Certification of Cardano stake distribution​

With the release of the new distribution 2437, we have started to roll out the certification of the Cardano stake distribution in the Mithril networks.

The Mithril network now provides certified Cardano stake distribution data without requiring a full Cardano node, a useful feature for applications such as bridges and layer 2 solutions. The key features include:

• Certification of the Cardano stake distribution of the ending epoch at each epoch transition
• New HTTP routes in the aggregator REST API to access this certified data
• Updates to the Mithril client library and CLI for retrieving and verifying Cardano stake distribution
• WASM client support for these functionalities
• Mithril Explorer now displays certified Cardano stake distribution.

The roll-out plan of the feature is the following:

• Distribution 2437:
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano stake distribution in the pre-release-preview network
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano stake distribution in the release-preprod network
• Distribution 2442:
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano stake distribution in the release-mainnet network.

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to contact the team on the Discord channel.

Breaking change introduced in the unstable features of the Mithril client WASM​

With the release of distribution 2437, we introduced a breaking change to the Mithril client WASM version 0.4.1. Unstable features are now activated using a configuration option instead of the .unstable property.

This change ensures a seamless transition when new unstable features become stable, eliminating breaking changes in developer code and enhancing the developer experience.

To activate unstable features, use the following code:

let client = new MithrilClient(aggregator_endpoint, genesis_verification_key, {
  // The following option activates the unstable features of the client.
  // Unstable features will trigger an error if this option is not set.
  unstable: true,
});

The previous client.unstable implementation is not supported anymore and must be replaced with client:

// Before
let mithril_stake_distributions_message =
  await client.unstable.compute_mithril_stake_distribution_message(
    last_stake_distribution,
  );

// After
let mithril_stake_distributions_message =
  await client.compute_mithril_stake_distribution_message(
    last_stake_distribution,
  );

The Mithril client WASM documentation is available here.

For questions or assistance, contact the team on the Discord channel.

Certification of Cardano transactions​

With the release of the new distribution 2430, we have started to roll-out the certification of the Cardano transactions in the Mithril networks.

The roll-out plan of the feature is the following:

• Distribution 2430 (before the Chang hardfork):
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano transactions in the pre-release-preview network.
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano transactions in the release-preprod network.
• Distribution 2437 (after the Chang hardfork):
  • Activation of the certification of Cardano transactions in the release-mainnet network.

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

The 'snapshot' command of the client CLI is removed​

With the release of the new distribution 2423, we have removed the snapshot command of the client CLI.

The snapshot command has been superseded by the cardano-db snapshot command.

The snapshot command has been deprecated with the release 2412, and this has been announced in this post.

In order to proceed to the upgrade, install the latest stable client CLI, and replace the removed command with the new command, e.g.:

mithril-client -vvv snapshot download latest --json

Should be replaced with

mithril-client -vvv cardano-db snapshot download latest --json

The documentation of the client CLI has been updated accordingly and can be found here.

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

The 'snapshot' command of the client CLI is deprecated​

With the release of the new distribution 2412, we have deprecated the snapshot command of the client CLI.

The snapshot command has been superseded by the cardano-db snapshot command. In order to give time to our users to use the new command, the now legacy snapshot command is still available, but it will be removed in a near future.

In order to proceed to the upgrade, install the latest stable client CLI, and replace the legacy command with the new command, e.g.:

mithril-client -vvv snapshot download latest --json

Should be replaced with

mithril-client -vvv cardano-db snapshot download latest --json

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

Mithril signer Prometheus endpoint is available​

With the release of the new distribution 2412, the Mithril signer can start an optional Prometheus endpoint to monitor basic metrics.

The endpoint is not activated by default, and needs to be setup by the SPOs who wish to use it. We have added a section in the Run a Mithril signer as an SPO guide describing the setup process.

Please note that the Mithril signer needs to be restarted after the configuration for the Prometheus endpoint.

Additionally, a Grafana template has been created to easily setup a dashboard for this Prometheus endpoint (ID 20776): https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/20776-mithril-signer/

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

Breaking change introduced in the output of Mithril client CLI​

With the release of the new distribution 2408, we have introduced a breaking change to the Mithril client CLI version 0.7.0: all logs are now written to stderr instead of stdout. This allows for cleaner command results that you can directly pipe into tools like jq.

Below, the stdout output of mithril-client -vvv snapshot download latest --json command before the update:

