Torii Incentivized Testnet — Validator Updates

6 min readApr 14, 2022

Update #3 — May 3, 2022

Wrapping Up the Validator Testing Phase

The validator testing phase will be completed Wednesday, May 4 @ 12pm UTC.

For those participating in the validator challenges, an important update on rewards…

While several measures were taken to mitigate the presence of bots and multi-accounts (see previous updates below), we wanted to go one step further to ensure that productive testnet participants and contributors get rewarded.

Therefore, we’re extending the prize pool and simplifying evaluation criteria for the validator challenges.

The top 170 validators based on the # of blocks signed over the entire duration of the validator testing phase will be eligible for base rewards of 5,000 tokens.

It doesn’t matter whether you were a genesis vs. post-genesis validator, or whether you moved in and out of the active set. If you ranked in the top 170 for the overall duration of the testing phase, then you will be eligible.

Additionally, those that rank within the Top 50 overall (including genesis and post-genesis validators) will receive the performance bonus reward of another 5,000 tokens.

See full challenge details here👇

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Update #2 — April 15, 2022

New Genesis File & Network Launch Update

Yesterday, there were some issues with certain gentxs in the genesis file, resulting in a “signature verification failure” error. After investigating further, it became apparent that 5 of the gentxs were failing. The primary problem appeared to be with how they were signed.

There are many reasons why signatures might fail. Unfortunately, since the gentx only contains the signature itself, there is no way to identify the precise issue with absolute certainty. Some of the likely culprits:

Invalid chain ID
Invalid account number

This following could have created such issues:

The validator could have selected the wrong Chain ID. e.g. “Augusta” vs. “Torii”
3rd party software could have incorrectly generated the signatures
Malicious actors could have purposely submitted breaking signatures

In summation, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint the exact reason and only the validator that generated the signature could possibly find out.

To expeditiously move forward with the testnet launch, these 5 incorrect gentxs were removed:

And a new genesis file has been published here: https://github.com/archway-network/testnets/blob/main/torii-1/genesis.json

This new genesis file contains 120 validators, which means 5 additional slots have opened up for post-genesis validators.

Based on feedback from the community, we’ve also opted to boost the rewards for the post-genesis validator challenge to be the same as the genesis validator challenge. The docs have been updated to reflect that the base rewards across both will now be level at 5,000 tokens.

Based on the community, we’ve also opted to boost the rewards for the post-genesis validator challenge to be the same as the genesis validator challenge. The docs have been updated to reflect that the base rewards across both will now be level at 5,000 tokens.

Large Account Balances

You may have noticed a few account balances within the genesis file that are much larger than the default genesis validator self-delegation (1001000 utorii). Rest assured, these are NOT validators. They are simply account balances that will be used to fund multiple community faucets for the testnet :)

Here are the accounts:

archway1yvhz3d0744ge3ayweakaj867cf6vyuhxmctrp2

Balance: 134000000000000

archway188gxl0puff90zj59zmwclqa36dffl9z0zwjncp

Balance: 33333333333333

archway1fhg3x3achdy55kcxnktdqzarvsagn75hrfrtry

Balance: 33333333333334

archway1fe6tvr8p6p7rmtgmyj85df0l5le0ds7d5d52ms

Balance: 33333333333333

archway1j2t0yfqf5467cn53s6zjue859jsmn7966t50v2

Balance: 134000000000000

archway1ntu5fmt2c6djgyxszefftpd89n7dma3p6nrtgq

Balance: 134000000000000

archway1ea327s9scrxz0yjy34f6n8pydjumu93ucuqcug

Balance: 134000000000000

archway16kspwgyd43xj5xm73c8j90v2rqra6pa5gfx0ck

Balance: 100000000000000

archway1atwx2cs5fep6gr92vlrkqmjmtukaqerewgyaec

Balance: 134000000000000

Lastly, you’ll also notice a single validator with a higher balance than the default. This will be be run by the core team as essential infrastructure to ensure stability and performance of the network. To be clear — this validator will NOT receive any rewards and is being run strictly for the health of the network.

