Recently we have open-sourced the Go version of QuarkChain which improves the mainnet functionality three to five fold simply by speeding up the execution efficiency of the code. Is it really that miraculous? So how fast can this version reach? Would it solve the TPS bottleneck that bothers the industry? In order to let you all to have an in-depth understanding of the high performance of our new mainnet and to reach new heights in TPS for the entire blockchain industry, we have decided to host the second TPS competition. We will incentivize all of you to join in and excel using a substantial amount of BTC.

Result from last year’s competition can be found here:

https://medium.com/quarkchain-official/tps-competition-final-leaderboard-de6a8a8700a8

Introduction of the Go version of mainnet is here:

https://medium.com/quarkchain-official/go-programming-language-of-quarkchain-will-be-launched-and-open-source-with-performance-five-times-69b37032817d

Introduction of the Competition:

Sharding of QuarkChain is instrumental in enhancing TPS as we have all witnessed in last year’s competition whose winning team reached throughput that surpassed 55000 TPS. After the breakthrough from the first competition, we now welcome the Go version of QuarkChain which has even better functionalities. This time, we will continue to provide a platform that allows programmers to unleash their imagination and creativity. Through attractive rewards, we would like to encourage more programmers to learn and familiarize themselves with the blockchain industry and even take part in it! One of the aims of this competition is also for the developer community to increase the understanding of our core code and gain first-hand experience of how our team incorporates elements of security, decentralization, and scalability with ever-increasing high TPS into one single design.

With the enhancement of the Go version, what kind of TPS would you reach? 100000+ TPS would not seem an insurmountable obstacle anymore. We are really excited to see what the final outcome would be and look forward to all of your participation.

Eligibility:

Whoever that is interested in blockchain, especially in sharding, are eligible to participate. You know programming and some basis in building nodes? That is even better!

Competition Rules:

Very simple! Within the time period that we specify, build a QuarkChain network and carry out load testing. We will rank the teams according to the peak TPS value and reward the teams respectively. We host the competition with the principle of openness, just, and fairness and the hacker spirit of worshipping technology, freedom, and creativity. We will be updating the TPS ranking throughout the competition to motivate participants to refresh the record and reach new heights!

Prizes:

The principle of the TPS competition is highest, fastest, and strongest. Here are the different prizes we are providing for the competition:

1. Highest peak TPS prize:

First place: 0.5 BTC + 1,000,000 QKC

Second place: 0.15 BTC + 300,000 QKC

Third place: 0.1 BTC + 200,000 QKC

Fourth and Fifth place: 0.05 BTC + 100,000 QKC

2. Peak TPS challenge prize:

This prize is awarded to whoever first reaches 100,000 TPS in a valid submission. Prize for the first one to reach 100,000+ TPS: 0.1 BTC + 200,000 QKC.

Please note that there are no limits in the challenge prize. After the first challenge prize is given out, we will announce the next TPS target and the corresponding prize.

3. Participation prize:

30,000 QKC per person.

Participation prize is to award the first 50 programmers who participate in the QuarkChain competition with 20,000+ peak TPS. In case of conflicts, the award is decided by the timestamp of the submission. We will reward each participating programmer with a reward of 30,000 QKC!

4. Referral Bonus:

To allow more programmers to join the second QuarkChain TPS competition, we especially set up a referral bonus. As long as the programmer you refer to joins the competition and obtains the result with a valid submission, you will share the prize pool of 200,000 QKC with others.

To earn the referral bonus, you should:

Fork goquarkchain repo；

It must be a valid submission for the developer referred by you;

When submitting result form, remember to fill in information about your referers such as organization name and referrer’s GitHub ID.

Competition Time:

Start: Starting today

End: US PST 12/22/2019 11:59:59pm (or Beijing time 12/23/2019, 11:59:59am)

Detailed Explanation:

Our engineers have thoughtfully prepared a readme file in the Github repo regarding about how to build a developer environment, how to observe TPS value, and how to kickstart the mining process and more! If you encounter any questions during the competition, please visit QuarkChain’s technical community at: https://community.quarkchain.io/, leave your questions there and our support team will provide you solutions as soon as possible!

Configuration of parameters:

Root block interval: 20s ~ 60s

Minor block interval: 4s ~ 10s

Minor block gas limit: <=96,000,000

Number of shards: unlimited

Number of clusters: >= 3 (fully connected)

Note: please consult the readme file (https://github.com/QuarkChain/goquarkchain/blob/master/tests/loadtest/README.md#cluster-configuration) to learn how to use specific parameters.

Judging Criteria (SUPER IMPORTANT!!!)

All participants can submit the following information to verify TPS value before PST 12/22/2019 11:59pm

Link to a Youtube video: participant must record a video that shows basic information including setup, live demonstration, display of peak TPS value using stats toolbox. Video must be uploaded to Youtube Fork goquarkchain repo Fork the TPS.md doc on Github and update the markdown file with information regarding setup, highest TPS value, link to Youtube video and the complete output using stats tool Using this form (https://quarkchaintps.typeform.com/to/s8hIs1) to submit personal information including SHA1 value of git commit

Most importantly, all of the basic setup that you submit should be reproducible. For all prizes, the submission time will be the latest among the upload time of Youtube video, git commit, and form submission. We will announce all the results later after the competition. All rights for interpretation of the competition is reserved for QuarkChain.

Thank you all for joining the competition!