Overview
The Iron Age Testnet will be the 3rd of Quai’s 5 planned Testnets. Incentivization for the Iron Age Testnet will begin on September 19th, 2023.
Many new developments have been completed and implemented since the Bronze Age Testnet in March 2022, including a new consensus engine (PoEM), an EVM on each chain, and cross-chain transactions. The primary purpose of this Testnet from the Dominant Strategies team’s perspective is to test the performance of the new PoEM consensus mechanism in real-world, decentralized conditions. This article details the rewards structure for both mining and development incentives during the Iron Age Testnet.
12 million Mainnet Quai tokens have been allocated as rewards for Iron Age Testnet participation, with 8 million Quai dedicated to miners, and 4 million Quai dedicated to developers.
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Testnet Tooling
- Pelagus Wallet – The Iron Age Testnet will be released alongside the Pelagus Wallet, a Quai-native fork of the open-source TaHo Ethereum wallet.
- Testnet Faucet – The Quai Iron Age Testnet Faucet will allow users to receive small amounts of Iron Age Testnet Quai to explore the network at no cost. The Faucet is throttled by both wallet address and IP.
- Block Explorer – The Iron Age Testnet Block Explorer allows all network participants to view the public ledgers of all Quai chains.
- Quais – Quais is Quai’s version of Ethers, allowing developers to create applications that interact with Quai blockchains in a familiar environment.
- CLI Hardware Tool – A command-line-interface has been developed that allows node operators/miners to interact with their instance in a simple, human-readable way.
- Node Stats Page – The Iron Age Testnet will maintain a private node stats page for users to view their node’s uptime, peering, and more. In order to avoid the node stats page being overloaded with requests, the node stats page will be available by invite only. Nodes with notable hashrate or queries will be whitelisted to the node stats page at the discretion of the Dominant Strategies team.
- Node Setup Tutorial — Learn how to set up your Quai Node on YouTube!
- Stratum Proxy Setup Tutorial — Learn how to set up a Stratum Proxy for your Quai Node on YouTube!
- Ecosystem Page – An ecosystem page will be released during the Iron Age Testnet to make it easy for users to find dapps to interact with, and to help dapps attract users. Projects can be submitted to the ecosystem page, and users are able to vote/react to them.
Tutorials
Members of the Dominant Strategies will be working in the coming weeks to produce tutorials covering how to run a node, run a miner, deploy on Quai, and more. Tutorials will be posted to the Quai Network YouTube Page and the Quai Documentation as they are completed.
Incentives
The Iron Age Testnet is incentivized. By completing certain on-chain activities, users will be eligible to be rewarded with Mainnet Quai tokens after completing a KYC as outlined in the disclaimer. Incentives are offered to both miners and builders.
Mining
Mining ensures network security through the Proof-of-Entropy-Minima consensus mechanism. 8 million Mainnet Quai tokens will be distributed to individuals who mine valid blocks on canonical Quai Network chains throughout the Iron Age Testnet.
The Mainnet rewards earned by each address will be determined by calculating what proportion of total Testnet blocks were mined by the address. For example, if a Zone 1 address mined 10 blocks and a total of 1,000 blocks were mined for the duration of the Iron Age Testnet in Zone 1, that address would receive 1% of mining rewards for Zone 1, or 8,888.889 Quai. All rewards will be tracked, calculated, and distributed via on-chain data – be sure to hold onto the private keys for the address(es) you use to mine!
No individual mining address will be able to receive more than 5% of the mining rewards for a single slice. Each individual will be able to KYC/claim a maximum of one mining address per chain on Mainnet.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR TESTNET MINERS: The Iron Age Testnet will support the creation of mining pools; however, our team at Dominant Strategies will not be maintaining or recommending any mining pools for this Testnet. Due to the way mining rewards are tracked and calculated, allocating your hashpower to a pool that you don’t control will lead to your mining rewards being earned by the pool operator.
