The v0.19.0 release of Hiero Block Node introduces a mix of enhancements, bug fixes, and infrastructure improvements aimed at improving stability, developer experience, and testing capabilities. A notable enhancement includes the removal of BlockAcknowledgement.block_root_hash from the Publisher API, simplifying interactions with the publisher and reducing unnecessary payload complexity. On the bug-fix front, this release addresses several potential null pointer exceptions and runtime errors in block accessors, improving overall system reliability, and also includes a cherry-picked CI fix to streamline the publishing workflow.
Infrastructure and tooling improvements are a key focus in this release. Gradle has been upgraded to version 9.0.0 along with plugin updates, ensuring a more modern and efficient build environment. The simulator now supports sending EndStream messages through the publisher, enabling more robust end-to-end testing scenarios. Additionally, in Helm Charts deployment, the conversion to StatefulSet has been completed, and telemetry defaults have been changed to false to reduce noise in production deployments. These changes together improve both local development and large-scale network testing experiences.
Dependency management has also been tightened, with several key libraries and GitHub Actions tools updated, including Netty, Docker Java API, SpotBugs annotations, and the Google Cloud libraries BOM. This ensures that the Block Node remains aligned with upstream improvements and security patches. The release also welcomes a new contributor, @shezaan-hashgraph, who contributed fixes for StatefulSet conversion and telemetry defaults, marking continued community engagement and growth.
What's Changed
🔥 Breaking Changes
Helm Charts: As part of a PR to improve the Deployment Helm Charts for the BlockNode the Helm Chart name changed from block-node-helm-chart to block-node-server hence the OCI Repository has changed to: oci://ghcr.io/hiero-ledger/hiero-block-node/block-node-server, upgrades from previous deployments using helm upgrade are not recommended.
🚀 Enhancements
🐛 Bug Fixes
- fix(1522): Remove NPE opportunities and runtime exceptions from block accessors by @jsync-swirlds in #1590
- ci(publish): Cherry pick 1641 by @AlfredoG87 in #1643
🔧 Improvements
- build: bump Gradle to 9.0.0 / plugins to 0.5.0 by @jjohannes in #1610
- feat: Simulator add publisher support to send EndStream message by @mustafauzunn in #1604
- fix: Conversion to statefulset by @shezaan-hashgraph in #1602
- feat: Change telemetry defaults to false by @shezaan-hashgraph in #1632
⬆️ Dependency Upgrades
- build(deps): bump step-security/harden-runner from 2.13.0 to 2.13.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #1607
- build(deps): bump step-security/foundry-toolchain from 1.4.0 to 1.4.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #1608
- build(deps): bump actions/setup-python from 5.6.0 to 6.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1584
- build(deps): bump ncipollo/release-action from 1.18.0 to 1.20.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1583
- build(deps): bump codecov/codecov-action from 5.5.0 to 5.5.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #1591
- build(deps): bump gradle/actions from 4.4.2 to 4.4.3 by @dependabot[bot] in #1603
- build(deps): bump actions/setup-java from 4.7.1 to 5.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1586
- build(deps): bump actions/setup-node from 4.4.0 to 5.0.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #1585
- build(deps): bump io.netty:netty-bom from 4.2.4.Final to 4.2.6.Final in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1623
- build(deps): bump com.github.docker-java:docker-java-api from 3.5.3 to 3.6.0 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1597
- build(deps): bump com.github.spotbugs:spotbugs-annotations from 4.9.3 to 4.9.5 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1624
- build(deps): bump/remove com.google.j2objc:j2objc-annotations from 3.0.0 to 3.1 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1598
- build(deps): bump com.google.cloud:libraries-bom from 26.63.0 to 26.68.0 in /hiero-dependency-versions by @dependabot[bot] in #1622
New Contributors
- @shezaan-hashgraph made their first contribution in #1602
Full Changelog: v0.18.0...v0.19.0