Dear Idena community,
We plan to release a new version of the Idena node on November 2, 2020. It will be the first seamless hard fork update.
There are the following changes planned.
Improved stake protection for the Human status
A Human will get a right to fail the long session without being killed (the identity becomes Suspended).
Motivation: Introducing additional safety guarantees for the protocol, incentivizing aged identities to keep the accumulated stake.
The seamless hard fork update
The seamless hard fork update mechanism is a major step towards decentralized onchain governance. We consider the Idena blockchain to be switched to the mainnet status once the network becomes capable of seamlessly upgrading protocol versions based on the agreement of the network’s majority. Every validated participant will be empowered to decide which node version to support.
How the seamless hard fork will be activated
1. The new node version will support both the current blockchain protocol and the upcoming protocol changes (see above).
2. Running the new version of the node means that the validated address is voting for the upcoming protocol changes. The node with an active mining status will be automatically publishing signals about the hard fork readiness.
3. The hard fork update will be activated only when the voting criterias are met:
- more than 80% of online mining nodes support the upcoming changes
- more than 66.6% of validated addresses support the upcoming changes
4. The hard fork update will be activated not earlier than on November 4. The hard fork update will be activated at any point after November 4 once the voting criteria are met. Otherwise the hard fork update will be blocked on November 11.
The upcoming seamless hard fork update will be mandatory. We plan to support the hard fork update voting in the next Idena app version: Every participant will be empowered to decide which node version to support.
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Let’s innovate the decentralized future by unlocking the onchain democracy. Democracy-based governance is hard. But every single achievement supported by consensus is a big success. We believe Idena is the right place for people who care about decentralization, privacy, equality and freedom of speech. Together we can do thousands of small steps towards the bright decentralized future.
