Dear VAIOTeers,
Considering the advanced development of VAIOT’s Intelligent Contracts, VAIBC and blockchain functionalities, which require a full-scope public testing campaign as well as the recent hack attack on VAIOT, we have decided to postpone the COSMOS-based VAIOT Mainnet and instead launch the functional Public Testnet introducing usable Intelligent Contracts and token utility functionalities. The nature, criticality, and technical characteristics of the blockchain functionalities introduced as part of VAIOT’s Intelligent Contracts require us to battle-test those features on Testnet first ahead of moving them into the production environment of VAIOT Mainnet. It’s vital that a proper number of testers goes through the full scope of future Mainnet functionalities which will ensure that VAIOT dev team will have enough test data to confirm, and if necessary amend, the critical functions within our Intelligent Contracts technology stack. After the recent hack, based on our updated Security Strategy, we emphasize how important it is that all features, especially those holding any funds in escrow contracts, are battle-tested for at least a couple of months and proven by a significant number of testers and future users according to top industry standards. After suffering from the pushback triggered by the hack attack, VAIOT is prioritizing security and quality over hasty implementations. We’ve learned the lesson the hard way — it’s better to move slower but have a high-degree of certainty that our solutions are secure and fully functional.
Since the project’s inception, the VAIOT-team has been working on a functional testnet with improvements to performance, provisioning, and scaling. We will now start to deliver blockchain features like Intelligent Contracts tech stack to our functional Public Testnet as well as continue to work on interoperability with other Cosmos Hub participants, validators, and, of course, our community.
We are excited to announce that VAIOT’s Public Testnet will be officially launching 8th of April with an initial set of functionalities. Testnet-2 or the Public Testnet features the second stable release of the VAIOT chain and includes a governance module, infrastructure deployment tool, frontend application, a controversial AI layer, and fully functional VAIOT AI solutions. The public testnet launch comes after the extensive private testing period, which kicked off on 08–12–2021 at 11:42:16 CET, during which testers raised many bugs, reports, and suggestions.
Current Testnet Functionalities
This Public Testnet aims to trail run all functionalities envisioned for the VAIOT Cosmos-based chain. The current functionalities of the testnet are, firstly, a fully operational block explorer with a staking option. The block explorer with native staking integration utilizing the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism ensures further security for the network. In VAIOT’s Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, the more assets are staked, the higher the security and thus the future of the network will be.
Shortly, VAIOT will be onboarding different validators from within its community. Active testers and pre-staking pool $VAI holders will be rewarded for their dedication. Thus, will be highly involved by the team in the further development of the VAIOT validator program, including onboarding top holders and top testers in the validator scheme.
Testing the staking functionality of the testnet will be possible via adding your VAIOT wallet address (with a new VAIOT-specific wallet that was created); TEST $VAI will be available to be claimed for this purpose through a dedicated portal. The staking portal on the VAIOT block explorer will be the gateway to delegating, getting rewards for staking, etc. The fully functional VAIOT Cosmos-based wallet for the public testnet will be accessible on the same date as the public testnet.
Additional Public Testnet Functionalities
As previously discussed, the Public Testnet will introduce VAIOT’s AI Solutions to the VAIOT chain. Easy Contracts v1 will be connected to the VAIOT Public Testnet. Meaning that both parties of an agreement available in v1 of Easy Contract will have the opportunity to sign the Intelligent Contract using their wallets. The contract will be created on the VAIOT testnet.
Users will be able to pay for the contracts and the services agreed between the parties using TEST $VAI on the Public Testnet. Furthermore, VAIOT’s Easy Contracts v1 will offer an escrow contract functionality, which will hold the funds that are subject to the agreement until the execution of the service is confirmed , and the funds are paid out to the Service Provider. In addition to that, Easy Contracts v1 will introduce users to the VAI Payback mechanism for each contract service purchase, which is set to be an important part of VAI token economy. Easy Contracts will not just be compatible with the Cosmos Chain but also with the Ethereum-based wallets such as MetaMask. A full-detail article discussing the technical aspects of the Easy Contracts will be released shortly.
All the functionalities as mentioned above will be integrated with the testnet in an iterative model. The first iterations of easy contracts functionalities will be available in June, and additional functionalities will be delivered on an ongoing basis in line with the development Sprints and internal testing cycles.
VAIOT Mainnet
VAIOT will postpone the release of the Cosmos-based Mainnet to Q1, 2023, to fully ensure its Public Testnet completes its functions. The amount of time required to properly test some critical functionalities such as escrows holding the funds being subject to the agreement, VAI payback, etc., is estimated at 9–12 months. The functionalities cannot be added to Mainnet without being battle-tested on the Public Testnet first, as the development requires many testers to interact with the solutions.
Additionally, the hack attack has given the development of Mainnet a lot of inconvenience due to having to re-launch the $VAI token, getting funds retrieved from malicious parties, etc. As a result, VAIOT has realized those critical functionalities, especially those that directly include holding/sending/sharing/ any funds, both user-owned and company-owned, require additional testing before going into production.
As a result of the hack, we have completely rebuilt our Security Strategy and Product Development Strategy, thus needing extra time to ensure that the new safety nets and development strategies are accurately incorporated first in the Public Testnet and afterwards in Mainnet. The VAIOT team believes it is better to slow down development and add these extra levels of security than to be hasty after such an impact on the project. We’d like to thank all of our community members for their understanding and support.
