---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Aurora Update [2021-08-30 to 2021-09-03]'
tags: [Weekly Updates]

---

---
tags: Weekly Updates
---

# Aurora Update [2021-08-30 to 2021-09-03]

The Friday recording is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxBPOEgA1lg

## Plans for the week
To be completed on Mondays.

### Bridge
- Investigate Mainnet Near2Eth finalization issue
  - some TXs are failing with "block proof is not valid"
- Investigate Goerli EthOnNear client issue
  - it seems that blocks are being GCed earlier than they should
- Finish migration of all monitoring to Datadog & improve metrics, alerts
  - Was postponed last week due to other issue
  - Mainnet & Testnet Relayers
  - Monitoring for the watchdog is strongly required
- Re-deployment and testing of new tokens on Testnet
  - Finish script to update all tokens
- Migrate GCP deployments to our own infrastructure
  - Migrate keys (with @Frank and @Marcelo)
- Finish Metadata connector testing & deployment
- Monitor NearOnEth client on block submission
  - Very important from the security point of view 
- Debug Ethashproof inconsistence issue (being failed with OOM each 4.5 days)
  - Affects Eth2Near client relay
- Hiring

### Engine

- EVM London upstream tests (Joshua, Michael)
- Review of library changes (Joshua, Michael)
- Main net release (Joshua)
- Library to fix cyclic dependencies (Evgeny)
- Move new ETH tests to their own library (Evgeny)
- Support getting RPC nodes setup (Michael)
- Write job description for hires for the Engine on Bamboo (Joshua)

### Product

### Apps & Partners
- Parnters
    - Unblock The Graph
    - Agreement/timeline with Chainlink
    - Start preparing for the Etherscan (check their AC recommendations)
- Apps
    - Talk and support whichever partners are ready to deploy
    - Get the feedback from Dodo
- Tech
    - Test the list of methods provided from The Graph
    - In house mini-explorer brush-up (and testnet deploy)
    - Start covering RPC with tests
    - Start using ZenHub (or other work blocker visualisation)
    - Sort out the Helpscout backlog
    - WebSockets support (need to prioritise)
    - Fix the `eth_getStorageAt` issues (not a blocker for The Graph) [aurora.js#15](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora.js/issues/15)
- Workshops/Hackathons
    - Metabuild Workshop video

### Quality, Security & Infrastructure

- bridge security:
  - setup more watchdogs
  - rotate bridge keys for testnet
  - read contracts
- CI improvements:
  - bridge CI is blocked on Marcelo
  - evm-bully problems fixed, deploy it in CI
  - check Go code automatically
- new dedicated web server:
  - fix redirection problems for `evm.dev` and `bridgetonear.org`
  - deploy employee handbook there
- hiring: write JDs

### Ops
- BambooHR
- NEAR Marketing Hackathon
- LisCon
- Wyoming Blockchain Stampede
- MedaBUIDL Workshop (Anton)
- Bridge UI/UX feedback


## Summary
High level for live stream announcements.

### Bridge
- No big public announcements this week.
- (Not sure if we need to report this) Investigated and found a solution for Mainnet Near2Eth finalization issue
  - this is a very rare bug
  - 2 TXs are failing with "block proof is not valid"
  - waiting for the fix on the NEAR side
  - we can still build and finalize these 2 affected TXs right now (TBD for @Alex to decide if we announce that)

### Engine

- No big announcements this week.

### Product
- Launched blockchain rescanning feature on Rainbow Bridge. (The benefit is that one should rarely need the old "restore transfer" confusing feature.)
- Added CMS management to the Aurora home page content.
- Replace ugly BambooHR careers embed, with better-looking careers data managed in our own CMS. (Good solution for the short- to medium term.)
- Started the Rainbow & Aurora Bridge harmonization project.

