AztecProtocol/aztec-packages v4.1.0-rc.4

on GitHub

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Summary

Release 4.1.0-rc.4 is a mandatory upgrade for node operators running on Testnet. This release candidate is intended to be promoted to the first stable release of protocol version 4, which is what operators will run on the Alpha network.

The following describes major changes since the last release candidate (4.1.0-rc.2). The upcoming stable release will contain a comprehensive list of all major changes from protocol version 2.

Breaking Changes

• L2-to-L1 message witness API redesigned (#21231): The API now takes (message, txHash) instead of requiring the epoch number, which was difficult to obtain. Duplicate messages within a transaction are now supported via an optional messageIndexInTx parameter. The related getL1ToL2MessageBlock method has been renamed to getL1ToL2MessageCheckpoint and returns a checkpoint number instead of a block number.

• Offchain effects exposed in simulate() and send() (#21110): Contract interaction results now include offchain effects (public events, private logs) alongside the transaction result. Callers that destructure the return value will need to update.

• Public event pagination on wallet (#21197): Public event queries on the wallet API now accept pagination parameters (from, limit), matching the existing node API.

Node Improvements

• Early rejection of oversized transactions (#21219): Transactions exceeding the block or checkpoint mana limit are now rejected at gossip, RPC, and pending pool entry points. Previously, these were silently dropped during block building, causing .wait() to hang indefinitely.

• Public log filtering by tag (#21561): Public logs can now be filtered by tag. Also fixes a bug where combining afterLog with txHash filters caused the txHash to be ignored.

• Rollup compatibility pre-checks (#21537): Nodes now verify VK tree root and protocol contracts hash against L1 before starting, preventing startup against a rollup deployed with incompatible circuits.

• Public setup allowlist hardened (#21154, #21139, #21129): Non-protocol contracts (Token-class entries) removed from the default allowlist — Token class IDs change with aztec-nr releases, making the list hard to maintain. Calldata length validation added to reject malformed setup calls. Node operators who need custom Token FPC support must manually extend the allowlist. PublicFeePaymentMethod and PrivateFeePaymentMethod are deprecated.

• Checkpoint-based L1-to-L2 message readiness (#20913): Message readiness is now checked against checkpoint numbers instead of block numbers, reflecting how messages are actually grouped on L1.

• Package version in RPC headers (#21526): RPC responses now include an x-aztec-packageVersion header for easier debugging and monitoring.

• P2P priority fee simplification (#21420): The tx pool now uses only the L2 priority fee for transaction ordering, simplifying priority computation across gas dimensions.

Bug Fixes

• Reorg log deletion fix (#21687): During reorgs, deleteLogs was removing the entire log entry for a tag instead of only the logs from rolled-back blocks, causing logs from earlier blocks to be permanently lost.

• HA deadlock on last block (#21690): Fixed a deadlock when creating checkpoint proposals for the last block in an epoch by reordering the sign-then-checkpoint sequence.

• Broadcasted function storage (#21686): Only the first contract class's functions were stored when multiple classes had broadcasts in the same block, due to an early return in the loop.

• Block proposal race condition (#21336): Validators now wait for the archiver to sync L1 data up to slot N-1 before processing a block proposal for slot N, preventing false rejections when a checkpoint prune hasn't been processed yet.

• findLeavesIndexes misalignment (#21327): undefined gaps in results caused wrong block numbers to be mapped to wrong leaves. Replaced array-index-based lookups with Maps.

• Priority fee inflation (#21279): Transactions with a max priority fee greater than their max fee could get unfairly high mempool priority. The priority fee is now capped.

• Blob gas estimation flakiness (#21323): Added 2x buffer to maxFeePerBlobGas during gas estimation to prevent intermittent EIP-4844 validation failures when the blob base fee changes between RPC calls. Also fixed integer truncation in the fee bump loop at small values.

• Finalized block lookback (#21597): Updated the heuristic to account for checkpoints (4 blocks each) instead of individual blocks, preventing premature finalization.

• Testnet slashing penalties (#21722): All penalty values aligned with AZTEC_SLASH_AMOUNT_SMALL (100,000 TST). Previously, the per-offense penalty of 10 TST was below the minimum threshold, causing all slash votes to compute as zero.

• Orchestrator event loop starvation (#21247, #21286): Proving job enqueuing now uses a serial queue and only gates the enqueue operation, giving the event loop room to breathe.

• Prover parallelism default (#21320): Reduced default MAX_PARALLEL_BLOCKS from 32 to 4 to better match available CPU resources.

• CLI version detection (#21382): aztec --version no longer returns unknown when installed via install.aztec.network.

• P2P validation reporting (#21185): When multiple validators fail, the most severe failure is now reported instead of whichever appeared first.

• Non-validator block handling (#21105): Replaced the limited default block handler with the full block proposal handler for non-validator nodes, fixing issues with out-of-order proposals and missed validations.

• Private kernel reset hints (#20760): Fixed the hints builder to correctly handle note hash squashing when future logs are linked, and to use contract address to distinguish pending vs settled read requests.

• Proving job ID performance (#21292): Switched from hash.js SHA-256 to Node's native crypto.createHash, significantly speeding up hashing of multi-megabyte buffers sent to the broker.

BB / AVM

• AVM thread pool deadlock eliminated (#21138): AVM NAPI simulations now run on dedicated std::threads instead of the libuv thread pool. Previously, simulations and their JS callback I/O competed for the same libuv threads, causing deadlocks in multi-sequencer setups. This removes the need for careful UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE tuning.

• Chonk proof compression (#20645, #21067): New compression scheme stores EC points as (x, sign_bit) and packs fields as u256, achieving ~1.7x compression (60 KB → 35 KB). Adapted for v4's Translator proof layout.

• arm64-linux AVM transpiler (#20814): Fixed cross-compilation for arm64-linux.

• Prover broker standby mode (#21098): The prover broker now waits for a compatible L1 rollup before starting, instead of crashing on incompatible rollup contracts.

• barretenberg-rs on crates.io (#20496): Added cargo publish support to the release flow.

Aztec.nr

• Ciphertext field masking (#21140): All ciphertext fields are now masked with Poseidon2-derived values. Previously, AES-encrypted logs packed bytes at 31 per field (never exceeding 2^248), allowing observers to distinguish them from other log types. Now all fields appear as uniformly random values. Migration: get_random_bytes has been removed from aztec::utils::random — use aztec::oracle::random directly.

Aztec.js

• Option<T> conversions (#21107): Added ergonomic From/Into conversions for Noir's Option<T> type, making it straightforward to call contract functions with optional parameters.

Configuration Changes

• Slasher penalties tuned for mainnet: inactivity target lowered to 0.7, duplicate proposal/attestation penalties disabled, grace period increased to 8400 slots, per-block allocation multiplier reduced to 1.2 (#21451)
• SEQ_MAX_TX_PER_BLOCK renamed to SEQ_MAX_TX_PER_CHECKPOINT (#21165)
• Default snapshot URL and multiplier configs removed from deployment scripts in favor of network config JSON (#21412, #21413)
• Lighthouse consensus client bumped from v7.1.0 to v8.0.1 (#21170)

All Changes