Open in app

Sign in

Write

Sign in

Tezos: New Version of Mainnet-Staging Branch, TzStats Smart Contract APIs, Binance Supports Zero Fee XTZ Staking, V1 of tezblock, Bakers Voting List, Updating the Potential Carthage Proposal and Resetting the Carthagenet Test Network

Paradigm
Paradigm
Published in
16 min readDec 7, 2019

Biweekly update 23rd November — 7th December

Welcome, everybody! The final month of the year had a brilliant start for Tezos. Teams, grantees, funded entities, the Foundation, and the community — all participated actively in the life of Tezos, and the development progress is noticeable. Baking Bad released a Michelson syntax highlighter for VSCode supporting macros and Morley extensions. They also worked on an overview of the architecture and core components of TzKT; it’s lightweight, API-first, account-oriented block explorer based on the own indexer. Everstake added a snapshots page and a baking rights page to TZTracker, its Tezos explorer. Tarides announced the launch of Irmin V2, the Git-like data layer for MirageOS, with new features including a GraphQL frontend and optimized backends. The release of tezblock V1, with several new features and improvements, was announced by Airgap. Tulip Tools created a simple frontend for the Baker Registry Contract, where bakers can check their data, and delegates can check if their baker participates in the registry.

Moreover, Tezos.help published its Bakers Voting List to monitor the voting activity of Tezos bakers. Cryptonomic issued version 0.9.2 of its Galleon wallet with multiple minor bug fixes. Luke Youngblood and Keefer Taylor open-sourced a significant piece of tooling for builders on Tezos: The Operation Broadcaster enables broadcasting signed operations, such as smart contract interactions, without worrying about servers, nodes, or key storage.

In addition, TzStats launched a new release of the TzStats API featuring bigmap indexing and smart contract decoding for testing that will go live on the 12th of December. Nomadic Labs released a new version of the mainnet-staging branch with improvements to the new storage backend to make it more reliable and efficient. Most importantly, they worked on updating the potential Carthage proposal and resetting the Carthagenet test network. Together with Cryptium Labs, they are planning to inject the hash of the updated potential Carthage proposal into the updated carthagenet test network on Monday, the 9th of December 2019, during afternoon Paris/Zug time. As for the Foundation, they are still in the process of evaluating over 90 proposals from the most recent ecosystem grants RFP and will update applicants on the status of their projects by mid-December.

What is more, the Foundation appointed Alexis Bonte as a non-executive Council Member of the Swiss non-profit organization. Alexis is a seasoned professional, and his vast experience will undoubtedly contribute to the Foundation’s mission to further support and promote the Tezos ecosystem. During the last two weeks, several listings appeared, and beyond, Binance added support for Tezos (XTZ) staking.

Regarding social updates, Tezos entities continue the expansion all over the world. Recently the launch of Tezos Brazil was announced. Its first initiative is a Tezos training course in Portuguese. Tezos Geneva hosted its second meetup featuring a discussion on blockchain governance. Tezos Southeast Asia was in Bangkok for the first-ever Thailand Blockchain Week and presented on STOs. Tezos Southeast Asia announced that it would work with RF International Holdings to jointly explore how Tezos technology can form the bedrock of secure transactions in digital assets and tokenization. Tezos Ukraine co-sponsored Kharkiv Digital with Distributed Labs, introducing Tezos to a new community of builders. Don’t miss upcoming events! Tezos Berlin will host its next meetup on Tuesday, the 10th of December, to discuss Tezos governance. Teams did their best to provide amazing user experience and support for the community and potential developers. Tezos Southeast Asia conducted a workshop on blockchain technology for the accounting and finance industry at the Singapore office of the global association for professional accountants. A webinar on deploying a smart contract on Tezos with SmartPy was hosted by Blockmatics. Further, Chorus Mobility released a technical video illustrating the full process of ordering and launching an autonomous drone using Tezos smart contracts. Nomadic Labs published videos of its workshop on Tezos smart contract languages and formal verification. Efforts are not in vain — the community keeps growing in social networks and chats! Let it be the most efficient December ever! Stay tuned!

Bake your Tezzies with us — tezocracy.com

Development

Gitlab metrics

For detailed GitLab developer activity click here.

Developer activity (from Coinlib.io)

Fixes

  1. custom entry point hex encoding

Known issues

  1. Michelson lambda parameter encoding is not yet supported
  2. Michelson DIG, DUG, EMPTY_BIG_MAP, APPLY, CHAIN_ID operations are not supported

Future Breaking Changes

  1. KeyStore now contains derivationPath, in a subsequent release, functions that accept a KeyStore parameter and a derivationPath parameter will be modified to take only the former.

