Hey everyone, DW here.
I just wanted to write a quick update about my apps and nodes regarding the upcoming HF26. I'll divide them throughout the post so it's an easier read. But first, a topic that concerns everyone.
RC Costs
One of the biggest changes that affect all users on Hive is the algorithm for RC calculations. RC is the abbreviation for "Resource Credits" as you may know, Hive does not have transaction fees like Ethereum, Bitcoin or other blockchains; in other words, all transactions are free -- however, this is in italics because of RC.
Account creation on Hive technically costs Hive (for the sake of simplicity, I will be skipping the existence of account tokens, which can be claimed with RC), and all accounts have a "starting RC" equivalent to the account creation cost. Usually, a brand new account can get started by posting a post, receiving their first upvotes and usually, the post reward is enough to cover their RC costs for the next few posts. Or the account creator usually delegates some starting HP. RC, as opposed to transaction fees of other blockchains, regenerates over time. That is why it is called mana; similar to video games, it simply regenerates if left on its own. The best way to obtain RC is simply powering up Hive and never bothering with the initial posts etc. However, the next hardfork shakes things up quite a bit.
As you may know, custom_json or transactions that help you interact with Hive-Engine sidechain or other apps on Hive is quite popular. But the RC algorithm did not reflect that. HF26 introduces a new calculation that will result in increased RC costs for these transactions. Therefore, you will require more RC.
Currently, to get RC, you need to have more Hive Power. With the introduction of HF26, the ability to delegate RC to others (instead of Hive Power) will be made available, but even then, that might not be enough if you are a heavy user.
TLDR: With HF26, it'll cost more RC to transact. If you do not have the Hive Power or the RC to cover these costs, you will stumble upon a lot of "not enough RC" errors.
Apps
FRIDAY, BSCBridge, Swaps and other apps I am developing and managing on Hive are slowly being patched for HF26. Most of the features in these apps have already been patched or do not require any updates for HF26. However, the parts that require some tweaking will be finished this weekend and hopefully be ready by the time for the hard fork (which is going to be October 11th, most likely).
API
api.deathwing.me is still the most popular (or the second most popular, depending on your perspective) API node on the blockchain. I am happy to announce that the node is faster and stronger than ever, with more nodes being added into a high-availability, load-balanced cluster.
Currently, 1 in every 3 calls is routed to a hardfork 26 node. With the HF date coming closer, this will switch to all calls being routed to HF26 instead, so if you are not hosting your own node for your app and using mine, beware, as HF26 changes might affect your apps if you are not prepared for them.
All nodes in the cluster, after HF, will be serving all data using the brand new HAF infrastructure/framework. We'll see how it goes :)
That's it for now. Let me know if you have any questions.
Take care!