KuChain Community AMA
About Kratos Validating Node Issues
Dear KuChain Community,
Time: 20/11/2020 18:00 (UTC+8)
KuChain hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) in the KuChain Official English Community. Lou Yu, KuChain Operation Lead, shared info and answered questions about Kratos validating node issues.
This is the full transcript for you.
Guests:
Lou Yu — KuChain Operation Lead
Introduction of Kratos:
Kratos is co-ordinal with KuChain in concept, architecture and resource, as it serves the role of KuChain’s initial version prior to mainnet launch. Providing an experimental environment, Kratos encourages decentralized financial product pioneers to test and prove their innovative technologies and notions, as well as try out and contribute to KuChain’s various functionalities spanning governance, staking and validating.
With true economic value underlying Kratos, KuChain will be proved technically feasible as well as economically sustainable and market-oriented by the public before launch.
Kratos Website: https://kratos.network/kratos
Part1 Q&A
Eneko: Hi, my name is Eneko and i was in crypto world for several years. I have been working in IT and Security for more than 20 years. I was working as KuCoin Community Manager since October 2017 and now i will help you also in KuChain group. I’m also a Kratos node Owner With Kukis.team01 and decentralize nodes.
Q1. Eneko: What actually happened on Kratos Network?
Lou: As KuChain is built on the basis of Cosmos-SDK and has made several restructurations within, it happened that the Cache mechanism for validators in Cosmos-SDK is incompatible with KuChain built AccountID mechanism.
Which in the scenario of Kratos Beta test Phase II, where nodes are numerous and widely dispatched, caused the AppHash calculation divergence of Kratos validator blocks, so that the chain forked on the block height 567025 on October 16th.
The symptoms of the pathology are the following:
- transaction calculation divergence among validators;
- normally operating validators being punished/jailed on-chain;
- block explorer data could not be updated;
- the delegators (KTSt holders) could not receive rewards normally;
With help from all Kratos network validators, our developers have found the AccountID issue then fixed it. Then our Tech Lead @Cain and our Community Manager @Flora have contacted Kratos validators to upgrade their nodes to v0.5.4.
Then we spent a lot of time waiting for the last sync block to return to normal, nodes enter the normal block packaging state after Tendermint’s consensus module completes the synchronized Round.
Q2. Eneko: How is KuChain Team fixing the network issues?
Lou: 1st thing to do was identifying it, which took us some time to locate the issue. Since it was an incompatibility issue caused by Cosmos-SDK’s code restructuration, KIT has remade modifications around the AccountID module that I mentioned earlier, so it turns back on a compatible status with the other modules of Cosmos-SDK.
Then I guess Kratos validators have more to say, because @Cain did call out a lot on our validator friends. Now that we are not so numerous and that I’m able to name all of them, shout out to the following friends:
@Enekoas from Kukis.Team01 and decentralize, who is also contributing a lot on KuChain Community communication and management, and again today helping me out with today’s AMA session as our MC :)
Enekoas: Hi all again, as said before, I’m also a node owner. I have managed server infrastructures for more than 20 years and I’m also the owner of more than 200 Masternodes from different projects and i have them hosted in different providers. My idea of being a node owner is to help to decentralize KuChain network.
Lou: @大毛@Nodeady from Nodeasy, helped Cain and I gathered a lot of information, and shared with us on their technical and operational insights.
@Blair Tang from Awake Wallet, serving not only as a validator node but also as Kratos’ community wallet, where many of our KTSt holders get to participate in Kratos network’s governance and to claim your voting-governance rewards.
@Mia from Pool-X, both serving as validator on Kratos network and providing a user-friendly governance platform via Pool-X for Kratos. Platform on which users’ KTSt are custoded and managed by Pool-X team, and where on-chain voting rewards are distributed to users :)
Mia: Hi there, very nice to meet you guys! I’m Mia from Pool-X. As Lou mentioned, Pool-X plays as one of the closest partner to KuChain and KuChain community, we are and will surely to stand on the same page with KuChain team to work on the chain issues. And of course, Pool-X will continue supporting the staking rewards distribution at once when everything’s ready!
