This thread will be updated with automated AI notes from Core Engineering Sprint planning calls
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Sprint Planning: Stacks Core Eng - Tue Jul 11 at 3:06 PM UTC
Summary: Muneeb discusses the need for contributors to focus on high ROI activities and explains that there are now more contributors compared to the main net launch. He emphasizes the importance of fast, stable transactions and Bitcoin liquidity as the two critical missing pieces. Muneeb also mentions that all eyes are on the work being done by this group. Will Corcoran highlights his role in connecting builders and teams, ensuring smooth communication, and increasing situational awareness across working groups. He outlines various ongoing efforts and goals related to SBTC Alpha, better blocks design, testing and hardening, and organizational collaboration. Will introduces a mental model using colors (red, green, blue) to categorize different aspects of blockchain development such as ops transactions, messages/wire formats, and blocks/stacks/nodes/networking. The goal is greater coordination among teams to leverage existing work effectively for overall progress in Stacks Core Engineering.
Will Corcoran discusses the different areas of expertise and roles within the team. He mentions that …
Action Items:
- Jude will work on various PRs related to node functionality and account state querying.
- Stack Community will make improvements to Prometheus and RPC endpoints for easier usage.
- Sergey will clarify plans for generic testing infrastructure and CI/CD implementation.
- Jesse Wiley will continue optimizing testing processes.
Full notes: https://app.fireflies.ai/view/Sprint-Planning-Stacks-Core-Eng::pWWlnDC4XxgzXCzl
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Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Thu Jul 13 at 3:32 PM UTC
Summary: Will Corcoran initiates the conversation by mentioning documentation, security testing, and hardening. He proposes starting with a “temperature check” to gauge people’s opinions on the code bases. Brice Dobry rates the blockchain code base highly for its solid code but criticizes its severely lacking documentation. He suggests that better documentation is crucial for scaling and attracting talented engineers. Sarala B splits the discussion on documentation into two parts: external onboarding docs and internal in-code documentation. She emphasizes the importance of improving both aspects. Aaron Blankstein agrees with the need for more in-code comments that explain why certain decisions were made and what properties different units are aiming for in their interfaces. Jacinta Ferrant suggests using Rust clippy to automatically deny any public code without associated docs as a way to enforce better documentation practices. Mårten adds his perspective, noting that while he finds his way around the stacks node codebase, it lacks idiomatic structure and contains over-engineered pieces of…
Action Items:
- Will plans to take the slides and conversation from the meeting to create potential concrete tasks and action items.
- Jesse Wiley requests better logging output, which would improve quality of life for everyone.
Full notes: https://stx.is/vA6Vjh
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/7Gk7Ee
Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Thu Jul 13 at 3:32 PM UTC
Summary: Will Corcoran initiates the conversation by mentioning documentation, security testing, and hardening. He proposes starting with a “temperature check” to gauge people’s opinions on the code bases. Brice Dobry rates the blockchain code base highly for its solid code but criticizes its severely lacking documentation. He suggests that better documentation is crucial for scaling and attracting talented engineers. Sarala B splits the discussion on documentation into two parts: external onboarding docs and internal in-code documentation. She emphasizes the importance of improving both aspects. Aaron Blankstein agrees with the need for more in-code comments that explain why certain decisions were made and what properties different units are aiming for in their interfaces. Jacinta Ferrant suggests using Rust clippy to automatically deny any public code without associated docs as a way to enforce better documentation practices. Mårten adds his perspective, noting that while he finds his way around the stacks node codebase, it lacks idiomatic structure and contains over-engineered pieces of…
Action Items:
- Will plans to take the slides and conversation from the meeting to create potential concrete tasks and action items.
- Jesse Wiley requests better logging output, which would improve quality of life for everyone.
Full notes: https://stx.is/vA6Vjh
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/3z864e
Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Tue Jul 18 at 3:00 PM UTC
Summary: Mitchell Cuevas asks about Bitcoin’s assistant and why the meeting is being recorded. Igor responds that it is his AI and since it’s a public meeting, recording is allowed. Mitchell suggests using Fireflies for video recording and sharing notes. The discussion moves on to sprint planning, team syncs, and project organization. Will Corcoran explains the different verticals and horizontals in the project and mentions working groups. He discusses creating a top-level README document with technical specifications for each team to publish on stacks.org repo. They also mention updating repositories, attracting open source developers, and increasing followers for the foundation on social media platforms.
Will Corcoran discusses the organization of technical specification documents and the importance of consistent treatment. He mentions an outline that can be used for all projects. Kenny is working on documentation to benefit both internal and external developer communities. Drafts of the technical specification documents are due by next Monday, with a focus on getting something on the pa…
Action Items:
- Ensure that drafts of technical specification documents are completed by next Monday.