### Apps & Partners
- Partners
    - Etherscan announcement
- Apps
    - Nothing to report
- Technical part (not sure we want to report this)
    - Fixed invalid topics format in `eth_getLogs` RPC call
    - Fixed invalid revert status in aurora.js
    - Metabuild workshop video https://youtu.be/WB8BzqJjhos

### Quality, Security & Infrastructure

- Aurora validator is online:`aurora.poolv1.near` (stakable via web wallet) 🎉

### Ops
- Etherscan announcement
- Uploaded Aurora Truffle workshop to Aurora [YouTube](https://youtu.be/WB8BzqJjhos) and [NEAR University](https://www.near.university/workshops/deploying-a-contract-on-aurora-using-truffle)
- Created [Aurora News announcement channel](https://t.me/auroraisnear_news) in Telegram

## Team updates
To be updated on Fridays

### Bridge
- Investigated and found a solution for Mainnet Near2Eth finalization issue
  - some TXs are failing with "block proof is not valid"
  - waiting for the fix on the NEAR side
  - we can still build and finalize these 2 affected TXs right now
- Investigated and fixed Goerli EthOnNear client issue
  - discovered that this was due to Go-ethereum bug as well
- Migration of all monitoring to Datadog & improvements for metrics, alerts: WIP.
- Event-relayer: refactoring is started, add Metadata connector support: WIP.
- Metadata connector testing: WIP.
- Supporting the partners on the call (with @Anton)
- Script for re-deployment and testing of new tokens on Testnet: WIP.
- Hiring (preparing JD, looking for candidates)

### Engine
- Library-wide refactoring
- Sputnik EVM testing
- Getting metrics and working with nearcore on how much of a boost in ETH gas we are getting, exactly.

### Product

### Apps & Partners
- Partners
    - Still working on unblocking The Graph
    - Pushing Chainlink for the timeline and agreement from multiple sides
    - Unstoppable domains went with Polygon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Apps
    - Talked with https://www.pantherprotocol.io/ about enabling privacy apps on Aurora (decidet to start with native NEAR first)
- Tech
    - Fixing invalid topics format in `eth_getLogs` RPC call
    - Fixing invalid revert status in aurora.js
- Org
    - Basecamp for blockers visualisation
    - ZenHub for task management
- Hackathons/Workshops
    - Metabuild Hackathon Workshop video

### Quality, Security & Infrastructure

- Aurora validator is online 🎉
  - 1.06M NEAR of 3.46M NEAR staked
- CI improvements:
  - `evm-bully` deployed to CI ([PR draft](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/258))
  - check Go code automatically
- hiring:
  - close to bringing on additional "infrastructure engineer"
  - no good QA engineer leads yet
- bridge security research (thanks Marcelo & Kirill):
  - [bridge security](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-inventory/blob/master/notes/bridge-security.md) notes
- watch dogs & webserver postponed due to focus on validator and hiring

### Ops

## Last week
Link to previous hackmd

## This week
TBD by Friday

### Ahmed Ali
- Fixing invalid topics format in `eth_getLogs` RPC call
- Fixing invalid revert status in aurora.js
- Reviewing some PRs.
- Tech support.
### Alex Bendiken
- Make careers page managable from the CMS instead of using BambooHR embed
- Mae home page managable from the CMS
- Start work on unified bridge app

### Alex Shevchenko
- Working on the bootstrapping the NEAR ecosystem project (incentivized bridge)
- Forming the ecosystem bucket
- Executing the ecosystem bucket
- Working on the Foundation setup with Yulian (tax reasons)
- Managing the Aurora validator spin up


### Aliaksei Papou
- Continued BambooHR set-up
    - Managed company & personal profile links
    - Managed org chart & new employees
    - Created a dummy 'Open Pool' [job draft](https://auroraisnear.bamboohr.com/hiring/jobs/26) to add candidates with no defined position
- Contacted LisCon & Wyoming Blockchain Stampede conferences
    - We decided not to participate due to a lack of time
- Started transcripting AS/YL interview
- Created a [TG Aurora News](https://t.me/auroraisnear_news) announcement channel
- Announced Etherscan partnership on blog, Twitter, Discord, TG
    - Twitter thread performance: 205 likes, 70 retweets, 58k impressions, 370 profile visits - our record highs so far
    - Google Analytics: 220 website visits on Sep 1 - record high so far
- Combined FAQs from TG chats and published them as a pinned message & as a Twitter thread
- Consolidated UI/UX feedback from TG chats
- Did an internal research for AS
- Published [Aurora workshop](https://youtu.be/WB8BzqJjhos) for NEAR MetaBUIDL hackathon
- Internal ops with YL
- Maintaining Twitter, TG, Discord

### Anton Paisov
- Setup Basecamp for partnership blockers visualisation
- Setup ZenHub for project management
- EIP-1898 for `eth_call`
- Get Copper up to date with all the recent notes
- Metabuild Hackathon Workshop video https://youtu.be/WB8BzqJjhos
- Support Dodo
- Support Smartpad

### Arto Bendiken

### Dmitry Strokov
- Bully:
    - [Updated](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/devops-stuff/commits/main/runners/actions-runner) actions-runner docker-image to be able to work with bully
    - Created first version of Bully-CI for aurora engine ([Draft PR](https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/258)).

