Detailing the next milestone towards mainnet - the public incentivized testnet of Dusk Network - and how we get there.
A blockchain consists of a multitude of components, all working together. There are nodes, transaction models, a consensus algorithm, cryptography, a networking layer, to name but a few. In the case of the Dusk Network, the components underpinning our blockchain are highly innovative, creating a new and transformative blockchain: Dusk Network is the first public blockchain optimized for privacy-friendly smart contracts.
In this article, we'd like to give you insight into our Release Candidate progress and the upcoming steps that will get us to our incentivized testnet.
Process: Release Candidate & Incentivized TestNet
We are currently freezing the development of each of the underlying components of our Release Candidate. These components are called: Release Candidate Libraries. You can find the full schedule here. After those are released, we’re looking to involve the community in public testing. This phase is called the Incentivized TestNet, because community participation is rewarded.
The Incentivized TestNet (ITN) isn’t far off, but there are still some final steps that need to be taken to reach that point.
We have big plans with Dusk Network, and we will continue to build a blockchain backbone that provides equal opportunity for any organization to secure capital, trade assets, and access a full spectrum of financial services. In short: to become the go-to blockchain infrastructure for both decentralized finance and traditional finance.
Here’s how we get there
Below, you can find the steps necessary to reach our Incentivized TestNet (ITN) stage.
· The completion of our E2E Release Candidate libraries
· Launch of our public Block Explorer
· The finalization of 500.000 blocks on the network
· The public release of our Incentivized TestNet (ITN)
Once all libraries of the E2E Release Candidate are made available, the inner workings of the Release Candidate will be publicly viewable with the subsequent launch of our Block Explorer. If you’re not yet familiar with our unique consensus protocol, the Segregated Byzantine Agreement (or SBA), we highly recommend this introductory article.
💡 One major feature of the SBA consensus we’re proud to be able to show off publicly through the Block Explorer, is the concept of ‘statistical finality’: once a block is added to the blockchain we can consider it final and irreversible. This allows transactions to be considered ‘finalized’ after a single block confirmation, which is about 10 seconds. This creates certainty around when a transaction was finalized and settled, which is a requirement for the compliant settlement of financial instruments.
The Block Explorer will give the public keen insight into such consensus protocol actions on the Release Candidate. It is currently undergoing migration to SvelteKit and being improved with input from our recent QA group.
500.000 Blocks To ITN
The next milestone will be a quantitative one. Once 500.000 blocks are finalized, we’ll reach a new level of community interaction through our public Incentivized TestNet (ITN): a network open to anybody willing to participate. Anyone can join in, play with the code, and earn rewards for securing the network. It will additionally provide many more ways of contributing and participating in the network.
Dusk Network’s developments have all been leading here and we’re tantalizingly close to sharing our progress in full with the world. We hope you share our excitement, and that you’ll be right by our side when this next step towards the future of finance makes its public debut.