Hayabusa Hardfork — v2.4.0

Important

Mandatory upgrade.
This release activates a hardfork. All node operators must upgrade to v2.4.0 before the following block heights:

Testnet Hardfork: Block 23,161,500 ~ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:11:50 UTC
Mainnet Hardfork: Block 23,414,400 ~ Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:27:00 UTC

🚀 What’s in Hayabusa

Hayabusa marks the beginning of VeChain’s Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) era expanding participation, aligning incentives, and setting the stage for scalable community governance.

Named after the pioneering Japanese spacecraft, Hayabusa symbolizes precision, endurance, and innovation reflecting VeChain’s leap toward broader decentralization and network sustainability.

Core Highlights

Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) (VIP-253) transforms the consensus model, allowing VET holders to stake or delegate and directly participate in network security.
Dynamic VTHO Tokenomics (VIP-254) replaces static VTHO generation with staking-based block rewards that adapt to network activity and staked supply.
Validator Lifecycle Overhaul staking, delegating, renewal, exit, and withdrawal are all managed via the new Staker contract.
Stake-Weighted Finality blocks finalize based on validator weight, improving resilience and cryptoeconomic security.
Performance & Stability significant optimization to gas usage, storage writes, and housekeeping efficiency.
Developer Readiness improved error context, new admin APIs, enhanced Solo/Testnet tooling, and complete Devnet mirror.

⚠️ Breaking Changes & Action Items

For Node Operators

Upgrade to v2.4.0 before the hardfork block heights listed above.
Review and update any system-level overrides to match Hayabusa parameters.
Expect updated metrics: validator liveness, eviction, and staking performance.
Housekeeping logs have been streamlined to reduce verbosity.

For dApp / SDK Integrators

VTHO emission model changed adjust analytics and dashboards accordingly.
Admin API addresses are now checksummed.
Validator set and block reward interfaces have been updated; ensure explorers and monitoring tools are compatible.
Error contexts improved update error handling for bind/VM layers.

For Validators & Stakers

Existing authority nodes must register via the new Staker process before fork activation.
Delegators can stake VET to active validators and share in rewards post-fork.
VTHO issuance is now proportional to staked weight — inactive VET no longer generates VTHO.

💻 Hayabusa Devnet (Testing Environment)

The Hayabusa Devnet mirrors the upcoming mainnet upgrade.
Use it to test:

Validator registration, delegation, and reward issuance.
Increase/decrease/exit/renew staking operations.
Integration with wallets, explorers, and SDKs under the new DPoS rules.

Public Node: https://hayabusa.live.dev.node.vechain.org/
Faucet: https://faucet-hayabusa.dev.node.vechain.org/

🙌 Contributors

Huge thanks to everyone who brought Hayabusa to life:

Special shout-out to the engineering, QA, and research teams for the months of design, iteration, and validation behind Hayabusa - a massive step forward for VeChain’s evolution. 💪

Full Changelog:
v2.3.2...v2.4.0

vechain/thor v2.4.0-rc.1 on GitHub