### Evgeny Ukhanov
- Code review
- aurora-engine LICENSE: issue - discussions, research, creating PR for solving issue
- Code cleanup and refactoring (breaking changes): 
  - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/243
  - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/256

### Frank Braun

- validator
- bridge security
- hiring

### Joshua J. Bouw
- Wrote up expecations for those working on the Engine team. Shared this with the rest of the team so they may use it as well. It keeps everyone on the same page with what is expected from them.
- Worked on figuring out flights and details on getting down to Dubai & Ukraine
- Worked with Evgeny getting the refactoring done right the first time with best possible practices
- Sputnik EVM testing
- Fixed Berlin EVM test, was missing a part which allowed it to work as that had changed when getting merged into master
- Had a few calls with Yulian, briefly about end of month payment given ETH fees.
- Worked with Anton on coordinating the release
- Discussed with nearcore and helped them understand our requirements for EVM fee reductions. Also got a bit more information regarding it.
- Reviewed all code to ensure that it is fit for mainnet and testnet release
- Usual reviews and discussions
- TODO: job description over weekend

### Kirill Abramov
- Investigated and fixed Goerli EthOnNear client issue
  - discovered that this was due to Go-ethereum bug as well
- Migration of all monitoring to Datadog & improvements for metrics, alerts: WIP.
- Event-relayer: refactoring is started, add Metadata connector support: WIP.
- Metadata connector testing: WIP.
- Supporting the partners on the call (with @Anton)
- Researching other bridge solutions (Polkalokr & Bridgr)
- Code reviews
- Many discussions between leads
- Some TG support
- Hiring (preparing JD, looking for candidates)

### Marcelo Fornet

### Matt Henderson
- Team management & coordination
- Treasury management
- Check out developer developer candidates
- Review Aurora Dashboard & make edits (home page)
- Minor infrastructure things (domain names)
- Minor admin functions

### Michael Birch
- View call profiling:
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/253
- Help with EIP-1898:
    - https://aurora-labs-group.slack.com/archives/C02DAHGB1BJ/p1630077968003900
- Issue clean-up (closing some old issues)
- Benchmarking our EVM gas limitations based on NEAR max gas values
    - https://aurora-labs-group.slack.com/archives/C025U8VMCSG/p1630332495007000?thread_ts=1630331120.003600&cid=C025U8VMCSG
    - https://aurora-labs-group.slack.com/archives/C025U8VMCSG/p1630606850023400?thread_ts=1630331120.003600&cid=C025U8VMCSG
- PR reviews:
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora.js/pull/16#pullrequestreview-741592401
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-engine/pull/243#pullrequestreview-745439545

### Pierre-Alain Ouvrard
- Build UI and release transfer history sync on ethereum.bridgetonear.org
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/rainbow-bridge-frontend/pull/312
    - `scan the blockchain` for general users.
    - restore multiple transfer with given accounts for debugging.
- Sync with @khorolets (Bohdan) regarding usage of Near Explorer backend for getting indexer data during transfer history sync.
- Review and test imToken support PR
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/rainbow-bridge-frontend/pull/317
- Fix urlParams (for imToken support, but also useful in general)
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/rainbow-bridge-client/pull/61
    - release `nep141-erc20` and `near-ether` v2.0.1
    - ethereum: https://github.com/aurora-is-near/rainbow-bridge-frontend/pull/320
    - aurora: https://github.com/aurora-is-near/rainbow-bridge-frontend/pull/308
- Improve NEAR -> Ethereum transfer confirmation warning message
- Improvements to aurora.dev transfer flow:
    - https://github.com/aurora-is-near/aurora-webapp/pull/35
- Telegram support

### Yulian Lavysh

## Discussion
