SVM Testnet Update: 54K Blocks, Surging Oracle Activity & New Fee Proposals
Hi everyone 👋
Following up on my last comprehensive status update, the Steem Virtual Machine (SVM) testnet continues to run exceptionally well. We are gathering valuable data on network performance, and our on-chain governance is actively tuning the chain's economics for the best possible developer experience.
Here is the latest health report and an important update regarding SVM's fee market governance!
🟢 Network Health & Statistics
The v0.0.3 Bridge Oracle architecture is proving to be incredibly stable. The network has been running smoothly without a single halt, and our validator set is actively securing the chain.
Current Testnet Stats:
- Total Blocks Produced: 54,000+
- Active Validators: 7
- Total Transactions: 700+
- Average Block Time: ~5.3 seconds
📈 Why is the Transaction Count Growing So Rapidly?
You might notice the transaction count climbing quickly even without heavy manual user testing. This is exactly what we want to see!
The surge in transactions is being driven by the Oracle Price Feed. Under the new v0.0.3 architecture, our validators are continuously running the commit-reveal price oracle protocol. Every voting period, validators submit cryptographic commitments and subsequently reveal their price data. This background "chatter" ensures the price feeds are constantly updating and the unified accountability system is accurately tracking validator duties in real-time.
🏛️ Governance: Tuning the EVM Fee Market
One of the core benefits of SVM being a Cosmos SDK-based app-chain is that we can use on-chain governance to dynamically adjust network parameters. Recently, we've been using proposals to fine-tune the EVM feemarket to ensure it is affordable for developers and users.
✅ Proposal 1: Establishing a Baseline (Passed)
Previously, the default minimum fees on the network were hovering around 3.1 STEEM, which was far too high for standard smart contract interactions and testing.
To fix this, we passed Proposal 1, which successfully floored the EVM feemarket base fee at 100,000,000,000,000 asteem (0.0001 STEEM) per gas unit. This brought the network down from a multi-dollar fee structure to a fraction of a cent, making basic deployments viable.
🗳️ Proposal 3: Dropping the Floor by 100X (Live Now!)
After monitoring the network post-Proposal 1, we realized that while 0.0001 STEEM/gas is much better, it is still slightly too expensive in practice for heavy EVM testing, micro-transactions, and complex DeFi contract deployments.
To solve this, I have just submitted Proposal 3 to the governance module.
What Proposal 3 Does:
- Drops the
min_gas_pricefloor by 100X. - New Floor: Lowers the fee from 0.0001 STEEM/gas down to 0.000001 STEEM/gas (1,000,000,000
asteem/gas). - The Goal: To ensure SVM remains a hyper-accessible, ultra-low-cost environment for developers building on Steem's Gateway to SocialFi.
If you are running an SVM validator, please check the governance module and cast your vote on Proposal 3!
🔄 Previous Updates & Resources
If you are new to the SVM v0.0.3 journey or want to read up on the technical deep-dives, check out my recent posts:
- SVM Status After Upgrade - Consolidated summary of the v0.0.3 relaunch, Oracle protocol, and setup scripts.
- SteemVM v0.0.3 Deep Dive: SBD Bridging, Price Oracle & Validator Accountability
- SteemVM Oracle Client Protocol: Building a Reliable Multi-Language Validator Oracle
- How to Set Up a Brand-New SVM Validator (v0.0.3)
GitHub Repository: SteemVirtualMachine-EVM (Remember to use the feat/v0.0.3-bridge-oracle branch!)
Thank you to the validators keeping the network healthy, and to everyone participating in the governance process to make SVM the best EVM environment on Steem.
If you value proactive engineering, UX polish, and performance optimizations for the STEEM ecosystem, please consider supporting my witness: blaze.apps