CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to the versioning scheme outlined in the README.md.

[2.05.0.1.0]

Added

• A new fee estimator intended to produce fewer over-estimates, by having less sensitivity to outliers. Its characteristic features are: 1) use a window to forget past estimates instead of exponential averaging, 2) use weighted percentiles, so that bigger transactions influence the estimates more, 3) assess empty space in blocks as having paid the "minimum fee", so that empty space is accounted for, 4) use random "fuzz" so that in busy times the fees can change dynamically. (#2972)
• Implements anti-entropy protocol for querying transactions from other nodes' mempools. Before, nodes wouldn't sync mempool contents with one another. (#2884)
• Structured logging in the mining code paths. This will shine light on what happens to transactions (successfully added, skipped or errored) that the miner considers while buildings blocks. (#2975)
• Added the mined microblock event, which includes information on transaction events that occurred in the course of mining (will provide insight on whether a transaction was successfully added to the block, skipped, or had a processing error). (#2975)
• For v2 endpoints, can now specify the tip parameter to latest. If tip=latest, the node will try to run the query off of the latest tip. (#2778)
• Adds the /v2/headers endpoint, which returns a sequence of SIP-003-encoded block headers and consensus hashes (see the ExtendedStacksHeader struct that this PR adds to represent this data). (#2862)
• Adds the /v2/data_var endpoint, which returns a contract's data variable value and a MARF proof of its existence. (#2862)
• Fixed a bug in the unconfirmed state processing logic that could lead to a denial of service (node crash) for nodes that mine microblocks (#2970)
• Added prometheus metric that tracks block fullness by logging the percentage of each cost dimension that is consumed in a given block (#3025).

Changed

• Updated the mined block event. It now includes information on transaction events that occurred in the course of mining (will provide insight on whether a transaction was successfully added to the block, skipped, or had a processing error). (#2975)
• Updated some of the logic in the block assembly for the miner and the follower to consolidate similar logic. Added functions setup_block and finish_block. (#2946)
• Makes the p2p state machine more reactive to newly-arrived BlocksAvailable and MicroblocksAvailable messages for block and microblock streams that this node does not have. If such messages arrive during an inventory sync, the p2p state machine will immediately transition from the inventory sync work state to the block downloader work state, and immediately proceed to fetch the available block or microblock stream. (#2862)
• Nodes will push recently-obtained blocks and microblock streams to outbound neighbors if their cached inventories indicate that they do not yet have them (#2986).
• Nodes will no longer perform full inventory scans on their peers, except during boot-up, in a bid to minimize block-download stalls (#2986).
• Nodes will process sortitions in parallel to downloading the Stacks blocks for a reward cycle, instead of doing these tasks sequentially (#2986).
• The node's runloop will coalesce and expire stale requests to mine blocks on top of parent blocks that are no longer the chain tip (#2969).
• Several database indexes have been updated to avoid table scans, which significantly improves most RPC endpoint speed and cuts node spin-up time in half (#2989, #3005).
• Fixed a rare denial-of-service bug whereby a node that processes a very deep burnchain reorg can get stuck, and be rendered unable to process further sortitions. This has never happened in production, but it can be replicated in tests (#2989).
• Updated what indices are created, and ensures that indices are created even after the database is initialized (#3029).

Fixed

• Updates the lookup key for contracts in the pessimistic cost estimator. Before, contracts published by different principals with the same name would have had the same key in the cost estimator. (#2984)
• Fixed a few prometheus metrics to be more accurate compared to /v2 endpoints when polling data (#2987)

[2.05.0.0.0]

This software update is a consensus changing release and the implementation of the proposed cost changes in SIP-012. This release's chainstate directory is compatible with chainstate directories from 2.0.11.4.0. However, this release is only compatible with chainstate directories before the 2.05 consensus changes activate (Bitcoin height 713,000). If you run a 2.00 stacks-node beyond this point, and wish to run a 2.05 node afterwards, you must start from a new chainstate directory.

Added

• At height 713,000 a new costs-2 contract will be launched by the Stacks boot address.

Changed

• Stacks blocks whose parents are mined >= 713,000 will use default costs from the new costs-2 contract.
• Stacks blocks whose parents are mined >= 713,000 will use the real serialized length of Clarity values as the cost inputs to several methods that previously used the maximum possible size for the associated types.
• Stacks blocks whose parents are mined >= 713,000 will use the new block limit defined in SIP-012.

Fixed

• Miners are now more aggressive in calculating their block limits when confirming microblocks (#2916)

[2.0.11.4.0]

This software update is a point-release to change the transaction selection logic in the default miner to prioritize by an estimated fee rate instead of raw fee. This release's chainstate directory is compatible with chainstate directories from 2.0.11.3.0.

Added

• FeeEstimator and CostEstimator interfaces. These can be controlled via node configuration options. See the README.md for more information on the configuration.
• New fee rate estimation endpoint /v2/fees/transaction (#2872). See docs/rpc/openapi.yaml for more information.

Changed

• Prioritize transaction inclusion in blocks by estimated fee rates (#2859).
• MARF sqlite connections will now use mmap'ed connections with up to 256MB space (#2869).

[2.0.11.3.0]

This software update is a point-release to change the transaction selection logic in the default miner to prioritize by fee instead of nonce sequence. This release's chainstate directory is compatible with chainstate directories from 2.0.11.2.0.

Added

• The node will enforce a soft deadline for mining a block, so that a node operator can control how frequently their node attempts to mine a block regardless of how congested the mempool is. The timeout parameters are controlled in the [miner] section of the node's config file (#2823).

Changed

• Prioritize transaction inclusion in the mempool by transaction fee (#2823).

