Add the Consensus biweekly update (2023-09-06) (#231)

blog/2023-09-06-consensus.md

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+---
+title: Consensus Team Update
+slug: 2023-09-06-consensus
+authors: dnadales
+tags: [consensus]
+hide_table_of_contents: false
+---
+
+## High level summary
+
+We were able to successfully run the system-level benchmarks for the UTxO-HD implementation, for the first time. There was an important regression in block forging performance that will have to be addressed before UTxO-HD is released. We also revisited the implementation of our query processing logic, which was needed to address the performance regression found in the query-by-address command. The preliminary performance results show that now the performance of this query is on-par with the Cardano baseline version, but we need further confirmation.
+On the Genesis front, we presented the grinding-aware safety argument for the proposed historical Cardano Genesis windows to the IOG Researchers.
+The Consensus release engineer finished his rotation: version `8.3.0-pre` of `cardano-node` is releasing 2023 September 5.
+
+## UTxO-HD
+
+- We ran the first successful system-level benchmarks for UTxO-HD (see [#203](https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-consensus/issues/203)). We observed a factor 12 regression in the forging performance, which we will have to address.
+
+- We implemented a new way of processing queries at the hard-fork block level, which resolves the performance regression observed in `GetUTxOByAddress` (see [this comment](https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-consensus/issues/205#issuecomment-1706878418)). Preliminary results are promising.
+
+## Tech debt
+
+- We added tests that Consensus emits valid CBOR ([#3099](https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-network/issues/3099)). This helped us detect a couple of serialization bugs. The tests still need to be merged into the `main` branch ([#323](https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-consensus/pull/323)).
+
+## Support
+
+- [Nick Frisby](https://github.com/nfrisby) finished his release engineer rotation; `cardano-node 8.3.0-pre` is releasing 2023 September 5.
+- We helped to investigate a protocol version bug in Sanchonet (see [#3491](https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-ledger/issues/3491)).
+- We started to implement the Network interface for bootstrap peer functionality, from which Genesis will benefit as well (see [#91](https://github.com/input-output-hk/ouroboros-consensus/issues/91).