The OriginTrail protocol will soon be ready for another update, which will bring long-awaited features. As planned in the roadmap, Freedom-Gemini will be released on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network (ODN) mainnet this year. Here is a review of all the key features and other things you should know about.

The Freedom-Gemini, release v4.0 of the OriginTrail node, is the next stage of the ODN. It will be launched on the mainnet on December 26th, 2019. This will entail a transition from the OriginTrail Vostok Mainnet.

Here is what the Freedom-Gemini stage will do:

It will introduce litigation and reputation;

and Remove the registration mechanism for nodes, leading towards a truly permissionless network;

Increase capacity and flexibility in the data layer a hundredfold and more, which extends support for much more use cases and enables interoperability across data sets;

and enables Improve node communication security with the updated Kademlia implementation; and

with the updated Kademlia implementation; and Enable node runners to adjust one simple parameter to have more control over the node’s ROI.

OriginTrail’s co-founder & CTO Branimir Rakic recently walked us through all the details in a special AMA. Here are the key highlights:

Litigation & Reputation Mechanism

This mechanism is designed to preserve dataset longevity on the network and to ensure that agreements on data replications are finalized, contributing to the robustness of the service.

The replacement mechanism will be based on the delivered service. For example, if a node goes offline after 70% of a task has been completed, it still gets compensated for the work done, and a new node will jump in for the remainder of the time. So, if a node goes offline due to an unforeseen event, it will not be “punished” in terms of losing the whole stake. It will be compensated for the service already provided.

Pricing Setup Is Now Much Easier, Allowing You to Improve Your Node’s ROI

We focused more on how nodes are managed, how to setup pricing and general configuration.

By default, the price that nodes set for their compensation now includes the estimate of the token withdrawal cost (w). This is based on concerns from the community that the cost of the withdrawal was sometimes on par or higher than the compensation the node would get. Now, everyone can have a clear incentive to join the network.

Another exciting new feature will be parametric pricing: the “Lambda” factor. Node runners will be able to tune one factor that will adjust the price based on the file size and data life span.

The New Houston Is Also Coming Up: Now Merged with the Node-Profile Interface

Speaking of controls, all of them will now be available through a single interface for the node. The new Houston (“remote control” for the OriginTrail node) will enable insights into node status and overview of the offers, configuring pricing and other node parameters, and token management (which is currently available from the “Node Profile” interface).

Houston is already open-source, so new updates will be available on GitHub, as well.

Updated Data Layer & Network Layer: Interoperability Across Data Sets

The new data and network layers will bring a hundredfold and more increase in the capacity of the datasets the network can handle!

With larger datasets, the ODN can support a much greater variety of use cases. It also doesn’t require the use of GS1 standards, although they remain an important feature of the protocol.

The new “trail” API (important: includes breaking changes, docs on Swagger) helps with connecting data through the knowledge graph and enables interoperability across data sets.

Kademlia implementation is updated, as well.

Approval & Staking Update

The approval mechanism for nodes that want to join the network will be removed in the Freedom-Gemini update on December 26th. This will clear the last check for a truly permissionless network.

To maintain the long-term security of the network while removing the approval mechanism, the initial stake will be increased to 3000 TRAC. This will happen a few weeks following the release, to first ensure a smooth transition to Freedom-Gemini. A tentative date for the stake increase is January 15th at 12:00 p.m. CET. If you don’t manage to increase your stake on time, your node will not be able to receive new offers. However, as soon as your stake is 3000 TRAC, your node will be ready to go again.

How to Prepare for the Update?

The Freedom-Gemini update (v4.0) will go live on the mainnet on December 26th, 2019. All current OriginTrail node runners (with auto-update on) will have the update handled automatically, having only to do a node restart.

Make sure to use the node backup script before (instructions will be posted in the docs). Timely update is encouraged for both DC and DH nodes in order to benefit from the Freedom-Gemini features. Detailed instructions will be posted next week. The testnet will be launched in the second half of December, enabling you to take the new software for a ride.

Engage With the Code on GitHub!

We are proud of our open-source culture. OriginTrail’s code is freely available on GitHub. The core development team always welcomes community feedback, improvement proposals, and pull requests.

To help you get started with development, the core team will prepare some “good first issues,” which are a familiar way for GitHub users to get a feeling for where they can focus their attention (for example, to create a converter).

A good way to engage is also to review requests-for-comments (RFCs) that are published as part of the documentation.

Already Looking Forward

The development does not stop with Freedom-Gemini. The team is already working on some features for the next major release, Pioneer (v5.0), which is set for release in 2020. Pioneer will include data marketplace features and additional updates in the litigation mechanism.