Update 31st October, 2024

[maidsafe]

Well, we did it . We hit our target launch date and began the phased rollout that will take us all the way to TGE and the complete public launch, where the real fun begins.

Was it easy? Hell no. Tuesday really was squeaky bum time and it was 50/50 as to whether stubborn CI issues would scupper our plans for launch (to be clear, we would not have gone live at all had not all those issues finally turned green). But thanks to a heroic final push by the team we got it over the line. Special thanks to @chriso and @shu who pulled all-nighters in their respective time zones to chip off the final blockers, but really it was a magnificent team effort.

So what exactly is the “it” that the team has delivered? Well it’s an MVP network, an early phase launch, a starting point on which we will build the more advanced functionality in the coming weeks, allowing the community to become more involved and ultimately to take control of a network that preserves our data and where security and privacy are built in by design.

Some might quibble with the definition of launch. Fair enough. We hear you. But as we’ve repeated: launch would never, could never, be a big bang. The network needs to get on its feet, grow, integrate, and work its way into the fabric of the internet. There’s too much at stake and it’s too important to all of us to risk it all on the flick of a switch, a one-and-done moment.

More importantly though, the network is bigger than just the team. We have you folks in the community to think of, partners waiting to upload their data, shareholders to thank and users and collaborators among whom we must build trust and understanding. It was vital, therefore, to set a deadline and then stretch every sinew to meet it. We’ve been at this for 18 long years. No more drift and delay.

Milestone passed, over the next few weeks we’ll be paying much more attention to the UI/UX, with the stable APIs that developers need to start building. We will also be keeping a close eye on resource usage—CPU, memory and bandwidth—and putting in fixes to optimise those; most will be rolling updates, but be aware we have two checkpoints at which to make breaking changes should we need them. And most importantly at this stage, we’ll be monitoring and fitting out the tokenomics to make sure that functions properly as we build trust with exchanges and future users.

Thanks for sticking with us folks. Let’s take it to the other side.

General progress

The team are watching the metrics as well as fielding comments from the community, including the apparent inconsistent flow of attos, CPU and bandwidth and the launchpad. We’ve spotted a few inconsistencies and are monitoring those closely. Thanks to those of you who have provided logs, and, in the spirit of continuous improvement, keep the observations coming.

@rusty.spork has been fielding comments and questions on Discord. Mostly positive so far this week, but there have been a few questions around resources.

@bzee and @qi_ma are looking into periodic spikes in CPU usage, while @chriso is on uploaders and checking out occasional memory-use surges in some nodes.

We are also noting some discrepancies in measurements of network size, depending on the method used, as reported by @riddim and others. We are looking to see which is likely to be correct, and why there’s a difference.

Meanwhile, @anselme is digging into some PUT discrepancies where verification and resolution appear to be being mishandled for registers and scratchpad datatypes. Ermine worked with Anselme on what may be the same issue which has been causing discrepancies with creating vaults (our safe private storage metaphor).

Also on verification, @joshuef found more complexity in replication verification which was generating more messaging than necessary and implemented a more efficient solution.

Elsewhere, @mazzi continues to integrate metrics into the Launchpad coming from services wallets and nodes.

Exciting news on the GUI front: @mick.vandijke has worked up an exciting demo (for some sneak peeks that Bux dropped on launch day), as well as moving forward on CLI wallet integration.

Talking of UI and integration (not to mention perseverance and determination), @dirvine is steadily returning to the front line, adding a PR for Python bindings to the self_encryption crate.

Welcome back to the pixel-face David!

[Astroman]

dont think i have ever been first …

[Mightyfool]

Second?! Really? I’ll take it.

[scottefc86]

@maidsafe

@dirvine is steadily returning to the front line

Best news of the year well done everyone

[Southside]

Yes indeed, there is lots to celebrate but the news that David is getting stronger is the best of the lot.
So far this has gone a LOT better than some of us feared and that is due to the tenacity and dedication of ALL of the team with justified mentions for @chriso @Shu @joshuef.
They learned that dedication from the example of @dirvine and many who have worked alongside him over the years.
We still have a long way to go, despite the previous 18 years in many ways this is the first step in our own Long March to victory.
@dirvine is indeed a Great Helmsman just as Mao was.
Avanti!!! as Mao probably said (in Mandarin)

[Astroman]

Sorry I missed this. What do you mean “getting stronger”? I did wonder why he had been so quiet.

[Southside]

There are no details, details would be an invasion of Davids privacy, but suffice to say illness has taken him out of action for many months but thankfully seems to be on the long slow road to recovery now.

