The team works on applied research and consulting in formal methods that is directly applicable to evidence based engineering in Core Tech and beyond.

High level summary​

The team is currently formalising mini protocols, working on a performance modelling paper and working on a performance modelling prototype tool

Details​

• completing work on chain sync mini-protocol

• proof sketch of conformance property of chain sync mini-protocol

• new content for JLAMP paper

• NWPT talk

High-level overview of sprint 49 & sprint 50​

Fixed PeerSelection bug​

Karl Knutsson (Cardano Foundation (CF)) found a bug in the cardano-node-8.7.0 version used on the Sancho Net which was fixed in 8.7.1. It resulted in a node not being able to reconnect to an upstream peer once it was demoted by an asynchronous exception. This bug would be caught by Q&A in a mainet release, but for testnet releases, Q&A test suite is not used. We also developed a test which covers the bug in the ouroboros-network, we also identified a missing PeerSelection test which we need to port to our simulation network. See ouroboros-network#4734, ouroboros-network#4665.

Bootstrap Peers​

Still under review, ouroboros-network#4555. The consensus team is now implementing the API we need for bootstrap peers. Once consensus API is implemented we will integrate changes in an experimental branch of cardano-node.

Tx-Submission​

We started working on a new implementation of the tx-submission application. No tx-submission protocol changes are foreseen, but we want to be able to download each tx from just one upstream peer and share the results between different connections. We want to distribute the bandwidth between multiple clients. We also think that this work will prepare us for the future Ouroboros-Leios changes, which will contain various versions of tx-submission like mini-protocols. See ouroboros-network#4701.

Peer Sharing​

Various fixes and improvements were implemented:

• ouroboros-network#4725

  • disabled peer sharing with initiator-only nodes: currently it's not possible to get peers from initiator-only nodes (edge nodes, e.g. wallets). In the future, we might change this, which will require running a server-side of the peer-sharing protocol by such nodes. See ouroboros-network#4726.
  • fixed peer-sharing codec
  • fixed a handshake bug which returned a wrong peer-sharing option

• ouroboros-network#4728

  • disabled peer-sharing for NodeToNodeV_11 and NodeToNodeV_12

• Karl Knutsson (CF) has been working on additional improvements, e.g. ouroboros-network#4735

With these fixes, Karl Knutsson (CF) was able to see that two peers on the mainnet can discover themselves through peer-sharing and keep being mutually useful and thus the connection surviving outbound-governor churn events.

IOSim​

We improved the memory footprint of IOSim in io-sim#126, see ouroboros-network#4721 for heap profile improvements on large test cases.

We are working on optimising the memory footprint of IOSimPOR. We are reimplementing VectorClocks using a trie, instead of a map which leads to significant improvements.

Cardano-Ping​

cardano-node-0.2.0.10 was released to CHaP, ouroboros-network#4746. This version exports more APIs which turned out to be useful in cardano-node test suite, see cardano-node#5536.

Technical Debt​

We addressed some small tech-debt issues in ouroboros-network#4722:

• fixed some typos
• using bracket instead of onException in withSnocket
• improved haddocks
• organised TracePeerSelection constructors

We improved the memory footprint of some of our tests in ouroboros-network#4721.

2023-11-15 - 2023-12-08

High level summary​

This is sprint was mostly about bug fixing, code clean-ups and optimizations in preparation for a mainnet suitable release.

cardano-cli​

• Unify previous governance action parameters across actions
• Release 8.17.0.0
• Restore the inclusion of datum hashes in Alonzo era tx bodies
• create-staked: add test
• create-staked: simplify some code
• Remove unused cabal file code
• New version cardano-cli-8.16.0.1
• Fix era mismatch error in stake-address-info
• Release 8.16.0
• Add create-testnet-data command
• Rename stake-address-info field: stakeDelegation -> delegation for eras prior to Conway
• Update the --key-output-format help text: default is text-envelope
• Complete help texts for create-protocol-parameters-update
• Fix using queryStakeVoteDelegatees in eras before conway
• Use node queries with tighter eons. Simplify prettyprinting.
• Add support for Plutus V3 in command line interface
• Remove Byron Tx
• Use selectStakeCredentialWitness instead of duplicating credential selection
• Revert "query protocol parameters: use ledger instances"
• governance action: prefix stake-verification-key/stake-key arguments with --deposit-return
• Fix NodeEraMismatchError mismatch
• Byron isolation 2 of n
• Fix description of vote-delegation-certificate command
• New version cardano-cli-8.15.0.0
• Integration work for Node 8.7.0
• Align create-constitution anchor flags with other anchor flags
• conway governance hash: add option to write hash to file (--out-file)
• Update pCmds to take ShelleyBasedEra era instead of Cardano era
• Add one missing extended to non extended golden tests
• Correct conway parser, so that --key-reg-deposit-amt is mandatory

