Hard Fork, and New Beginnings: Monthly Block Producer Meeting—October 2024

EOS

CRYPTO_NEWS

Introduction

The monthly EOS Block Producer (BP) meetings foster regular communication among the top 30 EOS BPs, the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), EOS Labs, Middleware, and other key entities within the network. These meetings create a space for network operators and custodians to engage in open dialogue and work together for the continued development of the EOS ecosystem.

Meeting Overview

The meeting commenced at 1:00 UTC on October 16th, 2024, with the participation of 19 BPs and a total of 30 attendees. To support communication across different languages, the Interprefy tool was used to provide synchronous translation. Beatrice Wang, Communications Manager for ENF, opened the meeting by giving an overview of the key topics to be discussed and thanked the attendees for their ongoing commitment and presence.

Key topics discussed included:

The successful completion of the Spring 1.0 hard fork
Initial UTXO synchronization and network performance
The exSat mainnet launch and validator network growth
Middleware integration efforts by Greymass
Roadmap updates on Spring 2.0

Spring 1.0 Hard Fork and exSat UTXO Synchronization

Yves La Rose, Founder and CEO of the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), highlighted the successful hard fork to Spring 1.0, followed by the activation of the new Savanna consensus algorithm. The upgrade was completed in less than 40 minutes.

Yves emphasized that the network faced its heaviest load ever shortly after the upgrade, as the exSat team began synchronizing 840,000 Bitcoin blocks of UTXO data into RAM within 48 hours of the hard fork. While this task acted as a critical stress test for the new software and hardware, Yves noted that the network performed exceptionally well under the unprecedented strain. Despite some initial challenges with node peering under conditions of the incredibly fast 1-second finality, the mainnet never faltered. The exSat team was able to control the flow of data during synchronization, gathering crucial information to fine-tune the system for the future.

Yves congratulated the Block Producers for their tremendous work in handling the load under controlled circumstances, pairing new software with new hardware, and commended the resilience of the latest software version, 1.0.2. He expressed pride in how the community managed the high-pressure situation, reinforcing the idea that the EOS network has proven its ability to operate efficiently in live conditions far beyond what had been tested on testnets.

exSat Mainnet Launch

Yves provided a preview of the exSat mainnet launch, which at the time of the meeting had not yet occurred. However, by the time of publishing, the launch has now been successfully completed. As of October 23rd, 2024, the exSat mainnet has officially launched. The initial phase includes UTXO data synchronization from Bitcoin block 840,000 to present, which is proceeding at a controlled rate of approximately one Bitcoin block being synchronized every five minutes. This marks the beginning of an extended mining phase, with the goal of increasing the connected Bitcoin hashrate from its already impressive ~53% to 80% or beyond.

Greymass Middleware Efforts

Aaron Cox, Chief Brain at Greymass, provided a concise update on their ongoing Metamask integration efforts. He highlighted that the audit for creating a seamless environment to manage native EOS, EVM, and exSat accounts was recently completed by Consensys-approved auditors. The fixes have already been submitted and are currently under review, after which they will be published.

The team is engaging with Consensys to have an EOS wallet Snap for Metamask published in their official directory, enabling users to manage accounts across multiple environments. In parallel, Greymass is developing web interfaces to support account management for new users, including staking, RAM management, and token operations. This will also include account creation, allowing for a smooth onboarding experience.

Aaron explained that the Snap and the web portal systems are expected to release together in Q4, with promotion to follow once everything has been thoroughly tested. He also emphasized the behind-the-scenes work Greymass has done to support exchanges with specific infrastructure and data needs following the Spring 1.0 hard fork, ensuring they could transition to the new hardware requirements smoothly.

Yves La Rose, Founder and CEO of the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), emphasized the unique value of Greymass’s work, noting that the infrastructure support Aaron’s team provided was something the ENF has not historically been able to provide, and expressed gratitude for their role in helping key stakeholders transition smoothly.

Future Updates

Yves provided updates on the Spring 2.0 roadmap, focusing on RAM optimizations planned for Q2 and the development of an MPC decentralized wallet at the protocol level by Q4. Additionally, La Rose mentioned ongoing internal discussions regarding an EOS rebrand, with outreach happening to gather input. He noted that by the next BP meeting, he expects to be in a better position to present a recommendation, including the rationale and data behind the rebrand options. This work is happening alongside the continued development of Spring 2.0 and other protocol updates.

Source : Blog - EOS Network - Oct 24, 2024