Hello,

some users asked me how they can help testing rc delegations so I set to write a guide

disclaimer: this assumes that you are very technical and have a good understanding of how hive works.

rc delegations

Pools

Each account got an RC pool in his account, anyone can delegate to any account pool, that RC won't be usable by the account, it's just a pool he can delegate RC from. (he can delegate to himself if he wishes).

RC slots

There is a notion of delegation slots, each account got 3 slots from which they can receive delegations. meaning they can receive rc from at most from 3 pools, also, each slot can only receive from a specific pool. If you are not "whitelisted" you can't delegate to an user.

For new accounts the slots will be set like this by default:
Slot 1 is set to the account creator of the account, and both the account and the account creator can change that slot
Slot 2 is set to the recovery account or not set, the account and the recovery partner for the account can change that slot
Slot 3 is not set, and only the account can change that slot.

Most of the use cases for rc delegations are linked to account creation, games or other operation intensive applications could have a button to "ask for rc" that would make the user set a slot to the game and then the app would delegate to it.

It's worth noting that if you change your slot, you lose your previous delegation on that slot.

Oversubscription

Pool work on an oversubscription model:

Let's say Alice delegates 100 RC to an RC Pool.
That pool can then delegates 30 RC to Bob, Carol, Dave, and Eugene.
There is a total of 120 RC delegated, but only 100 RC in the pool.

Is that a problem? No.The implementation allows each of the out delegations to use up to the delegation's worth of RC, but that is charged to the pool.

If Bob uses all 30 RC and no one else does, Bob will no longer have access to RC from the pool until his regenerates, even though to pool still has 70 RC available. However, if Bob, Carol, and Dave all use 30 RC, then Eugene will only be able to use 10 RC before he cannot access any more.

Although he has RC still available from the delegation, because the pool ran out of RC, Eugene does not have any to use.

This is useful for this use case: multiple large stakeholder delegating to one account creation pool making many small delegations to new users. Users will consume their RC, but because not all users are retained, this can be significantly over subscribed.
Another real life example:

Alice delegates 50 rc to her pool
Bob changes it slot 3 to Alice
Alice delegates 30 RC from it's pool to Bob (Bob can now use the RC)
Alice tries to delegate to Eve, but since she didn't set a slot to Alice, Alice cannot delegate RC to it

That's it ! Feel free to comment if you have questions
this doc may give you some more info: https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive/-/blob/feature/rc_delegation_rebase/doc/devs/delegation_pools.md

Now onto the actual testing.

compiling hive

if you are on ubuntu 20 see this other guide first: @howo/how-to-build-hive-on-ubuntu-20-04

first install all of the dependencies :

apt-get install -y \
        autoconf \
        automake \
        autotools-dev \
        build-essential \
        cmake \
        doxygen \
        git \
        libboost-all-dev \
        libyajl-dev \
        libreadline-dev \
        libssl-dev \
        libtool \
        liblz4-tool \
        ncurses-dev \
        python3 \
        python3-dev \
        python3-jinja2 \
        python3-pip \
        libgflags-dev \
        libsnappy-dev \
        zlib1g-dev \
        libbz2-dev \
        liblz4-dev \
        libzstd-dev

then build hive on the rc delegations branch:

git clone git@gitlab.syncad.com:hive/hive.git
cd hive
git checkout feature/rc_delegation_rebase
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build
cd build

cmake -DENABLE_COVERAGE_TESTING=ON -DBUILD_HIVE_TESTNET=ON -DLOW_MEMORY_NODE=ON ..

make -j$(nproc) hived cli_wallet

if you got an error while doing the git clone try with this url:

https://gitlab.syncad.com/hive/hive.git

running it

Run the node a few seconds and then exit hived like so

./programs/steemd/hived -d testnet/

this will create a testnet directory with the default config file.

open the config.ini file

nano testnethf24/config.ini

replace the config.ini with this one:

# Appender definition json: {"appender", "stream", "file"} Can only specify a file OR a stream
log-appender = {"appender":"stderr","stream":"std_error"} {"appender":"p2p","file":"logs/p2p/p2p.log"}

