The Road to Mainnet & Beyond

Gno the Difference

gno.land is evolving as a cutting-edge decentralized operating system, setting a new standard for building and governing diverse applications. At its core, it provides an open-source smart contract platform designed to address systemic challenges in centralized systems—censorship, lack of user autonomy, misaligned incentives, and non-transparent operations.

The true strength of gno.land lies in its broad applicability across domains. It provides builders with the means to create secure, scalable, and trustless applications that redefine the possibilities of decentralized systems.

gno.land has been advancing through a phased development process aimed at delivering critical functionality at each stage. The network architecture ensures that every milestone reinforces the foundation of a reliable and scalable decentralized ecosystem that prioritizes transparency, forkability, and governance.

Let’s take a closer look at the progress, key milestones, and what’s in store for the future of gno.land.

Milestones Overview

The priority is to establish a secure and stable network. Once operational and thoroughly tested, the infrastructure for rewards distribution and development will activate, accelerating the growth of Gno's ecosystem for both builders and users.

Here’s a look back at what we’ve accomplished so far.

2021: The Beginning

gno.land’s journey began in 2021, carried out by Jae Kwon, who laid the groundwork to develop Gno's most revolutionary component, the Gno Virtual Machine (GnoVM), and bootstrap a simple Tendermint node capable of executing Gno code.

The GnoVM is a virtual machine capable of deterministically running a subset of Go code, where smart contracts are composed together by simply “importing” them, much like working with any standard Go package. The initial work was focused on creating the first iteration of the VM, aiming to implement a complete feature set of Gno while accounting for various edge cases.

By the end of 2021, rudimentary tooling was available for experimenting with the VM, an extensive suite of tests was in place, and an initial version of Gno’s state persistence was implemented. The first commits for the boards realm were introduced, and a functional chain executable was developed, enabling the addition of new packages and the ability to call functions within them.

2022: The First Testnets

The full scope of the project only became evident in 2022, following the implementation of the initial functionality. During this period, the Gno project experienced a significant increase in contributors, resulting in a surge of new features, bug fixes, and developments across multiple areas beyond just the VM. The Gno core team grew to three full-time engineers, with additional hiring efforts underway.

Three testnets were launched (test1, test2 and test3), each with significant improvements in usability and ease of access for newcomers, and more example realms.
The boards realm was improved, with the introduction of new features including editing posts, moderation, and links to easily construct replies to posts using gnokey. Additionally, thanks to the users realm, Gno users were able to register a username which then showed up on the boards realm (among others).
The Onbloc team began the development of the first gno.land wallet, Adena, marking the first steps to creating web dApps using gno.land.
The RPC layer got many improvements, including qeval and other features to inspect Gno code.
Additional examples were added on creating GRC20 tokens, as well as string formatting utilities.
The first workshops and presentations were posted on how to program in Gno.
On the Gno side, the VM was consistently improved to fix more bugs and increase its safety for use on-chain.

End-of-year status

2023: The Growth

In 2023, the Gno team grew to twelve engineers, many of whom continue to form the Gno core development team today. Around the same time, gno.land began seeing its first real-world applications, putting its capabilities to the test.

Additionally, new developer tools were introduced to enhance the Gno development experience. These include utilities such as gno doc, gno repl, gno lint, alongside gnodev, which is the foundational tool for building realms on gno.land today.

GnoChess was an early experiment to program complex Gno smart contracts, capable of running the backend of a chess server. The Gopher community had the opportunity to experience GnoChess for the first time at GopherCon 2023, where gno.land highlighted Gno’s unique features and its potential to transform the decentralized application landscape.
Test3, launched at the end of 2022 and continued in 2023, enabled builders to experiment with running full nodes and developing indexers. It provided a persistent history of state for everyone.
Many API decisions, like std.PrevRealm(), were discussed and implemented.
The License for gno.land was established as the Gno Network Public License, a fork of the GNU Afferro General Public License.
Berty and Teritori became core ecosystem builders, creating integrated applications, communication tools, and social platforms.
The first official documentation was released, allowing more users to be onboarded onto gno.land without having to learn directly from the source.
The Beta version of Gno Playground launched, providing a space to experiment Gno programs and realms directly from the web.

End-of-year status

2024 prioritized the creation of a stable chain to launch as soon as possible. Throughout the year, the team focused on delivering great stability on gno.land and being able to fix the most critical issues which stand in the way of launching the first stable network.

The launch of Test4 on July 15, 2024, was a major milestone in gno.land’s journey. One of the main objectives of this testnet was to collect valuable knowledge and expertise from operations like running a full node, testing validator coordination, deploying stable Gno dApps, creating and testing tools that require persisted state and transaction history.

During Test4, thousands of bug fixes and significant advancements were implemented, including improvements to multi-node testnets and essential updates to gnodev.

