The current Peerplays testnet ("Baxter") was launched in May 2018 and has successfully supported the public beta of BookiePro (under the brand "BookiePro.fun").
The next step in bringing BookiePro to mainnet ("Alice") has been to merge the BookiePro betting exchange code with the existing Alice code, to create a new Peerplays baseline for mainnet. This is now ready and PBSA recommends that Baxter testnet is replaced with a new testnet using the new baseline code. PBSA suggests that the new testnet is called "Beatrice", to distinguish from Baxter.
The source code for this new baseline testnet (Beatrice) is being released today. This is the first time that the blockchain source code for BookiePro has been released to the public (Baxter was released closed source to Witnesses). The new on-chain affiliate program source code will also be part of today's release. All new code will be released under MIT license, as per the rest of the Peerplays blockchain code.
The genesis block that PBSA has produced for Beatrice differs slightly from the Alice genesis block:
- The native token of Beatrice is TEST (instead of PPY on Alice)
- UIA has been created ("BTF") as the play money token to be bet with (a different UIA will be used on Alice, with a new name, and airdrop distribution)
- The BTF UIA is owned by the account "pbsa"
- The native token distribution of Alice has been incorporated in Beatrice's genesis block, so that original recipients of PPY tokens on Alice can claim TEST tokens on Beatrice and thereby participate in testnet governance
- Extra TEST tokens have been defined in the genesis block that total 51% of all TEST tokens. These extra tokens will allow * Witnesses and PBSA to control the functioning of Beatrice testnet
PBSA recommends that Witnesses stop running Baxter by the end of October. Beatrice is to replace Baxter as the Peerplays testnet. There will be no product running on Beatrice that will be marketed to end users - Beatrice will be a testnet only. A new play money BookiePro product will be available once BookiePro moves to mainnet, under the brand name "BookiePro.com". The brand name "BookiePro.fun" was for the public beta only and will be retired by the end of October, in line with Baxter being wound down. As such, there will be a period of approximately 8 weeks when there is no BookiePro play money product available to the public. This is unfortunate, but a necessary by-product of the progress being made towards sustainable testnet and mainnet releases.
Provisional BookiePro Release Schedule
15 October:
Release of Beatrice testnet source code by PBSA (including BookiePro and affiliate program)
20-30 October (approx):
(i) Witnesses stop running Baxter testnet (BookiePro.fun product ends)
(ii) Witnesses start running Beatrice testnet
Early November (scheduled):
Release of new Alice source code (including BookiePro and affiliate program)
December/January (depends partially on Witnesses):
New Alice code is brought to mainnet via hard fork. (BookiePro.com product starts, using new UIA with a new name, and airdrop distribution). This hard fork process will be managed and scheduled by Witnesses.