Welcome to this week's issue of the The Baking Sheet, your weekly newsletter for all the latest and greatest in the world of Tezos.

Another day, another Tezos protocol upgrade. To date, there is no other blockchain that upgrades as consistently, efficiently, and seamlessly than Tezos. Beyond smooth process of upgrading the entire blockchain, Tezos is a power house on creating alignment with the community. There are always differing opinions within the baking community of the direction Tezos should go, however, the governance process enables their voice to be registered and heard. It’s a fair process and its one of the reasons why there are zero successful forks of Tezos.

By the time this newsletter is published, we will already be in the process of upgrading Tezos and entering the Nairobi era. This week we’re going to give Nairobi refresher and how this significant upgrade improves Tezos. Don’t get too comfortable in Nairobi though, given the track record of the amazing dev teams in Tezos, don’t be surprised to hear about Proposal ‘O’ very shortly.

An Overview of the Nairobi Upgrade

The Tezos blockchain is slated for some major updates with the Nairobi Protocol Proposal. Here's a simple guide to these improvements:

Performance Enhancement

• The proposal outlines an up to 8x increase in transactions per second (TPS) for specific manager operations, including tez transfers and smart contract calls.

Improved Gas Model

• A better gas model is being introduced, which will adjust for the cost of varying cryptographic curves.

Terminology Changes

• "Endorsements" are proposed to be renamed to "Attestations."

Faster Consensus Building

• Pre-attestations will propagate quicker, speeding up consensus formation.

Enhanced Smart Rollup Functionality

• The proposal includes new host functions for Smart Rollups and internal Layer 2 messages for protocol upgrade awareness.

More detailed explanations of these changes can be found in Nairobi’s technical documentation.

Details of the Updates

Upgraded TPS

• The gas cost of signature verification for manager operations will be more dynamic, depending on the cryptographic curve and payload size.

• The number of manager operations included in a block could increase by a factor of eight, improving performance for specific operations.

New Name for Endorsements

• The term “endorsement” could potentially be misleading. The new term “attestation” better reflects the validators' role in attesting a valid block production.

• This proposal kick-starts the process by introducing "attestation_rights" as a replacement for the "endorsing_rights" RPC endpoint. Both old and new names will coexist in this initial stage.

Improved Validation Pipelining

• The new protocol fine-tunes its Mempool module to validate and propagate operations quickly.

• This should result in faster consensus on block proposals.

Smart Rollups

• The protocol proposal will empower Smart Rollups with more host functions.

• It will also allow rollup kernels to know about Tezos protocol upgrades on Layer 1.

Testing the Nairobi Proposal

• To test the Nairobi proposal, a release candidate for Octez v17.0 will be published soon. A dedicated protocol test network called 'Nairobinet' will also launch in the near future.

• More information about the test network will be available on https://teztnets.xyz/.

Bakers: Upgrade to Octez v17.0 Before Upgrade

Octez 17.0 is now available — Make sure to update before June 23rd. This new version introduces Nairobi, the latest protocol proposal for the main network, and its related executable files.

What's New in Octez 17.0?

The main updates in this version include:

• The launch of version 9 of the protocol environment, which is a collection of functions that protocols can use. This update is required by Nairobi 1, a suggested protocol upgrade that is currently being reviewed through on-chain governance.

• Enhancements to Smart Rollups executables, which are standalone files that can be run without installing software.

• Further developments to the Octez node logging infrastructure, which records and tracks network events.

Compatibility and Upgrade Recommendation

Octez 17.0 is the earliest released version that is compatible with Nairobi. If the community approves this new protocol during the current Promotion period, we expect it to be activated on the main network around June 23rd. Therefore, we strongly encourage all bakers and node operators to upgrade to Octez 17.0 in a timely manner.

We also recommend those participating in the test network to upgrade to this new version. Specifically, Ghostnet 1 participants should note that this test network will switch to Nairobi earlier, at the end of cycle 624 (before block #2,957,313) on Wednesday, June 14th.

For a complete list of changes and update instructions, visit the version 17 release page:

https://tezos.gitlab.io/releases/version-17.html

You can find this release under the Git tag v17.0. The corresponding commit hash is 7821dc31b1eea97c55bbf100ea4eb9d45010e77b.

Tez/Dev 2023 — Registration is now Open

Join us for the much-anticipated second annual TezDev Conference - an event that offers a golden opportunity for anyone interested in being at the cutting edge of the web3 revolution to connect, learn, and celebrate within the Tezos ecosystem.

Connect with Tezos Developers

Embark on an exciting journey by becoming part of an ever-growing community:

• Global Connection: Unite with talented Tezos developers from all corners of the globe, each bringing unique insights and expertise.

