ARK Core v2: Final Testings

With ARK Core v2 taking shape as we envisioned for initial release, we will be diving into final tests by focusing some testing in different segments of the ARK Core and we need your help, our dear community and delegates.

Starting in early October we are launching a month long(minimum) testing period for our brand new Core. The actual length will depend on the participation and findings during this process. We will be testing different segments at specific times. This is the final step before we can migrate Core V2 to MainNet. We encourage anyone who would like to help to jump in, everyone is more than welcome to join.

Testing will be split into 4 periods, or more if we get additional ideas along the way. Each period will be tested thoroughly before moving into the next one. Periods are currently split like this (and are subject to change, each change will be notified upfront via appropriate channels at least 2 days before starting).

Period 1: Multisignatures (setting up multisignature wallets via CLI, different configurations of multisigs, sending multisig transactions via CLI, …).
Period 2: Dynamic Fees (configuring dynamic fees, testing different numbers, learning to send customized transactions via CLI, …).
Period 3: Stress Testing (trying to break the network by mass spam of transactions, finding limits, massive voting and unvoting aka delegate shifts, making sure AIP11 transactions are not yet accepted, …).
Period 4: Snapshots / Forking / Double Forging and miscellaneous (learning to rebuild from local snapshots, testing double forging behaviour and rebuilding after it and other tests that will be requested by the community).

Each period will be announced 2 days before it begins and be accompanied by some informational material, along with how to guides (setup, execute, …) so everyone will be able to follow and learn along the way. This is also a great opportunity for current and future delegates to get to know the different aspects of how some of the core works and get even more familiar with the code.

As some things are hard to test internally and can’t be replicated in a centralized environment, each person joining this testing phase will provide invaluable help to our team with good old fashioned real world testing. With different people joining we’re hoping to get a great diversified group that thinks differently and will try many different things.

What is still in development for initial release of Core on MainNet?

The majority of code has been finished, but before migration we’d like to finish:

Local snapshot system — will take care of centralization of snapshots and further make ARK a more decentralized network as delegates and node runners won’t rely on any central point to recover ARK’s blockchain, but will only need to rely on their own setup.
Rewriting transaction pool — we are in the process of making an even better transaction pool manager that will replace the current Redis implementation with s much more stable, reliable and future-proof custom in-memory + SQLite database.
HD wallets — new implementation of our Hierarchical Deterministic wallets that will provide better customization for the future and for ARK based chains.
Testing suite — bringing coverage of our tests up as much as possible by writing as many tests for all of the segments of ARK Core.

How do I get involved?

If at any point you’d like to help don’t hesitate to join our ARK Slack and #devnet channel. Our community and ARK Crew will guide you through if you are not yet familiar with ARK or just want to help or learn new things.

You can setup an ARK Core server following this guide:
https://blog.ark.io/new-ark-core-commander-eb704b7e75fd

After all of this we’ll be ready to migrate the new Core to MainNet, having a stable and totally fresh Core that will be a foundation for all of the awesome things yet to come.