- Work on improving documentation for internal and external developer communities with Kenny’s assistance.
- Review and discuss OKRs provided by Will Corcoran for each project.
- Continue working on the risk register, specifically addressing testing, tech debt, and documentation concerns.
Full notes: https://stx.is/G9fsqY
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/EXDMxS
Sprint Review + Retro: Stacks Core Eng - Mon Jul 24 at 3:02 PM UTC
Summary: Will Corcoran announces the successful completion of several projects and documents, including technical specifications and product requirements for Nakamoto SBTC Clarity VM. He mentions that a new README will be published on GitHub with links to all the documents. The SBTC Docs effort is being formalized thanks to Martin and Kenny’s contributions. Will also discusses various ongoing initiatives, such as the SBTC SDK, the Clarity to Wasum repo, and GitHub cleanup. Jesse presents a script using Clarinet for creating call graphs of contracts in SBTC Mini. There is also a discussion about improving communication channels on Discord and clarifying action items after meetings.
Will Corcoran explains that he will assign tasks and create draft issues on the project board for the team. He will consolidate bullet points into as few drafts as possible, allowing team members to decide what actions to take. He also mentions simplifying organization by using A, B, and C syncs instead of colors. Will provides information about Sprint Sync meetings and links them to GitHub for easy access. He hi…
Action Items:
- Will Corcoran will create a skip doc outlining the situation and circulate it among the team.
- Will Corcoran will share all technical specification documents and OKRs on GitHub for everyone to review.
- Will Corcoran will populate the project board with action items discussed in the meeting.
- Aaron Blankstein will take care of any Airball integration customers that come forward.
- Sarala B suggests breaking down tasks and estimating capacities for testing, hardening, Clarity VM, and better blocks in order to have clarity around interim milestones.
Full notes: https://stx.is/V88Oa6
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/Ha39LJ
Sprint Planning: Stacks Core Eng - Tue Jul 25 at 3:01 PM UTC
Summary: Will Corcoran discusses pre-planning surveys and presentations, aiming for clear top-level planning. Sarala B expresses joy in seeing everyone’s happy faces. The team reviews technical specification documents, project requirements, and OKRs. They emphasize defining terms, scopes, and consistent understanding. They plan to discuss deployment plans and identify action items, dependencies, efficiencies, risks, and deadlines. Will Corcoran introduces Nakamoto SBTC as a significant topic of discussion with Bryce absent. Jude provides an overview of Stacker DB and its role in the system’s signing entities’ coordination via threshold signatures using Frost implementation details. Will asks about the relation between BDF (VDF) and Noble Gas releases for randomness at the consensus layer while ensuring fairness during block mining invalidation with added delay to protect against Precomp attacks. Jude clarifies the purpose of VDF as a stopwatch-like mechanism to manage computing work within tenures using distributed stopwatches called Noble Gases to prove waiting time for more compute budge…
Action Items:
Will Corcoran mentioned that there were action items being added to the project board.
Jesse and Mark are working on sorting out permissions for assigning people to tasks on the project board.
The team will be jumping into the project board and sprint planning calls moving forward.
Full notes: https://stx.is/rSFKrO
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/NbOYkl
Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Thu Jul 27 at 3:30 PM UTC
Summary: Mårten and Will discuss their agenda for the meeting, which includes updates on SBTC, a developer survey, and organizing meeting documents. Mårten introduces the Stacks Core Engine GitHub project and encourages everyone to add their issues to the board. They also discuss OKRs for the SPDC Working Stream, focusing on delivering SPDC mini, creating an SDK for developers, and engaging participation in early releases of SPDC. The goal is to have documentation completed and usable by developers. They also aim to have at least 50 unique STX addresses using SPDC on testnet.
Mårten discusses the goals and key results for building on SPTC, including having a list of applications and seeing STX holders registering as signers. Andre asks about best practices for deployment on testnet before going to mainnet. Mårten emphasizes the need to track usage on testnet before deploying anything on mainnet. The transcript also covers goals for September, such as having a design agreement, roadmaps, user guides, and completing SPDC Alpha on testnet. Mårten presents an initial deployment plan with aggre…
Action Items:
- Will Corcoran will reach out to Jose regarding their knowledge or experience in leveraging different resources between Nakamoto group and SBTC group.
- Sergey Shandar will ask for help from SBTC team to provide what they need for testing infrastructure.
- Marten will ping critical bounty team on a discussion thread or write them an email so that they don’t feel forgotten.