• Flexible and Efficient Development: Learn how to construct and innovate on the highly versatile and eco-friendly Tezos blockchain.

• Community Building: By joining us, you're not just stepping into a conference; you're becoming a valuable member of a burgeoning Tezos community.

Discover Insights from Ecosystem Teams

Gain invaluable knowledge from some of the brightest minds in the blockchain realm:

• Expert Talks: Listen to captivating speakers, sharing their ideas, innovations, and the motivations that drew them to the Tezos ecosystem.

• International Innovation: With representatives from across the world, gain a panoramic view of the cutting-edge advancements happening within the blockchain industry.

Celebrate the Global Tezos Ecosystem

Partake in an appreciation of the Tezos community that spans across continents:

• Global Network: Tezos takes pride in being a truly international blockchain, boasting a network of developer hubs and organizations from around the world.

• Ecosystem Building: Witness how the global community of creators and innovators coalesce, adding to the rich tapestry of the Tezos ecosystem.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Tezos family, where together, we'll shape the future of web3 on Tezos — Register here

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Tezos x OCaml: How the self-amending blockchain uses OCaml

Tezos New York is hosting a meetup at Jane Street focused on OCaml featuring Sebastien Mondet.

Sebastien is an accomplished software engineer at Oxhead Alpha, a talented dev team within the Tezos ecosystem.

His talk will introduce attendees to Tezos: a blockchain distinguished by its ability to evolve through protocol updates. The protocol itself is defined as a set of OCaml modules. Sebastien will also explore intriguing uses of OCaml in Octez—the main implementation of Tezos—and other projects within the ecosystem.

How to Register

Please note: To attend this meetup you must register through the OCaml Meetup. You can find the registration page at the following link: OCaml Meetup Registration

Stars of TZAPAC Series — Dom Money

TZ APAC published a second story from their incubator, This week spotlights, DOM Money, a startup that is setting a new benchmark in the realm of cryptocurrency, streamlining its use as a practical, widely-accepted medium of exchange. Garnering attention from VC firm Antler and striking an agreement with the global hiring platform Deel, DOM Money is making significant strides towards universal financial inclusion.

This transformative venture is rooted in the accelerating shift towards cryptocurrency, with an impressive 36% of workers in 2022 advocating for full or partial remuneration in cryptocurrency. DOM Money is set to bridge the gap between crypto's potential and its real-world application, addressing the scarcity of vendors accepting crypto payments.

Their innovative solutions include a user-friendly crypto wallet, a seamless crypto-to-fiat transaction process for merchants, and an accessible approach to DeFi participation. This, coupled with their strategic revenue streams and notable achievements, positions DOM Money at the forefront of catalyzing crypto adoption.

For an in-depth look at how DOM Money is making crypto transactions an everyday reality, read the full article here.

This Week in Tezos Development

Flextesa Sandboxes with Smart Optimistic Rollups | OxHead Alpha

Flextesa has launched a new feature, the smart optimistic rollup sandbox, intended to simplify experimentation with smart optimistic rollups in a local setting. Introduced in the Mumbai upgrade, smart optimistic rollup is a Layer 2 solution that enhances the scalability of Tezos by bundling multiple operations into one.

Key Takeaways

• Easy Setup: To support a straightforward setup process, the Docker image, oxheadalpha/flextesa:20230607, and scripts like mumbaibox, narirobibox, and alphabox have been released.

• Built-in Commands: The feature comes with two inbuilt commands: start_tx_smart_rollup and start_custom_smart_rollup to facilitate the launch of a smart rollup sandbox.

• Detailed Walkthrough: The article provides a step-by-step guide on how to use the sandbox. It includes sections on setting up a transaction optimistic rollup, initializing the tx-client, creating a new address, minting and depositing tickets, and transferring tickets between addresses.

• Custom Kernel Rollup Sandbox: The feature also allows users to use their custom kernel to start a smart rollup sandbox. The guide explains how to prepare a directory containing kernel files and Michelson smart contracts, how to launch a Flextesa sandbox running the Mumbai protocol, and originate the rollups using the custom kernel.

The smart rollup sandbox is a game-changing addition aimed at simplifying testing and development by offering an environment to originate and experiment with rollups.

For a more comprehensive understanding of the feature and step-by-step instructions, visit the full article here. For additional resources on Flextesa, Smart Optimistic Rollups, and kernel development, consider visiting the Flextesa repository and Tezos documentation.

Now Streaming

Join us for our next TezTalks LIVE featuring MailChain!

Join us as we discuss the recent Tezos integration of Mailchain with CEO and Co-Founder Tim Boeckmann.

Mailchain is a communication layer for web3 communities, enabling users to communicate to different crypto wallet addresses off-chain.

🎬 Stream: YouTube