October went by lightning fast for us at Sonm, and as we were preparing this report, we were wondering once again just how many things happened. So, what are the main highlights you should know, if you didn’t follow our daily news updates in October? A LOT of platform improvements, the launch of full support for forward deals, 1 new client case revealed — post-production studio Shotty used Sonm for rendering tasks — 8 (!) speeches, and 1 new exchange — CoinOne: the way to the hearts of Korean investors. Let’s dig deeper! This will be a bit of a long read, so make yourself a cup of tea.
Development news
Platform
- Implemented a prototype of Module for the automatic management of deals and tasks (a new bot that enables automatic resource provision on the Sonm platform). This bot has been successfully tested, including on Livenet in real transactions. Now there is a final stage before the release of this component (the preparation of documentation, the final review of the code, and the final tests)
- Testing for the Sonm OS public beta with an automated installer continues. Issued 2 updates (v 0.1.2 and v 0.1.3) with fixes for bugs found. A version of Sonm OS has been created with another installation option based on the Debian installer Ubuntu, which is now being tested by developers. In the near future, this version will also be released in public beta. Work is also continuing on a new version of Sonm OS with an automatic bootable flash drive creation tool and the ability to boot into “live USB” mode.
- Testing of forward deals continues, support for forward deals has been added in Optimus, and now Optimus is capable of optimizing orders targeting forward deals in addition to its previous spot-only support.
- A lot of work was done in terms of upgrading Optimus’s algorithms, which has made it possible to increase its speed by about 6 times.
Changelog
v0.4.12
- Updated Ethereum (now the project can be built on go 1.11).
- The gRPC rate limiter was added and can now control the restriction of the Worker and Node service usage by specifying the rate limiter interceptor, which can be configured to take action in both global and precise settings for each respective method.
- Improved system Btrfs based storage quotas.
- General platform improvements:
- added the new GetOrdersByIDs method in DWH, which allows users to get orders with required IDs
- added the new GetStats() handle, which returns current DWH stats
- added the ability to print the CPU model in the cmd of worker devices
- added the ability to pass the “–password=topsecret” flag for the “sonmcli login” command for the auto-installer script
- added the ability to show the change request price in USD/h
- added the ability to show the CPU cryptonight benchmark in the CLI
- Optimus and Profitability calculator algorithm improvements: reduced the BID price predictor deviation by training it on BID orders that were successfully converted into deals. This change should reduce the deviation between the predicted and actual prices. Also, Optimus is now trained on BID orders, whereas previously, only active orders were used.
- Fixed platform component bugs.
- Added the ability to return REST errors as JSON, slightly changing the REST server behavior by forcing it to return errors as JSON for the sake of consistency (previously all errors were returned as plain text).
- Added the ability to make DWH refuse to respond to user requests if the DB is out of sync with the blockchain.
- Added single shot ask-plans, which changes the ask-plan behavior; now, after the order is canceled or the deal is closed, the ask plan is removed.
- General platform improvements:
- added the Blacklist purge method
- added a new method to the Node API that provides the ability to stop several tasks at once
- added the ability to show hourly expenses for deals
- added the ability to show trace info in Rendezvous logs
- exposed a DWH API on Node
- added more REST interceptors — logging and tracing
- decreased the connection timeout in sonmmon in Sonm OS
- Optimus and Profitability calculator algorithm improvements:
- added the axe optimization model (the model from the winner of our programming challenge)
- added support for forward deals in Optimus; now, Optimus is capable of optimizing orders targeting forward deals in addition to its previous spot-only support (in the config, one can specify the maximum deal duration that Optimus will partake in)
- added the ability to teach Optimus to cancel optimization; now, Optimus can stop its optimization process if a caller is no longer waiting for the result
- done chunked fetching orders in Optimus (we’ve reached the gRPC frame size limit when fetching too many orders from the DWH; this improvement applies paging to avoid this problem)
- fixed bugs and made small improvements to existing algorithms
- Connor algorithm improvements:
- added the common pool processor for anti-fraud
- added a generalized log parser for Connor, which replaces particular log parsers with a single one with a subset of settings that can be applied to (almost) any logs with a number in their fields. The log reader now has three options related to logline analyzing: string pattern for lines in the logs, field number for lines and a multiplier for parsed values
- added a config option that changes the “restoreMarketState” behavior; if the “no_cancel” parameter is enabled, Connor will adapt orders that do not fit in target order’s set
- fixed bugs and made small improvements to existing algorithms
- Fixed a thread-safety issue while handling Rendezvous errors
- Fixed platform component bugs
- Algorithm improvements to boost Optimus’s performance. The overall performance has been increased by about 6 times:
- optimized reallocations in Optimus
- added cache GPU benchmarks to Optimus
- added a cache benchmark meta to Optimus
- added pre-filter GPUs to Optimus
- Connor algorithm improvements: added the Pool processor for UleyPool, which adds a new pool processor to Connor’s antifraud system
- Fixed platform component bugs
Implementations in progress:
- We are conducting active development of the Ratings and SLA system (a system to enforce the reliability of rented resources, based on the economic incentive of receiving higher ratings). The Ratings and SLA system affects many components of Sonm. We have implemented the first prototypes of individual parts of the Ratings and SLA system.
