Tech Community Call #1

Announcement Community Tech Call MOM
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Minute Meeting - Tech Community Call #1

Attendees:

  • From BNB-Chain Foundation, Victor ( Senior Solution Architect) & Arno ( Senior Solution Architect)
  • From NodeReal, Ben (NodeReal COO) & Jimny (Senior Solution Architect)
  • From Tranchess, Danny (Tranchess Co-Founder)
  • From Legend, Legend (One of BSC’s top validators)
  • From Storj, Kevin, Solution Architect & Coordinators

Overall Summary:

  • Discussions among BNB Community developers covering various topics related to BNB ecosystem technology and applications;
  • Focus on decentralization, staking, relayer management, security, and decentralized storage;
  • Topics discussed: BNB Beacon Chain (BC), BNB Smart Chain (BSC) & BNB Greenfield;
  • Concerns raised about the impact of BEP-159 and lowering gas fees;
  • Introduction of Greenfield as a decentralized storage solution and comparison to other storage providers;
  • Need for compatibility with existing file systems mentioned by Storj;
  • BNB Core team highlights Greenfield’s integration with the BSC blockchain;
  • Aim to provide a user-friendly and developer-friendly experience for web3 applications with advanced features such as data indexing and programmability.

Part 1 BC & BSC:

BC BEP159: → link

Description:

This BEP introduces a new staking mechanism on the BNB Beacon Chain

  • Aimed to increase decentralization, security, and community involvement;
  • Anyone will be able to participate in securing the network by becoming a validator or delegating their BNB to the validator they trust;
  • Based on BSC staking mechanism;
  • Validators can produce new blocks, earn rewards, and share the rewards with delegators;
  • The Validator set is determined by the rank of the accumulated bonded tokens on validator candidates;
  • Punishment for bad behavior by the validators is called “slashing.”;
  • Unbonding period for validators and delegators.

Outcome:

  • Strong concerns were raised by both Tranchess and NR validator about the impact of BEP-159 regarding the impact of this BEP;
  • Both Validators asked for more data to back up this BEP;
  • BNB Chain Core Dev team will work on providing more meaningful data to be able to understand the impact of BEP-159;

BSC BEP-174: Cross Chain Relayer Management is ready to be merged → link

Description:

  • New governance proposal type introduced to manage the set of whitelisted relayers on BSC: Relayer Managers;
  • Whitelist of relayers stored in the RelayerHub genesis contract on BSC;
  • Only relayer public keys registered via Relayer Managers can invoke the RelayerHub smart contract for cross-chain transfers;
  • Changes to the RelayerHub smart contract, including the introduction of new functions and deprecation of existing functions;
  • Relayer codebase updated to no longer register and deposit, and to call the new “verifyRelayer” method on the RelayerHub smart contract;
  • Existing relayer key migration discussed;
  • Manager keys supplied for existing relayers, and existing relayers will need to pull down the updated relayer code;
  • New CLI commands added for mainnet.

Outcome:

  • Improved security: After the BSC Bridge exploitation, the introduction of Relayer Managers adds an extra layer of security to the system by managing the set of whitelisted relayers;
  • No deposit requirement for Managers: Managers will not have to deposit any BNB, as opposed to the previous 100BNB deposit requirement;
  • Governance-based set of Manager public keys: The set of Manager public keys will be updated via governance, which allows for community control and transparency;
  • RelayerHub smart contract changes: The RelayerHub smart contract will be updated to support the addition and removal of managers via governance;
  • Smooth transition: The whitelistInit function will ensure a smooth transition so that the existing whitelisted relayers continue to be relayers after the hardfork;
  • Everyone agreed on the need to have a good mechanism to ensure that relayers are secured and aren’t able to behave maliciously;
  • Attendees are looking for more documentation / FAQ about who is currently managing the current set of relayers.
  • whitepaper/WHITEPAPER.md at master · bnb-chain/whitepaper · GitHub
  • GitHub - bnb-chain/bsc-relayer: An implementation of relay service to relay cross chain packages from BNB Beacon Chain to BNB Smart Chain

Upgrade transferGas for Staking(BEP153): 2300 → 5000 → link

Description:

  • Value of transferGas is currently set at 2300;
  • A simple send to a deployed smart contract using proxy consumes 2747 gas;
  • Staking.sol allows the use of only 2300 gas;
  • There is a need for a way to use an upgradable contract.

Outcome:

  • Multiple Security teams looked into the impact, and it is fine to move to 5000 gas;
  • no objection to the change. The BNB Core Dev team will push a governance vote for the BSC validators;
  • Proposal title: “modify transferGas from 2300 to 5000”.

