Launch of Spheron Protocol Testnet

We're excited to announce the Spheron Protocol Testnet, featuring a powerful matchmaking engine at its core. Featuring:

• Matchmaking Engine: Chooses the best provider for each deployment by processing order details and provider bids.

• Order Smart Contract: Once a match is made, Start a lease with the chosen provider.

• Deployment Process: Users send the deployment manifest to start the workload deployment over a secure MTLS connection.

• Verification and Details: After deployment, users can verify the status and access relevant details such as connection URLs and port mappings.

Introducing Protocol CLI & ICL Configuration for Users

Users can now deploy their instances using our protocol CLI by specifying their requirements with the Infrastructure Composition Language (ICL). Here's how to get started:

Install the CLI

curl -sL1 <https://sphnctl.sh> | bash

Verify Installation and Check Commands

sphnctl -h

Create a Wallet

sphnctl wallet create --name [Wallet Name]

Deposit Balance

sphnctl payment deposit --amount [Amount] --token [Token Name]

Create a Deployment

sphnctl deployment create deploy.yml

For detailed documentation, visit the User Guide.

Spheron Provider Onboarding

You can now register as a provider using the Spheron Protocol CLI and earn rewards by leasing your hardware. Here’s how it works:

• Provider Registration: Lease your hardware resources to the Spheron network and earn your chosen tokens.

• Rewards System: Earn rewards based on your trust tier and resource tier. Trust tiers depend on your service reliability and history, while resource tiers depend on the quality and quantity of resources you provide.

• pSPHN Tokens: Besides accepted tokens, providers earn rewards using pSPHN tokens. These tokens can't be traded and have no monetary value. Instead, they work as a point system within our network to manage on-chain rewards.

For a detailed setup guide, visit Provider Setup.

Provider UI Dashboard

We've created a dedicated UI for providers to check their status, earnings, and rewards. Key features include:

• Provider Details: View your provider info, such as name, wallet address, and host URI.

• Earnings and Rewards: View your earnings in accepted tokens, rewards for each era, and total rewards.

• Status and Uptime Monitoring: Monitor your provider status and uptime percentage for the current era.

• Withdrawal: Withdraw your earnings in selected tokens by connecting your MetaMask wallet with just a few clicks.

• Trust and Resource Tiers: View your trust and resource tiers and reward multipliers for each tier.

• Leases Management: See total leases given and active leases.

• Detailed Rewards Breakdown: Get a detailed breakdown of rewards per era, total rewards, and details on rewards earned for each resource and trust booster multiplier.

Access the Provider UI at provider.spheron.network.

Slark Node

As part of this launch, we are also running a Slark Node. This node performs the following functions:

• Resource Verification: Challenges providers to verify if they have the resources they claimed during registration.

• Continuous Monitoring: Continuously monitors provider status to ensure reliability.

• Reward Slashing: Slashes (reduce) the rewards for providers who fail to meet the requirements or pass the challenges.

Platform Improvements & Fixes

• Billing Flow: We have updated our billing flow. Users now enter the amount first and then choose or add their payment method.

• 404 Page: Fixed the issue where navigating back to the dashboard page from the service pages caused a 404 error.

• Google Email Verification: Added a message to our user onboarding flow to inform users that they can't proceed without connecting their Google account.

• Organisation Avatar: Fixed the issue where the organization avatar was not showing on the billing details page.

• Close Instances: Fixed the issue where instances were not closing properly.