Energi 3.1 Asgard: Hard fork for improved stability and difficulty algorithm reform

Author: Energi

Compiled by: ChainCatcher

It has been over a year since Energi Gen 3 was launched on March 12, 2020. Gen 3 brought enhanced Ethereum compatibility and smart contract capabilities, which have propelled us to expand into decentralized finance (DeFi) through Energiswap and Energi Bridge. The Gen 3 migration is a significant step towards our vision of providing a secure and efficient platform for the future of DeFi.

We have been seeking to improve Energi in various ways, and after a year of hard work by the Energi team, we are now ready to announce the first hard fork of Gen 3—Energi 3.1 Asgard. On August 25, the 3.1 hard fork will focus on improving stability and enhancing user experience, bringing a series of improvements to support our ongoing push into DeFi.

After extensive simulations of our new difficulty algorithm, we activated the Asgard hard fork on our testnet on August 16.

The main change introduced by the 3.1 hard fork will be a complete overhaul of the difficulty algorithm. The Asgard hard fork brings a new difficulty algorithm that will eliminate the occasional difficulty crashes and chain splits that the Energi blockchain has experienced since the Gen 3 migration. It will also improve the consistency of staking rewards and reduce the number of lost blocks on-chain. This will enhance our ability to estimate staking returns, providing stakers with a more accurate expected return graph.

The Energi 3.1 Asgard difficulty algorithm is a new type of difficulty algorithm based on a PID controller. The PID controller uses three components: the P term representing the present, the I term representing the past, and the D term representing the future, to achieve highly accurate and efficient difficulty adjustments. In contrast, all other cryptocurrencies use only a P controller to adjust difficulty. By only considering the current state of block time, the P controller difficulty algorithm can easily overshoot the target and oscillate around it.

In our simulations, we found that the new Asgard difficulty algorithm significantly outperforms other algorithms. A relevant comparison is Bitcoin's recent 60% hash rate drop, which led to a 250% increase in BTC block time and took over two months to resolve. When we simulated this situation using the new difficulty algorithm, we only saw about 25% of block time failures resolved within a few hours.

Overall, the 3.1 hard fork will bring a new level of comprehensive stability to Energi, which in turn will enhance the security of the network as we continue to scale and introduce new products to the ecosystem (such as Energi Bridge and Energi Synthetic Assets).

Energi holders do not need to take any action. Your NRG will remain secure in your wallet and will not be affected by the hard fork in any way.

For masternode operators and stakers, you need to ensure that you update your core node software to version 3.1.0 before the hard fork block. If you do not do this, you will end up on a split chain and may need to manually reconfigure your node.

After brief testing on our testnet, the Energi 3.1 hard fork will enter the Energi mainnet on August 25. It will bring a comprehensively improved difficulty algorithm, providing a new level of stability for the Energi ecosystem.

The new algorithm will eliminate many technical issues that node operators have faced since the Gen 3 migration, preparing Energi to scale and add new products to our DeFi suite. It will also improve the consistency and predictability of staking rewards.