Here’s a breakdown of the most important key features that make Test4 unique:

Multi-node Testnet: This was the first testnet that was capable of running on multiple nodes, making important steps towards decentralization
Permanent and stable Testnet: Unlike previous versions, Test4 was a permanent testnet, giving early adopters and builders a consistent environment to build and test dApps while also providing them with the most up-to-date stable environment
GovDAO Proof-of-Concept: Together with the launch of Test4, the first framework for decentralized governance was introduced, allowing selective contributors to begin participating in decision-making processes.

Test4 provided critical insights into running a multinode network and facilitating on-chain governance. The result was a stable blockchain network with 7 validator nodes, as well as 5 governance proposals, 3 of them executed successfully based on the two-thirds majority.

Later in 2024, Test5 was released. Main key elements that Test5 enabled include: expanding the current validator set, which now consists to 17 validators, pushing additional GnoVM fixes, releasing GovDAO v2, and overall quality-of-life improvements for builders. View testnet’s current activity and deployed realms on Gnoscan.

The Gno Core Team also greatly focused on creating a stable experience on Gno:

Fixing many different bugs on the VM and making its behaviour more predictable and better documented.
Improving “quality of life” tools that show the power of developing on gno.land, like the transaction indexer and gnodev
Improving performance in critical paths and making behaviors of different APIs consistent, and clearing out the standard libraries.
Improving the behavior of integration tools, like gnoclient and gnokey, as well as kick-starting development of a mobile gnokey application.

The road ahead starts with the preparation of the gno.land’s Beta Launch. Here is how the path forward looks like.

Beta Launch (UPCOMING)

We’re excited to announce that as 2024 comes to a close, we are gearing up for Beta Launch, anticipated in early 2025. Here’s what you can expect at genesis:

Contributors who have built gno.land will form the initial Governance DAO ("GovDAO"), distributing membership into three tiers—T1 (highest), T2, and T3 (lowest)—based on the size and impact of their contributions as outlined in Jae Kwon's GovDAO draft. Membership is governed by age limits, contribution criteria, and a structured payment system tied to the GovDAOPayTreasury to ensure compensation directly aligns with each contributor's level of contribution. The GovDAO proposal remains an initial draft subject to revisions before final implementation.
gno.land will intentionally maintain a modest transaction processing speed at genesis; however, the network will enable early adopters to experience its features and begin accruing rewards based on their contributions to the project While not immediately claimable, these rewards will become redeemable in future phases to recognize early participants for their contributions.
gno.land will operate under a Constitution that establishes clear guidelines on the community's rights, liberties, obligations, governance, economics, and both current and future implementations of the gno.land chain. The gno.land contributor community will participate and engage in this effort.
The genesis token distribution of GNOT, gno.land’s native token, will primarily allocate the majority of the supply to the Cosmos Hub (ATOM holders) community, rewarding their alignment with gno.land’s mission. The remaining GNOT allocations will be used to support gno.land’s community pool, various Builders DAOs or builders communities, and the core team builders (through NewTendermint), which will play a crucial role in shaping the platform’s future growth and development. The GNOT token will be distributed at launch but will initially be non-transferable.
While the GNOT token will not be transferable, users of the network will be able to use it to pay for gas fees. Token holders will be able to view their balances, with expected support from Ledger, Adena, and,potentially, other community wallets. This will allow users to deploy and interact with realms on gno.land. Please note that the current chain design does not involve any staking. Instead, the voting power is determined by a member’s reputation.
Builders will have the opportunity to build and test dApps, thereby actively contributing to the platform’s growth. Although the GNOT token is not going to be transferable, it will still be possible to mint, burn and transfer both coins (a native kind of token, accessible through smart contracts using the banker module) and tokens implemented in code, i.e. GRC20 tokens, similar to their ERC counterparts.

Builders should be aware that during gno.land’s Beta network state, the core team may, in exceptional cases, need to revert the chain state. Such instances might include:

Identification of a GnoVM bug that requires a rollback and replay of transactions.
Detection of a functional issue within a realm, where the fix is well-defined, and replaying transactions is required to maintain consistency.

The Beta Launch will equip contributors with essential tools to build and experiment on gno.land. We have published a Launch Milestone to track progress and explore the specific initiatives we plan to address up until launch.

Key components of the network at Genesis include:

GnoVM : For the Beta Launch, the GnoVM is anticipated to be in a relatively stable and nearly feature-complete state. Bugs are an expected part of this phase; caution is advised to navigate potential issues.
Tendermint2: Tendermint2 will mark a significant leap in consensus performance and scalability. Key improvements include faster block finality, more robust validator management, and greater resilience to node failures.
GovDAO Formation: gno.land’s decentralized governance system will be live at Genesis. Composed of the most active contributors, GovDAO will take on responsibility for governing gno.land on-chain, handling decisions like protocol upgrades, parameter changes, and other critical decisions to ensure the network's long-term sustainability and community alignment.
Boards: Boards will operate as a single realm where users can create and participate in forums and message boards, subject to board-specific permissions. Each board will be managed through its own administration DAO.

