CODE_COLOR: CODE_YELLOW_TESTNET
RELEASE_VERSION: 2.6.0-rc.1
PROTOCOL_UPGRADE: TRUE
DATABASE_UPGRADE: TRUE
SECURITY_UPGRADE: FALSE

Protocol Changes

• Implemented support for global contracts: NEP-591
• Implemented Optimistic Block to remove doubled chunk execution latency from block & chunk production flow #10584

Non-protocol Changes

No Changes

Protocol upgrade voting

Voting for protocol version 77 will start on Monday 2025-04-14 19:00:00 UTC

Protocol upgrade to version 77 is expected to happen 12-24 hours later on Tuesday 2025-04-15 between 7:00 and 19:00 UTC

Required config update after protocol upgrade

After the network upgrades to protocol 77 we will ask node operators to update some config values to make the chain produce blocks at a faster rate. We will share the exact instructions after the protocol upgrade.

Database migration

This release includes a database migration from version 43 to version 44.
When neard 2.6 is started for the first time, it will start the migration and convert the database to the new version. Please don’t interrupt the migration, if you interrupt it you will have to restore the database from a pre-migration snapshot.

On testnet validator and rpc nodes the migration takes about 5 seconds.
On testnet archival nodes the migration takes about 60 seconds
No additional disk space is needed for the migration.

Rollback from 2.6 to 2.5

If a node experiences issues after updating from 2.5 to 2.6, it’s possible to roll it back to 2.5, but it requires manual action to undo the database migration.
Rolling back is only possible before the protocol upgrade - after the protocol upgrade the network will move to a new version that isn’t compatible with neard 2.5

The rollback procedure has been tested, but it’s fairly new and there’s still a possibility that something will go wrong. Please keep the logs from the rollback process in case you run into any issues.

To roll back a node from 2.6 to 2.5, do the following

1. Stop the node
2. Using a 2.6 neard binary, run ./neard database rollback-to25 and confirm the rollback. After confirmation the rollback process will start. Please don’t interrupt the rollback process, it could corrupt the database. Wait for the process to finish.
3. Database will be rolled back to the version used by neard 2.5
4. Start the node using neard 2.5 binary

Be patient, preparing a big archival database for rollback can take up to 5 minutes.