Building
Developers can spur network activity by creating applications and contracts on the Quai Testnet. 4 million Mainnet Quai tokens will be distributed to individuals/teams that deploy decentralized applications and projects during the Iron Age Testnet. Details about how these tokens will be distributed will be released during the Iron Age Testnet.
Final decisions surrounding project placement on the ecosystem page and the distribution of developer rewards are left to the sole discretion of the Dominant Strategies team.
Users
User incentives for the Iron Age Testnet will be released after the initial launch of miner and developer incentives. The Iron Age Testnet will include a variety of incentives for users, which will be conducted and tracked through the Quai Network Galxe Space.
Further Developments
Similar to the Stone and Bronze Age Testnets, the Iron Age Testnet will be a period of ongoing testing and development for Quai Network. As such, bugs and errors are to be expected and will be addressed as efficiently as possible.
Some top priorities for the Iron Age Testnet are testing syncing/peering, simulating reorgs, testing cross-chain transactions, and exploring the capabilities of Quai’s multi-chain EVM environment. To stay up to date on development and engage with dapps deployed during the Iron Age Testnet, be sure to join the Quai Discord.
We’d like to thank the Quai community for their patience during the previous development cycle, and we can’t wait to see Quai Network up and running again.
Requirements, Disclaimers, and KYC
Testnet Quai tokens have no real-world value, and exist as a temporary method of testing the network. All Testnet Quai balances are wiped at the conclusion of every Testnet.
As a condition precedent to receiving rewards for participating in the Quai Network Iron Age Testnet Reward Program, you must (i) satisfactorily complete a know your customer and anti-money laundering review in accordance with Dominant Strategies Inc.’s compliance standards and (ii) complete and sign an Unrestricted Token Award Agreement issued to you under the Dominant Strategies Inc. 2022 Token Incentive Plan (a copy of which will be included at the end of your Unrestricted Token Award Agreement for your review).
In addition, rewards may be subject to vesting conditions by the Dominant Strategies Inc. 2022 Token Incentive Plan.
Join us to build a better blockchain.
Quai Network is an open-source Proof-of-Entropy-Minima blockchain network utilizing the capabilities of merged mining to increase throughput and security. Users of Quai Network will enjoy fast transaction times without compromising decentralization and security. Miners will have competitive mining opportunities across the many blockchains within the network.
Capable of thousands of transactions per second, the Quai Network is a new solution to scalability that is soon to be ready for mainnet release.
Terms & Conditions / Disclaimer
The entirety of the Quai Genesis grants program, including the content of this article, is subject to the Terms and Conditions outlined here.
Opinions, ideas, and statements shared in this update are delivered with numerous assumptions, risks, and uncertainties which are subject to change over time. There are multiple risk factors, including those related to blockchain, cryptographic systems, and technologies generally, as well Quai’s business, operations and results of operations, that could cause actual results or developments anticipated not to be realized or, even if substantially realized, to fail to achieve any or all of the benefits that could be expected therefrom. We reserve the right to unilaterally, completely, or partially change plans, expectations, and intentions stated herein at any time and for any reason, in our sole and absolute discretion, and we undertake no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. ACCORDINGLY, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT RELY ON, AND DO NOT MAKE ANY FINANCIAL DECISION OR INVESTMENT BASED ON, THE STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS UPDATE OR ANY OF OUR UPDATES/ARTICLES — INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY SELLING OR TRADING OF QUAI TOKENS, ETHER, OR ANY OTHER CRYPTOGRAPHIC OR BLOCKCHAIN TOKEN, OR THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY.
The views, opinions, and statements made in this update are those of an individual author and not those of any institution, University, or legal entity operating within the jurisdiction of The United States or beyond. There is no association between these views, opinions, and statements and any for-profit or non-profit entity, particularly with Universities, Foundations, and other Agencies located within the United States. Any perception of such an association is purely accidental, and will be rectified immediately if brought to our attention by the reader.