Phase 3 of the ongoing, five-phase Agoric incentivized testnet had validators engage in various network, community, and challenge tasks to test our staking mechanisms. We reached a major technical milestone, saw over 1,200 tasks submitted, and anointed winners for everything from bots to UI.
Phase 3: By the Numbers
Network: 1176 tasks submitted
Community: 41 tasks submitted
Challenge: 7 tasks submitted
Starting Strong
Phase 3 of our incentivized testnet, Staking Dynamics, started off with a bang. The chain started within a minute of the scheduled time as our validators came prepared and nodes were online. In Phase 2, our first decentralized chain start took nearly an hour. Our phased testnet approach was chosen in part to allow the validator community to practice key elements several times. This was great validation of that model! The Agoric Discord was the hottest party in town.
A Major Milestone
From a technical standpoint, this testnet phase represented a major milestone for Agoric. It marked the first time we connected staking rewards and security on the Cosmos/Tendermint level with the Agoric VM in JavaScript in a decentralized chain. Using testnet assets, validators staked and earned rewards, participated in governance, and interacted in our economy.
For one key task, validators were asked to increase their BLD stake by exchanging their RUN rewards for additional BLD and then staking it. This required a connection between the ERTP representation of the BLD tokens and the Cosmos level representation (new functionality built prior to the phase start). One validator did this to great success: writing a script to periodically trade his rewards to BLD and re-stake to greatly compound.
Prepping for Phase 4: Stress Test
Phase 3 also provided a critical learning experience for the team in a number of ways. It was the first time we launched on top of the XS JavaScript engine by Moddable. The phase exposed several scaling limitations (some expected and some surprising) that have become top priorities for development moving forward.
Several of the tests Agoric was looking to perform during the upcoming Stress Test phase (Phase 4) became unnecessary because we observed performance dynamics during Phase 3. As a result, we opted to push out the timing for the Stress Test phase to June 23rd, allowing the development team to make progress in these areas and push the chain even harder at the next phase launch.
We really appreciated the tenacity of the validators working with us during the phase. Some of the scaling limitations the chain went through caused challenges for validators trying to complete tasks. We also had one chain restart, which required quick validator coordination. The Agoric testnet has proven itself to be extremely resilient and capable!
Announcing the Winners
Phase 3 Winners
A glimpse at OmniFlix’s Staking UI
OmniFlix Network’s Staking UI
Built a staking UI, which connects with Keplr, allowing users to stake their BLD to different validators. Users can select validators and selecthow much to stake. It summarizes governance proposals including statuses.
Project Link: https://agoric.omniflix.co
A peek at one of the KingSuper Discord Bot’s commands
KingSuper’s Discord Bot
A comprehensive Discord bot that uses the Cosmos API to answer various delegation questions. In the above screenshot, each Validator moniker is a hyperlink that would open its explorer page.
Project Link: https://github.com/aditya-manit
Phase 3 Runners-Up
0xd18b’s BLD Restaking
A neat little script that can be used to increase a validator’s share by judiciously restaking one’s staking tokens.
Project Link: https://gist.github.com/0xd18b/724b49ef7ccdf0a590c96cec09f6e60e
DSRV’s Bot Command
Added a new feature to its Agoric TelegramBot: a command to query one’s rewards.
Project Link: https://github.com/dsrvlabs/agoric/tree/main/Agoric-TelegramBot#query-rewards-testnet-phase-3
0base.vc’s Manage Rewards Tool
This is a tidy script that withdraws validator rewards and redelegates it to one’s node.
Project Link: https://gist.github.com/jjangg96/c50c98e37e163c10eb9d8da9ffd88011
What’s Next?
We’re now gearing up for Phase 4, Stress Test, due to start on June 23. Validators will participate in various tasks to test the upper bounds of our testnet, including coordinated strikes, network-wide votes, and how our network reacts to emergency updates.
Even if you’re not a participating validator in our incentivized testnet, you can still take a look under the hood and start building with us. Check out our developers page!
And be sure to follow our incentivized testet through the remaining three phases!
Thanks for reading. You can join the Agoric community on Twitter, Discord, Telegram, and LinkedIn, subscribe to our monthly newsletter, and catch us at upcoming events.
