In this issue...
- Composable App-Rollups (CARs): Technical overview of Nockchain's offchain execution model with onchain proofs
- Nockchain Mining Pool on H9: Major proof-of-capacity platform adds Nockchain support
- Network Reliability Improvements: Critical fixes for peer connections, wallet UX, and performance optimizations
- Community News
- Nockchain Analytics
Introduction to Composable App-Rollups (CARs)
Nockchain separates computation from settlement using an offchain app-rollup model, as explained in a new technical post on the Zorp blog. Applications execute logic offchain and generate zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) for verification on the settlement layer, which avoids the execution bottlenecks of traditional smart contracts. This design allows for high throughput but maintains the existing settlement latency. This latency is mitigated for the user by offchain preconfirmations, providing an instant, Web2-like experience.
Atomic composability, typically native to synchronous smart contract platforms, is achieved through an intent-based system where users declare desired outcomes rather than explicit transactions. Offchain apps process these intents, and their resulting proofs can be bundled for unified settlement.
"Multiple intents across different offchain applications can be aggregated into a single cryptographic proof."
This aggregation allows Nockchain to act as a shared sequencer, enabling atomic cross-app interactions to be validated in a single onchain state change. Developers trade direct onchain function calls for managing offchain applications, which simplifies testing and debugging in a more traditional development environment.
Read more on the Zorp blog: Composable App-Rollups.
Nockchain Mining Pool on H9
H9 (formerly HPool), one of the world's largest proof-of-capacity mining platforms, just launched Nockchain pool support.
H9 was founded in 2017 as HPool by early Chinese Bitcoin miners. They operate pools for Chia, BitcoinHD, Spacemesh, Arweave, Tari, and others. H9 is led by Singapore-based entrepreneur Alex Yang,
Editor's Note: This is not the pooling infrastructure from Southwestern Pool Supply that we've been foreshadowing in recent weeks! That solution remains in final testing stages and will likely be significantly more user-friendly.
Network Reliability & Performance Updates
This week, we’ve implemented several improvements on issues recently affecting node connectivity and user experience.
Connection Reliability Improvements
- The Problem: As the network has scaled, backbone nodes have been handling significantly more load. Nodes have sometimes seen "zero peers." This occurred because backbone nodes were hitting connection limits and peer discovery mechanisms can take time to mesh peers.
- Key Improvements
- Tweaked connection configurations: Backbone nodes can handle more simultaneous connections, propagate at a faster rate, and drop connections less aggressively.
- 3-minute keep-alive: Prevents disconnection during periods of idle activity.
- Mailbox system: Fair resource allocation preventing peer spam. Each peer may only have one outstanding message waiting to be responded to per node.
Wallet Improvements
- Cleaner logging: Eliminated confusing technical messages for better UX.
- Faster transaction drafting: More responsive transaction preparation.
- Simplification of wallet commands
Performance Optimizations
- Hoon compiler caching: Fixed broken caching for substantial build time improvements.
- Prover/verifier optimization: Faster proof generation and validation.
- Auto-generate new peer IDs: Prevents invalid configurations when miners copy their Nockchain data between machines.
Other Community Developments
- Nick Research published a research thread positioning Nockchain within the emerging Proof of Useful Work (PoUW) landscape. The analysis places Nockchain in "Tier 2" as a strong combination of zkPow and marketplace functionality, noting our dual utility approach: network security plus proof-verification services.
- We were featured in House of ZK's latest research tracking progress of leading zkL1 builders, alongside Aleo, Mina Protocol, Horizen, Zcash, Hyli, and Dusk Network. The report highlights recent technical breakthroughs and ecosystem developments across the zero-knowledge landscape.
- Community member @smoothiepool launched nocknames.com, a naming system for Nockchain addresses. The service allows users to register .nock names with a pre-registration system and tiered pricing based on name length to prevent squatting.
Nockchain Analytics Update
In the past 7 days, we’ve seen 81 new active addresses and 117M $NOCK transacted, with 15 new miners winning their first block.
All-time, there are now 272 addresses with at least one transaction and 99 miners (after deduplicating splits) who have won at least one block.
The proofrate is now 12,506 proofs per second.
That's all for this week!
If you have any questions or comments, hit reply.