Just don’t be tempted to overdo it, David. No matter how bloody inconvenient the timing has been.

[Tom1]

We all love David. Please take care

[happybeing]

Agreed, I’d take David being ok over the network being a success. It’s great to hear that you are recovering David - however slowly - I’ve been through similar myself.

On “quibbling” over launch, the issue isn’t whether this is launch or not, but as to what launch means.

That was never made clear this whole year until launch had happened.

The community have I believe been expecting something very different as launch for years, and the concerns voiced in the run up this year, as milestone after milestone was missed while the date for launch remained fixed, surely made that clear to Autonomi. But they did not clarify. They let the community blow in the wind. I hope partners were treated better, but their shyness begs the question.

Even on the day of launch the reality wasn’t clarified until the release was almost out, overdue in fact and we were still asking, is that it? No stages? No PR blitz? No, Rusty replied, but Bux will publish a post. The expectations left floating without correction or clarity, until the last minute. Why? There was no need. No reason not to say that what was planned for Tuesday was a release and a short announcement, and a sparingly described roadmap to January. Unless to preserve the illusion of launch until launch could be ticked off and everyone moved along.

This surely has to change. I thought some disaster must have struck. A death perhaps, something more important than the ‘launch’ itself.

But no, just last minute hitches that at worst would have delayed the release by a few hours and left Autonomi missing yet another date on the plan, but only very very slightly.

The secret to not constantly being in this position is to not do this stuff at the last minute, and to be clear about what you are in fact going to do and not do.

And when you aren’t ready a week before, to push things back by a week and let everyone know what happened, what’s being done to rectify it, and what is now going to happen.

Deadlines are important, unrealistic deadlines cause stress and mistakes, and slow things down in the long run. Wait and see.

Unrealistic expectations cause disappointment and loss of confidence.

We’ve seen both amply demonstrated this year and no sign that will be different in the short time between now and January 31st.

I would prefer realism and clarity on both planning and the expectations created by it. It’s ok to be wrong - inevitable in this context - and almost always best to be honest about it as soon as possible.

Right now I don’t know the state of the APIs, and have little understanding of what is happening in the run up to TGE. Is it really just anonymous partners starting to upload? Understandable, but then please say so. Why tease an app without any more context? We are not children. We can take reality and deserve respect.

[Astroman]

Thanks. I really didnt know. I wish him a speedy recovery. Life is hard enough even without health issues.

[Michael_Hills]

@maidsafe

resource usage—CPU, memory and bandwidth—and putting in fixes to optimise those

Congratulations again to David the team and Bux for this historic milestone.

Glad to hear about the fixes. I’d like to run more than one node on a home network.

I also tried LP on my Linux machine, which crashed with a bug. I sent a crash log to the dev email.

Even with the low number of nodes, I’m still earning attos, which is a good sign of things to come. Cheers

[Nigel]

Glad you’re on the mend @dirvine. This whole community loves and respects you deeply. Can only hope that helps you on whatever recovery you’re experiencing.

The official beta launch is very exciting and will be an enjoyable ride to live launch.

If I may say so, I cannot wait to hear more about the Builders Program

and data partners. I’ve got my fingers crossed on both of those.

There are also some amazing community members, old and new, here that are working incredibly hard and I can’t wait for them to get the praises they deserve as well.

Round of applause for those out there working hard out in the open too @happybeing @Traktion @DeusNexus @riddim @safemedia @loziniak and anyone I may have missed.

Not to mention those combing through code for optimizations etc @neo or the devoted testers @Josh @Southside (I know I’m missing a ton here, sorry! We do know and appreciate you!)

[Secretariat415]

Thanks so much to the entire Autonomi team for all of your hard work!

Now that we have a launch, the job is going to get even tougher!

Of course we want David to get better! Best of luck with your health! We are all cheering for you!

[rusty.spork]

I was first once

[andreruigrok]

David, sending you all my best wishes for continued strength. You being the founder of all what has been build uptil now, it’s clear how resilient you are, and I hope each day brings you closer to feeling like your good old self again. Remember, you’re not alone in this—there’s this whole community here cheering you on and ready to support you. Wish you a speedy recovery!

[KafkaLee]

Thanks team, its over there! I can feel autonomi’s fire

[DavidMc0]

Great progress team!

I like the updated roadmap, and I’m particularly keen to see the first app release, the new white paper, and the results of the builders’ program.

Should be an interesting few months

[Crafford]

Congratulations David and Team - MAGNIFICENT ACHIEVEMENT !
YOU ARE ALL AWESOME !