999 nodes on Basodino, what’s next?
As we approach the last stretch of the second version of Basòdino, we’re already looking into what to do next. Registrations are now closed, but for existing participants there’s still plenty of time to improve your score! This post will provide an update on progress, explain some of the changes for the second half of the testnet, and give a first glimpse into what changes and other improvements we’re planning going forward.
Numbers-wise, we couldn’t be more delighted. We now have 999 registered nodes, tantalizingly close to the 1000 node milestone. Unfortunately we won’t break that for a little while, as we’ve disabled CoverBot — more on that below. We’re also excited by the sheer diversity of our community, with participants connecting from every corner of the world, including (and I hope this isn’t divulging too much metadata) our first node on a fishing trawler connecting via satellite internet! It’s amazing to see our goal of building a truly decentralized network powered by real people is paying off.
CoverBot
Starting with the most important update: Our beloved CoverBot(maybe not beloved by everyone!) has been turned off for the second week of the testnet while we make improvements based on the data and feedback we’ve gathered. This means you won’t receive any relay messages from CoverBot, there will be no more points for relaying data, and it’s no longer possible to register for the testnet (even though that keeps us just a single user from the 1000 milestone!) CoverBot is fully disabled, so don’t worry that you can’t message or ping the node. Please do still keep your node, as you’ll need it for the Daily Tasks, which operate separately from CoverBot.
Why have we done this? CoverBot’s simulated cover traffic is an important component of our testnets, but we appreciate there’s some frustration with how the random node selection plays out in the network graph. CoverBot chooses who to relay to at random, but once the message is sent, there are a variety of factors which affect whether the relay is completed.
Even though some community members will be delighted by CoverBot’s retirement, I’m afraid it’s only temporary. CoverBot generates vital data for us, and the registration process has proven a great way to onboard new users quickly. CoverBot will continue to be a part of future testnets, but we promise we’re working hard to make the randomness less intrusive.
Daily Tasks
Reducing the reliance on CoverBot’s points is helped through the introduction of Daily Tasks. At time of writing we’re on our 10th task, and the response has been amazing. We’ve had over 500 entries to each task, and everyone has risen to the challenge, whether it’s finding the solution to tricky riddles, compiling the HOPR playlist or filling in exhilarating feedback forms (okay maybe those are less fun, but they’re extremely useful for us)! Tasks will continue until the testnet ends on Monday 23rd.
If you want to check your points, visit the leaderboard at network.hoprnet.org, which can now also show a breakdown of the points you got for each task if you want surgical precision.
See the full list of Daily Tasks here.
Next Steps
Continuous development means that even as you participate in our testnets, behind the scenes work proceeds at full speed on our next (currently unnamed) release. I say “behind the scenes”, but none of this is secret or hidden. HOPR is committed to full transparency, and you can see absolutely everything we’re working on, down to which team member is working on which task, by exploring our GitHub.
Honestly, we’re delighted with how the testnets have gone so far, but the consequence of such long testnets is there’s a growing disconnect between the release the community is running and what we’re actually working on. This is something of a vicious circle: you get delayed access to our most recent technology to protect metadata privacy, and we don’t get the most up to date data we need, which lengthens development.
As a way to address this, we’ve decided to move to a shorter testnet cycle so we can iterate more quickly on community feedback, and to make sure you can get your hands on the most up-to-date version of our app. The latest version is actually packing a major overhaul, bringing HOPR Chat in sync with the experience of our AVADO users. A sneak peak can be seen below.
Ultimately, we will be keeping the CoverBot relay mechanism, because cover traffic is such an essential part of HOPR mainnet. But we’ll make sure things are more balanced. We’ll also be keeping the Daily Tasks concept, but adjusted for the new shorter lifecycle of each testnet.
More detailed updates on how this will work will be coming very soon, so keep an eye on this blog.
Jose Aguinaga
HOPR Head of Engineering