# log-console-appender = 

# log-file-appender = 

# Logger definition json: {"name", "level", "appender"}
log-logger = {"name":"default","level":"info","appender":"stderr"} {"name":"p2p","level":"warn","appender":"p2p"}

# Whether to print backtrace on SIGSEGV
backtrace = yes

# Plugin(s) to enable, may be specified multiple times
plugin = witness account_by_key account_by_key_api condenser_api 

# Defines a range of accounts to track as a json pair ["from","to"] [from,to] Can be specified multiple times.
# account-history-track-account-range = 

# Defines a range of accounts to track as a json pair ["from","to"] [from,to] Can be specified multiple times. Deprecated in favor of account-history-track-account-range.
# track-account-range = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly logged.
# account-history-whitelist-ops = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly logged. Deprecated in favor of account-history-whitelist-ops.
# history-whitelist-ops = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly ignored.
# account-history-blacklist-ops = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly ignored. Deprecated in favor of account-history-blacklist-ops.
# history-blacklist-ops = 

# Disables automatic account history trimming
history-disable-pruning = 0

# The location of the rocksdb database for account history. By default it is $DATA_DIR/blockchain/account-history-rocksdb-storage
account-history-rocksdb-path = "blockchain/account-history-rocksdb-storage"

# Defines a range of accounts to track as a json pair ["from","to"] [from,to] Can be specified multiple times.
# account-history-rocksdb-track-account-range = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly logged.
# account-history-rocksdb-whitelist-ops = 

# Defines a list of operations which will be explicitly ignored.
# account-history-rocksdb-blacklist-ops = 

# Where to export data (NONE to discard)
block-data-export-file = NONE

# How often to print out block_log_info (default 1 day)
block-log-info-print-interval-seconds = 86400

# Whether to defer printing until block is irreversible
block-log-info-print-irreversible = 1

# Where to print (filename or special sink ILOG, STDOUT, STDERR)
block-log-info-print-file = ILOG

# Maximum numbers of proposals/votes which can be removed in the same cycle
sps-remove-threshold = 200

# the location of the chain shared memory files (absolute path or relative to application data dir)
shared-file-dir = "blockchain"

# Size of the shared memory file. Default: 54G. If running a full node, increase this value to 200G.
shared-file-size = 54G

# A 2 precision percentage (0-10000) that defines the threshold for when to autoscale the shared memory file. Setting this to 0 disables autoscaling. Recommended value for consensus node is 9500 (95%). Full node is 9900 (99%)
shared-file-full-threshold = 0

# A 2 precision percentage (0-10000) that defines how quickly to scale the shared memory file. When autoscaling occurs the file's size will be increased by this percent. Setting this to 0 disables autoscaling. Recommended value is between 1000-2000 (10-20%)
shared-file-scale-rate = 0

# Pairs of [BLOCK_NUM,BLOCK_ID] that should be enforced as checkpoints.
# checkpoint = 

# flush shared memory changes to disk every N blocks
# flush-state-interval = 

# Database edits to apply on startup (may specify multiple times)
# debug-node-edit-script = 

# Database edits to apply on startup (may specify multiple times). Deprecated in favor of debug-node-edit-script.
# edit-script = 

# Set the maximum size of cached feed for an account
follow-max-feed-size = 500

# Block time (in epoch seconds) when to start calculating feeds
follow-start-feeds = 0

# json-rpc log directory name.
# log-json-rpc = 

# Track market history by grouping orders into buckets of equal size measured in seconds specified as a JSON array of numbers
market-history-bucket-size = [15,60,300,3600,86400]

# How far back in time to track history for each bucket size, measured in the number of buckets (default: 5760)
market-history-buckets-per-size = 5760

