Proposal to remove inactive validators from the third validator period

Trustlines Protocol Trustlines Blockchain
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The third Trustlines validator period is active, but there are still validators who obtained a validator slot by bidding in the auction that have not come online with their node.

As there is no smart contract involved in the current setup, another fork will be needed to switch to a contract. The smart contract is required for the full operability of the Trustlines Blockchain. It will enable the validators’ slashing conditions and allow people to convert their TLN to TLC via the bridge.

We have made attempts to inform all the participants that inactive validators are harmful to the Trustlines Blockchain and encourage them to come online. The block times increase and that reflects on to the end-users, who might, for example, be people using the Trustlines App.

A list of inactive validators can be found in the Reminder for validators to start their nodes for the third period post.

Thus, the Trustlines Foundation is proposing a new fork to remove the inactive validators from the current period.

The previous fork

There were issues with the previous fork to activate the third validator period. We have published a Third Validator Period Fork Post-Mortem blog post and recommend everyone to read that.

From the lessons learned from those events, we will now establish and communicate a clear timeline with adept timeframes for this proposed new fork.

Timeline

8th to 19th of April, 2021

All validators for the third period should be online and active, producing blocks on their turn.

We will be providing help and support to anyone who is having issues with getting their node set up.

Feel free to contact us here at the Trustlines Forum, at the Trustlines Technical Chat, or at the community Telegram group.

19th of April, 2021

On the 19th of April, 2021 we will create a snapshot of the addresses to be excluded. The address of the active validators will be added to a new contract. A new contract will be deployd and a new update released on the 20th of April, 2021.

20th of April, 2021

We will communicate the list of snapshotted inactive validators to be removed, the new contract and the update to the chain spec.

Update: We publish the list of inactive validators and extend the new release another 3 days for inactives to become online.

23th of April, 2021

The new contract and the update to the chain spec will be finalized and released. After this, those with auto-updates enabled will start receiving these ahead of the fork automatically.

3rd of May, 2021

Expected fork date.

Between the 20th of April and the 4th of May, we will ensure that everyone is aware of the upcoming fork and the steps needed to update their nodes.

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20th of April, 2021

We will communicate the list of snapshotted inactive validators to be removed, the new contract and the update to the chain spec.

Update: We publish the list of inactive validators and extend the new release another 3 days for inactives to become online.

23th of April, 2021

The new contract and the update to the chain spec will be finalized and released. After this, those with auto-updates enabled will start receiving these ahead of the fork automatically.

We wanted to extend the deadline for inactive validators to become online by another 3 days. This is to try to reach the remaining ones and give them a chance to get their nodes running.

The current list of inactive validators is:

Never produced a block

0x0db461aeb7e2bd1551662fb52cbdd2eda85469a7
0x8034ac9fd4c2f5dd86f729d28890dfe10df142c9
0xa92be7f728ef585851212b1ceb318b8a2fbacc96
0xdc4d0d92ae598ae497a7fa824bff7f9492df691b
0xe82823adf6ce7eafb23e72485b6f30499c9208a9

Produced blocks at some point

0x47c2f6f13c97c4a4d36b4e695f26d648ee053ec4 
0x107fa40357876ef058ea308c5aa6b6627f565a7d 
0x155e447a3c15b81600092ee269039f6abe7ff5d5 
0x393a5853e9db00312c4d4d5a621ff0c84f7abe21

The snapshot has been taken, and the new chain spec update Pull Request is ready. You can find the new file at

The new contract has been deployed and can be found at
https://explore.tlbc.trustlines.foundation/address/0xc29356fE0151f5369f72B997A0D6108A31Bf9feE/read-contract

At the end of the day on Friday 23th of April 2021, we will finalize these changes if no inactive validators become online by then.

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After our previous post that extended the deadline for validators to become online, a couple did. We are pleased to see this interest from the community!

Addresses 0x8034ac9fd4c2f5dd86f729d28890dfe10df142c9 and 0x0db461aeb7e2bd1551662fb52cbdd2eda85469a7 came online and are no longer considered inactive.

The list of offline validators and those proposed to be removed are

0x47c2f6f13c97c4a4d36b4e695f26d648ee053ec4
0x155e447a3c15b81600092ee269039f6abe7ff5d5
0x393a5853e9db00312c4d4d5a621ff0c84f7abe21
0xa92be7f728ef585851212b1ceb318b8a2fbacc96
0xdc4d0d92ae598ae497a7fa824bff7f9492df691b
0xe82823adf6ce7eafb23e72485b6f30499c9208a9
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The new image for the Trustlines Blockchain has been released.

The docker new image is called trustlines/tlbc-node:release27932, and the chain spec can be found in GitHub

The fork is estimated to occur on Monday, 3rd of May at 12:00 CEST.

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Validators! Make sure you have your nodes updated before following Monday, the 3rd of May, in preparation for the fork.

If you have auto-updates enabled, you should already have the update done. For those running a DAppNode, an updated package is being tested and prepared now. It should be released on Saturday, 1st of May at the latest.

If you are unsure if you have the update applied, get in touch. You can post here at the Forum, ask at the Trustlines Telegram community group, or ask the devs at Gitter.

For further details, please see the full Proposal to remove inactive validators from the third validator period thread.

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The fork was a success, and it took place on Monday, the 3rd of May. The inactive validators are now removed, and block times have decreased.

The developers have monitored the situation, and only two validators are offline. Address 0x93229cb7baeb9a72454bafe8405aee3bb2e9846f last produced a block at height #6679454. This validator most likely didn’t update their node and quit before the fork. And 0xb3a68b00986277fffdaeedf9534b4bd5e9f8a489 whose last produced block was #6755824. This block was right after the fork before the validator contract came into effect.

We want to thank all the active validators for this smooth transition. We wish everyone all the best for the rest of the third validator period.

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