05 Nov Symbol blockchain news update – 06/11/21
It’s the weekend already, I’m still feeling sorry for myself though as I am still sick and I still can’t do anything fun 😭 Chest infection apparently (only taken them 4 weeks of me suffering to diagnose it). I started writing a political rant here about the state of the NHS but thought better of it, this is not the time of place for mentioning that weasel Boris Johnson and his cronies 😁
Whilst I am supposed to be resting I can kill a bit of time writing and there is probably quite a lot that I need to write about after yesterday’s events. I have a feeling that this is just the start of things to come as we still have the new websites, the result of the forks, new wallet, the Garush platform and of course the entirety of the Pirate’s technical vision to look forward to. I guess some of these will be coming soonTM and others will require a bit more patience. Exciting times though! 🤩
So anyway, take it easy, grab a coffee or a beer depending on your timezone (I won’t judge you if you decide to have a beer with your breakfast either) and spend five minutes catching up with the latest Symbol Blog update!
Knives out, it’s fork time
Oooh this was an exciting announcement 😁 One hardfork? Meh.. Two simultaneous hardforks? Bring it on! 🦾 As you will have seen in the @NEMofficial post there are two hardforks planned “Cyprus” for Symbol and “Harlock” for NEM. There are far more details in the official announcement and I also wrote a short summary piece here if you want to find out more.
The important thing to note is that the clock is already ticking – we will actually know if the hardfork was accepted in a week for Symbol and two weeks for NEM. I always think it is a ballsy move just to announce it pretty much out of the blue and tell everyone that the clock is already ticking. Brings some excitement and sense of urgency – I like your style Pirates! 😁
So, what do you need to do? Easy, if you run a Symbol or a NEM node then you will need to upgrade to the latest release: 1.0.3.0 for Symbol and 0.6.98 for NEM. I have never run a NEM node myself so had no idea whether this would difficult or not but looking at the instructions it will probably only take a couple of minutes:
NEM’s latest version is 0.6.98. Updating your node is actually extremely easy:
Stop the server by pressing Ctrl+C or killing the process.
Remove the old package. This means all files you installed previously except the *.config files and the nis/data folder.
Download binary version 0.6.98 and extract it in the same folder.
Start the server again with the same command you used in the deployment guide.Not exactly rocket science! Also if you use symbol-bootstrap as many of us do (since it’s really freaking easy to use) I can guarantee you that the whole process takes less than five minutes.
As I write (5th November 22:00 UTC) we are approaching 50% of nodes supporting Cyprus already but NEM is really lagging behind. Allnodes have impressed me and have upgraded all of their NEM and Symbol nodes already! Hopefully Binance have been nudged and will be updating their 30 NEM staking nodes before too long but there is a long way to go still. If you are a node owner or know someone that is please let them know the news and tell them to update ASAP!
Even if you don’t run your own node and are delegating your harvesting then you can still show your support for the fork by harvesting on a node that is running the latest version. I won’t recommend switching just yet, give the person running your node a little time to update but check back in a couple of days or contact them on Twitter and give them a gentle reminder. If they don’t update and you support the Pirate fork then you can just switch your delegation to node that does support Cyprus (or Harlock in the case of NEM).
You can browse Symbol nodes to delegate to here and NEM nodes here – you can also keep an eye on the numbers in the countdown to the big days. It is up to all of us to make this happen, so make sure (if you believe in the new NEM and Symbol ethos) that you have your say as you will be helping everyone else out too.
Spare any change?
These are cool! I knew a bit of colour would make these coins come alive.
We also have XEM coins:
Maybe the XEM and XYM coins need a different shape though. In a dark bar with my poor eyesight I’ll have no chance. I’ll be that crazy guy holding all of his coins up to the light to work out what they are and how much I need to pay for the next drink.
I have to say that this 25XYM is looking amazing! I can see me with a stack of these at the XYM City casino..
And if it all goes wrong and I am destitute on the streets of XYM City then be kind and throw me a couple of coins 😁 Looks like me and Gimre are recruiting for the under the bridge mafia 😁
Explorer revamp
I don’t do anything in life anymore if it is not in dark mode (that sounded more sinister than I had intended) and the current explorer is like sunlight to a vampire so I will be very glad when it is updated. Judging from the screenshot below it is going to look pretty awesome so I can’t wait for this to be rolled out!
To a better future
I will leave you with this tweet from Hatchet. This really is a defining moment in NEM and Symbol history. We are all part of the community right now at this pivotal moment and it is up to us to work together to make these forks and this new vision work.
Thanks
Thanks guys for reading and thank you to everyone that is delegating to my node – it means a lot. A special welcome to the two new harvesters that joined over the last couple of days – I appreciate your support! 😊
OK, that’s it from me, I am going to cough uncontrollably for a couple of hours and then hopefully will be able to catch a bit of sleep. I can’t tell you how happy I will be when I am well again! Have a good weekend and don’t forget to update your nodes!
I’m a Symbol and NEM enthusiast and run this blog to try to grow awareness of the platform in the English-speaking world. If you have any Symbol news you would like me to report on or you have an article that you would like to publish then please let me know!
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