🚀 Echelon Sidechain - Precision, Power, and a Smarter Sidechain Core

We've made tremendous progress on the Echelon Sidechain with the last update. This major overhaul brings improvements across the board—from core architecture to financial precision, synchronization, and developer experience.

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🧠 1. Core Technology Migration

• Complete Migration to TypeScript: The entire codebase has been rewritten from JavaScript to TypeScript.
• Modern Features: We now use ES6/ES7 features like import/export, async/await, and better error handling.
• Strict Type Safety: Full TypeScript definitions and interfaces ensure more robust, error-resistant code.

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🏗 2. Core Components Modularity

• mining.ts: Advanced block preparation and witness scheduling
• witnesses.ts: Dynamic witness management system
• block.ts: Separated block validation and processing logic
• blockStore.ts: Dedicated module for storing/retrieving blocks
• witnessesStats.ts: Tracks witness performance
• account.ts: Manages account-level operations
• crypto.ts: Core cryptographic utilities
• initialize.ts: Modular startup logic

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💰 3. Critical Financial Precision Upgrade (BigInt)

• Switched to BigInt: Complete replacement of JavaScript’s floating-point system for accurate financial ops.
• Unlimited Precision: Avoids rounding issues by going beyond the 53-bit Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER limit.
• MongoDB-Friendly: Stores monetary values as zero-padded strings for:
  • Lexicographical sorting
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Future scalability (supports large token supplies and micro-transactions)

🧮 BigInt Utilities (bigint-utils.ts)

• Safe type conversion between BigInt, strings, and DB formats
• Decimal handling per token (0–18)
• Proper MongoDB query builders
• Overflow-safe math operations
• User-friendly formatting tools

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🧱 4. Architecture Improvements

Modular Design:

• Mining, consensus, validation, and storage now live in independent modules.
• Separation of Concerns: Clear structure between core and auxiliary systems.
• Enhanced Consensus Logic:
  • Sync mode block collision resolution
  • Backup witness system with failover
  • Sophisticated block timing validation
  • Optimized P2P recovery mechanisms

Architectural Transformation of HTTP APIs

The entire API layer has been completely rewritten and modernized, transforming from a directory-based endpoint system (27 separate folders) to a consolidated modular architecture (12 TypeScript modules):

Key API Improvements

• Type-Safe Request/Response Handling: All API endpoints now use TypeScript interfaces for request validation and response formatting
• BigInt-Aware Responses: All financial data correctly serialized using BigInt utilities for precision
• Standardized Error Handling: Consistent error response format across all endpoints
• Performance Optimizations: Reduced overhead through module consolidation and better caching
• Enhanced Validation: Input validation using the new validation framework
• Modern Express Patterns: Async/await throughout, proper middleware usage, and error boundaries

Endpoint Coverage

• All major blockchain functionalities maintained and enhanced:
• Accounts: Balance queries, transaction history, account management
• Tokens: Token creation, transfers, supply management
• Witnesses: Witness statistics, voting, performance metrics
• Pools: Liquidity pools, AMM operations, yield farming
• Markets: Order book trading, market data, price feeds
• NFTs: Creation, trading, metadata management
• Farms: Staking rewards, farming pools, governance
• Launchpad: Token launches, crowdfunding, vesting
• Blocks: Block explorer, chain statistics, sync status

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🛠 5. Major Feature Additions

Overhauled Witness System

• Improved dynamic scheduling
• Backup witness rotations
• Real-time performance tracking

Advanced Mining Logic

• Separate logic for primary and backup witnesses
• Anti-collision measures in sync mode
• Stale block detection and throttling

Improved Validation

• Phash collision handling
• Optimized transaction pool management
• Stronger security measures

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⚙ 6. Performance & Reliability

• Sync Mode Enhancements:

  • Collision-resistant behavior—rejects all colliding blocks and defers to the next witness
  • Self-healing consensus: Network recovers gracefully from sync conflicts
  • Maintains chain head stability during conflict events

• Optimized Storage:

  • Smarter caching and write optimization
  • Efficient memory usage
  • Robust data persistence
  • Faster block retrieval

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👨‍💻 7. Developer Experience

• Improved error handling and detailed logging
• Modular testability thanks to cleaner separation
• More flexible and consistent config management

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🌐 8. Network & Communication

• Enhanced P2P protocol for better messaging and validation
• Real-time sync status broadcasting for monitoring
• Better peer lifecycle management
• More resilient network recovery during partitions

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🚨 9. Key Innovation: Sync Mode Collision Resolution

One of the standout innovations is the simple but elegant handling of block collisions during sync mode:

• The Problem: Block collisions used to trigger cascading invalid phash errors and potential forks during sync mode.
• The Solution: All colliding blocks are rejected during sync mode, letting the next valid witness continue.
• The Benefit: This prevents forks, maintains network integrity, and enables automatic recovery—ensuring self-healing consensus.

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🗂 10. File Structure Evolution

The entire project structure has been modernized, modularized, and cleaned up. Code is now easier to maintain, test, and extend.

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📊 11. Financial Engineering Excellence

Our BigInt-powered system brings mathematical perfection to financial logic:

• No more 0.1 + 0.2 ≠ 0.3 issues
• DeFi-grade precision (18 decimals like Ethereum)
• Database-friendly: Enables fast, accurate range queries

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🔗 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/FutureShockco/echelon

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This represents a full architectural overhaul focused on:

• ⚙️ Reliability
• 🚀 Performance
• 🧮 Financial accuracy
• 🧠 Maintainability
• 💡 Innovation

With BigInt financial precision, Echelon is on track to becoming a production-ready DeFi platform.

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🧪 12. Testnet

We’re currently running two complete networks and running our chain tests on a Steem testnet provided by @moecki.
This allows us to develop and experiment without generating unnecessary traffic or noise on the main Steem network.

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📸 In our next update post, we’ll share screenshots of the upcoming DEX and the NFT platform we are actively developing on top of Steem and Echelon sidechain.

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This summary was generated with help from AI using real testnet logs and GitHub commits to ensure accuracy and technical depth.