Changelog Epic Server

Epic - 3.3.2

The epic-server is the application that connects with the EPIC’s network as a node. Through the epic-server, the users are able to synchronize with the blockchain, use an API to get some information about the blockchain or the entire network, connect epic-wallet to mine EPICs, and so on.

The current official epic-server version is v3.0.0. This release document specifies the improvements made for the application and defines a new alpha version as v3.0.9~alpha-1.

This document is structured into three sections: Improvements, New Features, and Bugs Fixed.

Improvements

Fast usernet

Sometimes the user wants to test/simulate an EPIC environment without using real EPIC coins, and in a private network. That is the main idea of usernet, which is a private and local network that works just as the mainnet but only on the local machine allowing all testing to be done safely and isolated from the main net. In most cases, the users just want to test new features or just want to see how EPIC works, and it should be faster to mine some EPICs and store them in a testing wallet, to than start using the mainnet.

By thinking about that, we reduced the difficulty of mining on the usernet, in order to accept more blocks. Basically, a single miner can now mine approximately 80 blocks/min and add the rewards in a testing wallet to make some transactions, test new features, and so on.

All you need to setup the local epic node is to execute the following command:

epic --usernet --onlyrandomx

Where:

epic is the binary for execution;
--usernet is the flag that defines that the node will be for the testing network;
--onlyrandomx is a new policy to accept block from algorithms that accept only blocks that comes from randomx algorithm.

There is also the need for a testing wallet to simulate on usernet. The epic-wallet also accepts the --usernet flag.

Foundation file

As EPIC has a foundation wallet, there is the foundation.json file that stores the transaction to this specific wallet. When we updated epic-server from v2.17 to v3.0.0, there was a problem of using the correct foundation.json file. Many times we needed to change it manually. So, from now the correct file is used.

New features

Algorithm arbitration policies

In order to apply a fair reward distribution over the miner users, the epic-server has a policy that specifies from what algorithm the next block must come. Currently, there are three algorithms of proof-of-work that the epic-miner is able to do: RandomX (CPU-only), ProgPow (GPU-only), and Cuckatoo (GPU-only). The default policy applies a percentage of block acceptance from each one of the three algorithms. The default policy is currently applied on mainnet, and was previously applied also on floonet.

In order to facilitate for users to mine as faster as possible, we added two new arbitration policies available for floonet and usernet: onlyradomx and noprogpow.

The onlyrandomx is the one that we mentioned that can be used on usernet as a flag like this:

epic --usernet --onlyrandomx

It only expects blocks that come from RandomX proof-of-work. However, if the user wants to test also with a GPU-only algorithm, besides de CPU-only, it can be used the noprogpow policy. Like this:

epic --usernet --noprogpow

This other policy expects blocks that come from RandomX and Cuckatoo.

NOTE: Currently, the floonet node is operating with the noprogpow policy. So, if you want to make tests on floonet, you need to run your node like this:

epic --floonet --noprogpow

API methods

The epic-server provides a set of API methods that the users can integrate with their own applications to get some details about the blockchain and the network used. Basically, they are POST and GET methods from the HTTP protocol, and can respond with the current chain height; the current status of the node; how many peers are connected; and so on.

In this new release, we added two new methods: get_blocks and get_last_n_kernels.

The get_blocks respond with a list of the reachable blocks on the chain, before the pruning, in a specified range. As it is a POST method, it requires a JSON input that contains the requested details to access the blocks subset. This is the requested JSON:

{
	"jsonrpc": "2.0",
	"method": "get_blocks",
	"params": [<START_HEIGHT>, <END_HEIGHT>, <HASH>, <COMMIT>],
	"id": 1
}

The parameters needed are: START_HEIGHT: the number of the initial block on the range; END_HEIGHT: the number of the final block on the range; HASH (optional): the block’s hash; COMMIT (optional): the block’s commit;

It is similar to the get_block method. However, it responds with a list of more than one element.

