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RC4 Development and Path Going Forward

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eduffield

eduffield

Core Developer
Last night, we implemented code that ‘soft-forked’ the Darkcoin network and successfully launched RC3. At this time, Masternode payments are live using a non-enforced payment protocol. Roughly half the network has updated and Masternode payments are going out about 12 times an hour!

Testing of non-enforcement mode

With this launch, we introduced a new soft-fork method, which some users have affectionately dubbed the “spork”. As clients update, new features - Masternode payments, in this case - are implemented and available, though not strictly enforced by the network. After almost all users are updated, the fork can be remotely activated, which would enforce the new feature rules. If successful, the new feature(s) would be permanently activated and enforced. If unsuccessful, enforcement can be deactivated remotely for the whole network without the need for users to update their clients. In the latter case, a checkpoint would be added to put the whole network back on the same chain.

This allows us to test higher risk, innovative features in mainnet without having to hard fork the network and without the risk of a live rollback where all users must update.

New enforcement strategy

Over the last few days we’ve been looking at a few different options to enforce Masternode payments in RC4. We’ve settled on a brand new implementation that is much more simple, yet robust enough to protect the network.

Each round, a winning Masternode is chosen to carry out Darksend transactions. This process is carried out by the individual nodes across the network independently using the masternode election algorithm. This algorithm chooses a winning node for Darksend, but there is also a runner up, third, forth, fifth place, etc.

Utilizing this code, we can make a deterministic list of the “top 10 masternodes” with the winning scores. These will be the same nodes accross the network and they will vote on who they believe should get paid for that round. The winning Masternode will be the one with the most votes (up to 10 votes) and the network will reject blocks not containing that payment entry.

Other functionality

RC4 will also still include improvements to the anonymity of Darksend. After the implementation phase is complete we will begin by testing the non-enforcement / enforcement switch and the new anonymity layer on testnet.

Thanks,

The Darkcoin Team
 
I think that the "spork" procedure is going to ultimately be one of the most important and valuable innovations that have come from the dev team. Evan is exactly right--this method allows the devs to do some potentially amazing things that they might be otherwise afraid to take a chance on.
 
eduffield said:
Other functionality

RC4 will also still include improvements to the anonymity of Darksend. After the implementation phase is complete we will begin by testing the non-enforcement / enforcement switch and the new anonymity layer on testnet.

Thanks,

The Darkcoin Team
Click to expand...

Anonimity "layer"? Is this a fancy way of saying denominated change or do you have something else entirely up your sleeves? For the thirsty people on twitter! We must know!
 
AlexGR said:
I think it's also related to masternodes knowing what they transact, from past posts.
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If Masternodes have zero clue what they are transacting, that's a major step up. The people who claim you can just buy all the masternodes (at an exorbitant price) and that it's thus centralized will need to stfu. The chances of actually finding out where the money goes was incredibly low anyways even when owning a huge amount of MNs from what I remember.
 
It's been a good 24hrs! Thanks to everyone for their hard work and dastardly cunning! :cool:

Looking forward to spork enforcement, then the other good stuff in RC4.

Oddly, thinking back my first experience of the internet many years ago was usenet, and the first newsgroup I browsed was alt.utensil.spork, because I didn't know what the hell a spork was. Such innocence... :rolleyes: I should revisit and tell them about our shiny newfangled sporkage.
 
Total ninja move too, had it up and running before anyone knew what happened, love it.
It wasnt just a 'spork' it was a 'Ninja-Spork'
 
With all this darkcoin spork talk, I couldn't help it. lol

krVvzlT.png
 
thelonecrouton said:
My most-payed MN address ends with the string 'n4ce' :tongue:
Click to expand...
really? Remember, it's not nice to fool a gullible old lady! LOL.

So I'm deadly curious about how the network is looking and when we'll get the first version of that new algo? I updated to 10.11.05 when it came out yesterday, does it have more than the removal of the odd banning behavior caused by bad masternode signatures?
 
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