Charles Hoskinson Cardano Update - 3/2/2020
(Written by @Eric_Czuleger)
On February 3rd 2020 Charles Hoskinson sat down for a quick update. There he discussed on coming releases for the incentivized testnet. He also laid out key milestones and announcements for the month of February.
Quick Summary:
-The regular Wednesday update of Jormungandr will be delayed until a major release alongside Daedalus and the wallet backend on Friday the 14th.
-The upcoming release should increase stability and solve some of the difficulties which have been recently reported with Daedalus.
-The OBFT hard fork will tentatively occur on the 20th of February. The Byron reboot with the Haskell wallet backend will happen shortly thereafter.
-Work is currently underway with both PWC and McCann for the commercialization push.
Release change
This week we will forgo the regular Wednesday update of Jormungandr on the Incentivized Testnet. It will be pushed to next week and there will be a combined update between the ITN and the Daedalus wallet backend. The reason for this is the recently reported difficulty with Daedalus. We have now developed a better understanding of the reported issues and the best way to address them is through one bundle update.
On Friday the 8th, Dimitris will launch a video about the releases planned for Friday the 14th. This will include Daedalus wallet backend and a Jormungandr update. Recently, we have gotten reports from stake pool operators that .8.9 has increased network stability significantly. However, issues persist in the Daedalus and wallet backend side. The reason for this is that we have not made any updates for the retail client since December.
We will push our updates next week, likely Thursday or Friday, but that will be announced at the end of this week. Stake pool operators will notice that there are still issues with the Jormungandr node side but we will not cut the usual update for this week. Jormungandr .9 is a large release which involves chain selection and logging. We also believe that we have found a way to solve some of the CPU utilization spikes.
We hope that this oncoming raft of updates will help solve difficulties with Daedalus including network connectivity and the balance issues. We have also changed how stake pools are ranked. It will now appear differently in the new interface. All of this will be explained in the upcoming video on Friday.
February developments
In other news, the OBFT hard fork will be tentatively held on February 20th, barring some major delay. Shortly thereafter we will do the update for the main client for the Byron reboot with the Haskell wallet backend. This is the most significant advancement since the software release in September of 2017. It is security audited, built with formal methods, and it is entirely constructed in house. We are very excited about this release. It will likely happen after the OBFT hard fork.
As for the Shelley testnet, depending on when we release the OBFT hard fork and performance during the next two sprints, it will either be released in March or April. We will announce firm dates towards the end of February.
Approaching the mainnet
Changes in product and project management are beginning to bear fruit. We believe that we will be in a position by the end of February for the release of the Shelley mainnet. Of course, terms and conditions apply, but we believe there will be a high degree of certainty around the end of the month.
In February we will have Aparna Jue giving her update as product manager for Cardano. We are currently in discussions about the best format for this. It will include major accomplishments, key data, retrospectives on sprints and other crucial information.
We will also have Aparna go on the Cardano Effect to introduce herself and lay out the 2020 plans for the release of Cardano. Needless to say February will be a large month of data dumps and releases. We are looking forward to all of the progress we are making in 2020.
Looking ahead
Today and tomorrow we are working on scoping smart contracts in preparation for Goguen. We are also in discussions about partner relationships. This all means that by the end of February we should have a solid update on the product management side. Every month thereafter will have updates from the product managers within the ecosystem.
Dynal Patel is currently working on a transition strategy for those running stake pools on the ITN to help them move towards the Shelley Haskell testnet. This will allow them to find out if their infrastructure is working properly. We will write documentation and make videos along with setting up a dedicated support channel to help users transition. Dynal will lay this plan out during his monthly update.
Commercialization
Pre work for the PWC workshop is currently in progress. We are scoping at the moment and then we will meet with the team in London. The McCann marketing work is an input of this.
We want to thank everyone for their patience with the ITN. Remember, the purpose of the incentivized testnet was to help stake pool operators. That is why we have focused on network stability and Jormungandr. The release on Friday the 14th should help with both Jormungandr and Daedalus.
We are also currently rewriting Cardano documentation. We just began a conversation about a complete overhaul and relaunch of Cardano docs along with the mainnet. We will make an announcement at a later date as to when Cardano docs will be completely refreshed. It needs a complete overhaul, and that plan is moving forward. Furthermore, Charles Hoskinson has begun direct involvement with the Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) process and we are currently hiring a dedicated product manager to synthesize the work being done on the CIP process.
Summing up
In conclusion, there will be a major ITN update on Friday the 14th which will include Jormungandr and Daedalus. This will be explained in a video released this Friday, the 7th of February. Towards the end of the month Aparna will give a Cardano product update. We will also announce the Shelley mainnet release by the end of this month. The Ouroboros Hydra paper will likely be released in February as well. The OBFT hard fork is tentatively scheduled for February 20th. After that has been completed the Byron reboot release will happen. We believe this will occur late February or early March.
February, March, and April will be incredibly busy months. We thank our supporters for their patience and we’re excited to see Cardano getting better and better.