Symbol Launch Reporting & Single Source of Information

[DavidM]

Minor update notification:

• Updated roadmap to include new optin target dates, and version 0.9.6 release

[DavidM]

High Level Update

• The next release is 4 working days late, now scheduled for 30th June
• This does not impact the overall launch date
• 9.6.1 was code ready last week, but an update to core was made to allow for optin during this release. This means a 9.6.2 release
• 9.6.2 core is complete
• SDK and REST will be completed by the end of the week
• E2E Testing will begin at the end of the week
• More information about test net will be given nearer the release

The Project plan will be updated tomorrow to reflect these changes

[DaveH]

An update has been provided on the NEM Symbol 0.9.6.2 Release there have been some deployment/release issues found that are being worked through, expect another update at latest Monday 6th July, probably sooner.

[DaveH]

Just adding a couple more updates to this list:

• Updates to the NEM Symbol 0.9.6.2 Release thread covering the minor issue above

• A wider update from @davidshaw on 0.9.6.2 Release and Optin Update

[DaveH]

0.9.6.3 has now been released successfully. Here is the announcement post.

NEM Symbol 0.9.6.3 Release Announcement

Hi All, The development teams have been hard at work arranging the next release of Symbol, it has now been released! The number has gone up from 0.9.6.2 in earlier announcements to reflect some issues that were resolved. As per the announcement on Slack https://nem2.slack.com/archives/C9E7N7H1N/p1594433403187900 The 0.9.6.3 server build was released in the past few hours and new test network launched An initial set of api nodes that can be used as endpoints are: api-01.us-east-1.096x.sym…

Just highlighting the desktop wallet release for 0.9.6.3

• Announcement: NEM Symbol 0.9.6.3 Release Announcement
• Release: https://github.com/nemfoundation/symbol-desktop-wallet/releases/tag/v0.12.0

And documentation:

• Released CLI 0.9.6.x compatible a couple of days ago https://github.com/nemtech/symbol-cli/releases/tag/v0.21.1
• Published 0.9.6.x docs yesterday https://nemtech.github.io/index.html

[DavidM]

Finality and Optin Updates are elsewhere on the forum, attached here for ease:

Finality and Opt in update

Since my last update we have successfully released 0.9.6.3 and have acted on some of the learnings that gives me more confidence in our Release Management. We have been working diligently to find a solution to finality. The inclusion of finality was a decision taken that will benefit Symbol in the long term and was agreed by the PMC, Core Devs and NEM Group management as a requirement given our strategic aims and functionality available on Public chains that Symbol directly compares too. Fin…

Finality: what is it and why is it important?

Hi all, There have been a few requests on various channels to understand Finality better, what the options are, why it is important and some more detail behind the process of what is being done for Symbol. This post tries to pull a few of those things together as an information resource. Before getting into it, this is an area I personally have learned about in more depth very recently, I’m not an expert, I don’t claim to be I would not be able to design the solution from scratch. However, tha…

I will be updating the roadmap with a placeholder for now until the solution is approved. There will then be redrafted comms on the forum posts and a rebaselined plan

[DaveH]

Update on finality design and coding

Finality Update

I am pleased to be able to say that the core devs have found a good design solution to the finality question for Symbol. As I said in my last update, finality is at the bleeding edge of blockchain research and is something that the PMC and NGL are committed to supporting the Core Devs to get right, so this represents a real breakthrough. The design solution that we are moving forward with is based onto the Polkadot GRANDPA approach, which is a PBFT solution derivative. Here is a link from Dav…

[DaveH]

Release Update: 0.9.6.4 is now available.

Full details are available: NEM Symbol 0.9.6.4 Release Announcement

[DavidM]

Rebaselining of launch date and Project Plan

NEM Group published a live document launch plan almost four months ago to the day and steady progress has occurred in development, testing and release management as we get closer to the launch of V1 MainNet of Symbol.

Today is our first full re-baseline of the plan and we have attempted to communicate regularly about any risks or issues we have faced. The finality solution, which is explained here and is at the bleeding edge of this technology, has taken us a lot longer to get to a solution that satisfies the NEM philosophy and gives us a scalable, secure solution that can be launched as soon as possible. Last week we gave an update of progression and we continue to be cautiously optimistic that the solution found will satisfy all NEM requirements.

We have also taken this opportunity to appoint a Programme Manager, improve our release management, reconcile our github repositories, revisit the UI/UX of outward facing elements such as wallets, and perform additional security testing and review of the code to ensure that we have the best possible product.

The latest live plan output shows the following key milestones that I know you will be interested in:

• 24th Aug - Confirm optin date (this will coincide with a launch marketing plan)
• 15th Sep - Code freeze, V1 launch
• 7th Sep - Optin Opens
• 3rd - 16th Dec - Snapshot range
• 17th Dec - MainNet Launch

The Symbol Launch Single Source of Information post has been updated, the Symbol Launch Plan post will be updated within a few days as will the roadmap on the forum and website.

