Author: Markus Hinrichs, Andrew Ware

Editor: Randall Roland

Daniel Keyes from EOS Nation hosts these weekly meetings to discuss current and future development. They provide valuable information for groups involved in software development, like developers, BPs, blockchain engineers, and parts of the Community who want to delve deeper into the development process.

Click here for the video recording of the meeting (Passcode: R6jN+U4U)

Stephen Diesel offered a brief overview of Leap and DUNE Updates and their expected release dates. The recent CDT 3.1.0 RC1 contained a new version of the toolkit developers use to develop and compile smart contracts.

The Docker Utilities for Node Execution (DUNE) release is expected to be next month as the development team focuses on more pressing priorities. However, before it is released, there are minor things to tackle, such as version dependency on CDT and Leap.

Stephen also requested feedback from BPs and other node operators on the newest version of Leap, the C++ implementation of the Antelope protocol. Leap v3.2.0 includes the new application leap-util along with enhancements for cleos.

Test focus lies on:

Prior to the discussion, Stephen Diesel outlined the historical arc of the P2P improvements RFP, which broadly intends to improve the syncing and discovery process of bootstrapping a new Antelope blockchain node.

He explained that there were past complaints about performance, stability, and user-friendliness. After this, many improvements were made, such as multi-threading, although the internal configuration settings remained very feature-constrained.

At the moment, finding and connecting with peers is a challenging procedure. The Antelope Coalition sought to give P2P advancements top priority. However, the work proved too expensive and time-consuming to tackle all at once. Instead, the Coalition split the priority into smaller, more achievable chunks. The first part of this new P2P RFP targets automatic peer discovery

Note: This integration will allow a standalone value-add improvement on a shorter timeline than a full P2P rewrite. It also allows the ENF team to identify incremental improvements to the P2P protocol that will either become their own RFPs or integrate into an ENF software release.
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After this review, Stephen opened up the discussion to the larger Leap Working Group. The group shared their ideas for mitigating inefficiencies and improving the user experience of node peering, including related initiatives like block log trimming and internal node infrastructure improvements.

Since the RFPs proved too big, the ENF decided to slim down their scope. The coalition then decided to create the Peer Discovery Initiative RFP with a heavy emphasis on keeping it as non-invasive as possible regarding the development of the Net Plugin.

The bidding procedures on RFPs have been updated. There are PDFs that describe the bidding process when a new RFP is available. The new RFPs are located under the coalition RFP subfolder on the ENF website. After the RFP is released to the Community, there's a week to submit an intent to bid.

Ted Cahall stated that the RFP scope had been made easier to bid; in the future (next RFPs), interested parties should be able to give feedback at an earlier stage of an RFP. This process should get better and more transparent with each iteration.

According to Stephen, there are two different approaches to these RFPs. One would be overprescribing solutions; the other is "really starting with the problem."

- In Stephen's opinion, it is crucial to communicate the problems and let the responders give a solution. That will keep things open and give engineers some air for creative solutions.

The Antelope Chains are seeking cost savings and synergies. To split up the expense of development, they are searching for commonalities. In the prioritization process, each chain, Wax, Telos, UX Network, and EOS, put five ideas or issues on the table for a vote. To make it possible to prioritize between ideas and topics, each of the chains gets 16 votes to allocate. The last prioritization ended up with 4 RFPs going out.

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