Update on Metastate’s plans as the second Tezos core development team
With this article, we would like to announce that Metastate will end its activities as a core development team of the Tezos protocol on the 31st of January 2021.
In early 2019, with the goal of contributing to the decentralization of the research and development efforts in the Tezos protocol and ecosystem, Metastate joined as the second core development team and has ever since been closely collaborating with Nomadic Labs. During the past two years, we witnessed the appearance and remarkable growth of several other core development teams, such as DaiLambda, LIGO/Marigold, and TQ Tezos– in addition to the growth of Nomadic Labs.
In terms of protocol development, Metastate has developed in collaboration with Nomadic Labs the Babylon and Carthage protocol upgrades. More recently Delphi, and Edo, in collaboration with further core development teams (more details in the Tezos Chronicle website). Besides the features that were included in adopted proposals, Metastate has developed other features and integrations that could be included in future proposals, if the current development teams and the community wish to, such as baking accounts or the MASP integration on Tezos (see the complete list of features on GitLab). Furthermore, these features are currently available and some are ready for testing and interactions with the community on the Astrolabe Tezos test network, which Metastate has recently deployed, documentation of which is available directly under metastatedev.gitlab.io/astrolabe-docs.
Metastate has contributed to the open-source research and development of the broader Tezos ecosystem, primarily in two areas. The first one is in programming languages, formal verification, and high-assurance smart contract development, which converged into the development of Juvix and the upcoming first public release, which supports the Michelson backend. This release is in conjunction with a set of open-source example contracts which compile to Michelson and the relevant peer-reviewed academic publications (ISoLA 2020 and Witch). With regard to zero-knowledge cryptography, Metastate has published the in-depth demystification series of zero-knowledge cryptography schemes (Supersonic, Fractal, PLONK by Hand), recently released the Multi-Asset Shielded Pool project and its corresponding integration with Tezos, which is also available for testing on the Astrolabe testnet.
Albeit Metastate’s halt as a Tezos core development team, the Astrolabe test network will continue running, we will continue to support Juvix’ Michelson backend and continue to integrate the feedback from its users (stay tuned for the guidelines on contributions, feedback, and bug reporting) to the best of our capacity. Needless to say, the open-source research and already developed and released Tezos protocol and shell features, and other libraries, such as the MASP will remain open-source and free to use under the conditions of the corresponding open-source licenses.
Finally, the Metastate’s official website, Tezos Chronicle website, Metastate’s Tezos GitLab repository, Medium publication, and social media profiles will be maintained for informational and archival purposes.
The Metastate team wishes to thank all the members of the Tezos community for the incredible journey over the last two years. We wish the Tezos ecosystem all the best and are thrilled to see the heights that the current and future research and development teams, together with the rest of the Tezos ecosystem will reach.
