In preparation for the highly anticipated Gemini Phase II, we would like to invite everyone to join our non-incentivized Stress Test. This test is crucial in determining whether all new improvements included in Gemini II are working as expected before we can unlock the next phase.
The stress test will begin on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, at 8 am PT / 3 pm UTC. We expect it to last around two weeks, but it might change depending on the insights we learn from it. On launch day, you can head to the documentation page to get started: Farming with the CLI | Subspace Labs Documentation.
Stress Test Launch Party!
You are cordially invited to the Subspace Network stress test launch party! 
We are hosting a launch party in our Discord server to bootstrap the network together and address questions live. It will be a great opportunity to hear from the core contributors, getting acquainted with the new updates ahead of Gemini II, and learn how to farm on the Subspace Network step-by-step.
Date: Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Time: 8 am PT / 3 pm UTC
Place: Subspace Network Discord
Gemini II Stress Test Focus
This stress test will focus primarily on the updated consensus and node uptime. The core contributors have implemented improvements to the consensus layer to minimize rogue forks that affected a subset of farmers during Gemini I. Additionally, developers identified and fixed the issue that caused farmer clients to freeze during salt recommit. We expect new nodes to join the canonical chain and farmers not to require frequent restarts. These are the factors we’d like to assess during this stress test.
To maximize efficiency, the network for this stress test will be seeded with a 5 GB history. To further simplify the farming experience, the default plot size is set at 100 GB, which is also the maximum plot size a farmer node can pledge during this stress test. A farmer may change their plot size to be smaller than 100 GB without affecting the farming experience.
Additionally, every farmer will be an archival node by default for this phase. Please note that farmers will need approximately 50 GB of free disk space in addition to the amount pledged to account for the chain history growth.
Subspace Desktop App
As core contributors, our goal from day one has always been to lower the barrier to entry and provide a seamless farming experience regardless of the user’s technical knowledge. That is why we released a desktop app starting from the first phase. That said, the UX offered by the current version is still far from what we’d like to achieve.
After gathering valuable feedback from the community on how to improve the Subspace Desktop application, we concluded that the next version would require a complete redesign. Instead of spreading resources too thin and delivering a subpar experience across CLI and Subspace Desktop, we decided to focus most of our resources on improving the CLI/Docker experience first. At the same time, the rest of the team will take the needed time to build out the desktop app properly, targeting Gemini III.
Therefore, the CLI and Docker are the only two officially supported farming methods during the upcoming Gemini Phase II. For farmers unfamiliar with setting up a node with CLI/Docker, our Launch Party will be an excellent opportunity for you to learn! We will also coordinate with our ambassadors to provide step-by-step tutorials and live support to assist.
We want to thank all of our community members for being with us throughout this journey and want to encourage everyone to participate and contribute.