Full notes: https://stx.is/B4sSPz
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/n48ZnX
Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Thu Aug 3 at 3:31 PM UTC
Summary:
Action Items:
Full notes: https://stx.is/RoMfKX
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/QSXeKx
Sprint Review + Retro: Stacks Core Eng - Mon Aug 7 at 2:59 PM UTC
Summary:
Action Items:
Full notes: https://stx.is/qVmMM2
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/TigzXU
Sprint Planning: Stacks Core Eng - Tue Aug 8 at 3:02 PM UTC
Summary:
Action Items:
Full notes: Sprint Planning: Stacks Core Eng - Meeting recording by Fireflies.ai
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/hOqmQS
Sprint Sync: Stacks Core Eng - Thu Aug 10 at 3:31 PM UTC
Summary: Jacinta Ferrant and Will Corcoran discuss their agenda for the meeting and mention Andre’s topic on release planning. They talk about the deliverables for a hackathon, user journeys, and the importance of performance. Andre then presents three options for releasing SPTC, focusing on trade-offs between security guarantees, timeline optimization, and ecosystem demands. Mitchell Cuevas asks Andre to clarify his priorities. Will reminds everyone of the value proposition of SPPC: programmable bitcoin asset with fast settlement, positive developer experience, and minimal counterparty risk. They discuss decentralization as a key factor in counterparty risk and how to gradually increase it over time while getting users onboarded. The conversation will continue in their next office meeting regarding SPDC’s value proposition aligned tasks.
Will Corcoran asks Jacinta Ferrant to walk through the storyboard for a user flow and explain what needs to be accomplished. Jacinta explains that there are five interacting components, including setting up a Bitcoin node, Sax node, Stacker DB implementat…
Action Items:
Follow-ups and action items from the transcript are as follows:
- Jacinta mentioned the need to visualize the entire SBTC system architecture and ensure that everyone is on the same page. This will help clarify any differences in understanding and identify any missing components or edge cases.
- Jacinta and Andre discussed the need for a separate binary, called the Revealer server, to handle the commit-reveal process for pegging funds into the system. This task can be worked on independently during the hackathon.
- Andre expressed the importance of finalizing the release strategy by the end of the sprint. He encouraged everyone to think about the trade-offs and share their thoughts on which approach to consider.
- Jacinta raised the question of guaranteeing a certain number of signers participating in the system for the Mini release. While there currently isn’t a requirement, it was suggested that this feature could be considered for the second release to prevent a single signer from dominating the system.
Full notes: Notebook - Fireflies.ai - Free Meeting Recorder
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/sBhmKx
Sprint Review + Retro: Stacks Core Eng - Mon Aug 21 at 3:00 PM UTC
Summary: Mårten announces that the meeting is being recorded. Will Corcoran starts the meeting and discusses three main sections: show and tell, hackathon recap, and updates from Sprint Three. Brice Dobry talks about delaying his presentation due to an ongoing build. The team decides to start with a recap of the hackathon while Brice gets set up. They discuss their fruitful discussions during the hackathon and decide on a new strategy called the Nakamoto flip. This involves focusing on shipping a robust SBTC Alpha instead of SBTC Mini, with a goal of launching SBTC testnet by October 1st and Nakamoto testnet before November. Mitchell Cuevas explains that Mini was putting too much effort into pleasing app builders at the risk of system complexity, so they decided to prioritize getting Nakamoto live first for more value delivery. Sarala B cautions that these timelines are aggressive but aims to build confidence within the group regarding testnet timelines. They also discuss how Alpha can transition smoothly into production with minimal interruption in terms of UX design and user flow. The te…
Action Items:
Follow-ups and action items from the transcript:
- Post in the daily update channel: Sergey, Carlos, Nicos, Jordy, and others are requested to start posting in the daily update channel to ensure better communication and information sharing.
- Continue testing and hardening: The Testing and Hardening group, led by Ashton, will continue their work on testing and improving the quality of the system. They will focus on CI improvements, unit testing, and caching to reduce testing time.
- Review and provide feedback on PRs: Several PRs have been opened, including CI improvements, the prefixed contract names in the SBTC core, and commit reveal logic. Everyone is encouraged to review and provide feedback on these PRs.
- Planning and research for Nakamoto: Jude, Aaron, and Jeff will be working on planning and research for the Nakamoto work stream. They will be discussing the testing plan and exploring ways to integrate different components of the system.
Full notes: https://stx.is/6HemwH
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/z26txj
Sprint Planning: Stacks Core Eng - Tue Aug 22 at 3:00 PM UTC
Summary: Will Corcoran joined the meeting and apologized for a previous mistake. Sarala B mentioned that the meeting is being recorded. Will Corcoran pointed out that Tyler and Alex Miller sound identical. They discussed a new blockchain engineer joining the call named Christopher. They then moved on to discussing the plans for SBTC Alpha, including separating components and improving logic. Martin and Stjepan provided updates on their progress with documentation and implementation. The role of the signer was discussed, with Martin explaining that it won’t be included in Alpha Romeo to focus on Nakamoto Consensus rules instead. Potential risks were mentioned, but overall confidence in the project remained high. Heather mentioned that their group has experienced significant shifts in their work during this process.