# The local IP address and port to listen for incoming connections.
# p2p-endpoint = 

# Maxmimum number of incoming connections on P2P endpoint.
# p2p-max-connections = 

# The IP address and port of a remote peer to sync with. Deprecated in favor of p2p-seed-node.
# seed-node = 

# The IP address and port of a remote peer to sync with.
# p2p-seed-node = 

# P2P network parameters. (Default: {"listen_endpoint":"0.0.0.0:0","accept_incoming_connections":true,"wait_if_endpoint_is_busy":true,"private_key":"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000","desired_number_of_connections":20,"maximum_number_of_connections":200,"peer_connection_retry_timeout":30,"peer_inactivity_timeout":5,"peer_advertising_disabled":false,"maximum_number_of_blocks_to_handle_at_one_time":200,"maximum_number_of_sync_blocks_to_prefetch":2000,"maximum_blocks_per_peer_during_syncing":200,"active_ignored_request_timeout_microseconds":6000000} )
# p2p-parameters = 

# Skip rejecting transactions when account has insufficient RCs. This is not recommended.
rc-skip-reject-not-enough-rc = 0

# Generate historical resource credits
rc-compute-historical-rc = 0

# Start calculating RCs at a specific block
rc-start-at-block = 0

# Ignore RC calculations for the whitelist
# rc-account-whitelist = 

# Endpoint to send statsd messages to.
# statsd-endpoint = 

# Size to batch statsd messages.
statsd-batchsize = 1

# Whitelist of statistics to capture.
# statsd-whitelist = 

# Blacklist of statistics to capture.
# statsd-blacklist = 

# Block time (in epoch seconds) when to start calculating promoted content. Should be 1 week prior to current time.
tags-start-promoted = 0

# Skip updating tags on startup. Can safely be skipped when starting a previously running node. Should not be skipped when reindexing.
tags-skip-startup-update = 0

# Defines the number of blocks from the head block that transaction statuses will be tracked.
transaction-status-block-depth = 64000

# Defines the block number the transaction status plugin will begin tracking.
transaction-status-track-after-block = 0

# Local http endpoint for webserver requests.
# webserver-http-endpoint = 

# Local unix http endpoint for webserver requests.
# webserver-unix-endpoint = 

# Local websocket endpoint for webserver requests.
# webserver-ws-endpoint = 

# Local http and websocket endpoint for webserver requests. Deprecated in favor of webserver-http-endpoint and webserver-ws-endpoint
# rpc-endpoint = 

# Number of threads used to handle queries. Default: 32.
webserver-thread-pool-size = 32

# Enable block production, even if the chain is stale.
enable-stale-production = 1

# Percent of witnesses (0-99) that must be participating in order to produce blocks
required-participation = 0

# name of witness controlled by this node (e.g. initwitness )
witness = "initminer"

# WIF PRIVATE KEY to be used by one or more witnesses or miners
private-key = 5JNHfZYKGaomSFvd4NUdQ9qMcEAC43kujbfjueTHpVapX1Kzq2n

# Skip enforcing bandwidth restrictions. Default is true in favor of rc_plugin.
witness-skip-enforce-bandwidth = 1

# Local http endpoint for webserver requests.
webserver-http-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090

# Local websocket endpoint for webserver requests.
webserver-ws-endpoint =127.0.0.1:8091

plugin = webserver p2p json_rpc witness account_by_key reputation market_history

plugin = database_api account_by_key_api network_broadcast_api reputation_api market_history_api condenser_api block_api rc_api account_history account_history_api

then run hived again
./programs/steemd/hived -d testnet/

Testing rc delegations

I mostly test using the cli_wallet for real world tests, you can also look at hive-js that has support for the new operations (see this old half made script, ask me questions if you really want to use hive-js and not cli_wallet: https://github.com/drov0/hf23-testing/blob/master/rc_pools.js )

to run the cli_wallet locally:

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet --server-rpc-endpoint="ws://127.0.0.1:8091"

here's a simple "happy path" setup to give you an idea:

