Casper Community Calls, 3 Nov 2020

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From YouTube: CasperLabs Community Call

Description

Engineering Status update & Product Demo of the IPwe-Casper integration

A

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you're coming to us from my name, is metta parlikar. I am the cto of casper labs and we are here to provide an engineering update on the casper protocol.

A

I'm joined here today with alex ashok, so without further ado. Let's dive in our team has started a first weekly sprint of the 20.12 release and spread 8.1. We will be cutting another patch and deploying this patch to the the very small charlie testnet, this probably in the next 48 hours. I think joe is going to cut the release tonight and we will be deploying it for a final round of testing before we launch a delta test net later this week.

A

The the rust network code name charlie, has about 15 validators we've got about 20 validators active, that's a pretty nice number uh height 1840 era 132, but the network is stalled out right now, so we know that there are problems with the network, we're going to be restarting the network here tomorrow.

A

Our current focus is preparation for the security audit for the consensus protocol, we're also in preparation for that. We are getting a few final security fixes in there. What we be, what we deem will be critical for the security audit. On the node rust side. We are working on node joining and rejoining, so we are checking out. You know where we've done improvement in how nodes join and rejoin the network.

A

In that it's more secure, because with proof of stake networks, the validator sets do rotate and we wanted to provide additional security to make sure you're getting a real. You know trusted block hash from a bonded validator, we're optimizing memory, use usage and we're doing a lot of work around testing um we're also making our serialization more efficient.

A

So this last release 1.50 was already. We could always demonstrate significant improvements in performance around the speed with which transactions were processed, we're going to be bearing down over the next four weeks on the optimizing, the basically the block proposal or the deploy buffer right. So it's, for example, you know token transfers that are very, very tiny. We can optimize for squeezing a lot more of those into blocks versus large wasm deploys that could potentially be a lot more slower and more expensive and the key bottleneck is the execution.

A

Engine needs to be able to run all the transactions in a block before the round expires. So that's really like what we want to focus on is making that process very, very efficient, so we can maximize throughput through the blockchain um network, tolerance monitoring, so we're we're focusing on. I don't know what this dos attacks pieces is. This all the sre work.

A

I guess it is yeah, so the sre work is going to focus on hardening the nodes, our nodes against dos attacks and then documenting what that looks like and even providing uh you know, pull requests and actual configuration for our validators, so they can harden their own endpoints against dos attacks, we're automating the release process. We would expect that we'll get into a rapid bug, fix bug, find fixed process at some point here.

A

So releases will need to be automated in terms of how they're cut we've got a lot of work, we're doing around s-tests to make it faster and more efficient to test more and more complex scenarios using the s-test framework.

A

Clarity, we're doing a lot of work on the event store. So I don't know if I can share my screen here. I can try, because one of the things that the community definitely wanted to see was a product demo. So I'll do uh we'll do an interesting product demo ashok I'm going to want to do the ipv demo, so I've tried to download the video, but what you're looking at here? So I've restored my session since then, but I can show it right here. This.

A

This is the event stream, so we're doing things a little bit differently than you see in other blockchains, that's kind of what we're known for, but basically these are events that are being emitted from the nodes, and so here you'll see this notion of a proto block versus a block added. So a proto block is the block that's proposed by the leader.

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The block added is the block. That's finalized through consensus and so you'll see here. The protoblock contains basically the list of equivocators the rewards for the era right and then here you'll see when the block is actually added right. It'll have a parent hash and a state route hash state root. Hash is not in the proto block, because the global state hasn't been updated yet so our model does execution after consensus versus execution before consensus.

A

So it's only after the block is actually added to the linear block store. Do you get a state route hash right? So this is when you know your deploys have been run and the effects of those deploys have been actually added to the state. So what you're? Looking at here, this huge block here is, if I'm correct, I'm pretty sure this is a bonding request, so when someone adds a bid, um they actually deploy the ad bid, wasm contract to the network and an execution result of this deploy.

A

You'll see all these operations here, so these effects here, and so basically, what you're seeing here is you have this notion of a you ref, which is a bonding purse, and you have these read and writes, which is basically taking money from your personal purse, that you want to bid and you're putting it into the bonding purse that will be locked up and then in the end, you're. Writing this value to a map which is a public key value, and this is basically writing your uh see here.

A

You have a right transfer, so this is transferring right. So then, in a deploy, you're gonna have a whole bunch of transforms right. You can have money. Go from. You can have token go from one purse to another purse, you're going to have uh uh that new purse go into the map of bidders. um So that's what you're seeing here so this is the detail, transforms that's happening in the deploy and this all gets emitted by an event right event stream and then that these events will be captured in what we're calling an event store.

A

So this event store integrating the rust network with the event store, will enable you to query these events versus actually querying the node right. So you don't have to keep looking for a particular block right. This will serve to replace graphql. Graphql was very non-deterministic because it did a live. Graphql query against the global state, and this is something that's going to be very hard to do. You know, read and writes and transforms at the same time, it'll basically become a blocking activity for the blockchain.

