Cypher Network — Release 4 Update

Published in

Tangram

5 min readJan 26, 2021

Cypher is an unaudited and unrefined release of Tangram. It is intended to serve as a proving ground, allowing developers and teams to build and deploy nodes, send and receive transactions, and test and evaluate the consensus and privacy.
Warning: this is a pre-production environment of an experimental network — expect glitches in the matrix.

Checkpoint Schedule Recap

This Testnet-2 timeline aims to provide a rough guideline for expectations during the weeks after Testnet 2 release.

Please feel free to discuss and advise if you believe this Checkpoint framework should be changed.

Checkpoint 1:

Checkpoint 1 will run for ≈2–4 weeks. This time will be used to identify and resolve the majority of the critical technical issues, bottlenecks, etc. within the project. We classify these critical issues as ‘non-negotiables’. To ensure we’re aligned on how we’re classifying ‘non-negotiables’; the following framework will be used:

Security — Does the issue pose even a slight risk to the security of its users?
Privacy — Does the issue pose even a slight risk to the privacy of its users?
Usability and Accessibility — Is the Tangram Network usable and accessible to its users?

Checkpoint 2:

Checkpoint 2 will run for ≈2 weeks. Any non-negotiable issues identified during Checkpoint 1 will proceed throughout Checkpoint 2. However, we plan to resolve the majority of the MUST-FIX identified issues within Checkpoint 1.

Checkpoint 3:

Checkpoint 3 is a pulse check. Take a pause and understand the current technical state based on the findings within Checkpoints 1 and 2. What actions occur or are required during Checkpoint 3 depends on the outcomes of Checkpoints 1 and 2.

Checkpoint 3 is where we (as a community) make decisions on how to proceed based on all the information available to us.

Throughout Checkpoint 3 discussions and updates will focus on:

To-dos
Distribution schedule (inflation rate schedule)
Priorities
Strategy
Processes
Roadmap
Other arising issues

Checkpoint 1 Phases Recap

Currently, we are proceeding through Checkpoint 1. To help us keep pace, we broke it down further into eight releases:

Release 1 — Setup and testing of a node (completed)
Release 2 — Setup and testing of joining members within a cluster (completed)
Release 3 — Testing the Serf Gossip protocol (completed)
Release 4 — Setup and testing of Bamboo (Tangram’s wallet) (started)
Release 5 — Coinbase transaction for rewarding nodes
Release 6 — Mempool validation and verification for double spends
Release 7 — Validate Multilayered Linkable Spontaneous Anonymous Group Signatures (MLSAG), including checking that inputs are referenced from the blockchain
Release 8 — Blockmania’s consensus

Where We’re At

As previously mentioned, the dates for Releases 4–8 are still to be confirmed. For Release 4, the repository has been committed based on the updated and refactored codebase since the 5th of January and further development has also been done since then.

As of now, the testers for the Cypher Closed Beta are able to download, install, and test Bamboo (Tangram’s CLI Wallet). Release 4 currently enables them to do the following:

Find out their addresses
Get wallet balance
Create a new wallet
Exit the wallet
Show your transactions
Get a list of your wallets
Receive a payment (no Genesis block created, so currently not possible to test)
Send some tannies (no Genesis block created, so currently not possible to test)

Matthew and Dustin are focusing on the wallet in preparation for Open Beta (open community testing of Cypher), and also minor bug fixing and performance improvements on the node. In the background, we are cleaning up the code and positioning for future coding guidelines (for example here). Preparation of wikis for the general public has begun, and further documentation will be made available as more releases are deployed, bugs fixed, and enhancements and optimizations completed.

More hands have come on deck recently with Dustin joining the team, so a lot more is being done over a larger surface area. This growth is great and is extremely important to getting us closer to a more refined release of Tangram.

Release 4 — Setup and Testing of Bamboo (Tangram’s Wallet)

Soon™️ a genesis block will be created for Release 4 so that testing of sends and receives may begin. We are in the final stages before releasing this to our current Cypher testers.

Checkpoint 1 was scheduled to run for ≈2–4 weeks, and we are currently at the end of the 4th week. Dates in these cases are targets, and we do our best to achieve them. Every subsequent release highlighted below helps the team to focus throughout each area of releases while also completing the more mundane but equally important tasks.

While moving through each Checkpoint, we note that some elements of Checkpoint 2 are occurring concurrently with Checkpoint 1. This effect is compounded by the focused testers and the huge and fundamental support now provided by stang, n3bs, and stephan (big hands, stephan!). These efforts do not go unnoticed and help accelerate us ever closer to the long-awaited D-Day of Mainnet launch.

Once the crinkles have been ironed out of Release 4, Releases 5–8 are expected to follow in quick succession.

Updates Since the Last Update

Tons of refactoring across Cypher and Bamboo
Further enhancements and optimizations
Testing of wallet install, download, and setup

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a notable increase in Github activity. These tweaks, changes, and fixes are getting Tangram into a relatively polished state, putting us into a better position for future releases and the eventual release of Tangram Mainnet.

Wrapping up

For our next update, we will be closer to our final stages of Cypher Network. Until then; a huge thanks to the Tangram community — as without you Tangram would have never been able to get to these critical stages and exciting times!