This week we previewed our draft white paper to the community to obtain some initial feedback. Thanks to all those who have already posted suggestions. You can watch the presentation by Jae here (thanks @neo) and we have posted a new form for your comments here.
The updated white paper will be released very soon. Until then, here are some key announcements from the presentation.
The maximum supply and distribution of tokens has changed, as summarised below. This is because of our newfound ability to use EVM tools and smart contracts, as well as a review of market conditions and the need for incentives.
Before (apologies for the poor quality screenshot):
After:
Jae also unveiled pricing curve cost curves, and described the underlying calculations, which support our assumption that the network will be economically sustainable while offering perpetual pay-once data and allowing node runners to earn using household devices to avoid centralisation.
These calculations show upload costs rising at first before falling exponentially (green line).
As a buffer against this early rise, we have introduced Emissions Incentives to compensate uploaders and node runners during the early stages as well as during times of low uploading rates.
Anyway, much more on that in Jae’s talk, including price discovery, token distribution, and the role of the Foundation. Do take a look, and remember it’s not set in stone. We’re striving to get this right and welcome all your comments.
As a reminder, the next version of the network is planned for 17th December. Prior to that, on the 10th, there will be a code freeze. This is a slightly confusing way of saying that on that date we will release a stable version (a release candidate) that will then be put through a thorough testing regime (staging comparison), and will only change if we discover problems during this process.
One issue that people building code from the main branch with their own scripts might encounter is that the default path for install and logging will have changed because of the safe → autonomi rebrand. If you are compiling your own code, please use the stable branch (see below).
Finally, node runners - don’t forget to check your position on the Week 5 leaderboard.
General progress
@bux met with a number of potential partners in Oxford last week to discuss how Autonomi could align with their needs for secure, permanent, private and available data. Bux also introduced the white paper presentation and discussions on Discord Stages on Tuesday.
As described above, Jae Kim unveiled the fruits of months of labour on the token economy, with a run through of the tokenomics section of the draft Autonomi white paper. Thanks for the feedback so far. We’ll be considering and incorporating your thoughts in the final version.
@chriso continues with the task of renaming binaries and libraries as ant- and autonomi-, while @shu has been working on the dev environment and incorporating the label changes into the monitoring stack. This is a much larger and more gnarly task than you might imagine - so let’s not change names again, eh? Anyway, here are the main changes.
safe_network→autonomi.- Any crate prefixed
sn_renamed toant- - Renamed binaries:
safenode→antnodesafenode-manager→antctlsafenodemand→antctldsafenode_rpc_client→antnode_rpc_client
- Renamed data directories for client and node to use
~/.local/share/autonomirather than~/.local/share/safe. - Replaced all code-based references to
safenode→antnode. - Replaced all documentation-based references similarly.
@rusty.spork is looking into an issue reported by some node runners who have been warned about their usage of VPSs on some cloud providers (mainly Hetzner), as well as one who had been warned by his ISP. It seems they are detecting unusual traffic and suspecting they may be part of a botnet, or similar.
@anselme has been working mostly on the simplified quoting API for smart contracts, which is now pretty much complete, and also implementing generic transactions.
@bzee has been looking at issues with Python bindings, tracking them down to some async methods in Rust. He also created a PR with a Rust API example. Benno is also working on the UX/docs for Rust developers looking to use our APIs.
Ermine worked on rebasing and fixing traceability for client API, worked on vault e2e testcases, and also an automation plan for all CLI testcases.
@dirvine has been reworking our network tests to improve coverage, error handling and safety.
@mick.vandijke has been digging into the SwarmDriver for clients. The code is quite complex here so we want to get something operational for launch that we can further refine afterwards.
@qi_ma raised a PR to add two more metrics (network density and network size) into the QuotingMetrics. He also succeeded in getting some amendments made to the libp2p codebase 
around range based searching (Sybil resistance), put out a PR to improve the way clients find the closest peers for storage, and one to address occasional test failures with the scratchpad data type.
And @roland continues to work on integrating the bootstrap cache into ant-networking, for better peer discovery.
no rewards to keep the runners warm for that week.