Lou: @niuniu@Bit Cat from BitCat, whose tech experts are not only operating multiple PoS nodes, but also designing and developing many blockchain projects.
BitCat: Hi all, nice to e-meet you! BitCat is a very professional PoS operator, we support multiple blockchain projects. And it’s all our pleasure for being part of KuChain’s early ecosystem. We will continue on providing enterprise-grade infrastructure to KuChain to insure safety and stability for the community
Lou: @TiTaNFPV and @nashos with a Spanish node Ktspain.gain, who leverage their rich experience in system operation and maintenance over the past 20 years to passionately run a node in Kratos network. These two true believers have been preaching for crypto since 2011.
@Nicole T from InfStones, a silicon Valley-based world leading blockchain infrastructure company that provides services to support thousands of nodes on 30+ public chains including Kratos.
InfStones: Hi Guys, very honored to be one of the validators on Kratos from the very beginning. We shall continuously work closely with Kratos to solve any problem it may occur and to promote the security and reliability of the Kratos network.
Lou: @Yuriy with easy.profits, one that’s really helpful with super positive involvement, and generous by offering their customers attractive service fees.
@Rose from HashQuark, the Hong Kong-based infrastructure service providing subsidiary of HashKey Group. Building up from solid technology in wallet, cross public & private cloud deployment, as well as security, it offers one kind of sophisticated staking service.
HashQuark: Hi! This is Rose from HashQuark. HashQuark has been researching on many POS and DPOS projects and is committed to the development of the staking. KuCoin is a top exchange with great technical experience. Based on our testnet experience, the public chain has a great potential. I believe that Kucoin will empower Kuchain in several areas in the future.
Lou: @Guillermo from pivetronik20, a zealot in cryptos and IT infrastructure that offers node service with high availability.
BuildLinks, a PoS-focused mining pool that on one hand offers their customers with most professional staking services, on the other hand is devoted in researching, participating and assisting advanced blockchain projects and their ecosystems.
@GaltzagorriBasajaun from kratospooltx, which offers bilingual (English and Spanish) services, and is not afraid of facing up the disadvantage of being small, expecting to further grow with Kratos community.
@Marius with Ubik Capital, which provides worldwide and around-the-clock coverage for KuChain community, with rich experience managing multiple blockchain nodes as well as military-grade cybersecurity.
@CriptoNita from ktst.icepool, our new friend with great passion and potential that will always be standby for thorough involvement in KuChain ecosystem development.
There were a lot for work and communication on getting logs, checking on the block sync status, clearing cache etc etc, many technical matters that I will let those who are interested to explore on :
- KuChain GitHub (https://github.com/KuChainNetwork)
- and KuChain Explorer (https://explorer.kuchain.network/)
- and KuChain Discord (https://discord.gg/pCJvzK7K)
Q3. Eneko: When will we be sure of the network stability?
Lou: We are expecting stabilization in around 2 weeks, and that’s when the second round of Kratos beta test kicks off according to our plan.
Just to remind, during this second beta test, as long as the blocks are being normally validated, KTSt holders that voted for any of our validators will keep receiving voting-governance reward (distributed directly if your are using Pool-X governance platform,to claim if using Awake Wallet).
What I can say so far is that I personally am kind of glad that the network problems surged at this stage and not later. As we just started the network for not too long to let the negative impact go out of control, which — in the case of Kratos going very public and fully operational — would be much harder to manage.
Q4. Eneko: Why is the chain fixation taking so long? What impact on Kratos and KuChain in the future? What happens to the KTSt taking rewards? Future plans for Kratos, KTS and KuChain?
Lou: I actually had that same question each time when the network seemed to be back on its normal operation and that it didn’t. The point is that the network’s problem came from the basic coding between the modules.
