CODE_COLOR: CODE_YELLOW_TESTNET
RELEASE_VERSION: 2.2.0-rc.1
PROTOCOL_UPGRADE: TRUE
DATABASE_UPGRADE: FALSE
SECURITY_UPGRADE: FALSE

Protocol Changes

• The minimum validator stake has been set to a lower value. The small-stake validators that were kicked out during the shift to stateless validation will be able to rejoin the network.
• Better algorithm for validator kickouts
• (Testnet only) update the eth-implicit accounts contract on testnet to match the one on mainnet.

Non-protocol Changes

• Fix spammy messages about calculating gas for PromiseYield receipts.
• Don't crash when the CPU doesn't have SHA-NI instructions. It's still a hardware requirement, there is no guarantee that nodes without this instruction will be able to keep up with the network, but neard will now be able to run (slowly) on CPUs without this instruction.

Protocol upgrade voting

Voting for protocol version 71 will start on Tuesday 2024-09-03 10:00 UTC