Newest Flare Blog Post - 'canary' test net within the next 6 weeks, mainnet launch scheduled for end of Sept

[Seoulite]

Reading now:

https://flare.xyz/introducing-songbird/

edit: ok I've read it through once but I'm not sure I understand it. There will be a testnet called 'Songbird' that will have its own token:

"Songbird will have its own token, Songbird ($SGB), which will be distributed once only and in the same ratio to all the same recipients of the FLR distribution. Total starting supply will be 15 Billion with initial inflation of 10% per annum through the FTSO and validator rewards systems. This means for every 1 XRP that was held at the time of snapshot 0.1511 SGB will be allocated."

So does this mean we are getting more free money?

Network launch:

"Flare will launch after substantial testing of all systems on Songbird with the current final security audit scheduled to finish at the end of September."

Apparently Polkadot are doing something similar to this:

"A “Canary network” is an operational blockchain with a defined  (and hence scarce) token supply that is intended to be used to test features for a related main net. On a Canary network users have a balance that cannot just be replenished at will. This is in contrast to a testnet which generally has an unlimited token supply available in increments to any user through a faucet.

The defined and scarce token supply may confer value to the token, potentially making it attractive to attackers such that testing is as “real” as it can possibly get. This allows for the hardening of the system under testing. Polkadot is the originator of the Canary network concept, with their Kusama Network."

Edited July 20, 2021 by Seoulite

[Seoulite]

Just when you thought Flare wasn't already complicated enough... can't fault the designers of the logos though:

[ixarepe]

What am I misunderstanding? The Flare launch would launch in june/july. 

Now only a testnet is launched?

[ixarepe]

This is starting to look like the classic 'R&D' trap. 

The product is never ready for market. We need more testing, we want to add another feature, we want to optimize this aspect etc. 

Very disappointing. 

[brianwalden]

12 minutes ago, ixarepe said:

What am I misunderstanding? The Flare launch would launch in june/july. 

Now only a testnet is launched?

The only part you're misunderstanding is that software products very commonly run late. Flare did not meet their original Q1/Q2 date, or the more recent 4-weeks past the the of June date. The new expected launch date is now late September. Even if they miss that, don't panic.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, brianwalden said:

The only part you're misunderstanding is that software products very commonly run late. Flare did not meet their original Q1/Q2 date, or the more recent 4-weeks past the the of June date. The new expected launch date is now late September. Even if they miss that, don't panic.

There goes my prediction of mid-August in the other thread. We’re only getting Songbird.
 

It’s still a very compelling way to approach the launch of a major network IMO.  I don’t know how much participation we can expect from FAssets or anything remotely risky, given the “canary” state of the network but it’s still a good step forward. I see this graduating to a stable network in the future.

[Guest]

I would say it’s valuable to look at this as just an illiquid but separate instance of Flare, much like private instances of XRPL.
 

SGB will have its own value, and who knows, it may well have a bridge to Flare 😆

I have high hopes. Two networks - one for governance and experimentation, one for assured stability. Fantastic. Also, it’s more free money. Even if it is illiquid.

[brianwalden]

23 minutes ago, ixarepe said:

This is starting to look like the classic 'R&D' trap. 

The product is never ready for market. We need more testing, we want to add another feature, we want to optimize this aspect etc. 

Very disappointing. 

Vaporware - announced products that never actually make it to market - is a real problem with technology. But I think if this new test network actually goes live soon and is successful, we won't have to worry about that.

[Seoulite]

4 minutes ago, Ripley said:

I would say it’s valuable to look at this as just an illiquid but separate instance of Flare, much like private instances of XRPL.

Yeah it's gonna take some explaining, as people with just assume that Songbird will eventually be folded into Flare, but it won't (for the foreseeable future). Songbird will be like Flare Jr.

[Seoulite]

Eri keeps pointing to the value on Kusama. It currently has about 10% of the market cap of DOT. If Flare and Songbird can perform in a similar way, we might just have been given 10% more of our Flare value for free. 

