Latest Protocol Releases

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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Initially scheduled for release alongside the Spica upgrade (voted on in August and deployed to mainnet in November), the rollout of Relayed V3 was postponed to address some inconsistencies. That moment has now arrived: Relayed V3 is set to go live on mainnet.

Key Highlights:

• Upgrade of relayed transactions (Relayed V3)

For support, questions, or further clarifications, feel free to connect with us on Telegram, Discord, or your preferred communication channel.

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