When we make changes to the modules, we generally need to be really careful not to make new problems. And to be sure of it, after fixing the module code, we have to go through an alpha test round. If no problem surges, we call on our validator friends to start trying getting back on the network and see if it stabilizes. And generally goes back and forth a several times before everything gets done exactly as it should be. A frustrating process, but somehow necessary I guess.
In terms of impacts on Kratos/KuChain, from a technical standpoint it’s all for the best. We wouldn’t want to release any immature or unstable tech solution to businesses and users, I think that’s the basic ethic as part of a blockchain development team. And hopefully the beta test would help us to testify even better about Kratos network’s technology, and we will be more than grateful for your contribution as a validator, a KTSt holder or simply as a KuChain enthusiast.
The voting-governance rewards are generated with blocks getting validated. When rewards are not distributed to the user/claim by the user, for instance during this time’s Kratos network problem, they stay and accumulate on-chain. Therefore, in case where the network is normally working, the rewards can be distributed to and claimed by each user.
Q5. Eneko: Where is the KuChain road map now? Are all targets in accordance with the current road map? and what are the next steps that will be taken in the future?
Lou: The current roadmap is on Kratos’ official website (https://kratos.network/kratos), yet I’d say it is a very initial version that we have released back to July.
Today, KuChain/Kratos is oriented in a very clear direction.
1st: to act at the frontline of KuCoin’s decentralization process, first with Kratos then with KuChain, then with the first DeFi application for example a DEX, and then KCS migrating onto KuChain where it will additionally serve as the fuel on the chain to provide power and incentive in the public chain ecosystem.
2nd: as we said earlier, KuChain is built based on Cosmos-SDK. With financial background, where Cosmos ecosystem is lacking in terms of application layer development, KuChain is able to complete as an important liquidity entry into the ecosystem. For those who are more familiar with Cosmos ecosystem structure, KuChain could act as a zone that links the heterogeneous ecosystem to the homogeneous hubs within Cosmos. Especially with the corresponding IBC protocol and Cosmos-Ethereum Peggy protocol being put in place.
And as a first result, we have set up Ti-Labs with IRISnet (2nd biggest hub in Cosmos), where we will keep on studying and developing the possibilities of Cosmos-SDK + Tendermint consensus protocol and KuChain’s self-understanding of Decentralized Financial Applications.
Q6. Eneko: On which expected date will KuChain go online? Who is the KIT team? What is the connection between KuChain and kucoin?
Lou: We have spent around a month on Kratos network repair, so there are some delays with KuChain launch date. It was initially planned to be within this quarter, now we estimate the mainnet launch time to be postponed for another quarter. So I’d say hopefully Q1 2021.
The KIT team stands for KuChain Iteration Team, which refers to the team of all core developers that are working on KuChain’s technology development.
KuChain is the public blockchain project founded by KuCoin Exchange in 2019, which aims to explore the decentralized financial world and help KuCoin through its decentralization process.
Q7. Eneko: DeFi has been a very popular movement in crypto. Can you tell us about your plans to integrate this into your ecosystem?
Lou: Sure! So as I just mentioned KuChain is built for DeFi integration on top of it. Here if you have been following KuChain’s previous news and AMA’s you probably already know that KuChain has done several technical improvements in order to solve some of the problems that DeFis have. And as a fundamental tech solution provider, KuChain, like all public blockchain, has a B to B to C business model.
Taking a DEX (decentralized exchange) as an example, we need to understand that a DEX is basically an exchange app built on-chain. There are the major improvements KuChain will make over the existing solutions.
1st of all, it’s the high barrier of the game. I mean, not everyone gets the code, all the technical aspects and specificities of decentralized technology. The chain as a fundamental layer on which businesses can build things, has to be fertile enough to welcome all kinds of businesses. Here on KuChain as we are finance-oriented, in order to make it as easy as possible to realize and implement various business concepts on chain, KuChain chooses to construct its foundation in a modularized way. Businesses can directly call on the modules and deploy their applications in accordance.
