Before any changes are deployed to Symbol mainnet or a new project gets launches on the blockchain, a test version is deployed to testnet first. Symbol test network(testnet) simulates the Symbol main network which gives developers and the community a chance to test features before real assets are used. Sai Testnet is the current testnet for Symbol. You can add a node and get test tokens from the Faucet. The Faucet allow an account to request up to 10k in test xym. If more token are needed to test or run a voting node, you can be requested from the Symbol's helpdesk on discord. It can be fun to have 3 or 4 million of test xym to splurge a bit, even though they carry no real-world value. Why should you create your own dev testnet? Creating and maintaining a Symbol testnet requires some work like certs and voting key renewals, so why bother setting up your own? These are some reasons you would want to setup your own dev testnet. Test Scenario - you might want to run specific test scenarios for your application. Let's say you want to fork the network and stall finalization to verify that your application also stops accepting deposits and withdrawals. Persistence - there is no guarantee that the testnet won't be reset. Symbol testnet is reset at least once a year to keep storage low. But it can also be reset if a major feature stops working. If your application requires the data kept for a longer time then a dev testnet would be better. Control Funds - your use case might require a large sum of funds like 500 Million xym. Even though there is the Faucet, requesting that much token is best done on dev testnet.
12/21/2022Greetings, Citizens of XYM City! Find the Japanese translation here. The Discovery On October 13th, Toshi reported some unexpected behavior to us on Discord in the #sdk-js channel. He had been comparing the outputs of the deprecated TypeScript SDK to the newer JavaScript SDK and noticed that the aggregate transaction hashes were being calculated differently. That...was not expected behavior. Even more concerning was the fact that they were both being accepted (and confirmed) by the network. Root Cause The team quickly identified two critical bugs - one in Catapult (the Symbol client), and one in the TypeScript and Java SDKs.
10/26/2022Throughout Symbol's development, we've used a large number of different languages. As part of regrouping and turning the ship, we've decided to cut back on the number of primary languages. Some choices will be less surprising than others. We hope this will facilitate hiring and improve intra-organizational mobility. We want to tear down those walls, Mr. Gorbachev! C++ catapult-client is the Symbol reference client and will continue to be developed and maintained in C++. We like C++ because it is a deterministic destruction language, which gives us fine grained control over memory usage. This allows us to optimize performance. C++ before and after 0x are almost different languages. Using RAII patterns, memory problems are almost almost a thing of the past.
1/10/2022Hi. 👋 You might know us as 🤖 Gimre, 🪓 Hatchet, and 🐆 Jaguar. Along with the rest of the Pirate crew, we're the team behind Symbol & NEM. Some of us are old hats, and some of us are fresh recruits, but we've all banded together under a common flag to dedicate ourselves to the research and development of the Symbol protocol, and the maintenance of the NEM protocol. In July of this year we announced the shutdown of NEM Group, the previous operational entity that had taken Symbol to mainnet. Alongside this, we announced our vision paper that outlined a new kind of transaction-specific sidechain (called subChains), our aspirations for Symbol, and the future of NEM. While the last four months have felt like an ongoing battle for the future of Symbol & NEM, we're pleased to announce that it is coming to an end. There's just one last thing to do before we set sail. But before that, a bit of context. 🏴☠️
12/7/2021