Avalanche Community Developer Call

Greetings to the uninitiated! How goes it? I'm Gabriel Cardona, the evangelist developer from Lava Labs. Thanks for jumping on this maiden voyage of the Avalanche developer community call. We aim to make this a regular occurrence, a digital rendezvous where we connect with our developer community, answer your queries, and bring you the freshest updates from the ingenious minds at Lava Labs.

Today, we're in the company of three of our finest engineers: Patrick, our technical director; Stephen Buttoff, the visionary behind Avalanche Cove and director of the platform team; and Aaron, the creator of Coryth and EVM subnet, the mastermind behind pre-compiles and a host of other marvels. So, without further ado, I'll pass the mic to Patrick to give us the lowdown on all the extraordinary happenings.

Avalanche Go: Where the Magic Unfolds

Well, thank you, folks. It's fantastic to have you here. We've been planning this call for quite some time, and Aaron has been running some beta tests over the past few weeks. Thanks to his efforts, we've reached this point with a portion of the community. Now, the next logical step is to open it up for everyone to join. So, this developer call will indeed delve into a few things: recapping recent releases and similar accomplishments. Yes, we've tweeted and blogged about them, but discussing recent happenings is a significant part of it.

Another aspect involves discussing what's on the horizon, the key projects we're currently developing and their targets. Lastly, it's all about questions. We're all ears for the community topics you want to discuss. You can fill out a Google form to send us your thoughts, and we'll invite people to ask or join the discussion about anything. We might even invite other groups to join us. The ultimate goal is to boost participation in open-source tools on Avalanche, ensuring that we're all aligned to work on the best things and stay in the loop about what's unfolding.

Today, we're joined by Stephen and Aaron, both of whom I've had the pleasure of commending for the fantastic work they do. It's great to have them here to share some of the incredible things they've been working on. So, let's kick it off with a quick, well, not just quick, but a summary of the latest release that we've been chasing in Avalanche. I'll share my screen with some of those details, and Stephen might want to start with Banff 10 and Avalanche Go 1.9.10.

Avalanche Go is truly gearing up for the 1.10x release. We're pushing for the next network upgrade. In the 1.9.10 release, there's a significant focus on improving the Merkle DB further. MerkleDB is an experimental database we use to supercharge the Hyper SDK, providing lightning-fast authenticated storage to support direct statesync. Most of the work for Banff 10 revolves around that.

But we're also tidying up some other things. We had the 1.9.9 release, which made significant improvements in how we manage plugins, so there are some fixes related to signal handling and such. And the last key thing we've been working on is adding more warp support. We're integrating additional BLS public keys into the Snow context so that the underlying VMS knows the area or environment in which they're being executed, enabling better message warp support. These are the major highlights, along with some housekeeping and clean-up tasks.

However, we're already planning for Banff 11 since we had to do a quick release for the folks running subnets. We encountered some issues with RPC Champion and plugin processing related to how we handle VMS registration logging. We want to address this, and that sums up the last two releases. Now, Avalanche Go is revving up for 1.10x.

What's exciting about getting Fallout quickly is that we've introduced two incredible new features. First, there's an embedded wallet in Avalanche Go that powers Avalanche Clyde and various other elements. With the new Ledger-powered Zondax wallet application and the work done by one of our engineers, Felipe, we can now sign transactions properly with Ledger. This means Ledger will parse the messages, a significant improvement for user experience and security when deploying subnets. With strong control over subnet key management, we're adding more security and safety, and that's vital.

Naturally, with Merkle DB being an experimental project, we're continuously improving its performance and shipping it. If you want to see what we've actually changed, just go to directory X inside Avalanche Go.

Subnets: The Scaling Game Changer

Subnets are now integrated into the core network of Avalanche, and being subnet-native is crucial for our growth. The hyper SDK is in development to simplify the process of building on Avalanche by offering predefined choices for developers. It's built on the Merkle DB, providing efficient state management and synchronization. Features like optimized transaction processing, signature verification, and account abstraction are the order of the day.

Message Magic and Asset Swaps

In this segment, the speaker discusses two main features. The first involves the ability to reward someone for sending a message to a destination, even if they don't have an account there. The second feature is the option to swap assets when crossing different chains, ensuring the smooth transfer of native tokens. The goal is to facilitate complex messaging without requiring sophisticated relayers, with the entire logic integrated into the chain. The Hyper SDK allows users to create and manage warp messages effortlessly, with the warp result being stored in the block. The speaker plans to provide a demonstration of these capabilities soon.

Bridging Virtual Machines and Subnets

The speaker discussed the challenge of integrating virtual machines from different ecosystems and communities. They highlighted the importance of supporting the EVM while expressing interest in Avalanche-native virtual machines. The conversation delved into the complexities of representing subnet-native assets on the C chain, suggesting strategies like defining assets in both places and exploring the concept of a multi-homed native asset bundle. The need for defining tokens on the primary network for elastic subnets was emphasized, with ongoing efforts to streamline the process and connect different components effectively.

Beacon Chains and DeFi Dreams

The speaker is discussing the challenges of integrating a beacon chain with existing systems and the complexities of modifying everything in Avalanche for compatibility. They express the need for a simpler virtual machine tailored for specific networks. Another participant, Eric, suggests creating a native token standard for DeFi applications on the Hyper VM. He emphasizes the importance of accounting for assets and liabilities, proposing discussions within the GitHub repository to explore these concepts and build a better DeFi ecosystem from the start. The speaker agrees and encourages collaborative discussions on GitHub to refine these ideas.

Standardizing the Avalanche Experience

The speaker discusses aspects of the hyper SDK and the need for standardization. They mention two major areas of standardization: warp content, which defines the payload structure, and token formats, which are more related to virtual machine developers rather than the SDK itself. The hyper SDK is described as less opinionated about fee-related matters, except for the authentication module. It ensures that the payer is known to prevent DOS attacks in the mempool. The speaker mentions the possibility of token standards within the hyper SDK but advises against making it too strict to allow flexibility. They discuss the potential for a formal specification for the Avalanche consensus protocol and the hyper SDK