- The first alpha prototype of the Blockchain Explorer with a simplified user interface has been implemented; this component is now undergoing internal testing and debugging.
- Developed a description of the implementation for a geolocation feature for suppliers/workers: filter-by-geolocation option for consumers, providing the opportunity to rent resources in a chosen country or region. In the near future, the implementation of this feature will begin.
- Development of the prototype implementation of TensorFlow on Sonm has begun.
- Added a monitoring system, similar in capability to the typical monitoring one would expect from a mining OS build (remote monitoring, temperature, fans, auto reboot).
- The installer preparation wizard is in its final stages. It is a Windows-based software that helps to prepare the Sonm OS USB drive, taking care of any complicated steps (image download, key generation, etc).
- An auto-withdrawal feature is underway. It will allow hardware suppliers to specify an Ethereum address for automatic withdrawal, similar to how it works in the mining pool.
Research in progress:
- Research is continuing on the deployment of a CGI rendering farm on Sonm using the Afanasy render farm manager.
- Developed a draft description of the implementation of a Referral system to reward network users who contribute to the platform’s growth.
- Research is continuing on Market Explorer, a system to give Sonm users the ability to track deal history and view platform usage statistics
- Research is continuing on a system for corporate clients to purchase Sonm tokens with wire transfers (fiat gate)
- Research is continuing on various options for implementing Gate Masternodes and Sidechain PoS to determine the best solution. We are investigating Plasma options and other possible solutions.
- Work is underway to implement more coin support with Connor. Currently, we are looking into coins to utilize disks (disk-based mining) and the utilization of GPUS with <= 3GB RAM.
Business & Marketing
It’s been quite a month! We’ve got four events to prepare for this month, with eight speaking opportunities in total. Let’s see how it went, folks.
Fog World, San Francisco
This event was organised by Open Fog Consortium. For those of you who joined us recently, here is some quick info on it from Wikipedia: “Open Fog Consortium is a consortium of high-tech industry companies and academic institutions across the world aiming to standardize and promote fog computing in various capacities and fields. The consortium was founded by Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, Princeton University, Dell, and ARM Holdings in 2015 and now has 57 members across North America, Asia, and Europe, including Forbes 500 companies and noteworthy academic institutions.”
Sonm has been a member of this organisation since the beginning of 2018 and actively participates in its events, sharing the goal of promoting fog technology all over the world, as well as helping to define the industry standards for it.
So, at the October event, Sonm presented an exclusive keynote speech entitled “Public fog computing use case: on demand video rendering on mining rigs”.
Interested attendees could visit our booth later in the hall and meet our team there. Sonm CTO Igor Lebedev and System Architect Eugene Manaev were eager to explain Sonm’s views on fog computing technology and share the main principles of the technical approach.
We also were Gold sponsors of the event, which not only gave us additional exposure in general but was also a valuable contribution to our brand image in the professional sphere.
Cloud Expo, Singapore
Two booths in different exhibition zones and five speaking slots — the conference in Singapore was all business for Sonm. Compared to Fog World, where industry professionals met and discussed the future of the industry, Cloud Expo focused on what the industry is NOW. So, the workshops and speeches were practical, crisp, and easy to digest for all those eager to follow the new trends.
So, this how our tight schedule looked, and our team of three managed to make it all happen perfectly.