Core team validator: archway1uupksdst0mjtxfy5tj2zlytud3y2rfqfw83yc3

Balance: 1251250000

Next Steps

All genesis validators should pull down the latest genesis file here: https://github.com/archway-network/testnets/blob/main/torii-1/genesis.json
Continue on with the plan to launch the network on April 15, 2022 @ 12pm UTC

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Update #1 — April 14, 2022

Genesis File & Network Launch Plan

As many of you know, the Torii incentivized testnet program has had a fantastic turnout so far, with the community showing up in full force.

In another major step forward, the final genesis file for the Torii network is now available — https://github.com/archway-network/testnets/blob/main/torii-1/genesis.json

When designing the genesis validator challenge, there were some unique tradeoffs to evaluate. Cosmos and Tendermint-based networks have practical limits on the number of active validators, and are typically capped at 125 in order to maintain performance. This presents quite the dilemma — how do you go about selecting those 125 validators?

Option 1: Handpick and select all of the initial validators
Option 2: Open the challenge up for everyone and randomly select the 125 participants

The first option would have been simpler to implement, but is a bit heavy-handed. The latter would be more inclusive, but most likely create opportunities to game the challenge and possibly box out experienced and long-standing community members.

Ultimately, Option 2 was adopted.

So, how did the gentx submissions play out?

Over 14k+ gentxs were submitted, coming from over 9k+ unique server IP addresses.

But, not all of these submissions were authentic. Surprise, surprise, there were attempts to game the program, with bots and multi-accounts contributing to this total.

Given the results, a few measures were taken to weed out the malicious actors and ensure a balanced pool of participants in the genesis set.

Solution #1:

All submissions were evaluated and filtered based on several factors to ensure the associated Github accounts were in fact legitimate individuals. The following parameters were used to filter out illegitimate submissions:

Github account was older then 6 months
The account had made at least 3 commits during its lifetime, and the last one activity in the past 10 days

Those accounts that did not meet this criteria were removed from the process. For instance, if an account was created last week, and wasn’t part of any repos, and hadn’t made any commits — it was eliminated.

Of the initial pool, ~1,200 were considered valid submissions. Of these, 85 were randomly selected to be included in the genesis validator set.

Apologies if the above parameters inadvertently filtered out your submission. While these parameters are imperfect, they were informed by many suggestions directly from the community and were an expeditious path to balancing both an inclusive and experienced genesis validator set to ensure the health of the network. For the next incentivized testnet, the criteria will be locked in from the start.

Additionally, as it seems GitHub banned some accounts directly, the aim is to explore and support decentralized software distribution and collaboration tools going forward.

Solution #2:

Again, given the manipulation in the initial submission set, there was a material concern that if all 125 participants were selected at random, the health of the participant pool and the network itself could still be exposed. Therefore, a core group of community validators with demonstrable technical expertise were needed in order to ensure essential ongoing performance and stability of the network.

To bolster the genesis set and establish a strong foundation, 40 participants were directly selected and included in the genesis set based on:

Their active engagement in the Archway community
Performance in the Augusta-1 community testnet
Overall experience and track record running validators across other networks

Moving Forward

While it’d be lovely to squeeze in 100% of interested participants, that’s simply not technically feasible. As stated, Tendermint-based networks are typically capped at ~125 validators.

This is also why the overall program was designed to offer tons of additional challenges — feature testing, dapps, tooling, and content. For context, there are only 3 validator challenges among 20 total challenges!

If by chance you aren’t in the genesis validator set, you always have the option to try a post-genesis validator, or dive into any of the other open challenges — ⛩️ Torii Incentivized Testnet Challenges

For now, it’s time to bring the Torii network to life!!!

The genesis ceremony and network launch is set for April 14, 2022 12pm UTC. Join the Discord to get involved and follow along as the community brings their validators online, they begin participating in consensus, and create the very first block…

Archway is a smart contract platform that rewards developers. Designed for flexible development and easy deployment to Cosmos, Archway enables scalable cross-chain dApps that reach as many users and assets as possible.

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