Node 8.0.0 SPOs Unite!

Hi everyone, this is Charles Hoskinson broadcasting live from warm, sunny Colorado. Always warm, always sunny—sometimes Colorado! I have a major and very exciting event to share with you all. We have the release of Cardano Node 8.0.

0. This is a significant release that adds initial experimental support for the Conway Ledger era, along with some additional CLI commands, bug fixes, and network configuration options. SPOs are recommended to deploy this version on all nodes. This version of the Cardano node includes a lot of interesting features, but there is a call to action here regarding a governance action for SPO polls. The Cardano Foundation actually wrote this code, and they did some great work with it, which we got included in the code for Node 8.

0.0. Essentially, it’s a CLI command that allows a governance poll to be conducted. So, all SPOs, I highly encourage you to download this, play around with it, launch your own little network, and experiment with the CLI. This is a huge rollout; over eight months of work went into Cardano Node 8.

0.0 for a variety of reasons. Things were kind of living on different branches, but they eventually got all brought in after we completed the SEC P256 K1 hard fork. This marks the beginning of the Conway Ledger era, which means that when you look at SIP 1694, it’s going to be added into this family of nodes, and then we can test it in pre-production. There will be some form of a governance network for rapid iteration and progress, and we’re going to get into a very fast release cadence with Cardano Node 8.

0. Unlike prior releases, which came in frequently and were a giant set of affairs, we want to establish a cadence of getting updates out as quickly as possible onto test nets. This is the foundation upon which the Conway era can be pushed through, and this is where the representatives will get registered. This is also where the Constitutional Committee and all that other stuff will happen. It doesn’t mean it goes into Cardano proper, because for that to happen, a hard fork has to occur, and you all have to vote on that.

However, what this does mean is that for anyone interested in governance, this is the node that will move in that particular direction. It’s also the foundation upon which developer tooling and governance tooling can be constructed. The very first governance action was a joint venture with the Cardano Foundation taking the lead, and they implemented this feature. So, if you’re an SPO, play around with this node and give it some tests. There’s obviously a lot more work to do on peer-to-peer improvements and quality enhancements.

There’s a whole family of non-governance features that are under heavy development right now in Cardano Node. In terms of Cardano Node 8.0, this is a major step forward. There are a few known issues, and if you take a look at the list, these are some of the known issues that will be fixed in future versions of the node. There’s going to be a fast release cycle that works its way through.

I figured I’d make a quick video for you guys to let that this node exists; it was released six hours ago. There’s our good friend Sam, and an enormous amount of work went into it. So, do enjoy it, play with it, and I’d love to see what you guys do with the CLI polling. Hopefully, we can see a lot of cool new governance features added soon, so that many people can discuss what they and dislike about SIP 1694. Cheers!