[This was originally posted on Reddit here.]
First, let me introduce myself. I am Barton26, the newly appointed "Gridcoin Testing Coordinator". My job on the dev team is to oversee testing of new releases and monitor situations like the one we are currently in.
Recently users have raised many valid questions about the current state of development and when the exchanges will be reopened. I am writing this quick update for those who have not been following the latest information on Slack or GitHub.
Here is a list of "breaking issues" that were identified in the original forking period that lead to the closing of the exchanges:
- Crashes due to tally
- Forking due to PoR checks
- RPC slowdowns
- Unable to get past 1163544
- Inability to sync from 0 without getting stuck
Here are the most recent updates from the development team regarding these issues:
- Fixed in hotfix.
- Believed to be either entirely or mostly fixed. Still being actively tested.
- Fixed in hotfix.
- Fixed in hotfix.
- Under active testing.
As you can see, we have made significant progress towards a production-ready release version. Our current testing priorities are Proof of Research Check forking (believed to be fixed, but we want to be sure) and syncing from 0 without getting stuck. Syncing from 0 is slow to test due to the length of time it takes to sync over 1.1 million blocks on production and nearly 500k blocks on testnet.
Please bear with us as we finish testing and hopefully verifying that this hotfix is ready to be released. We will make the announcement to open exchanges when we feel that the hotfix is stable and ready to be deployed to production.
Thank you for your patience in this difficult time. I apologize for the lack of communication and I will personally strive to communicate on other platforms to keep as many of our users up to date as possible. Please know that the development team is working as hard as they can to get this hotfix released as soon as possible. If you have any questions feel free to comment below.
Thanks for the first update @bartron26, it is clear and concise. This kind of communication will help to create confidence in the development of the coin.
Thanks a lot, @barton26! This is what I think a big part of the community was waiting/hoping for and calms nerves a bit. :-) Glad to hear about the progress you are making.
Thinking of investors and researchers who do not even want to check here, on reddit and gitub: Is there a way to post these kind of updates on the official site www.gridcoin.us? I don't mean a discussion forum but just official status updates. From a marketing perspective, it looks a bit odd that the major issues are not at all addressed there.
I also favor an update 12h before you give the exchanges a go to avoid insider information allegations.
Looking forward to the testnet info and happy to help there if needed! And thanks for your work, guys, it's appreciated!!
Thanks for the update. Keep up the good work
For sake of transparancy can we ask that an announcement be made first before release is out say atleast 12 or 24 hrs ahead. This opening of exchange will either result in prices tanking or soaring butvboth sides profits to be made if only specific section of people aee aware. To avoid unnecesaary alligations a quick update to everyone that exchange will open soon would be a good idea.
I understand what you're saying, but ultimately we have no say on when exchanges open their wallets back up; some can open within hours of the update, others several days later. It's completely up to the exchange and we don't normally receive forewarning.
Understood how about a 24 hour warning before fixed software release which gives a forewarning that after24 hours anytime exchanges can open wallet. Just dont want unnecesaary drama once things are back in order.
It would be bad for all users if a (hopefully) working update will be delayed for another 24 hours just for the remote chance that a single exchange will open faster then usual after a long period of problems.
It is also not the responsibility of Gridcoin to help or prevent speculation. If you think there will be price changes, place our bets now and don't wait for centralized exchanges to open.