Source
The Blurt blockchain halted circa 00:00 UTC on 7th July 2022 due to a chain logic issue transitioning from a single Blurt DAO proposal to multiple proposals. This wasn't immediately apparent, our regular C++ developer was having difficulty identifying the issue.
Fortunately, @baabeetaa, the original Blurt blockchain developer had recently collaborated with Notional on TMDB work (Tendermint DB) in the Cosmos ecosystem and was available to collaborate on patching Blurt.
The bug was found first and then a patch had to be created, tested, and deployed.
The hotfix was deployed and the first witness blocks started being produced on the 10th July 2022 at approx 6am UTC; by 11am all 17 required consensus witnesses and some backup witnesses were producing blocks on HF patch 7.2.
Finally, RPCs had synced by approx 14:00 frontends started to come online so posts started being created.
Total downtime equated to approx 3.5 days, announcements were made on the official Twitter and Discord accounts throughout the process and a notice was placed on the main blurt.blog header with links to socials for further updates, in addition, all exchanges were notified at the time of the outage and once services were restored.
Key people involved in the Blurt recovery:
@baabeetaa
@saboin
@megadrive
@jacobgadikian
@tekraze
@rycharde
@shmoogleosukami
and finally to all the witnesses that applied the patch and updated their nodes in a smooth manner.
50% of this post's rewards will go to @baabeetaa and a further 50% to @saboin as a small thanks, over and above their compensations, for the mammoth tasks they bulldozed through during this incident.
Community Champions during the outage:
@imransoudagar
@zahidsun
@chibuzorwisdom
@bestkizito
@offgridlife
@angelica7
Were any rewards lost?
There was concern that the pending rewards would be lost and not claimable, this however was not the case and users had reward claims waiting for them in the wallet.
While the chain was halted, no new tokens were minted, even though pending transactions, such as rewards from existing votes, were eventually processed once the chain was restarted.
So, during those 3 days, the rewards were being distributed from the reward pool without that pool being replenished. This is why the calculated vote yield now looks quite low, having dropped from about 26% APR to just below 21%.
This will all be adjusted as we move forward to 7 days after the chain halted - to about the 14th to the 17th July. There will then be 3 days without posts expiring and without votes being rewarded. This will give the reward pool 3 days in which to replenish to somewhere like last week. At the same time, with no claims, that number will decrease. As both the reward pool and recent claims operate on a 15-day average, it should take about that time to see clearly the effects of fresh activity from now on. - Blurt Economic Indicators - 11 July 2022
Is Blurt unique in experiencing a chain halt?
Not at all, this is becoming quite commonplace in the crypto industry, from Solana suffering several outages last year, to Osmosis, Juno, and Evmos which are all top 100 chains having suffered outages of a least a week, to multiple weeks in the case of EVMOS.
Steem had also suffered historical outages, one of which made it into the media at the time.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/steemit-is-now-fully-operational-again-after-chain-halted-due-to-bug
While it is never ideal to have a chain outage, Blurt is not unique in this experience, compared to even big-budget blockchains.
Proposal system observation
Post application of the hotfix, it has been observed that the @blurt.dao has begun funding proposals. It is however trickling at a slow rate of around 7 Blurt per hour to the top most voted proposal, this is due to the inherited limitation of 1% of the proposal pool balance being paid out per day, once the balance fills up to around 330K BLURT after one month, the daily payout will max at 3300 BLURT. We can consider changing the rate to 10% in the future HF if desired. If submitting, for example, a 12-month proposal within the next 30 days, it may pay to make it a 13-month proposal to cover the first month that may only pay a small amount.
Where to from here?
Please refer to our interim roadmap:
https://blurt.blog/blurt/@blurtofficial/blurt-second-anniversary
In closing
Thanks to our users for their patience, also a reminder of our social links below - they are NOT our primary means of communication under normal operations, but if the chain is down or frontends unavailable then they do become important.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlurtOfficial
(doesn't require a login)
Discord: https://discord.blurt.world
We understand Web3 is more convenient, however, Twitter and Discord are widely used in crypto and NFT communities, including the Cosmos multi-chain ecosystem that uses these as their main means of community interaction. We only use these mediums as communication tools when the main Blog is down for short periods so please be understanding of that.
Awesome. It would be great to also add D.Tube to the list of places for Communication….
A Blurt Official Dtube Channel. People could continue to blog and earn Dtube coins. (DTC) from all their comments.
Dtube: https://d.tube/c/offgridlife88
Thanks for the announcement, next step upgrade my server with the HF 0.8.0 when it will be available hahaha. There is already a window time defined? Like Q3 2022?
