MWEB Progress Update Thread

Development
333

January Progress:

We did it, guys :partying_face:

image
image506×289 42.2 KB

MWEB Release

The first MWEB release candidate is now available at https://dev.litecoin.org/. A “release candidate” (RC) is like a pre-release. It’s fully functional - miners can signal for activation, users can generate MWEB addresses, and (once activated) send to MWEB addresses - but it hasn’t been thoroughly tested for bugs yet. The more people who try out the RC and report any issues they find, the better off the final release will be. But please plan to upgrade to the full v0.21.2 release once it’s available.

Verifying the binaries

It’s recommended that you verify the release binaries, to ensure they have not been tampered with. It may be too difficult for some non-technical users, but for those capable, it’s worth trying before running the downloaded file. To do this:

  1. Download & install gpg and sha256sum
  2. Download SHA256SUMS.asc to the same directory as the downloaded release binary.

Then, from your terminal (Mac/Linux) or command prompt (Windows):

  1. Change directory to the location you downloaded the release binary and SHA256SUMS.asc to:
    cd <insert path here>
  2. Download my pubkey:
    gpg --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys D35621D53A1CC6A3456758D03620E9D387E55666
  3. Verify the signature in SHA256SUMS.asc:
    gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc
    The response should include something like: Good signature from "David Burkett <davidburkett38@gmail.com>", telling you that SHA256SUMS.asc has been signed by me, and has not been tampered with.
  4. Now that we know SHA256SUMS.asc is valid, we need to verify the release binary you downloaded matches the one inside of SHA256SUMS.asc. As long as the release you downloaded is in the same directory as SHA256SUMs.asc, you can just run:
    sha256sum --ignore-missing --check SHA256SUMS.asc
    You should see your release binary listed, followed by an OK. So, if you downloaded the windows version, you’d see:
    litecoin-0.21.2rc1-win64-setup.exe: OK

What’s Next?

I’ll spend the next month watching for bug reports, and fixing any issues found. Unfortunately due to the complexity of the change, bugs will exist. So far, this includes an issue that prevents some long-lived wallets from generating MWEB addresses, which I’m actively working to fix. Once we’re satisfied with the testing & fixes, we’ll likely release another release candidate (0.21.2rc2) and go from there.

Meanwhile, miners running v0.21.2rc1 can start signaling for activation at block 221760 (~Feb 25th). @losh11 is working on a website to monitor signaling and activation status, which I’ll share here once it’s available.

9 Likes