BEP-172: Improvement on BSC validator committing stability → link

Description:

  • Update the Parlia consensus mechanism to improve network stability and efficiency;
  • Change the timestamp and delay settings for off-turn validators;
  • The previous system resulted in a “slash” and long delay when a validator missed their turn to commit a block;
  • The new calculation algorithm allows off-turn validator to commit a block in 4 seconds if the in-turn validator misses their turn;
  • Slash will no longer affect future blocks;
  • Remove recently signed validators from the candidate set for delay calculation;
  • Reduce minimum delay duration to zero and add 3 seconds to ensure blocks are committed within the expected duration (3 seconds);
  • Ensure all validators work appropriately.

Outcome:

  • Improved Network Stability: update enhances network stability by changing the delay setting for off-turn validators in the Parlia consensus. It helps the network recover faster and more efficiently after a slash event for a stable block-committing order.

  • Reduced Delays: update makes the network more efficient by reducing delay time and improving recovery time after a slash;

  • Improved Algorithm: updates the off-turn validation delay calculation algorithm, leading to quicker block commitment (within 4 or 3 seconds) in case of a missed turn by an in-turn validator, improving network efficiency and stability;

  • No Bad Influence on Future Blocks: prevents slashes from affecting future blocks by excluding recently signed validators from the calculation of the delay duration, enabling faster recovery of the network;

  • Increased Trust in the Network: improves network stability, efficiency, and trust, leading to increased confidence and participation;

  • the BEP-172 introduces significant improvements to the Parlia consensus and the overall efficiency of the network. The changes in the BEP will lead to a more stable, efficient, and trustworthy network, which is crucial for its growth and development.

BEP-191: Validator Slash Mechanism 2.0 → link

Description:

  • Introduction of a new validator slash mechanism 2.0 for the BNB Smart Chain;
  • Aimed at punishing malicious validators in more scenarios;
  • Validators can either directly slash a validator for missing a proposal or propose a slash to a malicious validator if most validators agree;
  • Enriches the ways of monitoring validators and protects network security and smooth operation;
  • Current mechanism does not cover all malicious behaviors such as delays in broadcasting blocks and using poor machines;
  • New mechanism includes a point system with a basic slash count of 100 points;
  • Different levels of punishment based on the number of points collected;
  • More punishment scenarios to maintain reliable and safe operation of the network.

Outcome:

  • Improved network stability by penalizing malicious behavior;

  • Better protection of network interests by punishing validators who harm the network;

  • Fair competition through penalizing malicious behavior;

  • Limiting poor network/machine usage for validators to improve security/stability;

  • Fewer reorgs and stable TPS through new block difficulty;

  • Addresses unprovable evidence with the new mechanism;

  • Improved liveness by allowing other validators to re-generate blocks;

  • Overall, the argument for BEP-191 is to address the security and stability issues caused by validators delaying block broadcasts and to ensure the rights and interests of nodes and the reliable and safe operation of the BSC network.

Part 2 BNB Greenfield:

Description:

  • BNB Greenfield is a protocol for a decentralized storage network;
  • Connected to BNB Smart Chain (BSC) through relayers;
  • Allows users to create, own, and trade data assets with freedom and transparency;
  • Introduces programmable storage and opens up a range of use cases beyond traditional storage services;
  • Advantages over traditional hosted storage services, such as plug-n-play programmable decentralized data-sharing capabilities;
  • Data is referenced openly and multiple Storage Providers back up data in a decentralized manner for added reliability.

BNB Greenfield Whitepaper link: GitHub - bnb-chain/greenfield-whitepaper: Whitepaper for Greenfield, the decentralized data economy

Related Source:

Outcome:

  • Differences between BNB Greenfield and other data storage solutions discussed by attendees;
  • BNB Greenfield uses BNB token as a utility token and allows deposit of BNB for use on the platform;
  • Data storage management on BNB Greenfield based on contracts and is different from other solutions;
  • BNB Greenfield provides full access control and data ownership from the start;
  • EVM compatibility with the BSC network, and developers can build Dapps on the platform;
  • Fully integrated with BSC network, users can use the same wallet;
  • User-friendly data access with native APIs and developer-friendly with SDKs and RESTful APIs;
  • Importance of having native APIs and being developer-friendly with SDKs highlighted;
  • BNB Greenfield is still in early stages, BNB-Chain Core Dev team working to bring more decentralized community projects and developers;
  • Focus on shaping the future of the decentralized storage ecosystem.

Next Steps

  • BEP-159 review, BNB Chain Core Dev team will work on providing more meaningful data to be able to understand the impact of BEP-159;
  • BEP-153, push a proposal to modify transferGas from 2300 to 5000;
  • BNB-Chain Core Dev team working to bring more decentralized community projects and developers
  • BNB Greenfield, create multiple working groups to discuss around BNB Greenfield Validators & Storage Provider;
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