In the last post, we discussed some of the coming features for Hive's first community coded hardfork, and discussed some of the important aspects around choosing a hardfork date. To follow up and to prepare the ecosystem for the smoothest possible deployment, the next step is to start coordinating people who run nodes or develop on Hive. While the goal is to build a strong decentralized blockchain and global community, we still need to work together to get there! If you're an end user or content creator, you don't need to take any action on the following information. (Feel free to follow along, or skip this post entirely.)
I'm a node operator (witness, RPC, seed, or private node). Where will I be able to find the hardfork release candidate code?
The release candidate code will be tagged this week on the main repository at https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive, with separate tags for:
- HiveD: the core software for the Hive blockchain
https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive - Hivemind: the "consensus interpretation" layer which maintains state for the social features of Hive and provides more flexibility for developers
https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hivemind
I'm a developer, project owner, or dApp creator. What do I need to do to be ready for Hardfork 24?
One of the most crucial parts of this hardfork is the chain ID change. Most of the core libraries for the Hive ecosystem have been updated and are ready for the deployment, so make sure that you have the correct versions to ensure things go smoothly. Some of these core libraries include:
- Hive-JS: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive-js
- DHive: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/dhive
- Hive-Python: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive-python
- Beem: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/beem
- Lighthive: https://github.com/emre/lighthive/
If you would like to test your project specifically against the chain ID change, there is a very limited scope testnet available. This testnet is designed with a single purpose: every hour, it resets to HF23, and after 30 minutes it forks to a new HF24 chain ID. You do not need to use this testnet if you do not want to, and this is not a full featured API or hardfork testnet: this is solely to make sure your project and libraries are prepared for the chain ID change.
- Chain ID Change Testnet information: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive/-/issues/36
What about other, full featured testnets?
After the release candidate is tagged, a continually running testnet will be able to be spun up. To help participate, please keep an eye on the repos and the HiveDevs community, where core dev meeting recaps will be posted. The @HiveIO account will be creating and pinning a post to the HiveDevs community feed containing the future core development meeting schedule. Once the release candidate is tagged this week, coordination can begin for any specific testing tasks.
Hardfork 24 includes a lot of foundational work to make the existing Hive blockchain better, but also prepares it for future growth.
To begin, the testing of the release candidate won't have a lot of tasks for "day to day" users who aren't code savvy, but that doesn't mean that you don't have an important role to play! Frontends may decide to run their own testnet interfaces and call for testers, and all of the transactions happening in real time are used to populate testnets with accurate data. Otherwise, if you've been thinking about ways to improve Hive features, governance, or the projects in the ecosystem, consider helping start some discussion in the Hive Improvements Community - a place set aside for community members to create on-chain conversations around what's needed in future blockchain code development.