In January 2024, the BSV Blockchain R&D team announced groundbreaking features for the upcoming Teranode update that will significantly boost network efficiency and speed, pushing BSV’s capabilities to one million transactions per second in the not-too-distant future.
‘By the time you have read this article, Teranode has processed 300 million transactions’, Siggi Oskarsson (Teranode Director at BSV Blockchain)
While Teranode is already being tested and is expected to be released to the public in early 2025, developers should expect to start seeing Teranodes listening on Mainnet, and later, actively participate in block creation while the current Node software, SV Node, is still in use.
Here’s what you need to know about the period leading up to Teranode coming live on mainnet and the time where the two node software implementations are operated side by side on the network.
Q3 Mainnet Listener
What does the mainnet listener do? What events and stages along the transaction life cycle does it “listen” for, incoming transactions, new blocks etc.?
The mainnet listener in Teranode is designed to monitor the BSV network for new transactions and blocks. It captures and processes these events, allowing Teranode to stay up to date and in sync with the current state of the blockchain. Initially, it only focuses on listening to new blocks and transactions, but it will also become involved in the relaying of transactions and blocks.
How will the Teranodes interact with the mainnet SV Nodes?
Teranodes operated by miners and the developing team will join the network just as any other would do. The Teranode implementation that was run during the POC earlier this year is being extended with a p2p gateway microservice that allows it to join the current SV Node network. Initially, Teranodes will function in a passive mode, listening to and recording data from SV Nodes without directly affecting the network. The goal is to ensure compatibility and stability.
Who will be operating such Teranodes?
It’s anticipated that key miners such as TAAL and GorillaPool will operate Teranodes as a “private” release. This will help the team to further harden Teranode and gain an understanding for additional operational requirements. Once publicly released in 2025, technically anyone could run a Teranode. With increasing adoption and growing transaction volumes, the resource requirements may make it challenging for individuals with enterprise-grade hardware and environments. Running a Teranode may require significant computational resources and network bandwidth.
Will we see Teranodes on blockchain explorers?
Teranodes should be visible on blockchain explorers, similar to other nodes on the network. They may be identified by specific node identifiers/versions designation.
Where can I see if the listeners are up and running?
This is yet to be decided. Information about the status of Teranode listeners may be available through the BSV GitHub repository, community forums, or monitoring services provided by BSV-related websites.
What are your biggest challenges to making it work?
For this phase, challenges include ensuring seamless co-operation with existing SV nodes. We have made good progress to date and are confident to deliver against the roadmap.
How do you define success for this phase?
Success would be defined by stable operation, accurate data capture and processing, and positive feedback from TAAL and GorillaPool. We do not foresee any risk or negative impact to the network even if the listeners should run into issues.
Are there other Teranode tests happening in parallel?
As the development of Teranode continues, there will be testing for this purpose. There will be various parallel tests, including stress tests to evaluate transaction throughput, latency tests, and interoperability tests with existing SV nodes. These types of tests are not expected to impact the network.
Are there going to be more scaling tests with Teranode?
Yes, scaling tests are likely planned to evaluate the capabilities of Teranode under high transaction loads and to identify and resolve potential bottlenecks.
Q4 Mainnet Miner
How will the Teranodes interact with the mainnet SV Nodes?
In the mining phase, Teranodes will begin to actively participate in block creation, interacting with SV nodes to validate and propagate new blocks. They will operate side-by-side and communicate with the existing SV Nodes on the network.
What will Teranode blocks look like? Will they be different? If so, will blockchain explorers still work?
Teranode blocks will be structurally identical to SV node blocks, but they may differ in terms of size and the types of transactions they include. Teranode stores the blocks differently and propagates them differently between Teranodes but on the SV node network it is exactly the same.
What are the differences in the treatment of transactions between SV Node and Teranode (we heard: no mempool, no non-final txs etc.) and why does this not result in a new fork of Bitcoin?
Differences will include how transactions are prioritised and propagated, such as not using a mempool or handling non-final transactions differently. These changes are internal to Teranode, and do not change the actual bitcoin protocol at all. Just as now on the network, forks due to competing blocks may occur and will be resolved by orphaning the blocks on the shorter chain tip.
Who will be operating such Teranodes? Can I have a Teranode and why not?
Similar to the listener phase, major miners like TAAL and GorillaPool are expected to operate Teranodes. While anyone can theoretically run a Teranode, practical barriers include the need for specialised hardware and substantial infrastructure investment.
Where can I see if the Teranode miner is up and running?
This is yet to be decided. Information about the status of Teranode listeners may be available through the BSV GitHub repository, community forums, or monitoring services provided by BSV-related websites.
What are your biggest challenges to making it work?
Challenges include ensuring robust transaction processing, maintaining network synchronisation, and preventing any potential network forks or splits due to incompatibilities.
How do you define success for this phase?
Successful operation would be marked by Teranode producing valid blocks, maintaining network stability, and demonstrating improved performance metrics.
Outlook for 2025
When will Teranode be publicly released?
The public release is aimed for 2025, following successful testing and integration phases.
How long will Teranode and SV Node be operated in parallel?
This depends on the network traffic and on the confidence of miners and other node operators. While SV Node is perfectly able to deal with multiples of current volumes, Teranode has been designed to be hyper-efficient and performant at lower comparable cost. Miners and other potential node operators may choose to benefit from this as soon as they are fully familiar with operating Teranodes and confident in its production readiness. The BSVA will continue to support Teranode and SV Node. A future phase out of SV Node will depend the wider adoption of Teranode and the time applications, explorers and so on will need to transition.
What will change for applications and businesses? When?
For now, nothing will change for applications and businesses. It is, however, important that businesses and applications migrate to the technology stack suggested in the Mandala Upgrade. This means adopting the SPV wallet, setting up their Overlay and broadcasting transactions to ARC in the Extended Format.
