Sifchain Weekly Update: 18 July — 24 July
Sifchain and IBC
We are tracking a Monday/Tuesday .42 deployment to BetaNet. We have successfully upgraded our .39 DevNet to .42 and testing is looking good so far. Once it’s complete, we will do the same to the .39 TestNet. This will be our last test and sign-off before we propose a governance update upgrading BetaNet to .42. Last items standing in our way for this .42 to BetaNet deployment:
- Upgrade .39 TestNet to .42 — ChainOps
- Test this. — Testing Team
- Finished QA. — QA Team
IBC Status:
This deployment is dependent on our .42 deployment, but as of right now, it is looking like we could be IBC enabled by Thursday. Before we can make this happen we’ll need a completely finished and tested end-to-end DEX. This is just about there. We’ll need sign-off from the testing team and QA. We’ll also need Sifnode to merge their clp changes and whitelisting changes which is expected on Monday
ChainOps has the following status on relayers and channels with external IBC compatible chains:
- Cosmos Hub (stable)
- Akash (stable)
- Crypto.com (in progress)
- Osmosis (in progress)
- Iris (in progress)
- Regen (on deck)
- Sentinel (on deck)
- Persistence (on deck)
As always, unexpected issues can pop up. The above estimates are subject to change.
Team Updates
Each week, Sifchain’s Engineering teams report progress of their top priorities. Here are this week’s updates:
Sifnode
What is the team working on?
The Sifnode team is coordinating closely with other teams to deliver the CosmosSDK v0.42 upgrade and IBC integration for Sifchain this month. In addition to helping ChainOps to spin up new environments and resolve related bugs, Sifnode has defined a clear path to finishing whitelisting updates and clp changes to support IBC. Following the impending deployment of the Sifchain network upgrade to Cosmos v0.42, the team will begin work on removing the ‘c’ prefix from Ethereum-pegged tokens which includes tasks such as migrating existing pools and implementing clp module logic updates.
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
- Upgrading to CosmosSDK v0.42 is an important milestone, as this allows both Cosmos and Ethereum-based assets to be exchanged through IBC. This is an important step for Sifchain to become the first Omni-Chain DEX, as users will be able to swap tokens across different chains within the same DEX.
- In the current version of Peggy, we use token symbols from Ethereum (ex. ETH -> cETH) as Sifchain coin names for the entire identification system. However, as Sifchain will support additional blockchains beside Ethereum, the same token symbol may be used across multiple chains. Removing the ‘c’ prefix from Ethereum-pegged tokens and creating a new token ID system that allows the same token symbol to be used on multiple chains allows for a more intuitive UX.
Peggy
What is the team working on?
The Peggy team continues to focus on work for Peggy 2.0. Peggy team has finished implementation of a new developer environment (Hardhat), continuing work on the relayers for signature aggregation, and begun work on Sifnode changes to use a global nonce. We have also reworked plans for the denom system for Peggy 2.0 to be compatible with the upcoming IBC integration.
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
- Signature Aggregation — Allows the relayer to relay signatures that were aggregated in the virtual mempool on sifchain. Relayers continuously looks for transactions that have not been relayed to ethereum yet, and when such transactions are found, they are sent over the Ethereum network.
- Global Nonce — In order to ensure that Relayers do not process transactions out of order, it is necessary to order transactions across the bridge
Chainops
What is the team working on?
ChainOps has continued to direct their time, energy, and effort towards the launching and management of numerous internal test networks for version 0.42 of the Cosmos SDK, as well as several IBC-only networks. This has enabled other teams to confidently test their updates for 0.42. In addition, ChainOps has also successfully automated the deployment of relayers to connect Sifchain with the Cosmos Hub. Other IBC connections are still being worked on.
Another area of equal importance is one documentation, process, and procedure. The team is working on finalizing this given that the upgrade to 0.42 will require coordination from all validator operators.
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
- Establishing a working and stable environment is a critical milestone in order to perform reliable and productive development with IBC. Automated deployment helps the other engineering teams to focus on building, while workflows are optimized.
- Clear documentation is required to let validator operators to smoothly transition to the 0.42 CosmosSDK upgrade
Frontend
What is the team working on?
With a fully functional DEX operating within an upgraded 0.42 environment, the Frontend team is collaborating with the Testing team to perform end-to-end and user-acceptance testing. As of this writing, the team is successfully executing core operations including swap, token import & export, add/remove liquidity, and pool creation. We are very close to completing the upgrade of the DEX interface with necessary components for enabling user interaction with IBC features. Related, the team is working on updating the block explorer to accept and display all relevant data within the upgraded 0.42 environment.
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
The work of the Frontend team allows to leverage the power of IBC and help towards Sifchain’s goal of becoming a Omni-Channel DEX. This will not only allow users to now swap and pool Cosmos assets with Ethereum assets on a decentralized exchange, but will allow users to use Sifchain as a bridge when moving Ethereum-based assets into Cosmos, and Cosmos-based assets into Ethereum. All this in a new and fresh UI.
Testing
What is the team working on?
The Testing team has been stress testing all development related to the Cosmos v0.42 upgrade and IBC launch on several levels, including; e2e testing of the DEX within 0.42, load testing on .42 with success, assisting with block explorer testing, assisting the Data Services in ensuring all events were created to unblock as needed. Integration tests for the dispensation module are passing and scalability tests continue against test environments for IBC and Peggy use cases. Additional testing work continues with external partners for further security review.
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
Solid end-to-end testing is crucial in order to have a fully functional DEX ready to harness the power of the 0.42 upgrade and IBC implementation.
Data Services
What is the team working on?
The Data Services team has made great progress on mapping all endpoints to be 0.42 compatible so that token stats and user token rewards display in the DEX interface. The team has also defined a clear path towards transitioning community programs such as liquidity mining rewards away from Cosmos v0.39. Only a few items remain on updating the Data Services API and Client SDK to support Cosmos SDK v0.42 upgrade
How does this feature help the Sifchain community?
- Data Services API and ClientSDK allow different parties and community members to interact with the SIfchain DEX automagically. Liquidity providers can leverage Trading Bots for automated trading, increasing liquidity in the Sifchain DEX while accurate Sifchain data can be easily displayed on external platforms.
- Because of the incompatibility between the 0.39 and 0.42 CosmosSDK versions, transitioning community programs such as liquidity mining is needed in order to let community members take advantage of rewards programs even after 0.42 upgrade
Decentralized Exchange (DEX)
We welcome traders and developers to give feedback and participate in our network! The best ways to join our community are Telegram, Github, and Discord.
For now, in order to take full advantage of the Sifchain DEX, you must have a Keplr wallet for managing assets on Sifchain and a MetaMask wallet for managing assets on Ethereum. Check out our usage guide article, video tutorials, and “getting started” documentation!
Validator and Delegator Rewards
It should take half an hour to set yourself up as a validator. Sifchain has been running a validator subsidy program that started on February 19, 2021, at 5:00 AM GMT alongside the launch of BetaNet. You’ll see details about this incentive program in the BetaNet usage guide article. Delegation is a great way to earn validator income without running your own validator. You can do so in Keplr.
Validator in a Box: Plug and Play Passive Income Generator
Running a Sifchain Validator on Kubernetes (K8S)medium.com
Liquidity and Swapping Rewards
Sifchain allows users to swap any asset on any bridged chain (like Ethereum) for any other assets. Liquidity providers can add liquidity into Sifchain’s liquidity pools where they earn income. Check out our article about swapping and our article about liquidity pooling!
Global Media
If you are a content creator with a following, contact us to collaborate: info@sifchain.finance!
