EOS-BIOS Boot Stage 16

As the launch of the EOS blockchain approaches, a group of Block Producers are testing the EOS BIOS sequence to work through the software to help ensure a successful and secure launch. The `eos-bios` tool allows for multiple stages to take place. Here is the report with the highlights and improvement of the Stage 16.

Block Producers that participated in Stage 16 (in alphabetical order): Aloha EOS, Bitspace, BlockEOS, Cybex, Easypayx, EOSIO.SG, EOS 42, EOS Amsterdam, EOS Argentina, EOS Asia, EOS Authority, EOS Bixin, EOS BlockSmith, EOS Cafe, EOS Canada, EOS Cannon, EOS Ecosystem, EOS Germany, EOS LaoMao, EOS Nairobi, EOS Nation, EOS NodeOne,  EOS Pacific, EOS Romania, EOSpace, EOS Store, EOSys, EOS TaxRelief, EOS Thu, EOS Worbli, EOS Vibes, GenerEOS,  JEDA, MeetOne, Oracle Chain, HelloEOS, TokenPocket.

Visualisation of the 34 peers connected to Stage 16

Highlights

• Over 60 participants present on the call
• 34 participating infrastructures to the actual launch
• Tyee from EOSpace, Joshua from EOSeco, and Zhaoyu from EOS LaoMao did a great job helping with translations.
• EOS LaoMao successfully booted up this Stage of the launch! Well done!
• We fixed a bug and shipped a release during the call. Between bug identification and everyone having the release, 15 minutes passed.

Next Steps:

• JJ from EOS Germany will lead an effort to try and attack the network launch two days from now to test the security of the network. EOS Amsterdam immediately offered help.
• Fix a sorting bug that was discovered in the sorting algorithm written last night

 

THINGS TO NOTE FROM THE LATEST RELEASE:

The latest release includes many improvements, most of which come from community suggestions:

Boot node hooks updated: introduces the `hook_boot_mesh.sh` script, which can be left to be done manually.

Sample `base_config.ini` updated as we're nearing mainnet. Make sure you master your configuration before going to prod.

Load contents from IPFS only from the top 8 by weight, avoids locking a launch because someone published stale content.

Implemented @dan's suggestion to stake .25 EOS, keep 10 floating, and half/half the rest.

Support `target_p2p_address` value `none`, if you want to be excluded from the automatic mesh.

Boot node should now NOT connect to any swarm.  Sample hooks were updated to do that, by changing the listening address (make sure it fits your infra), and by commenting the `p2p-peer-address` (they are left for when you're ready to connect, and randomized so we don't know to which swarm node you're going to connect)

Removed boot node handoff of the eosio private key. eosio is on schedule until the 15% cliff.. publishing the private key would allow rogue parties to produce blocks on its behalf. SO, Boot node: don't share the private key until 15% cliff.

Lowered producer enrichment (in testnet), to avoid people directly altering the ABP schedule, while not available to produce.  We tested it, it works well.. but we don't want to screw up the next staged launches. We need a stable seednet this week to launch mainnet from.

Publishing a `seed_network_launch_block` with value 0 allows you to be an ABP, and use the `eosio.disco` consensus mechanism, vote on content, etc.. but prevents you from being selected the BIOS Boot node. This allows someone to not use `eos-bios` and participate in the launch.  The bios boot node in an orchestrated `eos-bios` launch still needs to run `eos-bios`.

Added `--write-actions` to write all actions to `actions.jsonl` for tools to do cross-checking. With the last snapshot we used, actions.jsonl weighs 178MB (full snapshot), and 22MB (truncated snapshot to 1000). It can be used with orchestrate, join and boot.

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We will be running the next Stage at 1300 UTC of May 30. Please follow along with the EOS BIOS Telegram channel for updates. We encourage those who want to practice amongst themselves to continue to do so and provide further feedback to the community!

All BPs are invited to participate in the next launches.

For anyone who will be joining for the first time, we invite you to first go through the eos-bios YouTube playlist.