Critical Roadmap Announcement—November Update
December 3, 2018
Greetings Cosmonauts,
As mentioned in our Launch Update, we are behind schedule. Despite pounding through features and specifications these past few months, the software for the Cosmos Hub would not be up to the required security standards to launch before the end of the year. And of course, we can’t just scrap together any-old insecure code for the sake of launching — we have to take our time and do it right. This is why we wanted to update you in more detail about the status of our various component projects, what’s on deck, and where you can find more.
- First, join the testnet for our work-in-progress Cosmos Hub application (“Gaia”) where you can send coins around and become a validator. You can also join our Ethermint testnet where you can deploy your solidity (or other!) smart contracts.
- Our UI team is nearing an alpha release of a gorgeous UI for handling coins and delegating stake. All interaction between UI and testnet is done via a full-featured efficient light client, providing one of the key security and efficiency benefits over Proof-of-Work blockchains. We are also integrating Ledger hardware wallets so Cosmonauts will be able to manage their keys securely.
- Tendermint continues to improve at a steady pace and its design and implementation have attracted outside developer attention that is helping to scale up our development team.
- We have started working on direct p2p syncing of the Merkle tree through the ABCI, so that folks won’t have to download the entire blockchain history and will be able to sync a new node quickly.
- We are making steady progress on clear specifications for all components of the system, including IBC, Governance, and all elements of Staking and Fees. They are nearly finalized and will start to emerge over the coming weeks. We are well on our way in the implementations of many of the components.
- We are also making steady progress towards an alpha version of the Cosmos SDK, which will be released in the second week of December.
- Next week, we will launch a Bug Bounty program that will continue to grow in scope as more pieces are rolled out.
- In the new year, we will begin third-party security audits and code review.
We want to thank our amazing community for their patience and support as we continue to build out the Internet of Blockchains. It is our goal for the network to be absolutely incorruptible at launch. We are working tirelessly towards it.
What follows is a roadmap for the next few months:
December 2017
- Launch Bug Bounty Program
- Complete all specifications
- See below for implementation details for specific projects
Cosmos SDK
The Cosmos SDK is the toolkit developers will use to build their public Proof-of-Stake zones in the Cosmos network. Using the tools on the SDK produces fully compatible software with the rest of the ecosystem with interoperability baked in. An alpha will be rolled out in the second week of December.
Tendermint Core
- P2P improvements (seed mode, using the trust metric, robustness)
- HSM signing support
Light Client Daemon
- Updates for new Tendermint PubSub
- Updates for new Cosmos-SDK
- Endpoints for staking
Delegation/Staking Module
- See specification
- Port to new Cosmos-SDK
- Complete all bonding/unbonding mechanics
Governance
At launch, the MVP for on-chain governance, such as voting on text proposals, will be implemented. Detailed specifications will be released by the end of December.
IBC
You can think of IBC as the TCP/IP for blockchains. At launch, bare bones IBC functionality will be ready. The detailed specification will be complete by the end of December. You can also check out the Beginner’s Guide.
January 2018
- Finalize all implementations (see details below)
- Start auditing all components
Tendermint Core
- Fork handling
- BFT Timestamps
- Mempool priority
Light Client Daemon
- Endpoints for governance
Delegation/Staking Module
- Inflation, fees, payouts
Governance
- Simple proposals and voting
- Deposits, voting periods, and voting rules
February 2018
- Complete audits for all components
IBC
- Port to new Cosmos-SDK and update for spec
End of February, 2018
- Main-net launch of Cosmos Hub!
According to the roadmap above, the Cosmos Hub is set to launch by the end of February. Check out the latest version on github.
Post Launch
Ethermint + Hard Spoon
Ethermint will be launched shortly after the Cosmos Hub is running in production. More concrete estimates will come as we approach launch. We will be deploying a hard spoon of Ethereum at Ethermint launch, where the native cryptocurrency will be denominated in “Photons”. The Ethermint zone will share a validator set with the Cosmos Hub.
Relevant Links:
- Website here: http://ethermint.zone/
- Docs here: https://ethermint.readthedocs.io/en/develop/
- Beginner’s Guide: here.
- Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ethermint
Releases
Lotion v0.1.5
Lotion is the developer toolkit that allows you to build blockchain applications on Tendermint in JavaScript.
- Website: https://lotionjs.com/
https://github.com/keppel/lotion
Ethermint v0.5.3
Announcements
Validator Updates
We have 34 validators on our testnet so far. We have been discussing a lot of the best practices and setup operations in the Validator Working Group channel.
Relevant Links:
- Website here: https://cosmos.network/validators
- Validator FAQ page is live! If your question was not answered, try asking it in the Validator Working Group channel: here.
- List of validator candidates websites: here.
- Really sweet example of one of our testnet validator’s setup: https://ion.dokia.capital/
- Quickstart Guide + how to get testnet tokens here: https://www.cosmosvalidators.com/
Ethermint Testnet is up!
You can think of an Ethermint zone as an Ethereum sharding zone. If you have already built a Solidity application on Ethereum, then you can redeploy that application on Ethermint with almost no effort. All the Ethereum tooling works on Ethermint. The biggest difference you’ll experience on the Ethermint network is faster block times.
“This is the real ‘Ethereum scaling roadmap’ — it’s a combination of continued improvements to increase the scalability of the base chain, together with the ability for anyone to make their own system that hooks into ethereum that provides its own scalability as well as possibly other properties that the base chain does not. The fact that smart contracts on the ethereum base chain are so flexible means that all of this can even be done trustlessly and without our permission (unlike more primitive forms of ‘sidechains’ that require either a trusted multisig or the approval of more than half the miners of the base chain).” — Vitalik Buterin
Test your application on the Ethermint testnet yourself:
- http://ethermint-1-node0.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node1.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node2.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node3.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node4.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node5.testnets.interblock.io:46657
- http://ethermint-1-node6.testnets.interblock.io:46657
Conferences
Token Summit II, San Francisco
Cosmos is a Gold Sponsor of Token Summit and will have a booth at the event. We are bringing back a very special hoofed guest, one of the single-horned variety, and we are very excited that Cosmos will be contributing to the discussion on the blockchain scalability panel.
Over and out,
Your Friendly Fellow Cosmonauts