At this point, does the Blurt team sees the future of the chain on graphene, or thinking to migrate to another type? From my point of view, graphene is still a good way.
Aiming for deployment of HF 0.8.0 in August, 1/3 issues already complete. We will get past this next HF, get consensus improved and then evaluate other chain options, expanding further in EVM chains is also an option.
Thanks for the reply 👍
at least use a truly decentralized alternative to discord - - like matrix.org / element.io
I agree. Or at the very least a self hosted chat.
Discord is very well known in the Crypto NFT space, almost all EVM communities use Discord, so does Cosmos. It makes sense to keep Discord as a familiar platform to onboard the masses. We have to be careful not to go to Niche at the detriment of onboarding, a backup Discord alternative is a good idea for emergencies and if Discord ever went down, I will discuss with the team.
the wallstreetbets discord group was banned at the height of their activity
all it would take is for some detractors to complain that the "blurt official discord" is "spreading dangerous disinformation and or hate-speech" and you could be banned with basically no avenue for appeal
it seems like an unnecessary risk
Knowing that we're back is like thinking of the phoenix, because Blurt always comes back and stronger. Thanks to everyone in the community, everyone is a champion, they were pending through all the channels and patiently waiting to publish. I have always shared this thought and it is that Blurt is more than a chain of blocks, it is a chain of human beings who are united by the same energy and it is to make Blurt a place where everyone wants to be.
Good vibes to all.😍
I find it hysterical when people have the "Walled Garden" mentality when it comes to Twitter Et Al. How on earth do they think new people will come to Blurt, etcetera, if they haven't heard about Blurt on other social media platforms first?
You can keep on evangelising and informing me on Twitter and FB. The Blockchain is not about exclusivity; it's inclusiveness, even if that means connecting to other services in one form or another.
What would we do without your wisdom mate? :D
This was a great effort put forth by all to get the system back up and running. Thank you for reiterating the other possible avenues of information when the traditional means are problematic.
All aboard the Blurt train, we're back on track.
Blurt has became such a big part of my life that when it was down I felt something big was missing from my life.
Thanks for the mention 😇
There are a lot of naysayers but Blurt has always came out of all the issues and problems. This is the time we need to work harder and take Blurt to a next level.
Thank you to all those who made it possible to bring blurt back to us.
I know there might be people who we do not know working behind the scene so special thanks to them as well.
Thank you everyone , i am so happy for blurt.
Thanks for the update
Its good to be back indeed
All thanks to those that made it possible
Thank you all who worked hard to make the platform active again. And must specially thank for discord moderators who kept us updated all the time. Good job and wish you all the best @blurtofficial !
Nice to be back and thanks for all the updates @blurtofficial :)
Thank you for the updates and the informations provided.
Am happy we're back!
I'm so glad you 're back
Good info, well explained, thanks. And thanks to those who must have worked awfully hard to rectify the problems.
Is this why my upvote value in blurt has decreased considerably? Will it rise back to my pre-halt level when the catch-up is completed July 17?
Thank you for the update and all the info you provided here. Thanks much!
Please create email and messenger for THIS Blockchain 🤬🥓
Great suggestion. Just added these 2 videos to the BLURT Blockchain Dojo: https://turntable.fm/quantum_party
In this weeks Moralis Project, you will dive into building your own Web3 Twitter clone. You will write a simple smart contract that gives you the option to save tweets onto the blockchain of your choice. Using React and the Web3UIkit you will build a frontend that has the feel of Twitter in a beautiful dark theme. Finally you will use Moralis to authenticate users, store their profile data and tweets, interact with your smart contract and retrieve a users NFTs so they can use them as their Profile picture. Happy Buidling.
Moralis Web3 #moralis #ivanontech 92K subscribers
Build Your First Dapp - Web3 Programming with Solidity, Hardhat, Moralis, React, Full-Stack Dapp
Moralis Web3 #moralis #ivanontech 92K subscribers
maybe someone could promote blurt as some sort of immutable twitter backup and setup some sort of app that posts to twitter and blurt simultaneously
Maybe Twitter should burn... And those using it should be visited by Locusts, in the night.
Too much of the Human Component has been coded by the devs... Leaving virtually no room for the philosopher.
Twitter is mind control botware, meant to keep muggs thinking that popularity and mainstream are goals to be achieved... Never once investigating their tacit consent with the AI that manifests with algorithms.
The stupidity of this chain... And those like it, is in the rush to release and declare how this code is used. For example, defining articles, authors, intentions, monies, bonds, contracts, et Tano...