{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:55.576645+00:00", "step_num": 1, "total_steps": 5, "message": "Checking local disk info…"}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:55.576932+00:00", "step_num": 2, "total_steps": 5, "message": "Fetching the certificate and verifying the certificate chain…"}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:55.847199+00:00", "step_num": 3, "total_steps": 5, "message": "Downloading and unpacking the snapshot…"}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:56.023585+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 390, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 75797.765, "seconds_elapsed": 0.085}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:56.356820+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 9487846, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 32.674, "seconds_elapsed": 0.418}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:56.690001+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 21682030, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 18.209, "seconds_elapsed": 0.752}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:57.023923+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 33795639, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 14.218, "seconds_elapsed": 1.085}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:57.356999+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 45934938, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 12.204, "seconds_elapsed": 1.419}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:57.690031+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 58130472, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 10.894, "seconds_elapsed": 1.752}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:58.023964+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 70235494, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 9.922, "seconds_elapsed": 2.086}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:58.357817+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 82456663, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 9.134, "seconds_elapsed": 2.419}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:58.690945+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 94618128, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 8.463, "seconds_elapsed": 2.753}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:59.024599+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 106765259, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 7.868, "seconds_elapsed": 3.086}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:59.358139+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 118941687, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 7.325, "seconds_elapsed": 3.420}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:41:59.691176+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 131052374, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 6.824, "seconds_elapsed": 3.753}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:00.025189+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 143190076, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 6.351, "seconds_elapsed": 4.087}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:00.358735+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 155448192, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 5.896, "seconds_elapsed": 4.420}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:00.693529+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 167494850, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 5.466, "seconds_elapsed": 4.755}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:01.026885+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 179789000, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 5.043, "seconds_elapsed": 5.088}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:01.360483+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 187536751, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 4.778, "seconds_elapsed": 5.422}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:01.693978+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 199737576, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 4.389, "seconds_elapsed": 5.756}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:02.027113+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 211879712, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 4.006, "seconds_elapsed": 6.089}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:02.360139+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 224033698, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 3.626, "seconds_elapsed": 6.422}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:02.694407+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 236212871, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 3.249, "seconds_elapsed": 6.756}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:03.027431+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 248301091, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 2.878, "seconds_elapsed": 7.089}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:03.361001+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 260428703, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 2.509, "seconds_elapsed": 7.423}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:03.694430+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 272673595, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 2.139, "seconds_elapsed": 7.756}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:04.028557+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 284878102, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 1.774, "seconds_elapsed": 8.090}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:04.361686+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 296835374, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 1.418, "seconds_elapsed": 8.423}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:04.695532+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 309005759, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 1.058, "seconds_elapsed": 8.757}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:05.028705+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 321118015, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 0.702, "seconds_elapsed": 9.090}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:05.361956+00:00", "bytes_downloaded": 333264477, "bytes_total": 345223208, "seconds_left": 0.347, "seconds_elapsed": 9.424}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:05.711065+00:00", "step_num": 4, "total_steps": 5, "message": "Computing the snapshot message"}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:12.540752+00:00", "step_num": 5, "total_steps": 5, "message": "Verifying the snapshot signature…"}
{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:42:12.540913+00:00", "db_directory": "/mithril-client-0.5.17/db"}

Now the stdout output with Mithril client CLI version 0.7.0:

{"timestamp": "2024-02-27T10:43:06.357962+00:00", "db_directory": "/mithril-client-0.7.0/db"}

In addition, the --log-format-json option that enable JSON output is now written to stderr as well.

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

The release of the Mithril SanchoNet testing network​

The Mithril team has released the new testing-sanchonet Mithril network.

Mithril pioneer stake pool operators (SPOs) are welcome to run a Mithril signer on this network, with configuration parameters available here.

It's important to note that this network will serve as the primary platform for experimenting with unstable features of the Mithril networks in the future, such as the Cardano transactions set signatures or peer-to-peer (P2P) networking.

The unstable features are consistently developed and deployed to the SanchoNet testing network directly from the main branch of the Mithril repository. Therefore, Mithril nodes operating on this network must be either built from the main branch or use pre-built binaries from the unstable release. Failure to update Mithril nodes to the latest unstable version or encountering a bug during development could result in operational disruptions.

Note that the testing-sanchonet network undergoes continuous monitoring, and its availability status is reported on this status page.

For any inquiries or assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to the team on the Discord channel.

Mithril client npm is open to developers on npmjs.com​

The Mithril team has published the first release (v0.1.7) of its mithril-client-wasm npm package on npmjs.com.

The Mithril client npm package allows developers to use all the tooling necessary to manipulate Mithril certified types from a Mithril Aggregator directly in their (web) applications and to develop their own Mithril clients in any supported browser!

Here are some useful documentation that can be used by developers:

• Example of implementations: https://mithril.network/doc/manual/developer-docs/nodes/mithril-client-library-wasm
• Mithril client npm package repository: https://github.com/input-output-hk/mithril/tree/main/mithril-client-wasm
• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mithril-dev/mithril-client-wasm

Feel free to reach out to us on the Discord channel for questions and/or help.

The Mithril signer node service recommended configuration is updated​

PR: Fix signer service recommended configuration #1419

Issue: Fix signer node service setup #1404

The previous recommended configuration proposed a service restart frequency which was too high. When the service was restarted, and if the Cardano node was not ready yet, the service tried to restart too many times in a short period: thus the service just failed and the service had to be started manually after the Cardano node is up and ready. This lead to some SPOs skipping registrations for some epochs.

The duration before restarting the service is increased to 60s: RestartSec=60.

Below is the new recommended configuration:

[Unit]
Description=Mithril signer service
StartLimitIntervalSec=0

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=60
User=cardano
EnvironmentFile=/opt/mithril/mithril-signer.env
ExecStart=/opt/mithril/mithril-signer -vvv

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF'

We highly recommend to update your existing configuration file (/etc/systemd/system/mithril-signer.service) with the values specified in the guide

⚠️ Following this modification, the service needs to be restarted with the following command:

sudo systemctl restart mithril-signer

Feel free to reach out to us on the Discord channel for questions and/or help.