work in progress, revised on 2019–03–31
We are all eagerly anticipating NKN’s mainnet V1.0 release scheduled for June 2019, so here is a short summary of how we plan to transition from today’s testnet to mainnet for a smooth launch. And it has implications for all of you: token holders, miners, and community developers. So please read on.
The opening diagram illustrates the Mainnet schedule and content. The current Testnet (based on v0.8.x) will continue as is, while the mainnet testing will start with the v0.9 release. We have intentionally separated the two branches until Mainnet 1.0, because there are major incompatible upgrades in wallet format and blockchain data structure. In addition, the test tokens mined on v0.9 Mainnet have no economic value.
For the more technical minded, the following table summarizes the main differences between current Testnet and Mainnet :
Difference between testnet and mainnet
Key dates
- March 31st, 2019 : Mainnet v0.9 releases (for testing purposes only)
- June 30th, 2019 : Mainnet v1.0 releases (party, party!)
- Mainnet Rehearsal: June 24th, 2019 (to be confirmed)
For token holders and general public
There is no change due to Mainnet v0.9 Beluga release.
Miner specific information
Token reward for Testnet
The mining and token reward for public testnet (v0.8.x based) will not change.
Will my Testnet computer work on Mainnet?
Yes, the changes from v0.8 to v0.9/v1.0 are mainly about wallet format and blockchain data structure. We foresee that a Mainnet node will most likely consume about the same resource as Testnet node.
When should I upgrade to mainnet?
For most miners, we recommend that you continue with v0.8.x, skip v0.9, and upgrade directly to v1.0. This way, you can keep on mining between now and Mainnet v1.0 release. And your wallet and blockchain will only need a one-time upgrade to mainnet v1.0.
Other rewards for Mainnet v0.9 testing
We do welcome miners to participate in testing of the Mainnet v0.9. Even though the tokens generated will not have any economic value, we may offer other rewards specific to completing test cases and finding bugs. This will help us iron out the bugs, fix security vulnerabilities, test scalability, and thus build the best public blockchain in the world.
I run 1-click on AWS/GCP/DigitalOcean, will they auto-upgrade?
They will continue with v0.8.x branch, and will NOT auto-upgrade to v0.9.
Developer specific information
How do I join Mainnet v0.9 testing?
The v0.9 software can be compiled from the v0.9 branch (or balance-dev branch).
The new configuration file contains the seed nodes for joining the Mainnet v0.9 testing.
Which SDK (client, SDK) should I use to develop applications, so they will work on mainnet?
We are in the process of updating all SDKs. From NKN’s official github repository:
- https://github.com/nknorg/nkn-client-js (Ed25519 branch)
- https://github.com/nknorg/nkn-wallet-js (devnet branch)
- https://github.com/nknorg/nkn-sdk-go (work in progress)
We also have community contributed SDK in other languages like Java and Elixir, and we will announce their readiness in our Discord developer channel.
How do I acquire test tokens on mainnet v0.9?
We will consider implementing faucet functionality, details to be determined.