Full Stack Overhaul Hits Testnet
Gonka v0.2.12 landed on testnet on March 26. With 35+ closed issues across the milestone and another 35 still open, the release touches nearly every layer of the stack — from consensus economics to subnet architecture to bridge security. Here is what the testnet build includes, and what is still coming before mainnet.
What Shipped to Testnet
Continuous Proof of Computation (#845)
The headline feature. Until now, GPU nodes proved computational capacity in discrete epoch windows — pause inference, generate proofs, resume. Continuous PoC eliminates this tradeoff by letting nodes prove spare capacity in parallel with inference work.
The foundation is merged: new message types, governance-adjustable parameters (utilization targets, nonce weights, anti-spam caps), and real-time epoch summary aggregation. The feature ships disabled by default — activation requires a governance vote.
Circuit Breaker with Reputation Scoring (#942, #943, #974)
Three PRs delivered a fast, intra-epoch circuit breaker that pulls degraded nodes from the executor pool within minutes rather than waiting for the next epoch boundary. The system tracks miss rates and applies reputation-adjusted scoring, so consistently reliable nodes get priority while underperformers cool down automatically.
Deterministic Warm Key Handling (#913)
A P0 research issue resolved a non-determinism bug in how subnets handle host warm keys. Previously, different hosts could validate the same key at different points in time using the mainnet bridge, reaching different conclusions. The fix makes key authorization checks deterministic across all subnet participants.
Subnet Timeout Architecture (#891, #895)
Two P0 issues hardened the subnet proxy server's timeout handling. The proxy now manages timeout-related mechanisms alongside chat completions and diff propagation. A separate fix allows hosts to vote on timeouts even if they have not yet seen the original MsgStartInference, preventing deadlocks in large subnets.
PoC V1 Removal (#742, #749)
Technical debt cleanup: the legacy PoC v1 code was deleted entirely, and the state endpoint was extended with PoC V2 metadata. The chain node now exposes a single source of truth for all proof-of-computation data, which vLLM relies on directly.
Bridge Security Hardening (#897, CertiK Batch 2)
Porosity and negativity checks were added to the bridge, with CertiK's second batch of findings (PR #949) still in review. The bridge audit continues with issues spanning informational through major severity levels.
vLLM 0.15.1 Compatibility (#730)
Experiments completed and merged for compatibility with vLLM 0.15.1, upgrading the inference engine that powers all AI workloads on the network. Full integration (#939) is still in progress.
CI/CD: Docker Registry Cache (#338, #879)
A long-standing P1 finally closed — GitHub Actions now use GHCR-based Docker layer caching, cutting CI build times significantly across all repositories.
What Is Still Coming
The open issues reveal the roadmap to mainnet deployment:
- Subnet economics — WorkCoin distribution (#976), subnet fees (#935), and inference limits (#977) define how subnet operators earn and what prevents resource exhaustion
- Transaction fees for spam prevention — the GIP (#937) was merged and reverted for refinement; a governance-controlled minimum gas price with protocol-duty exemptions is expected in the final release
- Bridge finalization — CertiK audit findings (6 open issues from #753-#758), DKG dealer consensus fix (#823), and Bitfury community sale compatibility (#924)
- Multi-model support (#728) — P0, enabling the network to serve more than just Qwen3-235B
- Float math removal from subnets (#893) — eliminating floating-point arithmetic from consensus-critical paths
By the Numbers
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| Closed issues (milestone) | 35+ |
| Open issues remaining | 35+ |
| P0 issues closed | 7 |
| P0 issues open | 12 |
| Security audit items (CertiK) | 6 in review |
| New governance parameters | 8+ |
What This Means
v0.2.12 is a full-stack overhaul. Continuous PoC changes how nodes earn. Subnets move from experimental to production-grade. Transaction fees shift the economic model from zero-cost to spam-resistant. And the bridge audit pushes toward the Ethereum connectivity milestone.
Testnet is live. Mainnet timeline depends on the remaining P0 issues and CertiK audit completion. Node operators should monitor governance proposals — several of these features require community votes before activation.