Latest Protocol Releases

The new Barnard patch focuses on network cleanup and stability improvements.
Key updates include:

• Relayed v1/v2 deactivation flag.
• Transaction endpoint fix
• Improved state-change handling & node synchronization stability.
  

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Barnard Patch Release: Transaction Gas Cost Estimation

Barnard Patch updates the/transaction/cost endpoint enabling accurate gas cost estimation via transaction simulation. Ideal for smart contracts and transaction preparation. Optional upgrade primarily for observer nodes.

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Barnard Release: Governance Unleashed

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Following Andromeda's finality boost, Barnard introduces critical self-governance, smart contract optimizations, and lays the final groundwork for Supernova and 600ms block times.

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Key changes:

• Protocol-level governance update (proposal creation, on-chain voting, automatic cleanup)
• Gas-penalty reduction (10× → 2×) for fairer execution
• New account state iterator endpoint
• Time granularity hooks (seconds → milliseconds)
• Go 1.23, VM hooks, node ops improvements

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Greetings, MultiversX Builders!

The Andromeda Upgrade (v1.9.6, MIP-25) is ready for prime-time, marking the first giant leap toward sub-second finality. By removing confirmation blocks the network’s time-to-finality is slashed in half, while a full 400/400 validator consensus group, Equivalent Consensus Proofs, optimised cross-shard execution and lighter cross-chain proofs dramatically raise security, throughput and developer ergonomics.

Key highlights

• Instant finality – confirmation blocks eliminated → 2 × faster finality (MultiversX Agora )
• 400/400 consensus per shard – single-shot majority + fairer rewards MultiversX Agora
• Equivalent Consensus Proofs – any node can finalise a block, zero equivocation risk MultiversX Agora
• Cross-shard in three blocks – execution path cut from six to three steps (2 × faster) MultiversX Agora
• Slimmer cross-chain proofs – fixed validator set once per epoch, smaller payloads MultiversX Agora

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For questions or help, reach us on Telegram, Discord, or your preferred channel.

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We're rolling out a new upgrade for mainnet validator nodes. With this patch release, the 'Protocol sustainability rewards' address, currently a standard single-key wallet, is being migrated to a newly created multisig for greater security and control distribution. Since the destination address is configurable, the migration requires a network upgrade.

Originally planned to coincide with the Spica upgrade and afterwards with Spica Patch, the activation of Relayed V3 was halted at the last minute to address a critical issue discovered on deployment day. That issue has now been resolved, and Relayed V3 is ready to be deployed to Mainnet.
Key Highlights

• Fix of relayed transactions (relayed V3)

For support or further questions, reach out via Telegram, Discord, or your preferred channel.

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