Everscale is a complex and advanced technology that is being constantly developed and improved by several core contributors. Last year, several reforms were approved, and now all core network development is directed by the Strategic Committee. We plan to move even further forward and share the latest updates in these areas with the community on a regular basis. In this article, we’d like to present to you the current state of development.
Soft Majority Fault Tolerance (SMFT), the Everscale consensus protocol
SMFT is an original Everscale innovation that raises the bar to 50% fault tolerance (compared to the 33% of BFT consensus), which is the maximum security level by design in decentralized systems.
Current status:
● The network is up using 20 servers
● A constant small load is planned for testing purposes
Short-term plans:
● Maintaining a constant workload
● Deployment for public tests
New elector – a more advanced validation process
Development of a new elector is in the active phase, which will bring more features to the validation process, including slashing capabilities and working with multiple Workchains. This is the first step in the further development of Workchains.
Current status:
● Slashing has been added in the intermediate version of the elector
● The new elector is at the formal verification stage
Short-term plans:
● Releasing the new elector and the configs
● Transferring the test networks to the new elector
● Launching the network with the new elector if backward compatibility is maintained
Reliable External Message Protocol (REMP)
One more feature that the Everscale team and the whole community are super excited about along with SMFT is REMP. In a nutshell, REMP makes it possible to get a sub-second response within the blockchain and provide the same performance and UX as regular SQL databases or apps, but on the blockchain.
Current status:
● The protocol has been in active testing since November and is ready for public tests
● A lot of bugs have been fixed
● Local refinement has been carried out
● The database has been optimized – there were a few issues with the database that could have led to reduced performance of validators
● The protocol has been optimized and stabilized as the load on the chain increases
Short-term plans:
● Starting public tests
Everscale node development
Another very important area where the resources of the core developers are focused is the Everscale node. The current update brings some improvements that will help developers building on Everscale to interact with smart contracts more efficiently and ease the coding routine.
Current status:
● New block version: 34
● Fixed bugs and optimized data storage node
Short-term plans:
● Releasing with block 35 (optimizations and minor fixes)
● Decreasing the network’s gas fees
● REMP prep and testing
Summary
On top of the above, the current focus for the core team is to collect and merge all the latest Everscale code repositories in one place (as a lot of things are developed in parallel) and start implementing new features. Development in the Everscale network is an active process, and we have decided to publish articles on the state of development on a regular basis. Stay tuned to our social media!