As for promising and not delivering, I'm not worried. They are not just gonna turn around and say 'jk' after the biggest airdrop in crypto history, with entire projects (Gala) moving to them, entirely new NFT platforms planned on them with huge names, etc. We need to keep in mind that this isn't some garage operation. Remember they got investment from the biggest names in crypto. Unprecedented numbers of supporting exchanges. This thing is going to happen.

[tulo]

Quote

Songbird will launch first as a pure EVM smart contract network this will enable testing of the network architecture and for the initiation of testing of third party dapps. Subsequently the FTSO, State Connector and F-asset systems will be enabled.

 so basiacally all the new stuff won't be there even in the testnet.
My prediction is that the full flare network will be launched in 2022, if it will ever go live.

[ftso_au]

We will have our signal provider service on Songbird, we’ll be using it exactly as it’s intended - To test our services before moving them to mainnet.

Please join our Discord where we’ll be coordinating our testing activities in a private group. 

https://discord.gg/y6dc6AsTGx

This is an exciting step towards the launch of Flare Network.

 

[HAL1000]

 

[brianwalden]

Ok here's my take. First, I thought I was being ultra conservative with my September 14 launch date prediction. I was wrong about that. But I guess is if it really does launch by the end of September I'll be +/- 2/4 weeks 😉.

I hadn't heard of canary networks before, but I think I understand the concept. Regular test networks use fake tokens; they have no value because you can get or make as many as you need to perform your tests. They're good for testing the functionality of your code: when you press button A, does it call process B, and return expected result C, etc. They provide a good environment for controlled testing.

But testnets aren't great at simulating real world conditions - people do crazy things and will come up with all kinds of strange ways to use your software that you could have never imagined. A canary network seems to be a hybrid between the mainnet and testnet. Its main token has a limited supply, which means it will have some non-zero value. It can connect to other live networks rather than being sandboxed. This should draw in some real people who will use it in ways that are closer to how the mainnet will be used.

Flare is focused on the ability to use Songbird for security testing, which makes sense since one of their core functions is porting data and value between networks. But it can certainly be used for all kinds of things. You know how your operating system or web browser will often give you the option to run the beta release containing the upcoming changes that aren't live yet. It looks like Flare will be using Songbird in that way as well - so if some new feature is coming, you'll be able to get a look at it there before it goes live.

What will SGB be worth? I would assume less than a cent, but maybe one day it might be worth a penny. I guess that depends on how much developers need it for testing. If they need more than they initially received, they have to go out and buy it. And I just went and looked up Polkadot's Kusama and it's worth $150, so don't use me for predicting anything. I have no idea what KSM's supply or distribution is or how it will relate to SGB's price. But if you're interested in canary networks whether from a technological or financial perspective, the obvious thing to do is to take a look at Kusama and see what parallels you can draw to Songbird.

How should you use Songbird? We all have had so many questions about how Flare will actually work. Songbird should finally give us a look at how to vote or mint F-assets, etc. Isn't Bifrost supposed to launch in a few days? I would get set up on a Bifrost wallet and play around with voting since that's no risk. Once you're done playing, you can set it and forget it - Songbird will have voting rewards and I'm guessing not many people will participate, so you should be able to get a decent amount of rewards. If you're testing F-assets, I would be very careful if you need to send real XRP. There are also no rewards for holding F-assets on Songbird, so my strategy would be just to do a little bit to test the process to make sure I know what I'm doing when Flare goes live. I think this is also a good place to test minting your own F-assets using your own SGB as collateral. For example you could put in $10 worth of SGB, mint $5 worth of FXRP and then see how that holds up over time. Better to get liquidated on the test network than in real life.

Edited July 20, 2021 by brianwalden

[brianwalden]

35 minutes ago, tulo said:

 so basiacally all the new stuff won't be there even in the testnet.
My prediction is that the full flare network will be launched in 2022, if it will ever go live.

Yeah, but the flip side of that coin is that Flare will launch fully featured since it will have all been tested on Songbird. I'll be more optimistic and guess that they launch in the fall.