The Dusty Plasm
Plasm Network Dusty testnet is ready for launch
A dusty plasma is a plasma containing millimeter (10−3) to nanometer (10−9) sized particles suspended in it. Dust particles are charged and the plasma and particles behave as a plasma.
Striving for innovation is a challenging process. Bringing innovation to the platform is always chaotic, the probability of being stuck or breaking things is so high, it is wise to assume the worst. But for a scalable Dapp platform that is Plasm Network, failure is not something we can afford. We are obligated to provide the most durable platform for potential developers who are looking forward to using our main net. To overcome this challenge and ensure that our main net is successful, we are introducing The Dusty Plasm Network, or Dusty for short.
The Bleeding Edge version of Plasm development
Inspired by Kusama as a canary network of Polkadot, we have adopted the best practice of blockchain development to the Plasm project. Starting from our mainnet launch in May, any development that is potentially breaking is moved into a separate substrate chain with the codename Dusty.
“How will the codebase work?” you may ask. The Dusty Plasm Network will have the exact same runtime as the Plasm Mainnet. The only major difference is that Dusty will implement our mainnet features at roughly one to two weeks earlier than its counterpart. You can consider this testnet as a draft of features that will be added on to the mainnet at a later date.
To elaborate, this means that the current master branch of the Plasm source code in our repository will be assigned for mainnet build only. For development and experimental features, they will be first added to the aforementioned Dusty branch. This means that after the split, the Plasm Network will have largely two types of binaries: one will be the stable build — the mainnet Plasm binary ready for production usage and the beta build — the dusty Plasm binary ready for testing and a teaser for our upcoming features.
Validator election
Similar to the Plasm mainnet, Dusty will have a Proof-of-Authority consensus algorithm. This means that the validator list will be managed by the team at Stake Technologies and will be manually assessed based on the validator attendance and other personal scores. Furthermore, the Dusty validator set will act as two-week advance notice for mainnet validators. For people who are interested in becoming a validator, please read our validator guide.
Incentives
Of course, Dusty network validator participation will be incentivized by default. Dusty will reward its validators in PLD (a network native token for Dusty). This reward system will also work for Dapp operator nominators as well. To understand more about the Plasm DApp rewards system, please read our previous publication.
When Plasm Network token distribution is finished, the Stake Technologies team is planning to distribute 0.5% of Plasm tokens to Dusty token holders.*
(*) We are currently considering a more appropriate form of reward for Dusty Network participants based on Plasm Network's strategy. PLD is a basically value-free testnet token. Therefore, feel free to try out many transactions on Dusty. Please understand that this is for the growth of the network. Stay tuned for more reports.Initial token distribution
Dusty will have the same genesis token as our Plasm mainnet, meaning that each Plasm Genesis Lockdrop participants will receive Dusty tokens that is equal to the amount allocated in Plasm mainnet. However, the next token distribution will depend on the community reaction and everyone’s activity within the network.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask in our Discord! Have fun!