{Changes and improvements}

A lot of features as well as stability and performance changes have been made, a summary of some of these changes.

{Features}

For baker accounts, the existing card has been improved and new tabs have been added.

  1. Displays the currently active delegators and the number of rolls
  2. Payout account, bakers can reach out to us and link their baker to a payout account.

For past cycles, the rewards, baking, and endorsement rights have been added. In an upcoming release, this will also include future rights and rewards. The rewards for each cycle can now be expanded and the payouts share of each individual account is visible. The whole table can also be filtered for a specific address.

Besides the Tezos mainnet, tezblock now also supports Babylonnet and Carthagenet. Accessible through the dropdown or directly:

  1. babylonnet.tezblock.io
  2. carthagenet.tezblock.io

{Improvements, Stability & Performance}

A highlight of some of the performance improvements.

  1. New infrastructure with multiple Tezos nodes and Conseil instances.
  2. Improved loading speed across the board.
  3. Added more data properties to a variety of tables.

{What does the future bring?}

  1. Improve the missing data on various tables
  2. Future Baking & Endorsing rights and rewards
  3. Token/asset support
  4. Improved smart contract operation support
  5. Statistics and charts
  6. Improved governance support

TzKT consists of three main components: blockchain indexer, API service and frontend part. Combining them together, it looks like this:

In addition to the TzKT Indexer, they are also developing a native API to provide a convenient way to access the data.

{Following steps}

They plan to take the following steps in the near future:

  1. Publish a guide on how to build and deploy TzKT Indexer and API server;
  2. Release the first version of the explorer web interface with a couple of sweet features.
  3. They will continue to work on extending the indexer functional and API endpoints, as well as improving the explorer UI.

This new version contains improvements to the new storage backend which makes it more reliable and more efficient. It also contains a new command: reconstruct, which can be used to convert a full node into an archive node. This operation is long (a couple of days) but faster than bootstrapping from scratch. It is in particular useful to convert a mainnet archive node to the new storage backend: import a snapshot and run ./tezos-node reconstruct.

  • Tulip Tools made a very simple frontend for the Baker Registry Contract, where bakers can check their data, and delegates can check if their baker participates in the registry: https://bakers.tulip.tools.
  1. In a very decentralized system like Tezos, Wallets, for example, need an up-to-date list of all public bakers on the network, to make it easier for users to compare bakers and delegate, for such a list a smart contract is an obvious solution.
  2. With this contract, bakers can announce their payout models or inform users of other projects they are working on, entries can be changed but there is a record of every change on-chain. This helps build confidence in the Tezos baker ecosystem.
  3. It also provides a nice and streamlined way for bakers to communicate changes to the rest of the ecosystem, like wallets, listing sites, blockchain explorers, auditor services, etc.

For the past weeks, Cryptium and Nomadic Labs have not only been updating the carthagenet test network, but also continuously tested, analyzed, and refined the potential Carthage proposal. The purpose of the carthagenet test network is to serve as an open and accessible vehicle for core developers, bakers, ecosystem developers, and broader community to thoroughly test not only the potential Carthage proposal’s features but also the proposal’s transitions from injection until post-activation.

{What is the Updated Timeline?}

  1. carthagenet test network was reset on Friday the 29th of November 2019, at ~10 am Paris/Zug time. At the time writing, it represents 005, aka current mainnet.
  2. It is currently being operated by willing bakers of the baking Slack group.
  3. Cryptium and Nomadic Labs are planning to inject the hash of the updated potential Carthage proposal into the updated carthagenet test network on Monday, the 9th of December 2019, during afternoon Paris/Zug time.
  4. The updated potential Carthage proposal on the updated carthagenet test network will be subject to a sped-up governance process and will be activated on the updated carthagenet test network in 2–3 days*
  5. After the 2–3 days of governance process, the updated carthagenet test network will contain all the new features of the updated potential Carthage proposal.
  6. The updated carthagenet test network will be maintained by and dedicated to developers, bakers, and the broader ecosystem that wishes to test and interact with it. See “How to Interact with the Carthagenet Test Network” below for further information.

