CESS Testnet v0.5.1 has been updated again, with the independently developed consensus mechanism launched for the first time

On August 9, 2022, CESS conducted a major version update to v0.5.0. In less than a month of testing the v0.5.0 version, although the number of storage nodes was only over 660, less than 1/3 of the number before the last version update, the storage capacity reached more than 3 times that of the previous version, approaching 20 TiB.

Today at 16:00, CESS officially launched the new version of the testnet: v0.5.1. This version not only iteratively optimized the issues left over from v0.5.0 but also introduced the Randomly Selected Consensus Node Mechanism (R²S) and transactional transactions modules.

Specific optimizations are as follows:

• The storage miner list in the block explorer will continue to be sorted primarily by storage miner ID.
• Optimized the oracle transaction method. In the original off-chain oracle, transactions could only be called by a few predefined accounts; it has now been adjusted so that all active consensus nodes can call it, and since it is a system transaction, no transaction gas fee is required.

New modules are as follows:

• The self-created consensus mechanism --- Randomly Selected Consensus Node Mechanism (R²S) is introduced for the first time, replacing the Polkadot consensus module. Unlike other POS consensus mechanisms like BABE, which determine block production probability based on the amount of staked tokens, R²S determines the probability of being selected as a block-producing node based on the workload and contribution value (reputation scoring model) of the consensus nodes to the network. This effectively solves the "miner dilemma" of large node monopolies, significantly improves efficiency under a decentralized framework, and achieves on-chain transaction processing. In the CESS mainnet, all users wishing to become consensus nodes can freely join as candidate nodes, but only 11 formal rotating nodes are selected to participate in block production during each time window (for example, every 10,000 blocks). Candidate nodes that do not participate in block production can also prove their work capability by participating in the data preprocessing process, thus participating in the selection of formal rotating nodes for the next round. During this process, the network will score the work capability of each consensus node, and if a node behaves maliciously during work, its score will be reduced. When the score falls below a certain baseline, that node will be unable to compete for candidate node status.
• On-chain call transactions support transactional capabilities, meaning that transactions requiring it can be tagged with [transactional] to maintain atomicity. If a transaction fails, the updated state will roll back, significantly enhancing transaction security.
• Without changing the economic model and on-chain logic, the block production time has been adjusted from 3 seconds to 6 seconds, improving network stability.

The reward rules for testnet v0.5.1 will undergo minor adjustments based on the previous version:

For storage miners, the total reward points for all storage miners is 5000. The specific final points for each miner will be distributed based on the percentage of the total storage power that miner occupies.

For consensus miners, the v0.5.1 version testnet consensus miners will follow the principle of voluntary and unpaid participation, and there will no longer be point rewards.

Tips

1. At the end of this round of testing, only those with a power greater than 1 GiB will be considered valid miners. The total storage power of the entire network and the storage miners' power can be viewed at: https://substats.cess.cloud/;

2. Daily storage miner power and consensus miner point rewards will be announced on the CESS official Discord (https://twitter.com/CESS_Storage) and Twitter;

3. The decimal values of storage miner power will be rounded, and after the CESS mainnet goes live, rewards will be distributed at a ratio of 1:100 (i.e., 1 point can be exchanged for 100 CESS tokens);

4. This testnet update will still reset the blockchain, so all miners should update the relevant programs at that time.