2nd, the persistent liquidity problem that all orderbook based DEXs keep facing. One of the most important and practical module on-chain, is what we call a Liquidity Sharing Protocol (LSP). Which, as its name implies, allows applications to share liquidity once they call on the module.
3rd, the congestion problem as it happens all the time on Ethereum when it comes to high frequency transactions. KuChain here is technically structured to allow DEXs to put some of the matching part off-chain and to have the clearing part on-chain, which considerably lowers the chain’s operation frequency, and thus can make the end user experience as fluent as possible :)
Now these are some of the aspects of KuChain’s technical improvements, for just one form of the DeFi application — DEX. I would probably take dozens of hours if I had to list anyone of them. (To enumerate all of them, it would probably take me hours and even days.) I strongly invite you to stay tuned for KuChain’s updates. And of course I will be here more often later for other informal sharings.)
8. Eneko: Do you guys have developing plans on modules that support smart contracts? If you do, when will it start? If you don’t, do you have replacement solutions, and why?
Lou: Well, I see someone who knows a lot about DeFi :)
As KuChain is built on Cosmos-SDK, which doesn’t include any smart contract, KuChain will indeed have to explore for an alternative/replacement. We have already begun to explore some interesting directions, maybe some solution not directly implemented on KuChain itself.
Here I would let a little suspends, but no worries I will keep updating if any news ;) Also for the techniques, all the codes of KuChain are open-source on KuChain GitHub, so you guys probably would be notified first if any repo goes public ;)
Part2 Free-Ask
Q1: What is your kraros beta test kicks 2nd plan?
Lou: It will be two sections, the voting governance part that all KTSt holders could experience. And another part will be another bug bounty program, which will last a few months.
Q2: How will Kratos interact with KuChain? Will they work in parallel, like the relationship between Kusama and Polkadot?
Lou: Kratos is KuChain’s testnet, a younger version of KuChain. It work a little bit like Kusama and Polkadot. The two chains will be working parallel in the future. But managed by their respective community. And ans community can basically decide the future of the chain by on-chain proposals, the two chains might just finally getting evolved in different directions.
Q3: Will KTSt be converted in the future to KTS?
Lou: Possible since the community could decide of it when 2/3 of the KuChain community votes for it in an on-chain proposal.
Q4: Increasing Token Price & Building Community Trust & Make Token Valuable. From 3 aspects above, I want to ask Which one the most Important for you? If all above are important for you, which one the will you do first?
Lou: Interesting one here 🙂 I’d say all important, and I’d like to also add the tech/product part. It is fundamental for a blockchain project to deliver in terms of tech knowledge and product. But that’s a part that our KIT team is working hard on. From my personal perspective, community is THE key. When a say technology if fundamental for the project, community is important for the tech, because community is gonna use it.
And more specifically for a blockchain community, it’s so decentralized that we seem just like a group of people working for a common goal. People got to communicate, cooperate, contribute and the reward of us all would be the profit.
And now KuChain, as the initiator of this goal, have the responsibility to shoulder that communication, cooperation and contribution. And also to incentive the whole community to communicate, cooperate and contribute together. As unity is strength!
Q5: After the massive failure of COMBO and the departure of one of the creators, what are your plans to restore the reputation of the first KuChain product?
Lou: Combo is not KuChain’s product. It is a independent project that reach out to KuChain to deploy its business on KuChain. In terms of the strategic partnership, we are still working very closely in terms of technology. As for the Comb listing matters, Combo team is already taking the necessary action, hopefully all will go better very soon.
Part3 Ending
Eneko: That’s all for today’s AMA. Thanks for your participating!
Lou: Thank you! Please continue to follow the progress of KuChain and Kratos!
Community
KuChain emphasizes the core value of community first, aiming at a prosperous ecosystem jointly contributed, and the path of which will be collectively decided by the whole community. Come and join us at:
GitHub: https://github.com/KuChainNetwork
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