Weekly Development Report: July 7th, 2023

Author: Olga Hryniuk

Core Technology

This week, the DB Sync team improved and validated the design of the Conway integration with db-sync. They also improved the initial integration of the UTXO-HD feature branches, which are now being tested, and prepared release v.13.1.1.3, which supports node v.8.1.1. 

Finally, the team made some fixes to their build processes, Docker, developer experience, and documentation, and added new tests to the new tx_out options. 

As always, see this technical development report for more details from different teams.

WALLETS AND SERVICES 

This week, the Lace team continued working on cardano-js-sdk. They updated the TxBuilder to delegate funds to any stake address and use a new input selection algorithm for multi-delegation, polished and prepared the release of the import HD wallet feature, and began researching long-term spending behavior and its impact on the user staking portfolio. 

Work is ongoing on the Lace browser application. The team were busy working on the upcoming v.1.3 release and continued making progress on the creation of new UI components for the multi-delegation flow. 

Finally, they focused on Trezor support and completed work on responsiveness improvements to come in v.1.3 release. 

SMART CONTRACTS

This week, the Plutus tools team worked on setting up runtime monitoring for the Marconi sidechain, adding value and epochNo response fields to the getUtxosForAddress indexer and the afterTx query field for the getBurnTokenEvents indexer. They also investigated how to make the standalone emulator usable with a real Cardano node socket client.

The Plutus core team improved support for BLS built-ins in Plutus Tx, enhanced the cost infrastructure to support bitwise built-ins in the future, and reviewed BLS built-in end-to-end tests.

Finally, they are in the process of defining and prioritizing objectives for the next few months.

Marlowe and Plutus teams held the Marlowe launch party in Lisbon this week, where they shared the latest updates and engaged with the vibrant community of pioneers and enthusiasts in exploring the future of smart contracts in Cardano. 

BASHO (SCALING)

This week, the Hydra team wrote and published the June monthly report, implemented the end-to-end functionality for external commits, and tested it on the preview environment. They also listed Hydra as a tool on the Cardano developer portal, providing more visibility for the project. The team clarified the path forward for layer 2 protocol improvements and explored an alternative CI approach using Cabal instead of Nix. 

Finally, they released version 0.11.0, marking another milestone in the project’s development.

This week, the Mithril team created a new distribution pre-release 2327.0-pre, and initiated testing of the new production signer deployment model with the pioneer SPOs. They completed the setup of the monitoring on the Mithril networks infrastructure and started working on the deployment of the mainnet infrastructure. The team also kept working on the implementation of a simple stress test tool for benchmarking the aggregator, refactoring the interface to the cryptographic library, and the simplification of the structure of the artifacts. 

Finally, they fixed a bug that sporadically prevented the latest signer registration of an SPO to be used in the associated signing epoch, and worked on fixing a bug in the epoch gap detection of the certificate chain in the aggregator.

VOLTAIRE

This week in Voltaire, conversations continued on CIP-1694 to establish an initial Minimum Viable Governance (MVG) framework. This framework is crucial for the advancement of participatory governance within the Cardano ecosystem. By collecting feedback from community members, diverse viewpoints can be incorporated to ensure the governance system aligns with the community’s needs and desires. 

The following workshops, hosted this week, yielded some valuable feedback:

• Virtual by syarbel#8604 and andreassosilo#8781

• Virtual by rodrigopacini#6495

• Virtual by PureRelativity(Curtis)#3502, Dave_Digital Ark [DAP]#3337, Demmy🇳🇬#7661 (7/8)

This week, the team has been diligently preparing for the Edinburgh CIP-1694 workshop. Following numerous community-led workshops in recent months, organized by community members worldwide, workshop leaders will convene in the Scottish capital next week to review their findings, provide conclusive feedback, and progress towards the final draft of CIP-1694.

CIP-30 and CIP-95 are mechanisms proposed in Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs) to empower ada holders with voting capabilities. These proposals, once implemented by wallet providers, will enable community members to express their democratic consent for governance actions.

It's essential for community members to actively participate in providing feedback for CIP-1694 and CIP-95. By voicing opinions and suggestions, you can help shape the future of governance within Cardano. This collaborative approach ensures that the governance mechanisms implemented best represent the community's needs.  

CATALYST

This week in Project Catalyst, more than 300 proposals were submitted for Fund10. Additionally, previously closed-out projects showcased their work during the town hall, providing insights into how their initiatives have influenced the Cardano ecosystem. Make sure to stay tuned and register your attendance for the upcoming town hall.

In the technical updates from last week's Catalyst:

• A new version of the mobile app was released in stores, and investigations were carried out regarding issues related to app updates

• Critical updates for the mobile app were prioritized and initiated to align with various Catalyst process changes, such as community reviews, categories, and ada denomination

• The list of supported wallets at the time of registration start was finalized

• Testing of the rewards address fix from the Daedalus team commenced, with an expected release in the upcoming weeks

• Testing continued on the snapshot importer tool 

• Progress was made on the snapshot module proof of concept (PoC) and backend enablers

• A new weighted average calculator for community reviews was prepared and is now ready for review

• Implementation of tests for Catalyst Data Services continued

• Plans to sunset vit-ss post-Fund10 progressed, including the identification and resolution of dependencies

• Efforts were made to package auditability tools with earthly to enhance accessibility for the community

• Dependencies were untangled in order to complete voting load testing, including debugging the node stats endpoint for Jormungandr

Finally, to stay up to date with everything happening in Project Catalyst, join the Catalyst Telegram announcement channel. 

EDUCATION

This week, the Education team focused on planning the Haskell Course and some members of the team attended the Marlowe launch event. Additionally, the team prepared to deliver a webinar on Blockchain Fundamentals to alumni of the Milken Institute.

For more information please visit essential Cardano!