I would like to also highlight some of the risk still in this plan below -

1. Finality coding and testing: the plan depends on the finality solution remaining achievable as it is being coded. We are mitigating this from a time perspective by working closely with the core developers and looking at bringing on a specific security specialist C++ dev to help if that is practical and helps with the timeline.
2. As always with testing and testnet, if we find something part way through and need to restart the testnet this would reset the clock on a 3 month soak period. To date this has been mitigated by multiple version releases with various test cycles but will remain a risk.
3. The Opt In process and modules that have been developed are being put through testing and security reviews to complete by early Sept. Owing to the advice to have a 3 month opt in window pre-launch if that is delayed by more than 2 weeks it could impact launch.

We continue to press hard for a 2020 launch date and thanks all for your patience as we enter the final stages before Symbol launch.

High Level Summary of Changes

• New launch date is 17th December 2020. This predominantly relates to the planning estimate for a finality solution to be approved being incorrect. We are monitoring progress closely
• Optin will begin in mid September
• The snapshot will occur during a window in the first 2 weeks of December
• Multiple date changes to lines in exchanges
• Added new versions 9.6.1 and 9.6.4
• Added work completed by two external security firms on code and finality solution
• Significant increase in the timings for finality solution to be approved and coded
• Added in additional security and pen testing wallets for optin
• Added in additional security and pen testing to wallets and external facing elements
• Added section for KeepKey addition of XYM

[DaveH]

Opt-in Date Announcment

The Opt In date has now been announced: Opt-in Date Announcement for 15 September 2020

Further information will be provided when it opens in guides and some is available in the post above

[DavidM]

Optin and Testnet Updates

Opt-in opens with the NEM desktop wallet

I am really pleased to announce that Opt-in is NOW OPEN!! This means that now all XEM account holders can start the Opt-in process via the Desktop wallet. This represents a significant and important step on our journey towards the launch of Symbol later this year. We have created a campaign to promote Opt-in, including a series of explanatory walk through videos and FAQs on the NEMplatform.com website at nemplatform.com/symbol-migration. The mobile wallets will follow shortly. They have been …

Testnet goes live by 21st September

Following hot on the heels from today’s successful opening of Opt-in via our NEM desktop wallet I wanted to give a quick update on when testnet will go live - the next important milestone on our journey. Testnet was made ready for review by the developers internally today (15th September) before being shared externally on Monday 21st of September. This is in line with the Symbol roadmap and single source and shows that after a few difficult months of getting to grips with the development we are…

[DavidM]

Testnet update

Testnet goes live by 21st September

TestNet Update 21/09/20 The development and tech team have been actively testing the release over the weekend with a view to releasing testnet today as announced last week. The core devs have informed us that weekend testing has found a couple of minor issues which should be fixed before testnet is released. We expect this process to take a couple of days and will provide more information later today, US time.

[DaveH]

NEM Symbol Testnet Launch and v0.10.0 Release

Have just been announced on the forum at the link below

• https://forum.nem.io/t/nem-symbol-0-10-0-release-announcement-testnet-launch

[DavidM]

NEM Symbol 0.10.0 Release Announcement & Testnet Launch

The desktop wallet has had some minor changes done to it. A link above to the latest version.

The desktop wallet has been updated

[DaveH]

Wallets Update and revised plan - future comms will be on the wallet thread not this one and we will report back here with releases

NEM Symbol Wallets - plan for release by Nov 20th

This is an update for the community on the current state of the Wallets and how we intend to resolve the situation, there has been a lot of conversation on Twitter, Telegram etc and this post is to address it all. It has been posted similar to the Single Source of the Truth thread with comments disabled so that we can post updates and it reads easily, a second post will be created to allow discussion and gather input. We do want input, we also want an easy information point for people so will s…

[DaveH]

Discussion Threads

We have started three forum discussion threads today:

Post Launch Opt-in

Symbol Launch Discussion Topic (1/3) - Post Launch Opt In

Post Launch Opt In Discussion(s) Hi all, This is the first of three discussion topics we are opening this week. The intention of this post is to gather input, discussion, opinions, questions etc about the Post Launch Opt In process. The below is a proposal/start point for how NGL is thinking the Post Launch Opt In process could run, this is a discussion and not set in stone, we are specifically asking for likes/dislikes, problems/opportunities etc. that the community can spot here. Attached i…

Node Monitoring and SuperNode Rewards Programme

Symbol Launch Discussion Topic (2/3) - Node Monitoring and Payouts

Symbol Launch Discussion Topic (2/3) - Node Monitoring and Payouts Hi all, This is the second of three discussion topics we are opening this week. The intention of this post is to gather input, discussion, opinions, questions etc about the Node Monitoring and subsequent SuperNode + Finality Voting payout approach. The below is a proposal/start point for how NGL is thinking it could run, this is a discussion and not set in stone, we are specifically asking for likes/dislikes, problems/opportuni…