Youcon, Saratov
YouCon is an annual conference in Saratov for IT professionals, and it’s one of the biggest events of its kind in Russia. This year, CTO Igor Lebedev, who visited Saratov to meet conference attendees and local Sonm community members on-site, presented Sonm, spreading the word about fog computing.
Open Innovations, Skolkovo
This annual conference took place at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, gathering the most forward-thinking attendees and featuring some world-renowned speakers on stage.
A quote from the event’s website: “The annual Open Innovations forum has been held in Moscow since 2012 under the aegis of the Government of the Russian Federation and is rightfully considered a unique discussion platform for participants in the formation of an innovative ecosystem.”
Sonm was invited to join by the events committee earlier this fall, and in October, CTO Igor Lebedev, along with a number of decision-makers in the field, from established, successful businesses, federal banks, and telecom operators to high-level government execs, took part in the panel discussion “Blockchain: Technology vs Implementation,”.
Some of the other participants:
- Sergey Gorkov — Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, Deputy Minister
- Sebastian Vos — Covington, Partner and Co-Chair Global Public Policy
- Grigoriy Ivliev — Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Head
For the full list, visit the event’s page.
Full video: https://broadcast.comdi.com/watch/r6e25fvm
Social media
Q&A
As usual, we used our Q&A session hosted by Andy Saks to discuss the questions you’re interested in. Here is the link, if you missed it this month:
New case: Shotty
One more client case was revealed: Post-production studio Shotty is an established company on the market for rendering and special-effects computing for the global film industry. The processes of rendering and producing special effects require significant GPU computing power. With the help of the Sonm computing power marketplace, Shotty has acquired the resources needed for video rendering, allowing for a significant reduction in its production costs.
How Shotty Cuts Production Costs Through SONM GPU Resources
One more case revealed! With the help of the #SONM computing power marketplace, the post-production company Shotty has acquired the resources needed for video rendering, allowing a significant reduction in production costs. Read more by the link:https://t.co/1Jhpcfni3N pic.twitter.com/HzD2KKCGNC
— SONM (@sonmdevelopment) October 25, 2018
Featured articles:
Hackernoon
This is an article from industry professional Vyacheslav Akhmetov, who wrote a handy guide for experienced Sonm users entitled “How to run custom applications on Sonm.”
The manual was later published on Hackernoon, and tech-savvy users are now well aware of the project. If you have some free time, please read the article and leave a comment: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-run-custom-application-on-sonm-caa6b7879f3c
It’s just great to see Sonm early adopters sharing experience! Check a new guide on how to run custom application on Sonm from Vyacheslav Akhmetov @Hackernoon. The author, and we too for sure, will appreciate your support!https://t.co/pScopsDyUc
— SONM (@sonmdevelopment) October 18, 2018
Hi-tech.fm
We were also featured in a well-known Russian media outlet dedicated to innovation and startups — Hi-tech.fm. We started to discuss the material earlier this summer, explaining project features and clarifying questions about technology, and voila — in October, the article was published, and we could finally share it with you. Note: It’s written in Russian, but it’s quite understandable with Google Translate.
https://hightech.fm/2018/10/15/sonm
Sonm Blog:
“Building a strong community is a challenge few startups succeed at. Good news breeds questions, bad news breeds misunderstandings, and no news breeds anxiety. At Sonm, we’ve gone through both successes and hardships — but the most important thing is that we’ve never stopped being transparent.” This is how the new article about Sonm community support starts. Read more about the behind-the-scenes life of the Sonm customer support team as told by Dmitry Manin, Head of Customer Service at Sonm.
The Everyday Business of Supporting SONM Clients
CoinOne Listing
At nearly the end of the month, a new exchange added Sonm to its list. This time, it was CoinOne, one of the most important exchanges in South Korea. This listing gives Korean investors access to SNM and is an important milestone for us, as we’re exploring this market. So, the Sonm token is now tradable on the following major exchanges: Binance, HitBTC, CoinOne, Yobit, and more. For the full list and comprehensive instructions on how to top up your wallet with SNM, check out our website: sonm.com
And a little sneak peak of our plans in November: join us at the Q&A, at the CryptoEvent conference in Moscow, and at Data Science Forum in Kiev, Ukraine. There is more to come, and the Sonm team is relentlessly moving forward one step at a time!
Thank you again for being with us! Stay tuned!
Originally published at sonm.com on November 1, 2018.
