Dev Release-202

This update provides a comprehensive overview of the latest technical progress across the BlockDAG ecosystem, including improvements to the core blockchain, the explorer interface, and miner hardware integration. It aims to keep our developer community, miners, and token holders informed about recent changes, current challenges, and what's coming next.

• BEVM upgraded to support Go-Ethereum v1.14.11 for better compatibility and performance.
• Mining now operational through a new Stratum server connection between blockchain nodes and miners.
• Explorer now includes historical price analytics and new token analytics charts.
• Launched R&D on NFT module
• Achieved milestone progress on hardware integration for X1 and X10 miner kits.

As we gear up for a broader testnet phase and community mining participation, these upgrades improve overall network stability, prepare the system for higher transaction loads, and unlock new tools for users to analyze tokens, prices, and (soon) NFTs. Our goal remains to build a high-performance, community-driven, and hardware-inclusive decentralized ecosystem.

BEVM Upgrade:

• The BlockDAG Ethereum Virtual Machine (BEVM) has been upgraded to be compatible with Go-Ethereum v1.14.11, aligning our infrastructure with the latest standards from the Ethereum ecosystem.
• This improves compatibility with tooling, libraries, and performance enhancements upstreamed by the Go-Ethereum team.

Current Issue - Sidechain Depth:

• During heavy transactional loads (simulated across multiple nodes), we encountered an error: “Sidechain depth too large”.
• This typically occurs when the blockchain experiences deep branching due to parallel transaction processing.
• We are actively debugging this issue today and evaluating protocol-level fixes to ensure high throughput doesn’t compromise consensus stability.

WASM Transaction Sanity Check:

• Implemented a block sanity check specifically for WebAssembly (WASM)-based transactions.
• This adds a layer of validation before WASM transactions are committed to the chain, reducing the chance of malformed or malicious data impacting the chain's state.

Stratum Server for HardwareMining:

• Basic Stratum protocol implementation is now complete and fully integrated with the blockchain node and miner code.
• Blocks are now being successfully mined using this system a significant step in making mining accessible and efficient for X1 and X10 hardware kits.
• This is foundational to decentralized mining and helps prepare for broader testnet participation.

Upcoming: blake2s Hash Algorithm Integration:

• We're working to adapt the miner code to support the blake2s hashing algorithm, which is more lightweight and suitable for our target hardware.
• This will enhance efficiency, especially for lower-power devices like the X1 miner.

Our explorer continues to evolve with better visualization and tracking tools:

Token Analytics:

• A new analytics chart module is live, enabling users to view trends and distributions across tokens within the ecosystem.

Historical Price API:

• We’ve added an API endpoint to provide historical price data, which will power visual insights for token holders and market watchers.
• This lays the groundwork for better DApp integrations and trading tools.

NFT Module- Research & Discovery:

• We’ve started R&D for the NFT module, aimed at enabling on-chain NFT discovery directly from the explorer.
• The goal is to highlight top NFTs, by volume, rarity, or creator enhancing visibility for creators and collectors within the BlockDAG ecosystem.

Technical Workshop Summary:

• We hosted a deep-dive workshop with the hardware and software teams to iron out low-level integration challenges between our blockchain protocol and X1/X10 miner devices.
• Result: We’ve achieved a stable and positive flow where devices communicate effectively with the node and successfully mine blocks.

What's Next:

• Further stress testing under real-world loads will follow.
• We'll collect performance benchmarks and energy efficiency data to optimize for large-scale deployment.

• Mining is now operational through the Stratum server.
• Added sanity validation for WASM transactions to ensure data reliability and safety.

• Sidechain depth overflow during high-volume transaction testing is still unresolved.
• In progress: analyzing potential consensus tweaks or block propagation improvements.
• Blake2s hashing integration is ongoing and will be finalized soon.

• Continue debugging and patching the sidechain depth issue.
• Finalize Blake2s support for full compatibility with X1/X10 miners.
• Begin implementing front-end for NFT explorer section.
• Conduct miner benchmarking under real-world scenarios.
• Prepare for next public testnet phase with full miner participation.

We value your input and want to build this ecosystem with you.
If you encounter bugs, have suggestions, or want to get involved, please reach out:
[email protected]

This release is more than just a technical milestone it represents significant momentum toward delivering on our vision: a scalable, decentralized, and community-powered DAG-based blockchain designed for real-world utility.

Over the past sprint, we achieved foundational progress:

• Mining is live using our new Stratum protocol, bringing us closer to open miner participation.
• Our explorer is evolving into a comprehensive dashboard with token analytics, historical price data, and an upcoming NFT discovery engine.
• The core blockchain is now aligned with modern Ethereum standards (Geth v1.14.11) while simultaneously exploring unique DAG-based consensus enhancements.
• We’ve tackled difficult technical challenges such as node synchronization under high load and miner-hardware integration with clear and positive outcomes.

We are aware that challenges remain like the “sidechain depth too large” error but this is part of building something innovative and ambitious. Our team is committed to fixing these issues swiftly and transparently.

Looking forward, the focus will be on:

• Finalizing blake2s support to ensure efficient, secure mining across all hardware tiers.
• Expanding the NFT and token modules to support creators, developers, and data analysts.
• Strengthening testnet resilience to prepare for larger community involvement.
• Launching public documentation, onboarding guides, and improved developer SDKs to make building on BlockDAG seamless.

As a community, you are the foundation of BlockDAG. Your feedback, participation, and enthusiasm are what turn this from code into a movement. Whether you’re testing the explorer, running a node, or preparing your own miner every interaction helps improve the network.

We’re building the future of decentralized infrastructure together.

Thank you for being part of this journey.