XinFinOrg/XDPoSChain Testnet-v2.0.0

Testnet - XDC 2.0.0

on GitHub

This is a Testnet release. It is NOT recommended for Mainnet. This version will undergo internal testing on devnet first before releasing a date for testing on Testnet https://apothem.network/

What's changed

1. Fixed System metrics
2. V2 consensus based on the whitepaper attached.
3. Support new forensics feature for v2 consensus. (QC only)

Short summary of v2 consensus engine

The engine

XinFin DPoS 2.0, the proposed next generation decentralized consensus engine for the XinFin XDC Network. Built upon the most advanced BFT consensus protocol and approved by the XDC Network community, this upgrade will empower the XDC Network with military-grade security and performance while consuming extremely low resources, and will be fully backwards-compatible in terms of APIs. It will also pave the road to the future evolution of the XDC Network.
The 2.0 is built upon three pillars, including:

1. Master node election, which specifies how the delegation and proof-of-stake works.
2. The consensus engine, namely, the HotStuff state machine replication (SMR) protocol, which is the state-of-the-art BFT (Byzantine fault-tolerant) SMR (state-machine replication) protocol. An illustration of its position in XDPoS 2.0 and a brief security analysis will be provided.
3. Reward mechanism, which incentivizes nodes to join and maintain the XDC Network.

The forensics

Also introducing the Forensics detection within this upgrade. The Forensics module consists of three components

1. Forensic Storage, a database at the XinFin nodes that stores forensic information. It maintains a map from the round number to quorum certificates, blocks, and their persistent storage. In addition, it records the blame messages as well. It can be access by other participants of the system, including other nodes (e.g., via RPC requests).
2. Detector, which can be run by any participant of XinFin system. It sends requests periodically to connected nodes and use the returned information for safety and liveness forensic monitoring. If it finds enough information to penalize a master node, it will send the information to the penalty mechanism.
3. Penalty Mechanism, a XinFin governance-driven body that decides the penalty for safety and liveness violation. It implements both hard penalty (e.g. slashing Byzantine nodes’ deposits via a slashing smart contract or excluding them from master node selection) and soft penalty (e.g. raising the deposit requirement).

Upgrade Notes

This release will not enable the v2 consensus as we are undertaking internal testing of the system. All new changes from V2 consensus is behind configuration. Hence after upgrade, user shall not see any changes to the consensus related features of XDC.