Chainflip Development Update — May 26th 2023
Dear readers of the Dev update,
Today we have released version 0.8 of our Sisyphus test network. This means that the corresponding Perseverance release will happen soon afterwards. This is a big milestone, because it will allow participants to finally try their hand at swapping and liquidity provision. Internally, our first Linear cycle has gone through and the re-organisation of the dev teams has made it much easier to track who's doing what and when.
Progress
In the past two weeks we implemented several optimisations that make everyone's life easier:
- Optimisation of key and address (de)-serialisation: Our FROST multi-sig ceremonies are quite complex. They need to ensure that up to 150 parties can reach an agreement using a potentially broken internet connection and with some participants potentially trying to sabotage the process. This involves sending quite a few messages back and forth. We have revisited the code responsible for encoding and decoding these messages and made some improvements that will reduce the amount of work and thus the time needed for these ceremonies
- Deployment process for networks: Our Sisyphus test network is regularly destroyed and restarted. Previously, this could have required several days of work, but the same thing can now be accomplished with just a couple of clicks!
- APIs and SDK: In order to efficiently use the Chainflip system, most users won't want to learn how to sign and submit extrinsics to a substrate chain or click through recent blocks in order to find their deposit address. Instead they (rightfully) expect the deluxe experience of having powerful and easy to use APIs and SDKs at their disposal. Thus, we are putting considerable effort into designing these to make sure that users can get stuff done without technicalities getting in their way.
- Our communications team hosted a vibrant event, appropriately named "Protocol Chats No. 2," on Wednesday. In this discussion, they covered a broad spectrum of updates and developments and responded to diverse community questions. In addition to sharing a significant amount of alpha, we also pledged to airdrop 4 Flippies to 4 lucky attendees and speakers. We invite the following individuals to send us your wallet addresses to claim your bounty:
- pride_man|MODRCT
- DJXtroleCHAD
- Nait
- whisperit
If you were not able to tune in, here is the link to the discussion:
Outlook
- The smart contracts for Ethereum have been finalised and are ready to be deployed.
- Alastair's development and review guide will be presented to the team.
- Perseverance 0.8 will be released and we will enable swapping of various testnet coins.
- We have hired a new team member, who will focus on supporting the network and analysing any unexpected behaviour or bugs that are discovered. This will take some pressure off our Infrastructure team. Of course we will do a proper introduction once they start.
Vibe check
Several Chainflippers who usually work remotely have come to Berlin to spend the week in the mothership. It is much easier to discuss smart contract deployments and API designs in person than in a video call. Especially if the internet connection is as unreliable as it has been in the last couple of days. However, Github seems to have gotten their act together and thanks to Simon's impressive data plan, we were able to supply the office with his phone's internet until the connectivity problems were resolved.
Without any prior coordination, Tom, Daria and I independently decided to bring some home-made bread and cakes to the office, causing a spontaneous food tasting session and providing a welcome addition to our usual diet of Cappuccino and Club Mate. To celebrate all this, we are having a Chainflip Office Party this Friday where our resident DJs can prepare the crowd for the upcoming long weekend. Vibes are definitely good.
Until next time,
Martin