# set a password
set_password p
# unlock the wallet
unlock p
# import initminer's key 
import_key 5JNHfZYKGaomSFvd4NUdQ9qMcEAC43kujbfjueTHpVapX1Kzq2n
# account who will get the rc
create_account "initminer" "howo" "" true
# pool account 
create_account "initminer" "pool" "" true
# transfer some funds to test rc usage
transfer  initminer howo "2500.000 TESTS" "" true
# doesn't work because howo has no rc
transfer howo initminer "1.000 TESTS" "" true
# set slot 0 to point to pool signing using initminer
set_slot_delegator "pool" "howo" 0 "initminer" true
# delegate 100 rc to the pool account's rc pool from initminer
delegate_to_pool initminer pool {"symbol":"VESTS","amount": "100", "precision": 6, "nai": "@@000000037"} true
# delegate 10 tests so that the pool account can delegate some rcs (delegating to the pool of an account doesn't make it available to the account)
transfer_to_vesting "initminer" "pool" "10.000 TESTS" true
# delegate 100 rc from the pool to howo
delegate_drc_from_pool pool howo {"decimals": 6, "nai": "@@000000037"} 100 true
# howo can now transfer
transfer howo initminer "1.000 TESTS" "" true

Some additional useful cli commands to see how things are going:

find_rc_accounts ["account"]:

gives you the state of your the rc account

unlocked >>> find_rc_accounts ["howo"]
find_rc_accounts ["howo"]
[{
    "account": "howo",
    "creator": "initminer",
    "rc_manabar": {
      "current_mana": 356050,
      "last_update_time": 1617274335
    },
    "max_rc_creation_adjustment": {
      "amount": "0",
      "precision": 6,
      "nai": "@@000000037"
    },
    "max_rc": 356054,
    "vests_delegated_to_pools": {
      "amount": "0",
      "precision": 6,
      "nai": "@@000000037"
    },
    "delegation_slots": [{
        "rc_manabar": {
          "current_mana": 96,
          "last_update_time": 1617274335
        },
        "max_mana": 100,
        "delegator": "pool"
      },{
        "rc_manabar": {
          "current_mana": 0,
          "last_update_time": 0
        },
        "max_mana": 0,
        "delegator": ""
      },{
        "rc_manabar": {
          "current_mana": 0,
          "last_update_time": 0
        },
        "max_mana": 0,
        "delegator": ""
      }
    ],
    "out_delegation_total": 0
  }
]

find_rc_delegation_pools ["pool"]

gets the status of a pool (how much rc is in it)

[{
    "id": 0,
    "account": "pool",
    "asset_symbol": {
      "nai": "@@000000037",
      "decimals": 6
    },
    "rc_pool_manabar": {
      "current_mana": 100,
      "last_update_time": 1617278439
    },
    "max_rc": 100
  }
]

Here's a dump of all the commands and their parameters:

delegate_drc_from_pool(account_name_type from_pool, account_name_type to_account, asset_symbol_type asset_symbol, int64_t drc_max_mana, bool broadcast)
delegate_to_pool(account_name_type from_account, account_name_type to_pool, asset amount, bool broadcast)
set_slot_delegator(account_name_type from_pool, account_name_type to_account, uint8_t to_slot, account_name_type signer, bool broadcast)


find_rc_accounts(vector<account_name_type> accounts)
find_rc_delegation_pools(vector<account_name_type> accounts)
find_rc_delegations(account_name_type account) 
list_rc_accounts(account_name_type account, uint32_t limit, rc::sort_order_type order)
list_rc_delegation_pools(account_name_type account, uint32_t limit, rc::sort_order_type order)
list_rc_delegations(vector<account_name_type> account, uint32_t limit, rc::sort_order_type order)    

for list the sort orders are:

by_name
by_edge (edge is both an account and a pool)
by_pool

Finally if you want to reset your testnet, just delete the contents the blockchain dir and rerun hived:
rm -rf testnet/blockchain/*

Here's a few things you can test:

• lots of users delegating to a single pool (like 10k accounts)
• one pool delegating to many users
• trying to break it by using very large or negative numbers
• use your imagination !

please do ask questions if you have any I'd gladly reply to them.

Support what I'm doing

If you like what I'm doing, please consider voting on my new proposal:
https://peakd.com/proposals/167
hivesigner