{What are the updates?}

Since the publication of “On the Carthage Proposal and the Carthagenet Test Network” article, Cryptium and Nomadic Labs have continuously worked on testing, analyzing, and refining the potential Carthage proposal. In addition to the Gas Limit Increases and the housekeeping features, the updated potential Carthage proposal includes:

  1. An updated rewards function (source), on which Nomadic Labs will publish a detailed article.
  2. Two additional housekeeping features, details of which you can find in the source files (source 1, source 2) and in the updated changelog.
  • TzStats Smart Contract APIs for Tezos -This API release is scheduled to go live on Dec 12, 2019 12:00 UTC. Please update and test your integrations against https://api.staging.tzstats.com to be ready. The new API release (v005–2019–12–05) introduces a full bigmap index as well as a complete set of features to access raw and decoded smart contract data from storage, bigmaps and call parameters. This is an exciting and important milestone for Tezos, because it allows developers to write applications without the need to decode binary data or handle complex nested Michelson primitives. It is also the first API that lets you browse the full history of a contract’s state at any given block in the past. (The introduced API features are brand new and there are likely some bugs or corner cases that don’t work just yet.)
  • tezblock Weekly Update #13
  1. Next Reward Expected and the Reward Amount are now displayed on each individual account page. This currently excludes the bakers' account and the fee is not yet subtracted from the reward amount.
  2. Recent searches are now immediately accessible in the search field.
  3. Overview of all the active bakers with their balances, rolls, staking balances and number of delegators can be accessed now through the header menu in Blockchain > Bakers.
  4. Specific tables are now directly accessible with an identifier ex. the “Votes” table for the AirGap baker account.

Differentiation of mainnet and testnet deployments, where irrelevant information like current USD price are hidden for testnets.

{Improvements & changes}

Additionally to the features many small changes have been done.

  1. Kukai Wallet has been listed under Resources > Wallets
  2. Many baker names and payout addresses have been added
  3. Voting period and number of votes in the transaction detail page
  4. Many more performance & stability improvements

{Grantees, Funded Entities, and Other News}

  1. Baking Bad released a Michelson syntax highlighter for VSCode supporting macros and Morley extensions.
  2. Blockmatics hosted a webinar on deploying a smart contract on Tezos with SmartPy
  3. Chorus Mobility released a technical video illustrating the full process of ordering and launching an autonomous drone using Tezos smart contracts.
  4. Nomadic Labs released videos of its workshop on Tezos smart contract languages and formal verification.
  5. Tarides announced the launch of Irmin V2, the Git-like data layer for MirageOS, with new features including a GraphQL frontend and optimized backends.
  6. Tezos Southeast Asia announced that it will work with RF International Holdings to jointly explore how the Tezos technology can form the bedrock of secure transactions in digital assets and tokenization.
  7. Tezos Southeast Asia was in Bangkok this week for the first-ever Thailand Blockchain Week and presented on STOs.

{Foundation Activities}

They are still in the process of evaluating over 90 proposals from the most recent ecosystem grants RFP, and will update applicants on the status of their proposals by mid-December.

{Grantees, Funded Entities, and Other News}

  1. Cryptonomic released version 0.9.2 of its Galleon wallet with multiple minor bug fixes.
  2. Everstake added a snapshots page and a baking rights page to TZTracker, its Tezos explorer.
  3. Magnum Wallet released a tutorial video on how to delegate on Tezos with Magnum.
  4. Nomadic Labs will meet with the ENVITED ecosystem workgroup for virtual proof of validation of highly autonomous driving (HAD) functions in Paris to discuss Nomadic’s work on distributed, decentralized, and formally verified software.
  5. Tezos.help released its Bakers Voting List to monitor voting activity of Tezos bakers.
  6. Tezos Southeast Asia conducted a workshop on blockchain technology for the accounting and finance industry at the Singapore office of the global association for professional accountants.
  7. Tezos Ukraine co-sponsored Kharkiv Digital with Distributed Labs, introducing Tezos to a new community of builders.