Snapshot Block Height

Symbol Launch Discussion Topic (3/3) - Snapshot Block Height

Symbol Launch Discussion Topic (3/3) - Snapshot Block Height Hi all, This is the third of three discussion topics we are opening this week. The intention of this post is to gather input, discussion, opinions, questions etc about the approach to selecting a snapshot block height, communication and potential timings etc As we draw closer to Symbol launch, there is a key topic that we need to decide on as a community - the Snapshot Block Height that will be used as a cut off for the allocation of…

[DaveH]

Snapshot and Launch Process

Symbol Snapshot and Launch Confirmation (published 06/11/2020)

Symbol Snapshot and Launch Confirmation (published 06/11/2020) Translations: coming soon Hi all, Following on from the discussion threads on the forum a few days ago, and from ongoing testing and development work, this is an update to clarify a few points on snapshot and launch. It is made on behalf of NEM Group, with agreement from Core and has been validated with the various dev/test teams. Snapshot (publicly known, will be max 2 days before launch) Snapshot will happen a maximum of 2 d…

[DavidM]

Summary of Current State

Following todays post regarding snapshot and launch date, here follows a post with more detail around some of the elements involved with launch. Each component in isolation does not present an insurmountable risk but together they push launch back by a critical few days;

Wallets - Desktop wallet has been delivered before and Android wallets will be delivered on the 20th of November - the target date in the recovery plan - a fantastic achievement from the tech team in a very short time frame, given where we were just over 4 weeks ago. While we believe the wallet is complete for release, there is very tight testing time and the extra 1 month soak is expected to produce a more robust product. No new features will be added but bugs will be addressed and patch releases may be provided. There is still some testing required, particularly on the IOS mobile wallet, which we expect to take an extra few days to complete.

Core Server - Some issues were found (Finality and memory usage) and minor new functionality added (IPV6 and some future proofing on block types) . These proved to be a bit harder than initially thought and have introduced a few days delay beyond the comfort threshold of having Testnet patched with at least 1 month soak time remaining. This version of the core code is expected in the week ending 20th Nov so the work below can continue.

REST & SDK - Some of the changes to the Core Server above have minor knock on changes to REST + SDK, additionally some of the Wallet work have identified minor changes required. There is approx 3-4 days work required between the Core Server release and the full release candidate that can be tested prior to the Testnet Patch.

Testnet Patch - The above Core Server release requires a patch of Testnet, this going through final testing but will not be possible to release onto Testnet before the week ending 27th Nov (also requires the item below). This also represented a minor upgrade to the Testnet during the testing period, a process that will happen multiple times on the live Mainnet so it offers a good opportunity to test that process and approach.

Symbol Bootstrap Tool - While it is not required for launch, it has become widely used by some parts of the community and will be expanded to enable the upgrade of an existing node rather than requiring a full rebuild. There are also some security issues that should be resolved prior to using it on anything other than a Dev / Testnet, these will be released in a version as part of the Testnet Patching process

Node Monitoring and Supernode Programme - The additional work required to get the Wallets back on track has meant this has had to be deprioritised temporarily. The work is expected to be complete by late Nov/1st week of Dec. This allows 4-6 weeks of soak on the Testnet prior to launching on Mainnet

Tokenomics Updates - Some minor updates have been identified which will be communicated by Friday 27th November for consultation. These are relatively light in effort but cannot be completed until the snapshot date is known, which this announcement now confirms

[DaveH]

Exchanges Supporting Launch

I have added a list of exchanges that have committed publicly to supporting launch

Exchanges that have Announced XYM support

This is a quick holding thread while a page is created for the website, I will try and keep it up to date or remove it later when the web page is published: Exchanges Announcing Opt In & Listing Support New Capital LAToken AEX Exchanges Announced Opt In but not yet distribution Zaif CoinCheck BitFlyer GMO Coin DMM Bitcoin Exchanges Frequently Asked About who have Yet to Confirm Binance Huobi Poloniex Bittrex - Others to be added as needed (off top of my head) The team have approached al…

[DaveH]

The Symbol Wallet Recovery Plan

A thread is here which shows the process to get wallets back on track by 20th November which resulted in the Desktop Wallet being released 2 days earlier than thought and the mobile wallets coming in on time

NEM Symbol Wallets - plan for release by Nov 20th

Symbol Wallet Release Update (18th Nov) I wish to give massive recognition and thanks to the to the wallet dev teams of NGL and Peersyst who have worked tirelessly for the past 4-5 weeks to achieve this announcement. It is with great pleasure that I am able to give this update and begin to close out the wallet release plan. The short version: Desktop Wallet v 0.13.5 is released today 18th Nov, 2 days earlier than planned Android Mobile Wallet is on track to release as an APK on 20th November …