This thread should be followed by anyone operating a full node or anyone interested in keeping tabs on network issues. 

If there are problems with witnesses that need coordination to resolve, that coordination should happen in this thread.   If you are a witness you should also post your skype ID to receive notifications / real time discussion of events.

It looks like the network is currently operating at a profit.   We will see if things continue this way.

https://bitshares.openledger.info/

The main website will be updated when @cass wakes up from his beauty sleep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

I have just double-checked that the BitShares 0.9.3c client for Mac OS X can export Graphene Compatible Wallets via the File->Export Wallet menu item. 

You can identify that it has exported a Graphene Compatible wallet .json file if the first few lines in the wallet look like this:

{
  "password_checksum": "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "account_keys": [{
      "account_name": "",
      "encrypted_private_keys": [

I have heard reports that the Windows GUI wasn't doing this properly.  Can someone verify that for me?

There are some new light wallets available for Mac and Windows

https://github.com/cryptonomex/graphene/releases

Enjoy!

Historically we have stated that a blockchain becomes irreversible after one round with greater than 51% participation.   This metric is a little bit fuzzy because of noise in how witnesses are ordered.  In an effort to provide stronger / absolute guarantees Ben and I have devised a new metric that will be used by all exchanges for determining the exact point at which a particular block becomes irreversible.

Sort N witnesses by the last block number they signed, then take the highest block number that is lower than 66% of all other witnesses.  This will indicate that said block has been confirmed by 66% of all witnesses and is clearly irreversible.

This particular metric is dynamic and can respond to changes in the order of witnesses and is immune to situations where the network fragments into more than two pieces.   In the event of a major disruption users are guaranteed that no block older than that number can ever be undone. 

If we have 17 witnesses and 3 second blocks then this will take an average of 34 seconds.
If we have 101 witnesses and 3 second blocks then this will take an average of 3.3 minutes.

We intend to propose a new transaction type that will allow a witness to increase their last produced block number at will.   Then witnesses can determine how often to broadcast these extra operations.  If 2/3 of witnesses broadcast every block then it is possible for the blockchain to become irreversible after just 3 seconds and we can take the lead in this particular metric from Ripple.  By making this extra speedy confirmation optional, witnesses can choose to only broadcast when there is enough volume / transfers which will mean that the blockchain will not get bloated while there are no meaningful transactions (high value orders or transfers).   

The delayed node used by exchanges will only process blocks up to the last irreversible block number.

Having this metric is important to give everyone in the network peace of mind in the unlikely event that a software bug or network issue causes all witnesses to fall out of sync and gives a clear measure of when they are considered back in sync.

Anyone accepting transactions as final prior to the most recent irreversible block is choosing to take some extra risk on their transaction.