Initially the proposal system can only be tested via the command-line wallet

We've launched the first testnet for creating and voting on Steem proposals. Currently, to create and vote on proposals, testnet users must use a command-line version of the wallet. We hope that some of the user interface frontends will quickly add support for proposals so that it becomes easier to visualize how the proposal system works in practice.

Steem proposal documentation

An overview of the functioning of the Steem Proposal system can be found here: https://steemit.com/blocktrades/@blocktrades/proposing-a-worker-proposal-system-for-steem

The special account steem.dao is the funding account described in the above post. Donations made to this account on the testnet are used to fund proposal payouts.

[Note: I've found that some of the specs below still reference a URL when it should be a permalink now for the link to proposals. We'll correct the docs, but I wanted to add this note in the meantime]

The specifications for the Steem proposal API is here: https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem/wiki/SPS-API-Plugin

The new blockchain operations are documented here: https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem/wiki/SPS-operations-in-transactions

Docs on steempy (python-based scripting): https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem/wiki/SteemPy-based-script-for-SPS-testing

The new proposal-related commands added to the Steem cli-wallet are documented here: https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem/wiki/Worker-proposal-functionalities-in-cli_wallet

API node available for frontend integration of the proposal system

An API endpoint is available at sps-blocktrades-testnet-api.blocktrades.info:8090 (as both webserver-http-endpoint and webserver-ws-endpoint). SSL connections are not supported.

Please note that the current API node is not intended for general testing of steem operations or ready for heavy traffic. It should only be used for testing web pages that interact with the proposal system.

steem-js branch supporting proposals: https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem-js/tree/sps-develop2
steem-python branch supporting proposals: https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem-python/tree/sps_support

How to join the testnet with your own node

To build your own node for the testnet, build from this branch of our repo:

https://github.com/blocktradesdevs/steem/commits/sps-develop

Make sure you build with this cmake flag: BUILD_STEEM_TESTNET=ON

To join your own node to this testnet, put this in your steemd config.ini file:

p2p-seed-node = sps-blocktrades-testnet-seed.blocktrades.info:2001