Today we are going to start a new process that involves a public test net phase of all new releases. For this first test, this phase will last for 48 hours (barring any significant bugs) and will allow everyone to help be involved in testing the new client releases. Future releases may involve more in depth testing periods (i.e. 0.1.9 will require more extensive testing due to the number of changes).

Testing Guidelines

During this test phase we will use an official bug reporting process. Please file all bug reports through the following form:

http://bit.ly/126pEbq

When filling out your bug report, please include as much information as possible in order to allow our QA team to best reproduce the bug. Please also include descriptive summaries like the following:

• UI Bug - Mispelling
• Interface Bug - XYZ Button Doesn't Work
• Network Error - Transaction Not Processing

These summaries will help our QA Team determine which bugs are most important and prioritize critical issues. Also ensure that your email address and XCR address are correct when you submit the form. These will be used to ask additional questions if we are having trouble re-producing the bug and also to issue any bounties.

Bug Bounty Program

We will also be starting an official Bug Bounty Program with the commencemnt of this testnet phase. The rewards will be tiered based on the severity of the bug reported as judged by our QA team. All rewards will be paid in XCR. If a bug you reported was reproduced and fixed by our team, we will respond to your bug report email to request your XCR address.

Rewards will be as follows:

• UI / Non-Detrimental Bugs - 1,000 XCR
• Intermediate / Detrimental to Performance Bugs - 5,000 XCR
• Critical Bugs - 10,000 XCR

These are initial numbers and may be adjusted later down the road for future testing periods but will apply for the 48 hour testing phase for Ver. 0.1.8.

Test Net Release Notes (Ver. 0.1.8)

• Disabled companies in preparation for the DPOS solution
• Changed blockchain structure to include speed optimizations. We have increased performance but continue to work on this.
• Improved node file loading time (blockchain.db)
• Fixed asynchronous bugs in code
• Improved session logging by moving old logs to logs.old file after node restart
• Prepared loading labels in UI for long queries
• Fixed bug with paste amount in send crypti window

Known Bugs:

• Creating a new company is disabled in the current build. This feature will be re-enabled when our long term DPOS build is completed.
• Able to type in invalid amounts in XCR amount field. This is being worked for the next release.

Download

Current TestNet Download (Ver. 0.1.8):
http://storage.googleapis.com/downloads.crypti.me/crypti-node/testing/testnet-0.1.8.zip

Current Test Net Block Chain Download:
http://storage.googleapis.com/downloads.crypti.me/blockchains/testnet.blockchain.db.zip

What's Up Next?

Boris and the new developer are already hard at work on a complete re-write of a large majority of the code to include many optimizations for loading times, RAM usage, and other speed related functions of the code. Ver 0.1.8 is an interim release on the way to full optimization in what we are calling our "Stable" release (0.1.9). Once the stable version is launched and in the hands of users, we will move on to DPOS & Custom Block Chains.

Here is a sneak peek at what is down the pipeline for Ver 0.1.9:

• We reduced memory. We don't store data in memory cache, all is instead stored in the database
• We totally changed loading, and now can load ~5k blocks per second
• All code was essentially re-written from scratch to ensure all old and no longer necessary code was removed.
• The API is being re-written to be easier and more friendly to users and developers.
• The P2P functionality is currently being re-written to again provide better, more streamlined code and functionality.

These are just some of the changes present in our Stable release candidate 0.1.9. Once the re-write of the API, P2P, and forging is complete and all optimizations are in place, we will put 0.1.9 into testing. Our goal is to get on a more regular release schedule and we hope to have 0.1.9 out much more quickly than previous releases. It will be weeks, not months between releases.

That is all of the updates for now. Please help us test 0.1.8 and let us know what you think! Bug reports are great but we like feedback and suggestions on improvements to the UI as well!