A

So when you dump these events out real time as they happen and you put them into a read-only database right, you can you can bang on that database as hard as you want. That database is called the event store, we're doing some work on the website and blog we're getting some translations done, and then um yeah part of the implementation of the event store is basically the websocket piece which will provide the apis for you to query the event store.

A

On the economic side, we are doing some work on what is the pricing and block packing? What is this exactly? Can you give me some more details alex since you're here I'll put you in a spot.

B

uh Yes, so this is finalizing uh the uh initial design for how we are actually going to price gas right at low yep and the block packing. So you cannot separate uh the issue of you know how gas is priced from. uh You know how you construct, uh how you select the deploys for constructing the blocks and in many ways they're one of the same. So that's why that's uh that ended up being in the work.

A

Yep got it great um and we're also looking at a graphical representation of the staking auction business logic. Our custody provider has requested this information, so they basically want to know the life cycle right, the staking life cycle. So what does it look like when you delegate your tokens? What does it look like when you send a bonding request? What is the unbonding wait period? Where do the tokens go from right, so this entire piece that I've described here on the screen that I'm sharing they want to see a deep dive into that right.

A

So how does the um you know? How do the tokens go from your personal purse to the bonding purse and then they wait in the auction and they wait for a period of time in the auction and then, if you win a bid, what happens when you win a bid? What happens if your bid is lost? What do you have to do next, et cetera, et cetera?

A

So that's what um alex is going to be working on is that full workflow, a very detailed workflow for them, so they can go ahead and build that into the custody solution. Right so custody solutions super important for any kind of mainnet public sale and we're really excited about both our mainnet public sale provider and our custody solution providers, so stay tuned for updates. On that front, I think you all will be very happy on the contract runtime piece we actually added merkle proofs to query state responses.

A

This is really important, because now what you'll do is you'll get basically a proof uh from the global state that your transaction was processed, and you can basically take that to the bank right. um You don't necessarily need to run your own node to get a proof or trusted proof of your transaction and then we're actually looking at implementing storage costs. We do not want to encourage the storage of binary data photographs, videos on the blockchain, so these things will be very, very expensive.

A

You'll want to use storage or ipfs for those things right. That's the logical decentralized mechanism. Our our platform is really about programmable money and secure. You know computation and trusted computation. That's really! What's going to be important, um so you know storing some binary data is going to be disincentivized because it'll be really really expensive right. So any questions on that.

A

I'm going to pop over to telegram see if I have questions or pop over to discord and see. If you have any questions here, real quickly, ashok, do you want to tee up the ipw demo or you want me to share my screen.

A

The community asks for a product demo. I think it would be pretty cool to give them this demo.

C

A

Sorry, I can't hear you.

C

I think I lost you in between what are you looking for.

A

Oh, I said: do you want to do the ipw demo? Do you want to play it or you want me to play it.

C

No, I can play it, not a problem.

A

Okay, why don't you share.

C

Your screen, then,.

A

Yep, as he's pulling it up, I can tell you guys that seiler is the one that is doing this work. He has been doing some cryptography and support for private private transactions, and this was something that I p we wanted. They didn't want their full data structure to be available on the public blockchain.

A

Rather they wanted some privacy, so he created a way to encrypt the data before it goes on to the public blockchain. So ashok is going to go ahead and play. This is a recorded recorded demo that we'll be providing to ipv tomorrow, but I'll give you guys a sneak. Peek go ahead.

C

um Are you able to see my screen yep.

A

I don't know if we'll be able to hear it, though you have to see if you'll be able to hear it. Let's see.

A

I can't hear anything you might need to talk through what he's doing.

C

A

Why don't you talk through it, yeah yeah.

C

It's just starting yep.

C

Okay, so we are using key value contract to demonstrate.

C

I think I should I should talk a little bit about what the ipv use cases right yeah. I think that giving some context is more useful here. So ib is one of our murky um enterprise client that we are working with for a very unique case. um They have. uh They have global patent registry.

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They basically have have a marketplace for patents, so they have a registry which, um which kind of uh has all the details of um patents all all over the world and they also facilitate um transactions on their platform for uh for buying selling a leasing, uh renting uh patents.

C

So the use case that ipp has is they wanted to have the ownership data uh of the patents available on the public blockchain so that it's it's kind of um a trust, uh a trusted, a trustless trusted public blockchain. uh It's a permissionless, a public, a blockchain decentralized. So you have all the data.

C

That is that you can go back to it's immutable and um they wanted to make certain portions of the transactions happening across the buying and selling of the of the patents uh to be encrypted, so that those portions are not accessible or available um so say, for example, financial terms or a monetary value, and things like that.

C

So this um this actually and ipv works currently with hyperledger hyper ledger is a permissioned uh centralized blockchain, but they wanted to make use of public blockchain. For for the reason I I mentioned right, so this uh demonstration is essentially uh to to show that uh encryption of data can be enabled on the public blockchain in a way that selected portion uh selected parts of the data going in will uh be encrypted and remaining will be available to public.

