015-Ersa

Happy Friday, everyone! We've just deployed another testnet, codenamed Ersa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ersa_(moon)

As you know, we've been working through some Tendermint P2P issues that have caused halts on our previous testnets: while the Penumbra app logic worked fine, the validators stopped talking to each other, and then stopped producing blocks as soon as one validator dipped below a supermajority of stake.

With some help from some other members of the ecosystem (particularly the Strangelove, Iqlusion, and Interchain teams, huge thanks to everyone!) we found and fixed some potentially contributing factors in our testnet configuration, and we're looking forward to confirming this with the current testnet.

We don't have any big changes to the chain in this release -- although we have some exciting changes in the pipeline -- so the main goal is to confirm that the new configuration avoids the previous issues. As a backup, we've allocated a clear supermajority of stake to the primary testnet validator, so it can continue producing blocks if the P2P issues recur.

You can interact with the testnet using the command-line client pcli, or join as a full node or validator using pd by following the guide: https://guide.penumbra.zone/ .

We've also added a public Grafana dashboard, which currently displays data from Tendermint: https://testnet.penumbra.zone/d/i_UiDu_7z/consensus
Going forward, we'll be expanding observability of the Penumbra side in pd, so we can get more insight into testnet activity.

Some reminders:

• Check out the new release, git checkout 015-ersa-v2 to be sure you're on the latest version;
• Reset your local client state: cargo run --release --bin pcli -- wallet reset;
• If you're running a full node or validator, wipe your configs and follow the new instructions!: https://guide.penumbra.zone/main/pd/join-testnet/fullnode.html

Thanks for helping us test Penumbra! 🌒

012-Kale

This is a minor release to fix issues that halted the chain in the 011-Sponde testnet release. There are no new features in this release.

011-Sponde

This is a minor release that fixes issues introduced in Pasithee that prevented new validators from joining the testnet.

010-Pasithee

This release marks Penumbra's 10th testnet, Pasithee. Since the previous testnet, Cyllene, a number of improvements and features have been introduced:

• Fixed validator power sorting
• Implemented IBC connection handshake
• gRPC services have been unified
• added support for Tokio console

Internal improvements:

• clarifying validator state transitions
• further work on TCT design
• further work on restructuring wallet code

009-Cyllene

This release marks Penumbra's 9th testnet, Cyllene. Since the previous testnet, Philophrosyne, a number of improvements and features have been introduced:

• Sending validator power back to Tendermint for validator participation in testnets
• Displaying of validator status in the list-validators command
• Added template-definition and fetch-definition commands for handling validator definitions
• Added basic IBC support for MsgUpdateClient messages
• Implementation of uptime-based slashing for validators

Philophrosyne Testnet

This release marks Penumbra's 8th testnet, Philophrosyne. Since the previous testnet, Herse, a number of small improvements have been made:

• Removed legacy Postgres code, completing the transition to Rocksdb
• Updated documentation
• Renamed light/thin wallets and started implementation of new wallet client protocol
• Refactored ShieldedcPool::write_block
• Fix various bugs in Tendermint voting power handling
• Improved performance of minted notes by using their NCT position as blinding factor

See https://github.com/penumbra-zone/penumbra/compare/007-herse...008-philophrosyne?expand=1 for a full list of changes.

To participate in the testnet, refer to the Penumbra Guide.