After an extended period of radio silence from our blog, we're now very pleased to be able to finally bring you some information about the latest network release we are have been working on!

What is Giza?

Giza is an update seeking to improve the functioning and operation of our network in a variety of ways. As is the case for most releases, a handful of these improvements will be "below the surface" on the runtime side, while other changes will have a rather noticeable effect on the day-to-day operation of the testnet.

Briefly summarized, Giza's main goals are:

  • Launching version 2 of the Storage and Distribution System: this will include introducing distinct roles for data storage and distribution, as well as a storage system with redundancy and only partial replication of media on nodes, alongside other important upgrades which are outlined in the specification.
  • Content directory enhancements: within this release, modifications to the content directory system will focus on facilitating some planned community initiatives, cleaning up technical debt, and offering integration with the new storage system.
  • New operations working groups: The operations working group has been a big success recently, but one of the limits of working groups on the current testnet is that groups are currently governed by a single decision making hierarchy where one lead is a bottleneck of decision making and knowledge. In order to facilitate work on a few different orthogonal areas, or even to just scale up efforts within the same vertical, we are going to add two new generic operations working groups.

Giza will not be launched on a new chain, so there will consequently be no need to migrate data or balances. We are still in the process of determining the precise format of the migration of videos over to the new testnet, so if you're a content creator, stay tuned for updates (especially on our Discord server).

If you might be interested in participating in some of the new operations working groups or in the new distribution role, please keep an eye on our helpdesk repo in advance of the launch so you can find out how to apply for and participate in these new opportunities.

Other Considerations

The provisional date for launching the Giza network is ~1st November, but please note that this is quite a rough estimate, subject to revision. You can track the work currently outstanding for the release by looking at the GitHub issues associated with the release here.

If you haven't already joined, we strongly recommend checking out our Discord group, where you can ask questions, learn how to participate on the testnet, receive our official updates and discuss the project with the rest of our community.

Disclaimer

All forward looking statements, estimates and commitments found in this blog post should be understood to be highly uncertain, not binding and for which no guarantees of accuracy or reliability can be provided. To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event shall Joystream, Jsgenesis or our affiliates, or any of our directors, employees, contractors, service providers or agents have any liability whatsoever to any person for any direct or indirect loss, liability, cost, claim, expense or damage of any kind, whether in contract or in tort, including negligence, or otherwise, arising out of or related to the use of all or part of this post, or any links to third party websites.