diff --git a/_updates/2023-12-20-update-124.md b/_updates/2023-12-20-update-124.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..199d68a --- /dev/null +++ b/_updates/2023-12-20-update-124.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +layout: update +tag: Developer Update +date: 2023-12-20 +author: CjS77 +thumbnail: update-background.jpg +title: What's up? Docs! +class: subpage +--- + +The Tari core developers have been fighting the good fight on two fronts: wrapping up changes to the Minotari +codebase based on the audit feedback (finished!), and driving towards a Tari network testnet release candidate (soon?). + +As usual, the major casualty of an extreme code offensive has been documentation. Today we're happy to announce that +we're setting this straight-- well, straighter, by releasing several new RFC documents that describe the Tari Digital +Assets Network. + +Firstly, [RFC-303](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0303_DanOverview.html) has been completely rewritten and updated. It +describes the DAN architecture and how it fits into the Tari ecosystem. + +Then, [RFC-350](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0350_TariVM.html) describes the Tari Virtual Machine (TVM) and how it +executes Tari smart contracts. + +Then, we dive deeper into the Consensus layer of the DAN with a series of 5 documents, 4 of which are brand new: + +* [RFC-305](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0305_Consensus.html) presents the design philosophy and defines the roles of the + consensus engine. +* Many of you will never have heard of Cerberus, yet it sits at the very core of the Tari network. + [RFC-330](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0330_Cerberus.html) attempts to explain the fairly complex algorithm + behind this very novel consensus algorithm in plain English. +* A core part of what makes Tari unique is the dual-layer design to leverage the security and liveness guarantees of + a proof-of-work blockchain, with the scalability and throughput of the Cerberus BFT consensus algorithm. Getting + these two layers to play nice so that we can get the best of both worlds is a tricky challenge. + [RFC-325](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0325_DanTimeManagement.html) covers a proposal for epoch management, our + favoured idea for aligning the two layers. +* State management is a huge challenge in massively scalable smart contract platforms. + [RFC-331](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0331_Indexers.html) describes Tari's indexing strategy for retrieving contract + state from shards reliably and quickly. + +We also have some RFC proposals that have entered the implementation phase: + +* [RFC-141](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0141_Sparse_Merkle_Trees.html) describes Sparse Merkle Trees as a replacement + for the somewhat hacky Mutable Merkle Mountain range data structure used to track the UTXO set on the base layer. + SMTs have already been implemented and are currently being tested in nextnet. +* This is a biggy. [RFC-385](https://rfc.tari.com/RFC-0385_StableCoins.html) outlines a design for a + suite of privacy-enabled stablecoins on Tari. Self-sovereign money is one thing, but self-sovereign _private_ + money takes us to the next level. This is still a very early design, but the core devs are already working on an + early implementation of the design to be ready for the DAN testnet release next year. + +## tl;dr + +Don't feel like wading through over 20,000 words of new documentation? No worries, mate. + +We've printed it all out on environmentally friendly, 100% recycled virtual paper and dumped it in +[Tari Bot's](https://rfc.tari.com) lap, told it to memorise it all, cancelled its Christmas leave and made +it work 24-hour shifts answering all the questions the community has about the DAN. You're very welcome, and _boas +festas_! + + + +