When I came here for the first time in 2016, it was as if to decide sovereignty from having anyone else's permission to Declare my printed works. To this day... I still ain't looking for permission 🤬🥓
Just a suggestion... 🖖
4 hundred and 45 Pages 🥓
Good idea. I use IFTT.com (If This, Then That) for basic cross platform automatic Bot posts for free (I think first 6 or so are free) Cool service, worth checking out. https://ifttt.com/
One of these days... Everything will be Tokenized...
So pick your next target, And Go 4 it~!
Also, keep in touch with Blurtconnect-ng family on Telegram and Whatsapp
It's nice to be back! Thank you so much to all of the team who worked hard for it. CHeers!
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Felicitaciones, su publicación ha sido votada por @ dsc-r2cornell. Puedes usar el tag #R2cornell. También, nos puedes encontrar en Discord
?????
?????
I hear only lame excuses for total miss-management and fear of loosing control , and for all i know ,.. this outage was on purpose created to have the chain changed in a way to keep positions of imaginary power by a group of maintenance code techies with a god complex .
I now wonder why a certain witness is having problems getting his node running again ? ,..
https://blurt.blog/polish/@fervi/witness-blog-9-my-future-as-a-witness
So go ahead ,.. hate me some more for having questions , mute me , block my IP , fight my viewpoints with dishonest hiding behind woman's skirt's some more . It does not harm me or offend me a bit , your only destroying yourself , and it's just a sad site to watch .
While i wonder off in my self owned existence , looking for a better network to post and comment in . One without a dictator core , one way more focused on being FREE !
Peace to all !
@Fervi is knowledgeable enough to know that no one is trying to stop him from updating his witness server else he would have mentioned it in his post.
He can seek help from other witnesses and try to update it to the latest HF.
I hope @fervi can fix his problems. If anything of what you say is true, it will be shown in the new code patch. They wouldn't be able hide something like that when its open source. I am more inclined its just a technical problem where exactly I have no clue. Are there any other witnesses having this same issue as fervi?
My hunch, and probably very incorrect in saying so, is that it has to do with "Issue 119 - Deleverage Witness Voting".
He may not have the required vote strength to pull that sync through. If its even that.
Smaller accounts would be better to vote for one witness or gather in strength and vote for proxy accounts. I too will be adjusting my voted witnesses. Figuring out how to do this still. Will most likely remove my vote from all those that are being pushed to the top by the foundations accounts that are in the top 20.
///
To answer my question above, fervi is not the only one stuck on 7.0 here are some screenshots of a few witnesses. There are more in the lower side of the list.
As I said there are more than just fervi. So i doubt its some conspiracy plan to single out fervi despite what happened before the SF-7.2 started.
///
Message to small accounts:
In regards to issue 119, and also if you are not sure who to vote for or why, Consider voting for proxies you trust instead to collect your strength for you.
In my opinion, one important thing that developers need to work on is that the docker image is kept up to date. I don't know if it's been updated yet, but those who used docker were screwed.
I myself had to compile a binary on the fly.
@yayogerardo:
" My hunch, and probably very incorrect in saying so, is that it has to do with "Issue 119 - Deleverage Witness Voting".
He may not have the required vote strength to pull that sync through. If its even that."
@Fervi is on the 28th position and there is nothing as " required vote strength " all Witnesses should be able to update.
It is some error and Fervi know that errors and bugs are a common thing in this field.
Thanks for clarification!
Were you a member of Blurt Official Discord server before? Because to ban your account or your ip (i don't know if an IP can be banned on discord) you would have to be a member of the server first.
Were you a member?
So discord is a members only channel ?
Then why claim it to be the point to go for info when the Blurt chain is down ?
( and yes IP's can be banned on a public invite in discord , not claiming that this was the case , i just wondered why it didn't work )
As a user on Blurt , i should have a way to get info on what's going on without being a member on some other social platform ,.. there should be public spaces where info and updates are posted when Blurt goes offline . Like a simple read only web page would be enough .
No not a member , and i should not have to be , to get info on my assets being hold somewhere else .
Or do i now ?
Information was shared on the blurt.blog front page.
And it was you who were complaining about not been able to join the discord server. We do not know your ip and if you have never been a member then there is no way for the Blurt Discord server Admins to even know your ip address or to block you.
The Discord is not needed. Twitter is not needed. Blurt doesn't ask for any details when signing up an account.
Hooray!
:::Discord :::Whatsapp:::Twitter :::
I like this post.
This is splendid, may there be smooth running henceforth and no more disruption. Welcome BLURT Blockchain
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First of all I sincerely thank you for presenting such nice information to us not only that we can work again on this platform again it is very nice for me to share this information with us.
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It was excited news for me. I am good fan of blurt platform and want it will grow more.
Vriy good sr please vote me please help me please vote me