For the get_last_n_kernels, it is similar to the get_kernel method, but it responds with a list of the last n kernels starting from the current chain height. As it is also a POST method, it requires another JSON as input. Here is the JSON:

{
	"jsonrpc": "2.0",
	"method": "get_last_n_kernels",
	"params": [<N>],
	"id": 1
}

The parameter N is the number of kernels the user wants to list.

Bugs fixed

CMake version

There was a problem that when we tried to clone the epic-server from the Github repository, and apply all dependencies, the cmake version required didn’t allow the instillation to be succeeded.

We fixed this problem by requesting to install version 3.18.4 or 3.19.3 of CMake.

Cucumber automated tests

After applying the changes to this new version, some cucumber automated tests were broken. So basically, we adapted them to work with our current changes.

Full changelog

V3 custom config for testnets
- Enable the new PolicyConfig for onlyrandomx and noprogpow please use one-off new arguments
Changes on the usernet
- Mine more blocks per second
Added feedback if foundations are broken
Add get blocks and get last n kernels endpoints
- Get blocks returns all the mined blocks
- Last n kernels returns all the available kernels
Add Testnet configuration file
Reproducible builds
New readme

epic 3.0.9-alpha-1

Add --onlyrandomx and --noprogpow for testnet
Fix: mining on usernet
Feat: speed up mine blocks on usernet
Fix: Variable Reference
Update build.md
Create testnet_configuration.md
Feat: Add get_blocks and get_last_n_kernels
#21 Add simple print to indicate the foundation is broke
Fix: cucumber tests
Add CDN

epic 3.0.0

#50 Fix: Address issue Breaks windows build
#46 Merge pull request from acosta-brickabode/feature/gh-action-linux
#45 Merge pull request from acosta-brickabode/fix/log-level-syncer
Fix: Replace pancurses-backend feature with termion-backend to fix ncurses rendering issues
Refactor: Remove libssl-dev as build requirement
Fix: Replace log::info feature with log::debug to fix overprinting sync messages
Feat: Implement Github Action for generating Linux artifact
#40 Doubling the value of the MAINNET_FIRST_HARD_FORK constant
Fix: Update croaring to a fork that doesn't use -march=native that was causing the illegal instruction errors
#38 Retry connecting to the seed servers when there is no connected peers
Test(config): Add unit tests to check compatibility with v2 and v3 values for log-levels
Fix(config): Use custom deserialization function that accepts log-level values from both v2 and v3
#35 Merge pull request from EpicCash/fix/floonet-foundation
Fix(floonet): Make foundation_floonet.json the same as foundation.json
#34 Merge pull request from EpicCash/feature/create-block-fees-submodule
Move the BlockFeeds type a separate location for better reusage: the wallets can use it there
Increasing the FLOONET_FIRST_HARD_FORK to 25800
#33 Merge pull request from EpicCash/fix/cmake-error
#32 Merge pull request from EricShimizuKarbstein/update-docs
Update randomx-rust
Update build instructions
Fix: more chunk size for header sync
Fix: add missing shutdown info in cmd mode
Refactor: update zeroise macro keychain, utils
#29 Update epic cargo docs and wrong comments in code
#28 Fix: update some deps in keychain
#27 Merge pull request from hdmark/patch-1
Fix: update header sync; remove dublicate check bad header; remove debug output from graph weight
Fix: move reset stalling, sync peer reset
remove unused debug output
change header sync ban action
Fix: windows foundation height
#26 Removing verifier caches
make small peers sync improvements
Fix: make header sync faster
update foundation sha for unix
update foundation hash; peers v2 to v3 sync
P2P: better handling of mpsc channel and initial handshake messages with other peers
Chain: Better output PMMR handling and Chain DB index. Improve stability and DB crashes.
New Header Version 7 and better Header Version Switch
Tui:
- Some TUI improvements.
- Lists can be scrolled now.
Split of File and Console output and cleanup
API:
- API enhancements and new API v3 for Wallet communication