C

So that's the that's the context here.

A

So, within the ipwe application persons that have the authority to view the private data will have a token inside their account inside their ipv account that will enable them to view the private data, but this data will not be. It will be encrypted on the public blockchain. So you will still have the guarantees of the public blockchain without having to uh you know, expose the private data.

C

Yeah so silent who's built this application for us he is um what he's showing is that he has downloaded the the key value storage contract, which is what he's going to use for the demo.

A

That's right he's and.

C

Then he's going to use nctl, which is, uh which is the application that we provide, with uh with our our node for spinning up local network, that you can use for testing purposes.

C

So he's spinning up a five node network right.

C

Now so you can see the five nodes.

C

C

So when you check the status, you look at the last finalized block to ensure that the consensus is started.

A

Yeah, so what we're showing seeing here is the status end point that shows that we have uh four four nodes here, so they can see the peers from the node that he is sending the query to, and then you see that the last finalized block right and you've got a height of one. So that means consensus is up and running, and so now he's going to do a transfer to fund his account right. So then he can do his.

A

A

So here he's looking at the purse, so you can see he's got a balance, and so you should be good to go.

C

Yeah, so the key value contract is 131k.

C

Contact.Wasm file that you see there in.

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Terms of size, yep.

A

So now he's going to deploy the contract is the first thing. He'll do is he'll install the contract into the global state.

A

So you can see he did a put deploy. This is his. This is his blockchain name, there's this key that he signed it with and here's his session pass path for the key value: storage. That's just the contract he just compiled, and here you'll see the payment amount that he applied to pay for the transaction and now he's going to wait for he's waiting for confirmation and there's the deploy.

A

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So now what he's going to do is get the deploy information so you'll see here the deploy ran successfully because he got no error and you hear you're seeing the transforms. So this is actually what the blockchain is doing. The global state right. These are the ways in which the global state has been changed.

A

So here you will see it's created all of this, this entire data structure within the contract and all the work that it's done.

A

And so now he's going to show his account and so within his account you'll see here the kv storage contract in blue. It's a little hard to see, but you see the hash there. This is the hash of the contract.

C

Yeah contact that is deployed on the blockchain. It's in it's a global state.

A

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He's gonna call it using the hash. You can actually call it using the name.

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So now he's going into his encryption decryption. Now that the contract is in the global state, he's going to use his encryption decryption code to go ahead and put encrypted data on the on the blockchain.

C

Yeah and- and he has created his own front end um because our java sdk is still still being built.

A

So this is the interface to deep encrypt. It.

A

And there's the public field.

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List so that's the encryption.

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A

So, what's going on here.

C

So basically he's encrypting the uh he's encrypting, the the entire patent data except the the fields which are written in the public field, and then he is going to store that using the key value contract and then extract it back and demonstrate that it works.

A

C

This this is the contract that was that's the hash from the global state, where the key value contract was deployed.

A

Right so that's the address to which it's going to write the data.

A

And that's the deploy hash.

C

C

A

So what's happening now now he's just verifying.

C

Yeah he's verifying the.

C

A

So this is the data block he sent the.

A

A

Now, what's happening now,.

C

So he's pulling the data now uh from the blockchain and it and you will see it in this form the way it was sent out. So it's basically uh get.

C

Deployed so when you load the load, the data giving the process.

C

So what you're doing is loading the data back into his front end by giving the deploy hash that you used for sending the data on the blockchain and it comes in a serialized form, but it is still encrypted.

A

A

And this is something that we can make available via casper ecosystem as a library to encrypt and decrypt data, um so that customers can get the benefit of privacy now we'll need to figure out, and because this is client-side, it's not going to be prohibitively expensive right, you're just pushing data onto the blockchain. The encryption is actually happening on the client side right. So encryption.

C

Is happening on the client.

A

Right so this is not like zk snark, so it's going to be so horrendously expensive, because um you know this is a pragmatic approach to putting you know private data on a public blockchain and still getting the benefit of the trust layer.

C

Yeah, so that's that's a demo any any questions on this. It's just terrific.

C

And right now um the gas costs here look high because there's some work that we're still doing on the on the gas cost trend.

A

C

Those would be changing yeah, yeah.

A

Yeah yeah, it's all very theoretical right now, so we're going to start that's one of the things we're focusing on around the transaction. Pricing is really kind of bearing down on how much things are really going to cost. That's what that's what alex is working on?

A

Thank you very much for that. So that's our update for today. It's the bottom of the hour! So if you have more questions- and there are things you want us to talk about, come find us on discord- come find us on telegram. We are going to be launching the delta test net this week. Those of you that are participating in the scala test net, look for an email coming to you today or tomorrow for you to regenerate your keys, so we're ready to go next week thanks.

A

Everyone have a fabulous weekend happy election day for those of you in the us get out.