Testnet Bootstrap and Resource Credits

[inertia186]

As a developer, or an automatic process, I want to be able to reduce/bypass/eliminate/address the checks on resource credits in fastgen mode, so that I can bootstrap a new testnet without worrying too much about resource credits.

In a nutshell, some operations are being rejected during bootstrap. It's not a huge issue, but it's impacting the number of useful accounts being created/updated in testnet.

I realize this probably could be addressed by resource delegation pools, so I'm just trying to get ahead of this problem by looking into other alternatives and make sure we're aware of the issue.

Another way to address this would be to always bootstrap account creation and account updates in HF19 and then use "wait blocks" to reach the desired hardfork, but I think that might not be a good long term solution.

This is an example of what's happening at bootstrap of a testnet:

Example Broadcast

The reason we do account_update_operation in testnet bootstrap is to a) assign tnman auths, and b) assign the original auths the account had on mainnet, since at this point, those accounts (now) all exist on testnet. The more any error occures, the less likely we will be able to assign any auths.

{
   "operations":[
      {
         "value":{
            "json_metadata":"{\"profile\":{\"profile_image\":\"http://i.imgur.com/9iuEXs0.png\"}}",
            "active":{
               "key_auths":[
                  [
                     "TST7AAHxLJiDkJz9w54Kgb5pNq5oED7tLX4ntDUbtNsQ3DxeBuakp",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "account_auths":[
                  [
                     "tnman",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "weight_threshold":1
            },
            "memo_key":"TST7XLbJwwn3kN5uwamfhx3ND8W8ku5QxPNkaKezSJkZhUHyVzofr",
            "account":"steemprentice",
            "posting":{
               "key_auths":[
                  [
                     "TST7y65cEB9GuNrPot2j4xt85uBUDZxHfU3mp6XCVK1vuXn4DDUdY",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "account_auths":[
                  [
                     "tnman",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "weight_threshold":1
            },
            "owner":{
               "key_auths":[
                  [
                     "TST6gv593iUp5D9ahrhnSj11K2VKuaV8JLmdErv6EsEDqXjUu8AqE",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "account_auths":[
                  [
                     "tnman",
                     1
                  ]
               ],
               "weight_threshold":1
            }
         },
         "type":"account_update_operation"
      }
   ],
   "ref_block_prefix":2381945408,
   "signatures":[
      "2023b5155cbfb49f396986a8ca111df59709527898b67a8991b82973e9662578fe17d369bc79fd8e6ce0bcc3189942f25abeca29948aa7d6200ebc7447a9c210e9"
   ],
   "ref_block_num":91,
   "expiration":"2018-11-19T04:30:57"
}

Example Error

2305694ms rc_plugin.cpp:987             operator()           ] 4100000 plugin_exception: plugin exception
Account: steemwhit has 360 RC, needs 17896 RC. Please wait to transact, or power up STEEM.
    {"account":"steemwhit","rc_needed":17896,"rc_current":360}
    rc_plugin.cpp:249 operator()
2018-11-19T04:38:25.705505054Z 

---

Steps to Recreate Issue

To recreate this issue before your very eyes, just launch a toy testnet:

docker run inertia/tintoy:latest

This example launches a whole new private testnet but only tries to create about 2000 accounts. In doing so, 166 accounts could not be updated (and are therefore mostly useless for testing) due to limitations on resource credits:

tintoy: finshed piping /app/sample-txgen-latest.actions, total errors: 185 (rc_needed errors: 166)

[inertia186]

I would love it if this could be an option as runtime arguments:

steem/libraries/plugins/rc/rc_plugin.cpp

Line 1125 in 7e50f3e

ilog( "RC's will be computed starting at block ${b}", ("b", my->_enable_at_block) );

[inertia186]

Major improvement! Nice job!

tintoy: finshed piping /app/sample-txgen-latest.actions, total errors: 67 (rc_needed errors: 0)

See: gist:fc9f6bc