Module 6, Polkadot: Revisions

[BradleyOlson64]

Feedback indicates that the Polkadot core protocol was covered in a way many students found unsatisfactory. The coverage was at times too deep (such as erasure coding math) and simultaneously didn't optimally construct the high level abstractions students needed to grasp the system as a whole.

Possible fixes/goals:

1. Get rid of math on slides where possible
2. Develop more visuals to help students intuitively grasp systems
3. Read anonymous student feedback to gather farther ideas
4. Refine existing exercises to provide complete, up to date instructions (connecting a local parachain, participate in a parachain auction)
5. Consider reviving parachains protocol simulation as easy start to understanding shared security

[BradleyOlson64]

6. There is some confusion from students about different node roles. Full node, full node + rpc, light client, validator node, validator + rpc, relay archive node, collator (with relay chain full node), collator without in process relay node (gets relay info via rpc), collator + rpc, parachain full node, parachain node + rpc, parachain light client node, parachain archive node. 11 in total.

General node function + or - responsibilities

• rpc endpoint for end user/protocol
• Validator to add validator responsibilities
• Collator to add collator responsibilities, Collator without in process relay
• Archive node, stores full history of chain for syncing up new nodes

• Light client to remove syncing the chain and gossiping messages

Ask students why a validator/collator wouldn't want to also be an rpc node.
Use metaphor of pizza and all these +'s as add ons and - being a ring of crust without the center. Therefore no toppings.

[ordian]

Related topic: #552

[BradleyOlson64]

A resource Pierre produced with which we can spin up shared test nets at future academies: https://gitlab.parity.io/parity/infrastructure/parity-testnet/-/tree/master/buenos

[BradleyOlson64]

Source for more student feedback: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dqV8Y5xdlcvzlIe-ErxbdP23AFTtqK_jPimJiRjRQ8Y/edit#gid=33570863

[BradleyOlson64]

Possible modifications for Parachain Auctions Exercise:

• Allow planning phase for students to propose benefits to crowdloan contributors and organize groups
• Provide background on crowdloan parameters, cap and ending block
• Have 2-3 RPC nodes by default, and provide all links to students
• Have only 3ish auctions so that students can group together in larger groups
• Present slides at the start with background such as the normal auction periods and length parameters
• Maybe add prize for participants in first auction winner or two
• Describe VRF period in auctions exercise (can’t contribute to crowdloan)
• Schedule on interval greater than 80 blocks to make sure no overlap

[shawntabrizi]

Feedback from Async Backing Dry Run:

• Synchronous Backing Slide
  • Change terminology "stream of scraped active leaves"
  • include some indication on the graph of what actions are happening on the collator vs the relay chain
  • Clarify "backing process" vs "validation process"
• Where does a collator store its unincluded segment (joshy's q)
• Better define "ahead of time" in the context of building blocks ahead of time in async backing
• Explain unincluded segment with a picture of a chain
• use code highlighting for slides showing off any slide with code!!
• what is a fragment tree? need to cover
  • "unbacked head of parachain"
• make the green circles labeled candidates
• for the anatomy of a fragment tree slide, start with an example (kian)
  • how does it work without and with async backing
• explain redundancy for statement distribution
• remove "changes" in statement distribution changes
• "what is the provisioner"
• "parachain consensus" vs "sequencing consensus"
• add a slide about the unincluded segment
• include slide which talks about additional overhead caused by async backing
  • statement distribution
  • wasm execution
  • network load
  • etc...