3

• TBD

Risks to code completion for Mercury

• Evaluating backlog vs current velocity 

Developer website

• https://developer.rchain.coop