Key tools for builders available at the Beta Launch:

Core dev tools: A fully-featured set of tools for local development of Gno dApps and libraries, including gnokey, a powerful CLI key management tool and client, gnoweb, a universal web frontend for gno.land, and gnodev, a local development solution stack offering a built-in gno.land node with a hot-reload feature for smart contracts.
Gno Playground: A browser-based tool to write, test, run, deploy, and share Gno code, inspired by the Go playground. It offers a simple and interactive way to experiment with Gno without the need for a local development environment.
Gno Studio: A powerful unified development platform designed to drive dApp development on gno.land. This product suite will include a full-featured IDE, workspace management, production-grade capabilities, and integrated tools to support efficient development workflows. It will eventually feature an extensive marketplace for realm templates and ready-to-use solutions. Today, the beta version of Studio features a minimal version of the IDE via Gno Playground, along with Connect, an app designed for realm interaction.
Gno.me: Envisioned to be a dynamic ecosystem of realms serving as an educational and community hub to empower builders through learning, collaboration, and engagement. The initial release, which is estimated to be ready by the Beta Launch, will feature tutorials, a tooling section, and ecosystem updates, with plans to evolve into a vibrant space for community interaction and a comprehensive educational platform.
docs.gno.land: The official gno.land documentation, covering basic concepts, getting started tutorials, developer guides, references, and more.
gno/examples: Ready-to-use example smart contracts and libraries written in Gno.
Community Spaces: Builders will have access to expanded tooling to build and deploy applications in gnoverse, a community-led GitHub space, ensuring gno.land becomes a productive ground to encourage future innovation.

Mainnet Launch (UPCOMING)

While our Beta Launch will introduce the core features of the gno.land network, the Mainnet Launch will focus on expanding gno.land’s interoperability with other chains. By providing a fully-featured, interoperable blockchain, gno.land will allow builders to integrate their products and services with the gno.land network, therefore scaling the ecosystem.

Here are some key features of the Mainnet Launch:

Interoperability with IBC and ICS: gno.land will integrate Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) and Interchain security (ICS), allowing seamless interaction between gno.land and other IBC and ICS compatible chains. During this milestone, modified versions of IBC and ICS will be integrated, versions that are fully compatible with existing Cosmos chains, called IBCx and ICSx.
Gno SDK: Builders will gain access to the Gno SDK, making the entire process of building and deploying dApps on the network much easier.
Launchpad for dApps: The release of a specific Launchpad for dApps will allow builders to quickly deploy and scale their applications on gno.land.
Reward Distribution: Contributors will be able to collect the rewards they have accumulated from different contributions until this phase of the network.
Performance Enhancements: The Mainnet Launch will also introduce significant performance upgrades, including sharding and increased TPS, to support more complex applications.
Transfers enabled: During this phase of the launch, GNOT tokens become transferable. This transition will mark a significant milestone, allowing users to engage in token transactions, interact with the network and its applications, and contribute to the broader economic activities within the gno.land ecosystem.
Boards: A full social interaction dApp will be available. Users will continue to create and participate in forums and message boards, with the added ability to build their own decentralized social media platforms using a customizable framework. Forkability and DAO-driven governance will enable scalable, user-driven communities.

Call to Contribute

gno.land puts at the center of its identity the contributors that are helping to create and shape the project. Contributing to gno.land’s development today means you have the opportunity to make a notable impact at such a critical stage in the project’s roadmap.

For now, we are looking for the earliest adopters; those curious to explore a new way to build smart contracts and eager to be a part of the next generation of blockchain programming. Join us and become a contributor today!

Conclusion

With more than three years in the making, gno.land is now closer than ever to launching. The Beta Launch, while representing an important step in gno.land’s journey, should be seen as only the beginning.

Future milestones are envisioned to bring improved performance, interoperability with other blockchain networks through IBCx and ICSx, the ability for builders to integrate their products and services with gno.land, onboarding tools for different user segments, enhanced support for builders and much more.

We will host a Q&A on Discord, Thursday, December 19th at 6:30 pm CET/ 9:30 am PST, for the community to join and learn more about gno.land and upcoming milestones. Please add questions ahead of time to this form so we can make sure to address them.

Tags: #gnoland #gnovm #betalaunch #blockchain #golang

Written by adrianakalpa, michelleellen, thehowl, salmad3, Kouteki, leohhhn on 16 Dec 2024

Published by g125em6arxsnj49vx35f0n0z34putv5ty3376fg5 to gno.land's blog