epic (3.0.0-beta)

changing algo mix for next block era 3
split stdout logformat from file log; stdout cosmetics

epic (3.0.0-alpha-6)

rewind #3045
rewind Read header_head and sync_head from header MMRs directly
addd missing chain setup
additional code changes v3
pipe changes
add header hash to header info
check store for block sums
remove fixed size
change db store consts
add missing code v3
change zeroise to 1.3.x
change zerois to 1.x
change floonet era height; fix MAINNET_DIFFICULTY_ERA height
change current header version to 6
change cursive version
alpha6 finalize for testing
change stratum rpc id value
change floonet seed
fix v3 #3268

epic (3.0.0-alpha-5)

change floonet first hardfork to header version 7 to blockheight 5760
change header back to v7
fix windows compatibility
add badblock script from 2.15;cursive tui update;version checker; set to v3.0.0
update ser because of serde::export private
Merge pull request #15 from johanneshahn/develop
Update build.md
Update build.md
Add missing 222 to FOUNDATION_LEVY
add missing foundation levy 222
API client basic authorization.
Adding cucumber tests - trying to spend foundation coins
Merge pull request #7 from EpicCash/fix-foudation-levy

epic (3.0.0-alpha-4)

Merge branch 'fix-emission-schedule' into 'develop'
Update emission schedule
Merge branch 'fix--duration-tui' into 'develop'
Fix wrong duration on tui
Merge branch 'fix-floonet-foundation' into 'develop'
Fix floonet foundation on windows

epic (3.0.0-alpha-3)

Fixing the communication between server and wallet
Update build.md -> remove "brew install llvm" for build with Mac. Mac ships own llvm

epic (3.0.0-alpha-2)

Fixing conflict with EpicWallet

epic (3.0.0-alpha-1)

This patch only affects floonet
Integrates grin 3.0.0 codebase into ours
Fixes some synchronization problems
Adjusts the difficulty adjustment a bit
Introduces a hard-fork in floonet at height 2880

epic (3.0.0-alpha)

Merge branch 'develop'
Merge branch '1st-hard-fork' into develop
Add foundation for floonet
Add height for mainnet hardfork
Fix load foundation for differents version
Fix display of the difficulty
Fixing some core tests.
Add build foundation command
Fix p2p and wallet signature
Update package version
Fix txhashset keeping with invalid block hash
Fix legacy transactions on cucumber tests
Fix many cucumber tests
Every test is compiling now.
Fixing loading of previous block
Compiling pool.
Compiling core tests.
Fixing compilation for cucumber tests
Fixing compilation for chain tests.
Fixing API tests.
Fix log
Update tui
Add function missing on core
Update server version
Update api version
p2p and pool now compiling.
epic_core is now compiling.
epic_util should be compiling.
epic_store should be compiling.
epic_core should be compiling.
Fast Sync initial files
Merge branch 'update-floonet' into 'develop'
Merge branch 'update_macos_build_instructions' into 'develop'
Modify files for first Hard Fork
Update Floonet DNS seeds

epic (2.4.0)

Add 240 foundation slips

epic (2.3.1-1)

Make header sync timeout user-configurable
Change the default header sync timeout
Improve the broadcasting of mined blocks

epic (2.3.0-2)

Fix package generation on rust 1.36.0
Updating submodules before building

epic (2.3.0-1)

Update documentation
Fix epic-server link
Add windows documentation
Fix sync threshold bug
Fix sync difficulty bug

epic (2.2.3-1)

Update DNS

epic (2.2.2-1)

Release version

epic (2.1.0-1)

Changing the genesis block

epic (2.0.0-1)

Fix stratum server overflow
Recovering the old copyright notices
Official foundation.json file.
Add sha256 verification to the foundation.json
Updating the sha256sum with the new foundation.json
Increase block version

epic (1.6.0-1)

