Direct Integration with Bitcoin

Roadmap
506

Update

Bitcoin Testnet

The work on the Bitcoin canister has been progressing very well and we want to launch it for Bitcoin Testnet, probably next week. The replica changes for this will be merged this week likely. The rollout will be done as follows:

  • Deploying the replica change that routes the Bitcoin management canister API to the new Wasm canister instead of the replica implementation;
  • Testing on a first subnet whether the transition from the replica implementation to the canister works without problems;
  • Doing a wider rollout following the standard rollout schedule.

The nice thing about this approach is that there is no interruption of service. Until the replica gets upgraded on a specific subnet, Bitcoin requests continue to be routed to the replica implementation, once a subnet has been upgraded, the requests will be routed to the new Wasm canister. The API does not change, so canister smart contracts should not experience any interruption of service.

Bitcoin Mainnet

Meanwhile, work on the Bitcoin canister for the Bitcoin Mainnet launch continues, as there are still some open things to be addressed:

  • Wait for quiet mechanism to only start serving requests once the blockchain is synched to the tip;
  • Unstable blocks should be stored in stable memory, not on the heap;
  • Increasing the stability threshold to 144; most of the hard part enabling this – the performance optimizations to make this fast – have been implemented already;
  • Monitoring / alerting that checks that the Bitcoin canister’s view is in line with the real blockchain; raise an alert to the on-duty team if the tip of the canister does not agree with the main blockchain. This will help us all to sleep better;

Without giving a firm commitment, late November still seems doable for the Bitcoin Mainnet canister.

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