Road to Desmos Mainnet — Part 1
Morpheus “Apollo” and the Desmos Validators Program
Already a year has passed since we launched the first version of Desmos. During this period, we run 7 different testnets that gradually introduced new features and improvements with the specific task to refine the Desmos codebase for its big jump to the mainnet.
Although we learned a lot from those so far, there’s still some key steps that need to be done before sails to the mainnet shores. Today we want to introduce you the first one of such steps: Morpheus “Apollo”.
Morpheus “Apollo” ☀️
Apollo will be a carbon-copy testnet of our imminent mainnet and will help us finalize and review all the operations that we will perform during its launch. At this stage the network will only feature Desmos’ profiles alongside all the Cosmos SDK modules. We decided to do this in order to spend the right amount of time stabilizing and testing each of the Desmos modules before they are included in further updates.
Also, we want to take the opportunity of launching this testnet to make sure that future mainnet validators understand what will need to be done to launch the definitive chain. For this reason, we decided to start the “Apollo” testnet the same way we will start the mainnet: via a decentralized drill. This is a process composed of two steps: gathering the genesis transactions and then launching the chain.
Step 1 — Gathering the genesis transactions 📜
At this stage, all validators will follow a series of instructions provided by the team to submit their own genesis transaction. The purpose of such transaction is to delegate the stake from their accounts to their validators so that they will be online with enough voting power when the chain starts. Once the genesis transaction has been created, validators will need to commit it into the “Apollo” launch repository.
Step 2 — Launching the chain 🚀
After once week of the drill start, all genesis transactions will be gathered and used to create the final genesis file for the “Apollo” launch. By doing so, all the validators that has been created inside the drill will be bonded and ready to create blocks.
Objectives of the “Apollo” testnet 🎯
Right after the launch, the last testing period before the mainnet will start.
During such period, people will have a chance for testing all the possible messages of the profiles module, which should help our team identify any critical bugs before the mainnet launch.
A part from that, we will use this testnet also to send test tokens to all the people that took part in any of our incentivized programs or have invested in one of our private token sales. These rewards will reflect those that they will receive in the mainnet so if any reward is missing here there will be the possibility to fix any problem by speaking to the team.
Interested? Join our Discord! 💬
If you are interested in in taking part to this testnet, please join our Discord server. This will be the place in which all the coordination happens and we let people know what should be done next. If you want to know the dates of the drill and what to do during each phase, we will publish all those infos there in the upcoming days.
Desmos Validators Program 🤝
Since we’re launching the “Apollo” testnet before the end of April, which should have been the date in which we award the current testnet validators, we decided to stop the current Desmos Validators Program on the day of launch of the new testnet.
This means that we will reward validators that have taken part to the morpheus-13001 testnet the day that the “Apollo” testnet launches.
After such date, the Desmos Validators Program will end and there will not be any new incentivization program for the “Apollo” testnet.
We want to take this new testnet launch as an opportunity to create a more tight and better working community of validators. For this reason, we would like to have a smaller set of validators that either (a) already know how to operate a validator, or (b) have shown sufficient skills to run one.
Please, keep in mind that the testnet drill will be open to everyone, but we hope that it’s going to be the chance for people to show true support to the project even if no rewards are given. We plan to run this testnet for a long time, and we hope to have a sufficiently stable validators set that allows us to do so.
Last but not least…
This whole year has been a wonderful journey and helped us improve our network beyond our most optimistic expectations.
We would like to take this opportunity to thanks each and everyone that has taken part to our testnets since now. We surely would not be able to continue developing Desmos if it wasn’t for your support. We really do appreciate your efforts and the interest you have shown in our project. Thank you! 🙏
“Caring has the gift of making the ordinary special.” — George R. Bach