Social encounters

  • Tezos Korea CTO Minchul is giving a special lecture “Tezos: built to last” at Blockchain Masters Program at sogang university. See post.
  • A short trailer from the Baking Bad team at the first Tezos meetup in Moscow is available here. You can find Paradigm Fund team members there:) Enjoy all the presentations with subtitles on the channel via the link.
  • Interesting insights from the Nomadic Labs meetup on Barcelona. “Something big is being cooked on Tezos”
  1. They released its first teaser ”Discover Nomadic Labs in 2 minutes” to introduce themselves to the French and international community. You can view it here.
  2. They hosted their first-ever Pitch Day. Six blockchain startups from different industries had the opportunity to pitch in front of five experts. You can view the participants in this tweet. Equisafe, a company that specializes in tokenizing real-estate assets on the blockchain, won the competition.
  3. They were the main sponsor of Chainhack 4, a mini hackathon in Lisbon between the 8th and 10th of November. Together with Tezos Commons, they also sponsored the upcoming Tezos Barcelona meetup.
  4. Raphaël Cauderlier, Julien Tesson and Colin González from Nomadic Labs presented at the ‘’Tezos Smart Contracts: Programming Languages and Formal Verification’’ workshop hosted by IRIF, the fundamental computer science laboratory of “Université de Paris” (formerly known as “Université Paris-Diderot”).
  5. They attended Blockchain Corp Paris 2019, with a dedicated Tezos booth. (A large Exhibit with +1500 participants focused on Enterprise and Adoption). Hadrien Zerah, Sajida Zouarhi and Sebastian Larquié were present during this two-day conference to talk about the entire Tezos ecosystem, the challenges ahead, and what differentiates Tezos from many of the other projects out there.
  6. Arvid Jakobsson and Zaynah Dargaye are working on formally verifying the Spending Limit Contract, using Mi-Cho-Coq. This contract limits the amount of spending that an account can perform in a configurable time window. This is similar to how a typical credit card imposes daily spending limits for security reasons. This contract forms an integral part of the Cortez wallet, making its formal verification a priority.
  • Serge Attic talked about why Tezos is a default platform for tokenized assets at Kharkiv Digital conference by Distributed lab.
  • Singaporean gov’t blockchain platform facilitates 157 million fundraising — an article by Cointelegraph. On Nov. 21, Tezos’s non-profit arm Tezos Southeast Asia (TSA) announced its collaboration with Tribe to jointly launch a training program for developers on the Tezos blockchain. In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Dec. 2, Tribe Accelerator revealed that a total of $28 million had been raised to date to support start-ups from around the world attempting to solve real-world problems with blockchain technology.
  • Tezos Geneva meetup underway with 30+ people. Ryan Jesperson from Tezos Foundation has opened the evening.

1. Setting the record straight on the California State Court litigation that people are confusing for the federal district court litigation

2. Update on the federal litigation case

(You can also check the previous update by Paradigm Fund to learn more about recent updates)

  1. Chorus Mobility integrated a Robot Operating System with Tezos Blockchain — Check out this video that illustrates the full process of ordering and launching an Autonomous Drone with Tezos Smart Contracts on Mainnet.
  2. Co-founder of Tezos and Coase, Kathleen Breitman is featured on a panel on Bloomberg TV. Check out the panel here on ‘Examining the Role of DeFi in Cold War 2.0’
  • At FTC19, Ryan Lackey presented on digital assets:

Upcoming events:

Finance

The information is taken from TzStats
The information is taken from Tezos.ID
The information is taken from Tezos.ID

XTZ Staking distribution will be calculated as follows:

  1. XTZ generated by each user = Total XTZ staking rewards received by Binance * User XTZ holdings ratio.
  2. User XTZ holdings ratio = User XTZ holdings / Total XTZ staked by Binance.
  3. Users must hold at least 1 XTZ in order to qualify for staking rewards.
  4. The initial distribution of XTZ staking rewards will be calculated up until 2019/12/19, with the total amount distributed equally to the staking rewards accrued on holdings during the period.
  5. Since XTZ rewards mature after 7 cycles (roughly 3 weeks) of staking, rewards will be distributed prior to the 20th day of the following month in which the rewards began to accrue.
  6. For example, users who deposit XTZ between 2019/12/04 and 2019/12/19 will receive their first distribution by 2020/01/20. Users that deposit XTZ between 2019/12/20 and 2020/01/19 will receive their distribution of rewards by 2020/02/20.

Partnerships and team members

Zug, 25 November 2019 — The Tezos Foundation announced it has appointed Alexis Bonte as a non-executive Council Member of the Swiss non-profit organization. Alexis is a seasoned professional and his vast experience will undoubtedly contribute to the Foundation’s mission to further support and promote the Tezos ecosystem.

Rumors

  • Nomadic Labs is hiring interns for its offices in Paris and Grenoble. Apply by December 15!

Social media metrics

Social media activity
Social media dynamics
Social media dynamics

Tezos community continues to grow. There is a constant increase in the number of subscribers of Tezos social media channels.

There is also Tezos Riot chat and YouTube channel.

The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Tezos Facebook likes, Reddit subscribers and Twitter followers. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.

The Tezos Foundation is committed to supporting organizations that contribute to the growth of the Tezos community and ecosystem. They are especially interested in supporting regional organizations and university-based groups focused on Tezos and the larger blockchain ecosystem.

Check out some of the community organizations that compose the Tezos ecosystem:

Learn about key operational entities

Bake your Tezzies with us — tezocracy.com

This is not financial advice.

Subscribe to detailed companies’ updates by Paradigm!

Medium. Twitter. Telegram. Reddit.

Blockchain
Tezos
Tezos Baking
Cryptocurrency
Crypto

--

--

Paradigm
Paradigm

Written by Paradigm

3.7K Followers
Editor for

In chaos lies the truth

Help

Status

About

Careers

Press

Blog

Privacy

Terms

Text to speech

Teams