Symbol Supernode EarlyNode and Ecosystem Node Reward Programme - delay to 31/03/2021

All,

Summary

  • SuperNode, EarlyNode and Ecosystem Node programme start is delays to 31 March 2021

  • An issue has been found on monitoring tool as we prepared it for Mainnet

  • We want to give the network time to settle after the high fees and odd finality reporting, before adding a new service on top of it

  • People are rushing to build nodes and insufficient information/guides publicly available so there is a risk of errors and this calms the process down

  • Rewards for the first 2 weeks will be doubled, to include the first two weeks

  • Block rewards are unaffected and commence at 5,760

Detail

After the successful launch a few days ago, the network has been up and running nicely, albeit with some odd behaviour due to misconfiguration on the NGL nodes (no remedied) - I will do a separate post shortly on that to explain.

We have been watching the network, speaking to the core developers and reviewing the supernode monitoring programme to get ready to launch it, it has now been decided this will require a further 2 weeks to get operational.

That means we are now targeting 31st March 2021 to start it (further info closer to the time).

The reasons are three fold:

  1. An issue with how the SuperNode monitoring controller and agent communicate has been found with each other, this was not found on Testnet or in security testing but found in the final validations for deployment. We have not enabled the controller as a result to remove impact.

    We recommend disabling the agent container as well, and will do so in the next bootstrap release, with the controller offline and it being the only thing the agent will communicate with there should be very little issue with it running but we recommend stopping for the time being just in case.

  2. The misconfiguration in Bootstrap of a couple of defaults, and therefore on our nodes, has caused the fees to spike. This configuration has been fixed on our nodes and the new defaults will come in a release of Bootstrap tomorrow for others. Many supernodes have already altered it themselves to counter the issue - which is healthy, the network decided to lower the fees basically

    This has caused a lot of concern, both we and the core developers think it would be wise to let the fees come down and network to stabilise with the new settings before adding additional services to it immediately. Now that it is running and should be improving, this is a conservative approach to bringing services online

  3. There has been a lack of reliable information on how to configure a node securely, manually etc. This has led to people rushing and asking a lot of questions, there is a risk that in this rush people either miss our or configure things in a rush which are insecure, unreliable etc. Therefore taking this decision allows a bit more calm in the deployment approach.

    The network currently has plenty of nodes and is running well, we want to keep that as a priority

The rewards that would have been paid out in the first 2 weeks, will be added to the following two weeks - so it will be double rewards for the first two weeks

Block rewards will start at block 5,760 and are unaffected.

This is not an easy choice but it is the right one now we are live and need to do things calmly and in a considered way, it is also unanimous between the Core Developers and NGL Exec.

9 Likes

Thank you for this … there’s been pressure to get nodes up and running. Although the community has been helpful, trying to piecemeal the info together is not wise.

I’ll wait for the official guides to come out :+1:

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Thanks @Bugboy I have been trying to review this with the team for a few days but the launch noise made it impossible - we will try and have something asap

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On 3-10-2021 I sent the “earlyadoption” transaction. It has the public key of my symbol opt-in account.

The new wallet says:
“This account is obtained by an older derivation. It is recommended that you move the funds to a Seed Account”

Will this new seed account with a different public key be qualified for “earlyadoption”?

yes somewhat confused on that … opt-in vs. seed account.

Do we just “I want to create a seed account for my profile” in the original opt-in account or create a new profile and move funds to this new profile

we recommend stopping for the time being just in case.

What document should I refer to for instructions on how to stop it?
Please let me know.
I could not successfully stop it on the test net.

Not a right way (symbol-bootstrap way) but this command can stop the node-agent container.

docker stop `docker ps| grep node-agent| awk '{print $1}'`

But of course symbol-bootstrap healthCheck will detect the node-agent being stopped. I want to know the right way to stop it and remove it from healthCheck list if possible.

I commented out the relevant rows in target/docker/docker-compose.yml and restarted everything via symbol-bootstrap

Hey @DaveH , yes I was also thinking the same for the Ecosystem Opt-In, sent the public key when enrolling but the message I get with my Opt-In Seed account tells me to move the funds (old derivation). I am assuming we will need to send the new public key to update for Ecosystem program, we email NEM helpdesk? or will there be a new procedure to send a transaction from new account in Symbol?

Thanks,

How much is the minimum XYM required in the wallet to be able to participate?

It is 1M XYM for the supernode.
But you can harvest without being a supernode or even a node with delegated harvesting

@DaveH
The EarlyNode and EcosystemNode programs, in my opinion, have extremely low participation.
As a suggestion, why don’t we accept applications until we reach over capacity?
There are people who could not register before the snapshot.
If we reopen the registration now, I believe there will be people who will buy XEM to participate.

12 Likes

This would be great and I think that I would be eligible for the early node programme now as I have > 500K XYM which I didn’t have before snapshot. I am also running an Allnodes node currently but at present I can’t apply to join.

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@DaveH Hi, Dave

Totally agree with @GodTanu

I am worried that there are too few participants in this program.
We didn’t have much time to know and prepare this time, I think…

How about the second round of this program???
Symbol has finally launched, so I think it will attract more attention now,

It’s a good time to announce your initiative again.
I would be grateful if you could consider it for growing NEM ecosystem!

Thanks!

1 Like

Just send a new one on NIS1 from the same account as last time with the new details, we will update it

2 Likes

Thanks @GodTanu I will check the exact numbers we have already and see what options we have/need. Just working through a backlog after launch, I will come back shortly

Currently registered: 24 Early, 59 Ecosystem

The primary reason for the programmes was to stimulate commitment for early node deployment before launch, given the current numbers of nodes I don’t see much need to extend registration personally

1 Like

Is there still going to be an official Supernode guide from the NEM Group? Or should we use spizzerb’s guide …

There will be, but can you link me that guide pls? I haven’t seen it yet and would love to give it a look over

nvm - found it: Complete guide to run a dual node on centos 8 using symbol-bootstrap

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I don’t think there is any need to be stingy with the budget here.
I think it is better to collect them to capacity.
EA and ECOSYSTEM are effective in the long term.

3 Likes

Frankly speaking, the current number of nodes is a false image for inflationary reward purposes. When it becomes unprofitable, it may disappear.
There are too few delegation harvesters for the number of nodes.
Therefore, I think EA and ECO nodes are important.

3 Likes