Please see below for the details of this custodian grant proposal. I could not get the assistant to respond to the “custodian hash” command, but I’ve posted the grant details anyway. I will start development before the grant is passed to ensure this important update is released ASAP. As I’ll be starting earlier I’ve changed the delivery from 4 weeks to 2 weeks. I will release the update when I have completed it and the grant has been passed.
Update: The DNS seeder has been implemented already. The other changes will be released if the grant is passed under version 4.3.
This proposal aims to address some issues with the NuDroid application. Many users have reported problems with connecting to peers and therefore synchronising the blockchain and broadcasting/receiving transactions (https://discuss.nubits.com/t/nudroid-v4-now-available-on-google-play/2436/21). This update would provide a solution to this, but also include other improvements to the reliability and performance.
If this proposal is passed, Matthew Mitchell (MatthewLM) shall develop and deploy the listed changes to NuDroid for 2,200 NBT within 2 weeks after the grant has been passed. 2 weeks is an upper limit, and efforts will be made to release the app sooner than this. The changes will be released as version 4.2 on Google Play. If the update is not released within 2 weeks with all the changes, the entire NBT amount shall be burned.
The two major updates are:
Use willy’s DNS seeder pending the results of the motion: [Passed] Running Nubits-Seeder on the anton.coinerella.com server This would replace the hardcoded seed nodes with realtime reliable nodes. Assuming that the DNS seed continues to function as intended, the peer discovery will be more reliable. This would remove issues that people have been having with synchronisation and transaction broadcasting.
Add willy’s trusted server (https://anton.coinerella.com/q/getvalidhashes) as a default trusted server for block validation, which was deployed by this grant: [Passed] Grant for maintaining a NuDroid server This server will be included by default for new installations providing the two servers labelled “Default - Explorer” (original) and “Default - Anton”. For users that update, the app will provide a message when they next start the app asking the user if they would like to add the new server. By having two default servers the application can continue to function if one of them is offline.
Show error when a Shapeshift transaction fails after pressing Send.
Do not stall the Shapeshift update timer when leaving the application.
Improved shut-down of the Blockchain service, making certain parts of the app more responsive and fixes an Application Not Responding problem that mostly occurred whilst restoring wallet backups.
Do not close the app after restoring a wallet whilst inside the app.
A few rare crash bugs, and a few code improvements.
Because of the severity of the problem with the seed nodes I’ve decided to publish an intermediate release which contains only @willy’s DNS seeder. I’ve released this on Google Play as version 4.2 and should be available soon. I’ve also uploaded to here: https://github.com/Cybnate/NuDroid/releases/tag/v4.2 This release vastly improves the peer discovery.
The grant has not been passed, but I am sure no one would argue against doing this pre-emptively considering that so many users were having problems. Willy will operate the DNS seeder even in the event his motion does not pass, though in the future it would be ideal for multiple DNS seeders to be used.
This grant will still be open for the other changes. I’ll modify the original post to reflect this. If anyone has any concerns or questions please let me know.
Although the peer discovery is working way better, I have a problem updating the blockchain since the update to 4.2. Anyone else having the same problem? Will try to reload the blockchain in case it is a local problem (have only one device to try at the moment).
Update: Resetting the blockchain under Setting / Diagnostics helped to revive it for me. (maybe just restarting the App might have helped too). It is now updating the blockchain at least. Will do some more testing once synchronised.
Edit: Matthew just told me that Nud had crashed on the server, which might have been the most likely root cause of my problem. Unfortunate coincidence. Nud crashing is second time this week, will keep an eye on this, it appears to be very memory hungry, might have to upgrade the server because of that which doubles the monthly cost.
The bug-fixes and improvements listed at the bottom are not vital but would improve the quality of the app. Adding willy’s trusted server would prevent issues occurring when the current default server is offline. This has occurred a couple of times recently which appears to be due to the memory requirements of the Nu daemon as @Cybnate has already mentioned. Nothing is stopping people adding other trusted servers now, but it may be beneficial for willy’s server to be added by default.
I tried v4.2 yesterday on Nexus 7 (16GB).
Receiving NuBits was smooth.
Then I tried to send some litecoins and peercoins but it crashed the app each time.
It says that it was unable to convert the funds or something similar.
Does it seem to be caused by the app itself of shapeshift.io?
Does this motion intend to repair this kind of bug? (sorry I am still hesitant in voting in favor of it)
Make sure you send a crashreport. That way it can be looked at and any bugs can be fixed.
This proposal covers a lot, it may cover your problem, but no guarantee that it covers your specific problem until we have the logs and can investigate. At least it would provide a better error message indicating whether the shapeshift services is not available.
I will release the update on or before the 13th of October.
@cryptog: If the app crashes please do indeed send a log, and please give as much detail as you can to help me identify any bugs (error messages, screenshots etc.). If you are able to reproduce the crash/bug, please explain how to do so. I’ll be sure to take a look.