Weekly Dev Update #83

2021-03-03 — 5 min read

Summary

The team had to deal with a hard fork and a zombie node. Several improvements were made to the protocol out of the event. Multichain Testnet was also relaunched, since the previous one had gone insolvent due to many small bugs with ERC20s. It could have been rescued (all bugs were found and fixed) but was going to take too much time and coordination. The new network is actually stabilising and less bugs are being found. Multichain Chaosnet is expected before the end of month.

Binance Chain Hard Fork and Zombie Node 4yd

Binance Chain underwent a scheduled hard fork, the binary was provided to node operators two days ahead of time, however 8 had not updated at the time of the fork. This caused their Bifrost nodes to immediately go offline and they were partitioned off the network. They immediately began accrueing slash points and losing RUNE. The team broadcasted to all operators. The network was partially operational, but due to delegated signing, went through waves of TSS-failures since it would pick an offline node to sign. The queue began growing and users noticed delays.
12 hours later, 4 nodes still had not updated, and the queue was around 1000 transactions deep, the highest it had ever been. The community began debating banning the problematic nodes, which would cause them to be evicted (and cost the banning nodes 0.1% of their bond as a penalty).

12 hours later, all 1000 backlogged transactions were processed, but 1 node 4yd remained offline and was churned off the network. The network gave the node 25 mins to execute the automatic refund of yggdrasil assets, which it failed to do. The network then slashed the node 1.5x of the value of the assets it could not provide, around $250k, and dumped that node’s slashed RUNE bond directly into the pools. This is an autonomous function that is designed to ensure nodes cannot steal from the network.

To prevent the standby node from churning back in again and losing even more funds (this is a bug, fixed in MCTN), the team temporarily raised the bond to 800k. The network can ban that node permanently if it looks like it is about to churn back in, to prevent it from losing further funds.

The outcome of this event arose to several improvements to the network:

Panic Bifröst if it can’t talk to all of its chains (will prevent it presenting as “ready” to churn in)
Allow nodes to ban Standby Nodes from churning in (note, banning a node costs 0.1% of Bond)
Reschedule Asgard Transactions if multiple Asgards available
Split /queue into internal and external transactions to get clarity if the network is actually delaying swaps

Release V0.19.1

This release implemented the Bifrost Panic logic, which will save nodes from joining a network if they are not ready.

https://gitlab.com/thorchain/thornode/-/merge_requests/1518

Multichain Resources

Midgard: https://testnet.midgard.thorchain.info

THORNode: https://testnet.thornode.thorchain.info

RPC: https://testnet.rpc.thorchain.info (https://cosmos.network/rpc/v0.37.9)

Seed Service: https://testnet.seed.thorchain.info

THORNode

Multichain patches included fixes from the Zombie Node event.

Midgard

Work continues to update Midgard V2 to handle Multichain requirements.

Midgard also has received some updates to ensure it can return accurate USD pricing, as well as fee income.

https://gitlab.com/thorchain/midgard/-/merge_requests?scope=all&utf8=✓&state=merged

XChainJS

https://xchainjs.org

Bridges

Actively-developed bridges will be reported here going forward. Bridges are commissioned once a team who can implement is identified and work begins.

Complete

Bitcoin: Deployed to testnet
Ethereum: Deployed to testnet
BitcoinCash: Deployed to testnet
Litecoin: Deployed to testnet

UTXO Chains

Dogecoin: Complete, will be activated after MCCN
ZCash: Scoped, rain-checked

Cryptonote

Haven: MSS complete, require some updates now to finalise integration
Monero: Pending Haven implementation

Custom

Cardano — Scoping
Polkadot: Ready for testnet demo, will be activated after MCCN.
Avalanche: Rain-checked
Zilliqa: Scoped, rain-checked

EVM Chains

Binance Smart Chain: Likely after MCCN
Ethereum Classic: Rain-checked
Rootstock: Rain-checked
Arbitrum: Rain-checked

IBC

Pending IBC integration — Cosmos, Terra, Kava, Secret Network, Injective Protocol, Sifchain, Akash Network

Clients

BEPSwap Client

Numerous UI/UX tweaks based on community feedback

ASGARDEX Client

Work continues to prepare the client for Multichain Chaosnet. V0.0.6 was released and includes LTC. Work continues on ETH and BCH.

ASGARD.EXCHANGE

Ethereum was integrated and launched. Work continues on LTC and BCH.

Community Work

The following tools receive regular updates:

Telegram Bot

@thornode_testnet_bot

@thornode_chaosnet_bot

Twitter Bot

https://twitter.com/thor_bot

Delphi Defi Dashboard

Upcoming Release for the Dashboard

https://defi.delphidigital.io/thorchain/chaosnet/network

THORChain Network Explorer

Continual Improvements, now with custom sub-domains for each net:

https://thorchain.net/

https://testnet.thorchain.net/

https://multichain-testnet.thorchain.net/

THORChain Official Block Explorer

https://viewblock.io/thorchain

https://dash.viewblock.io/d/thorchain

RUNEData

View historical yield and simulate future yield in pools:

http://www.runedata.info/

RUNEBalance

View current arbitrage opportunities in the pools. New card-style overviews.

https://www.runebalance.com/#/pools

RUNEStake

RUNEStake can be used to see yield in THORChain liquidity pools.

https://runestake.info/

Trading Leaderboard

View the current leaderboard for traders on THORChain

https://leaderboard.thornode.org/

GrassRootsCrypto Youtube

GrassRootsCrypto consistently puts out great educational videos on THORChain, users should subscribe and bookmark the channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuC_PiCEsNIT6HH88r7vCsw/videos

Next Milestones

Multichain support in asgard.exchange and the desktop wallet, continue to stabilise the chain. Help the community transition to Midgard V2. Anticipating chaosnet in 2–3 weeks.