Monday Update #6 - Preparing for Testnet Phase 1

A few weeks ago we invited validator teams to apply to validate the Pylons incentivized testnet, and we have been very happy with the response. The first new validators are already online and validating pylons-testnet-3; one put up a new explorer for validators because the Big Dipper instance that the Pylons team operates is primarily designed to support the user flow. It's been about four months since we last added validators, so we're excited to have the set growing again. We are at 70 validators producing blocks right now, and we expect that will continue to grow.

We'll be starting incentive challenges very soon! We are making sure that the major features we still need to deploy are ready to go first, in particular, integrations with iOS App Store and Google Play.

Here is a preliminary breakdown of the Phase 1 rewards structure. These percentages are still subject to change but this will provide you with guidance as to what to expect.

The primary goal of phase 1 is usability. Points will be divided among technical/coding challenges, documentation challenges, and user challenges.

• Find and fix bugs - 50%
• Add features - 25%
• Write documentation - 15%
• User challenges (Art creation, NFT purchases, gameplay trophies) - 10%

The points will be weighted across each of the technical products within the Pylons system:

• The node code - 40% - Written in Go, built on Cosmos SDK, the core code for the Pylons blockchain creates new accounts, and accepts and executes the recipes that make up Pylons experiences. It also handles integrations with other chains via IBC and with authoritative payment and oracle systems via a system of transaction authorization via receipt submission. Read more about recipes in the Pylons whitepaper.
• The mobile SDK - 20% - Written in Dart, the SDK allows mobile apps to interact with the Pylons chain without needing to do any account management or transaction signing themselves. The SDK provides access to identity, wallet contents, and responses to submitted transactions all directly on the user's mobile device
• The recipe creation tool (not yet public) - 15% - Written in Go and using starport, this tool allows creators to write the experience flows that are often called smart contracts.
• The consumer block explorer website - 15% - Currently available at http://wallet.pylons.tech, the explorer provides landing pages for users who follow Pylons links without having the Pylons app installed, provides high level overviews of what is happening on the chain (new art!) and provides the backend for social card creation when items are shared.
• The static website (not yet public) - 10% - A very stylish way to show what Pylons is that will soon replace the pylons.tech site design.

The easiest way to get started is to look at our demo apps, Easel and LOUD (not yet public), and play around with the SDK. You will probably have lots of ideas, and lots of ways to improve the documentation. We want to fix all our simple bugs and get everyone familiar with the system before we start phase 2, which will be scalability and spam mitigation (this is when you'll get rewards for knocking the chain over.)

Have a great week everyone!