Verify Offchain SDKs without the conwayHardForkAtEpoch and shiftStartTimeBehind configurations

[satran004]

The following properties were introduced to avoid additional cost model entries (10 extra) for PlutusV2 when the devnet starts directly from the Conway era at epoch 0, because these extra entries create issues for script transactions if the cost model is hardcoded in the application. While this is acceptable for regular transactions (both script and non-script), it causes issues with ledger-state calculations such as rewards and governance state as it changes the stability window.

Similarly, when these flags are enabled, during the slotToUnixTime conversion, zeroSlot needs to be set to the same value as epochLength instead of 0, which creates some confusion among users.

conwayHardForkAtEpoch=1
shiftStartTimeBehind=true

More details about the current work-around here.
#65

We need to verify whether to remove these settings from the default configuration and keep them as optional, so that users can revert to the current default behavior by setting these properties.

But before changing the existing default settings, we need to verify them with the following off-chain SDKs.

• Cardano Client Lib
• Lucid Evolution
• MeshJs
• PyCardano
• Blaze Cardano
• Apollo Tx

[bhatt-deep]

Hey @satran004, I encountered issues with rewards-paying transactions when those properties were enabled. Commenting them out made it much easier to work with pycardano. I'm using the following command to start the Conway era:

./bin/devkit.sh start create-node -o --start -e 1000 --era conway

Hope this helps!

[satran004]

Thanks @bhatt-deep

Good to know that it's working with Pycardano. Can you please confirm if the smart contract transactions (V2, V3) are also ok with Pycardano without those properties?

As mentioned, the above two configurations alter the stability window, which has a big impact on reward calculation. So, in the current version, to test any reward related transactions, we need to comment out those two properties.

Btw, the default era is Conway, so you don't need to pass the era option. Also, the epoch length can be much shorter. I have also successfully tried a 50 slot epoch.