ar-io/ar-io-node r54

Release 54

on GitHub

This is a recommended release due to the improvements to chunk observation
and retrieval. The release enhances peer selection for chunk operations,
introduces experimental X402 payment protocol support, and enables offset
observation enforcement by default to strengthen network reliability.

Added

• X402 Payment Protocol (Experimental): Optional USDC-based payment
  system for accessing rate-limited content. This feature is experimental
  and will be rapidly built out in upcoming releases.
  • Dynamic content-based pricing (default: $0.0000000001/byte = $0.10/GB)
  • USDC payments via Coinbase facilitator on Base network (mainnet and
    testnet supported)
  • Rate limiter integration with 10x capacity multiplier for paid tier
  • Proportional bucket top-off capped to actual price paid
  • HTML paywall for browser clients, JSON responses for API clients
  • Settlement timeout protection (5s default)
  • Configuration via 13 new X_402_* environment variables (see
    .env.example for details)
  • Note: Currently only applies to /<id> and /raw/<id> endpoints
    for non-manifests
• Expanded default preferred chunk GET node pool from 12 to 22 nodes,
  adding data-13 through data-17 (5 additional data nodes) and tip-1
  through tip-5 (5 tip nodes) for improved redundancy and load
  distribution across the Arweave network.
• Added GraphQL as third fallback option in ROOT_TX_LOOKUP_ORDER (after
  db and turbo) to prevent lookup failures when Turbo's circuit breaker
  is open, enabling more resilient root transaction discovery.
• Added deterministic weight-based peer selection for chunk operations
  (both GET and POST). Peers are now sorted by weight in descending order
  and top N selected, ensuring preferred peers (weight 100) are always
  tried first instead of probabilistic selection.
• Added preferred peer weight preservation for chunk operations to prevent
  weight degradation for operator-configured preferred peers during
  temporary failures. Preferred peers maintain their initial weight (100)
  regardless of success/failure, honoring operator configuration while
  allowing discovered peers to adapt based on performance.

Changed

• Observer: Enabled offset observation enforcement by default.
  OFFSET_OBSERVATION_ENFORCEMENT_ENABLED now defaults to true instead
  of false. Gateway assessments will fail if offset validation fails,
  strengthening network reliability requirements. Operators can opt-out by
  explicitly setting OFFSET_OBSERVATION_ENFORCEMENT_ENABLED=false.
• Reduced logging verbosity by moving DNS resolution and sync bucket
  operational logs from debug/info to silly level. DNS resolution messages
  ('Resolving hostname', 'Resolved IPv4/IPv6 addresses') and sync bucket
  updates ('Parsed ETF sync buckets', 'Updated sync buckets') now use
  silly level, while completion and peer selection messages remain at
  debug level for visibility.

Fixed

• Fixed preferred peer weight preservation to only apply to chunk
  operations (GET/POST) instead of all operation categories. Previously,
  preferred chunk peers maintained constant weight across chain, getChunk,
  and postChunk operations. Now preferred chunk peers can undergo normal
  warming/cooling when used for chain operations, preventing indefinite
  selection of peers that perform poorly for chain operations while still
  maintaining constant weight for chunk operations.
• Fixed ANS-104 data item header parsing for Ethereum signatures (type 3)
  by using correct 65-byte uncompressed public key length instead of
  20-byte address length. This resolves "Invalid buffer" errors when
  parsing Ethereum-signed data items. Also updated
  MAX_DATA_ITEM_HEADER_SIZE from 6228 to 8257 bytes to account for
  MultiAptos signature type (largest supported), and replaced custom
  signature/owner length methods with getSignatureMeta() from arbundles
  library for consistency.
• Fixed root TX discovery to use non-blocking rate limiting instead of
  blocking when rate limits are reached. Services now use
  tryRemoveTokens() and skip rate-limited gateways/sources immediately
  rather than waiting indefinitely, preventing request blocking and
  improving responsiveness. Also fixed GraphQL service to return
  dataSize instead of incorrect size field.

Known Issues

• The x402 browser paywall currently uses blob URLs for content delivery
  after successful payment. This causes issues with content-type handling
  and browser behavior as the blob URL doesn't preserve the original
  content metadata. We plan to fix this in upcoming releases by
  either contributing to the x402 SDK to add a page reload option, or
  implementing a custom paywall template that properly handles redirects
  after payment verification.