cardano-api​

• Release 8.36.1.1
• Restore the inclusion of datum hashes in Alonzo era tx bodies
• New version cardano-api-8.36.1.0
• Expose AnyProposals and AnyRatificationState
• New version cardano-api-8.36.0.0
• New ToJSON instance for TxValidationErrorInCardanoMode
• Update to latest consensus release
• Fix generated textEnvelope type on registering a Stake Address Registration Certificate
• New version cardano-api-8.35.0.0
• Expose NewGovernanceProposals and EpochBoundaryRatificationState ledger events
• Remove renderEra. Rename prettyTo to docTo functions
• Guard queries with their respective eras
• Release 8.34.1
• Expose stakeCredentialWitness function, which returns only stake credentials for the certificates requiring witnessing: delegation and deregistration
• Remove ByronTx
• New version cardano-api-8.34.0.0
• ToJSON instance for TxValidationError
• Parameterize createAndValidateTransactionBody on ShelleyBasedEra era
• New version cardano-api-8.33.0.0
• Minor prettyprinter fixes
• Export AllegraEraOnwards
• New version cardano-api-8.32.0.0
• Use Pretty for rendering errors instead of Show

cardano-node​

• Bump CHaP
• Allow text-1
• Release cardano-node 8.7.1
• Bump CHaP
• Forcefully disable PeerSharing if InitiatorMode is used
• Optimize new tracing further

cardano-testnet​

• Bump CHaP
• Transaction submission test via cardano-submit-api
• Bump CHaP
• Transaction integration test

docs​

CI & project maintenance​

High level summary​

The SRE team continues work on cardano environment improvements and general environment maintenance.

Some notable recent changes, updates or improvements include:

• Sanchonet was respun to cardano-node 8.7.0-pre, and upgraded to cardano-node 8.7.1-pre shortly afterwards
• Cardano-node 8.7.2 was released and all environments were then upgraded to 8.7.2
• Cardano-parts deployed machines were upgraded to nixpkgs 23.11 and nix 2.19.3
• Cardano-parts resource deployed environments were switched from the use of Terraform to OpenTofu

Lower level summary​

Capkgs​

• Updated for cardano-node 8.7.2 and process-compose packages: capkgs-compare

Cardano-parts​

• Update scripts for 8.6.0-pre: cardano-parts-pull-21
• Sanchonet respin with additional lib refactor and postgres prepared statement update: cardano-parts-pull-22
• Nixpkgs 23.11 update with migration from Terraform to OpenTofu: cardano-parts-pull-23
• Node 8.7.2 release update and process-compose flakeModule addition: cardano-parts-pull-24

Cardano-ops​

• Mainnet high load relays were updated to cardano-node 8.7.2 cardano-ops-compare

Cardano-playground​

• Sancho respin plus related book updates and network debug reference code: cardano-playground-pull-7
• Nixpkgs 23.11 update with required module changes, lint updates and tofu utilization.: cardano-playground-pull-8
• Node 8.7.2 release and process-compose addition, misc fixes: cardano-playground-pull-9

Cardano-world​

• Sanchonet update PR: cardano-world-pull-111
  • Merge the long running sanchonet-updated branch
  • Migrate explorers from ziti to wireguard tunnel usage
  • Remove remaining ziti code and provisioned resources
  • Retire remaining nomad jobs in preference of the cardano-playground environments
  • Downsize the cluster in preference of the cardano-playground environments

Iohk-nix​

• Update mainnet p2p config: iohk-nix-pull-566
• Update mainnet default mempool tracing: iohk-nix-pull-567

High-level summary​

This week, the Hydra team made progress by releasing version 0.14.0, incorporating updates and improvements. They also updated dependencies in preparation for Conway support, addressing #1114. Additionally, the team completed substantial refactoring in hydra-node using stateless observation, aiming to enhance system efficiency and performance #1096. Lastly, they investigated regressions related to JSON serialized transactions and consider dropping this in favor of CBOR only submission.

What did the team achieve this week​

• Released version 0.14.0
• Updated dependencies to prepare for Conway support #1114
• Completed substantial refactoring in hydra-node using stateless observation #1096
• Investigated regressions about JSON serialized transactions

What are the goals of next week​

• Analysed our mainnet head and why some transactions were invalid
• Detect incompatible blocks and provide better UX
• Update to newer cardano-node and Conway support in hydra-node
• Draft the end-to-end workflow for incremental decommits