Lots of questions have been popping up about what actually happens on the day that Olympia finishes and Babylon begins. We’ll cover all the high points here.
Upgrade Process
Step 1 - Olympia Shutdown
Network epoch 32718 will be the last epoch for the Olympia protocol. All Olympia nodes which have adopted the final version of the Olympia node will deterministically calculate the final state of the network, which will serve as the genesis of Babylon. This process is expected to take about 5 minutes, after which they will provide that final state to anyone who asks for it. Olympia nodes will continue to provide information about past transactions, but will not accept new transactions for processing and will not listen to any nodes broadcasting that they’re trying to start new consensus rounds.
Step 2 - Babylon Genesis
Babylon validator nodes will already be running ahead of the Olympia shutdown, and will be polling Olympia nodes asking if they have an end state to use for genesis yet. Once the end state is available, they will copy it over and then begin ingesting it and constructing the correct Babylon genesis state. This is estimated to require roughly 15-20 minutes, but will depend upon each node’s individual processing power and I/O speed. As each node completes its individual handling of genesis, it will attempt to begin consensus using the Babylon network protocol. As soon as validators representing 2/3rds of delegated stake have completed this process, Babylon will officially be underway!
Step 3 - Core Services Come Online
Once Foundation nodes have completed genesis, the Gateway Service will begin aggregating data for Babylon. This is expected to require 20-30 minutes to complete, after which it will be caught up with the network and open for business.
After the Gateway has caught up, Radix’s official Babylon-related websites and dApps, such as the Dashboard, will go online. This will include a new version of the official wallet download page at wallet.radixdlt.com.
Step 4 - Wallets Are Published
The Radix Connector Extension, which enables connectivity to the mobile wallets, will go live in the Chrome Web Store, and be available for installation.
An end-of-life version of the Radix Olympia Desktop Wallet will be released, which knows that Olympia has completed, and will expose the export process by which users can easily migrate over to the Babylon Radix Wallet. If you are already running the Radix Olympia Desktop Wallet, it will appear in-app as an upgrade to v1.6. A direct download link will also be available from the updated wallet.radixdlt.com under “Need to migrate from the old Radix Olympia Desktop Wallet?”.
Meanwhile, the pre-approved iOS and Android Radix Wallets will be flipped to live in the App Store and Google Play. Due to regional propagation delays in both platforms, some regions may see the applications sooner than others.
As soon as the appropriate Wallet is available in your region, you’re all set to install and get started with Babylon.
Step X - Third-Party Integrations Come Online
All third-party services wishing to continue to operate on Babylon have to change their systems to understand the many novel facets of the new protocol. The development team has been diligently polling and supporting all known partners, including exchanges, to make sure that they are prepared for Babylon. Public documentation and tooling for this has been present since the initial RCnet release in March, and the good news is that the response has been extremely positive. There’s a predictable cadence at this point where the integrator first takes a day or two to wrap their head around just how different Babylon is from other crypto networks (including Olympia!), and then rapidly gets through the necessary steps.
Each service provider has their own choice to make on when to go live for Babylon. While the development team will continue to keep them updated as the date approaches, if you have questions about the predicted availability of a particular exchange or service then your best bet is to ask them directly.
Step X - Third-Party dApps Go Live
As with third-party off-ledger services, each dApp developer must decide their own ship date. The network and associated tooling will all be ready on release day, so if you are counting on a particular application being available, then please talk with its developer.
Q&A
How can I see what I’m supposed to do in order to go from the Olympia Desktop Wallet to the Babylon Wallet?
Let’s start with a quick reminder: there’s nothing you need to do right now! A couple days before Babylon goes live, a video will be released which demonstrates the migration process. Worry not! It is very, very easy to do and only takes a few minutes.
In total, about how long will it be from when Olympia shuts down to when I’m using the Babylon network?
This will depend on how fast the Radix Wallet becomes available in your particular region, and how quickly you get through the Olympia Wallet import process, but you can ballpark it at something like 2-3 hours all told, if the App Store and Google Play are not experiencing unusually high propagation delays.
What happens to my stake and my accounts during the migration process?
It all gets migrated to Babylon, and there are no actions you need to take. This is described more completely in the Automatic Migration Guide.
Why aren’t you releasing the Babylon Wallet to the App Store & Google Play ahead of the switch?
Because while you fine folks are part of the informed crowd and are diligently following what’s going on, many people would simply download the application and not understand that it was connecting to a test network, and that mainnet was not yet available.
I’m a developer who has been using one of the preview Wallet releases! Will I just update my existing installation after the upgrade?
Nope, you’ll need to delete it entirely and then install the Production version from the appropriate platform store. The Production version will be capable of switching to Stokenet for development work, and the preview applications will be removed from their respective stores.
What happens to Olympia nodes that didn’t adopt the last Olympia Node release?
They’ll keep ticking along thinking that the next epoch will be business as usual, but they won’t be able to reach a quorum to continue consensus, because validators comprising at least 79% of the network stake will have waved goodbye and moved on to Babylon. Stragglers who didn’t patch their Olympia node will perceive that a liveness break has occurred, as designed. The Olympia protocol will have ended, gone to live free on a farm, and no further Olympia transactions can be processed.
I’m a node-runner! When can I expect the Babylon Node 1.0 release?
Friday, September 22nd. You can run the RCnet v3.1 release right now to be sure that you’re ready for Babylon, and prepare whatever infrastructure you feel is appropriate for monitoring. The 1.0 release will be a simple swap-in replacement. Please see the documentation here.