Setzeus provided updates on the current priorities and plans for the team. They mentioned that they will have two parallel tracks: one focused on contracts for Nakamoto and the other focused on testing and integration. There was also a discussion about an incorrect link in the do…
Action Items:
From the transcript, here are the follow-ups and action items:
- Sarala B mentioned that there will be a new blockchain engineer joining the call named Christopher. This indicates that Christopher should be included in future discussions and given relevant information to contribute to the projects.
- Sarala B asked Martin if there were any potential risks or concerns regarding the project timeline and the possibility of the alpha testnet release extending beyond the estimated timeframe. Martin responded that while there might be implementation risks and challenges, they have a mitigation plan in place and believe that the timeline is achievable.
- Sarala B mentioned that the current SPDC Alpha is on testnet, not mainnet, and that there might be a miscommunication or incorrect documentation regarding this. She tasked Jesse Wiley with flagging the issue and providing the correct information.
- Ashton Stephens mentioned the restructuring of the Testing and Hardening working group, renaming it as the Quality of Life group. The goal is to embed members of this group into other working groups to ensure testing standards and best practices are implemented. Ashton will track the progress of this reorganization and ensure that a defined standard for testing is established.
Full notes: https://stx.is/68qqGl
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/eCHwUy
Sprint Review + Retro: Stacks Core Eng - Mon Sep 18 at 3:00 PM UTC
Summary: Tyler Baker provides an update on the SBTC developer release, mentioning that they are targeting a mid-October release. They plan to have end-to-end deposit and withdrawal flows in this release, along with a full development environment and SDK for developers. Stefan is currently working on the withdrawal flow, while Jude is working on fulfillments. The goal is to have everything working by the end of the week or early next week. Tyler also discusses plans to sync with wallet teams regarding SDK integration. Sarala B acknowledges Aaron’s help in adding detailed breakdowns for Makamoto and the neon node milestones and mentions that they will work on similar views for other milestones as well. Ashton Stephens shares a testing document outlining development changes and pre-release expectations for Stacks blockchains and libraries, aimed at ensuring higher standards of testing before code releases. Will Corcoran asks Jesse Wiley about where this document could be stored within the Stacks network.
Jesse Wiley suggests PR’ing some parts of the document into the GitHub repo, while Sarala…
Action Items:
Follow-ups and Action Items from the Transcript:
- Tyler Baker offered to share the link to the whiteboard he purchased with Ashton Stephens, who was interested in buying one as well. Action Item: Tyler can provide the link to Ashton.
- Tyler Baker provided an update on the SBTC (Stacks Blockchain Token Contract) developer release, targeting mid-October to coincide with the hackathon in London. Action Item: Tyler and the team are working on the end-to-end deposit and withdrawal flows for the release.
- Tyler mentioned the need for a full development environment with an SDK (Software Development Kit) and worked examples for developers. Action Item: The team plans to create a development environment with an SDK and examples to help developers build SBTC applications.
- Sarala B acknowledged the progress made and mentioned ongoing work on Stacks JS and SDK integration. Action Item: Sarala wanted to check if there were any blockers and how the integration was coming along.
- Ashton Stephens shared a testing document created by a group of developers and team leads to set standards for testing and quality assurance. Action Item: Ashton suggested that the document should be PR’d into the GitHub repository for visibility and discussed the best place for it within the Stacks network.
- Will Corcoran mentioned the need to create templates for working group updates to remove friction and make it easier for people to provide updates. Action Item: Will suggested creating templates for working group updates and making them plug-and-chug for the working group leads.
- Sarala B proposed breaking down tasks and milestones for the next two weeks during the sprint planning session, ensuring accurate sequencing and alignment. Action Item: Sarala requested that working group leads break down tasks and milestones and create a view for the upcoming sprint planning session.
- Tyler Baker raised concerns about scheduling conflicts with the sprint planning meetings and overlapping team meetings. Action Item: Will Corcoran mentioned that the sprint planning meetings were already on everyone’s calendar, and Tyler was encouraged to check the shared Stacks Core Engineering calendar for the meeting schedule.
- Andre Serrano asked if the Signer and Product Go-to-Market teams should be considered working groups and follow the process outlined by Mitchell in the document. Action Item: Will Corcoran indicated that the Signer team could be included with SBTC, and Jude mentioned that Jacinta leads a subflow within Nakamoto, which could be considered as part of the working group.
- Jude offered to share thoughts on the working group proposal and suggested continuing the discussion in the thread. Action Item: Jude could reply to the discussion thread with their thoughts on the working group proposal.
Please note that these action items are inferred based on the context provided in the transcript.
Full notes: https://stx.is/hWQcZ5
Transcript PDF: https://stx.is/91hARZ