CosmWasm Launches Its Permissioned Testnet, GaiaFlex
Delivering what we promised on Cosmos Hub Proposal #25
CosmWasm, a multi-chain smart contract platform for the Cosmos ecosystem, has launched its governance-permissioned public testnet GaiaFlex, today August 18th, 2020. GaiaFlex testnet will demonstrate the usage of a governance-permissioned contract system for the Cosmos Community.
GaiaFlex proves the potential of a smart contract container at the heart of the Cosmos Hub.
Tied to Cosmos Hub proposal
2.5 months ago, we promised to Cosmos community(Hub proposal #25) to build a software with which Cosmos Hub validators can control which smart contracts, whether staking derivatives or subkeys, can be uploaded and instantiated on the network, within 2 to 4 months´ timeframe. Yes, we are the people of our word!
We can expect several benefits to the Cosmos Hub when CosmWasm integrates on it:
- CosmWasm will allow faster and easier iterations for Hub.
- Two largest post-IBC value propositions, relaying Dynamic IBC Protocols and Rented Security(Cross-chain staking), using ATOMs as collateral for smaller zones, would greatly benefit from CosmWasm’s flexibility.
- CosmWasm provides a mechanism for Governance to add new functionality, but it doesn’t add any functionality to Hub itself, nor does allow anyone to upload or instantiate new contracts. This provides flexibility, while addressing security issues as adding codes to Gaia should be very carefully controlled.
- Also, the entry barrier to add functionality to the Hub gets much lower.
What is GaiaFlex testnet like?
GaiaFlex functions much like Coralnet, but the main difference is that GaiaFlex is permissioned meanwhile Coralnet is permissionless. We configured GaiaFlex such that the on-chain governance must approve all contracts uploaded and instantiated except their execution. This will look like many other Gaia testnets including cosmos prefix, muons, and the binary except that this is updated to launchpad and with the CosmWasm module added.
Staking and fee token is muon, like the last Cosmos Hub testnet
Genesis file was prepared with all the voters for proposal #25: If you have voted for the proposal even with 1 Atom -yes or no-, you have your share on GaiaFlex testnet, just like we promised on our proposal. We airdrop testnet staking tokens, muons to all the Cosmos addresses who participated in the vote.
Follow these instructions to claim your airdrop.
Importantly, we reduced the voting period to 3 days, to allow for multiple cycles to conclude in a timely manner and enable more test scenarios. Please be mindful of that when proposing new contracts to the chain.
We would like to also offer a small amount of funds for other people who want to execute such contracts on GaiaFlex, so if you are one of them, please get in touch with us on our Discord GaiaFlex channel.
Our Plan
We would like to operate GaiaFlex testnet for a short time frame, say 1 month or so, then gladly hand it over to other interested entities in the Cosmos ecosystem. As our goal is to get the technology ready for people to test out, experiment, and experiment with all the possible scenarios of CosmWasm smart contracts. The decision-maker for the integration of CosmWasm to the Hub is not us, it is the Governance who decides the actual execution after reflection and discussion from the community based on the experience of trying GaiaFlex.
Your engagement
We encourage you to try out GaiaFlex, as you could explore many interesting features without too much risk and that is exactly what a testnet is for. When you join GaiaFlex testnet, please make sure you go through https://docs.cosmwasm.com/testnets/build-requirements.html and https://github.com/CosmWasm/testnets before.
As a smart contract developer, you could deploy several contracts on Coralnet first to experiment and see how they work, and then later you could choose the best one and propose it to the GaiaFlex governance to execute with approval.
As a validator, you could participate in voting to upload and instantiate contracts and currently possible scenarios which can be changed while running GaiaFlex is as below;
- Governance voting is needed to both upload code, and to instantiate code
- Anyone can upload code, governance voting needed to instantiate code
- Governance voting is needed to upload code, governance can assign a “committee” to authorize contract instances of that code
And we would like to hear your user experience feedback on its features. Positive and/or negative, to make it better!
Keep in touch
We look forward to seeing how the governance approval, the voting process will work. If you are interested to deploy your dApp or to operate our nodes, please contact us via
Thank you for everyone who is (and will be) participating on GaiaFlex testnet!