Fix test for accept pow
Change the timestamp computation
Improve the readability of cucumber tests
Remove unnecessary prints
Generate new timestamp for each job
Fix some tests
Decrease the control constant of progpow
Increase header version to 4
Fix node sending double jobs for miner
Fix load fundation in the windows
Fix cursive for windows and foundation path
Add tests for load foundation file
Fix mining duration time in TUI
Update the foundation rewards
Add assert to invalid heights
Fix more display errors in the TUI
Update foundation.json
Fix genesis test
Fix select fork with difficulty
Fix infinite loop in the cucumber test
Add tests for fork based in the difficulty
Fix some cucumber errors
Add scripts for windows installer
Update progpow and randomx version
Fix installer version
Fix select fork with difficulty
Fix infinite loop in the cucumber test
Add tests for fork based in the difficulty
Fix some cucumber errors
Add current difficulty in the job template
Change develop version
Fix ProgPow average not being displayed
Fix tests with invalid pow

epic (1.5.0-1)

Reenable Continuous Integration.
Adding a cache for faster builds.
Remove md5 test and fix some proofs
Share the cache between all branches.
Fixing genesis hash in tests.
New cache configuration.
More genesis hash fixes.
Update documentation and change some defaults
Update submodules.
Add next algorithm in the job template
Add cucumber difficulty adjustment tests
Add more tests for multi algo difficulty adjustment
Change cuckoo initial difficulty
update randomx rust
Fix all tests
Change block version

epic (1.4.0-2)

Fixing postinst script

epic (1.4.0-1)

Fix extra time for difficulty
Add const global for change block version
Change version serialize
Changing the directory of foundation.json
Add dns version checker
Add version struct
Add version.rs file
Improve the error message

epic (1.3.1-1)

Fix dns address

epic (1.3.0-1)

Add multi-gpu mining instructions
Fix seed validation when it is synchronizing
Fix cuckatoo reversing difficulty of progpow and randomx
Improving dpkg documentation.
Add floonet dns seed

epic (1.2.0-1)

Fix almost all grin tests
Fix indentation
Add cargo lock for p2p fuzz tests
Fix all no-cucumber tests
Add support for multi policy
Add cursor for search block with same policy and update config
A bug report tool for Epic.
Adding (untested) Windows commands to get cpuinfo and lspci.
Reduce the height for coinbase maturity in the floonet
Add randomx seed changing in each epochs
Fix validation and load multiples epochs
Remove conflict tag
Remove condition repeated
Change the rewards to match the whitepaper
Fix non-cucumber tests
Improve cucumber tests names
Add foundation height for floonet
Increase floonet foundation height
Remove genesis reward
Fix genesis hash test
Update randomx rust
Fix invalid seed in tests
Adding epic-bugreport to the package.
Add policies matching the white paper
Fix calc for seed height
change randomx epochs
Aborting the package build in case of an error.
Change the default min share difficulty
Fix diff factor for randomx and decrease progpow difficulty

epic (1.1.0-1)

Documentation on how to submit bug reports.
Adjust build block with first block timestamp
Increase progpow difficulty and diff factor
Run all tests script.
Increase progpow difficulty
Adjust difficulty

epic (1.0.5-1)

Fix ovefflow in difficultyiter

epic (1.0.4-1)

Update randomx rust
Fix pow rejected
Fix Randomx control algo
Fix selection of algo in blockchain
Update the selection of timestamps from the blockchain
Fix cargo build
Correct difficulty difference
Fix calc for differents timestamp
Fix get list of old difficulty
Update the link to the packages
Fix total difficulty calc
Fix return of prev header when none
Fix interator prev
Fix i64 values in the DifficultyIter

epic (1.0.3-3)

Fixing the doc for testnet reset.
It's chain_data, not /chain/data
Todd's review of the testnet reset doc.
Update testnet reset instructions
Add specific height for foundation reward
Add mine using only cpu
Add mine using only cpu
Update links and checksum
Fix the height sent to the wallet API
Update progpow rust
Update RandomX config
Installing foundation.json with write permissions.
Maintainance script for epic.