[2.0.11.2.0]

NOTE: This change resets the testnet. Users running a testnet node will need to reset their chain states.

Added

• clarity-cli will now also print a serialized version of the resulting output from eval and execute commands. This serialization is in hexademical string format and supports integration with other tools. (#2684)
• The creation of a Bitcoin wallet with BTC version > 0.19 is now supported on a private testnet. (#2647)
• lcov-compatible coverage reporting has been added to clarity-cli for Clarity contract testing. (#2592)
• The README.md file has new documentation about the release process. (#2726)

Changed

• This change resets the testnet. (#2742)
• Caching has been added to speed up /v2/info responses. (#2746)

Fixed

• PoX syncing will only look back to the reward cycle prior to divergence, instead of looking back over all history. This will speed up running a follower node. (#2746)
• The UTXO staleness check is re-ordered so that it occurs before the RBF-limit check. This way, if stale UTXOs reached the "RBF limit" a miner will recover by resetting the UTXO cache. (#2694)
• Microblock events were being sent to the event observer when microblock data was received by a peer, but were not emitted if the node mined the microblocks itself. This made something like the private-testnet setup incapable of emitting microblock events. Microblock events are now sent even when self-mined. (#2653)
• A bug is fixed in the mocknet/helium miner that would lead to a panic if a burn block occurred without a sortition in it. (#2711)
• Two bugs that caused problems syncing with the bitcoin chain during a bitcoin reorg have been fixed (#2771, #2780).
• Documentation is fixed in cases where string and buffer types are allowed but not covered in the documentation. (#2676)

[2.0.11.1.0]

This software update is our monthly release. It introduces fixes and features for both developers and miners. This release's chainstate directory is compatible with chainstate directories from 2.0.11.0.0.

Added

• /new_microblock endpoint to notify event observers when a valid microblock has been received (#2571).
• Added new features to clarity-cli (#2597)
• Exposing new mining-related metrics in prometheus (#2664)
  • Miner's computed relative miner score as a percentage
  • Miner's computed commitment, the min of their previous commitment and their median commitment
  • Miner's current median commitment
• Add key-for-seed command to the stacks-node binary - outputs the associated secret key hex string and WIF formatted secret key for a given "seed" value (#2658).

Changed

• Improved mempool walk order (#2514).
• Renamed database tx_tracking.db to tx_tracking.sqlite (#2666).

Fixed

• Alter the miner to prioritize spending the most recent UTXO when building a transaction, instead of the largest UTXO. In the event of a tie, it uses the smallest UTXO first (#2661).
• Fix trait rpc lookups for implicitly implemented traits (#2602).
• Fix v2/pox endpoint, broken on Mocknet (#2634).
• Align cost limits on mocknet, testnet and mainnet (#2660).
• Log peer addresses in the HTTP server (#2667)
• Mine microblocks if there are no recent unprocessed Stacks blocks

[2.0.11.0.0]

The chainstate directory has been restructured in this release. It is not compatible with prior chainstate directories.

Added

• /drop_mempool_tx endpoint to notify event observers when a mempool transaction has been removed the mempool.
• "reward_slot_holders" field to the new_burn_block event
• CTRL-C handler for safe shutdown of stacks-node
• Log transactions in local db table via setting env STACKS_TRANSACTION_LOG=1
• New prometheus metrics for mempool transaction processing times and outstanding mempool transactions
• New RPC endpoint with path /v2/traits/contractAddr/contractName/traitContractName /traitContractAddr/traitName to determine whether a given trait is implemented within the specified contract (either explicitly or implicitly).
• Re-activate the Atlas network for propagating and storing transaction attachments. This re-enables off-chain BNS name storage.
• Re-activate microblock mining.

Changed

• Improved chainstate directory layout
• Improved node boot up time
• Better handling of flash blocks
• The /v2/pox RPC endpoint was updated to include more useful information about the current and next PoX cycles. For details, see docs/rpc-endpoints.md

Fixed

• Fixed faulty logic in the mempool that was still treating the transaction fee as a fee rate, which prevented replace-by-fee from working as expected.

[2.0.10.0.1]

This is a low-priority hotfix release to address a bug in the deserialization logic. The chainstate directory of 2.0.10.0.1 is compatible with 2.0.10. This release also begins the usage of the versioning scheme outlined in the README.md.

[2.0.10]

This is a low-priority hotfix release to address two bugs in the block downloader. The chainstate directory of 2.0.10 is compatible with 2.0.9. If booting up a node from genesis, or an existing node has stalled in downloading blocks, this hotfix is necessary for your node.

Fixed

• Bug in microblocks inventory vector calculation that included invalidated microblocks as present bit. This bug will impact nodes booting up from genesis, but not affect nodes currently running at the chain tip (#2518).
• Bug in microblocks downloader logic that would cause the stacks-node to fail to wake-up to process newly arrived microblocks in certain instances (#2491).

[2.0.9]

This is a hotfix release for improved handling of arriving Stacks blocks through both the RPC interface and the P2P ineterface. The chainstate directory of 2.0.9 is compatible with the 2.0.8 chainstate.

Fixed

• TOCTTOU bug fixed in the chain processing logic that, which now ensures that an arriving Stacks block is processed at most once.

[2.0.8] - 2021-03-02

This is a hotfix release for improved handling of static analysis storage and improved at-block behavior. The chainstate directory of 2.0.8 is compatible with the 2.0.7 chainstate.

Fixed

• Improved static analysis storage
• at-block behavior in clarity-cli and unit tests (no changes in stacks-node behavior).

[2.0.7] - 2021-02-26

This is an emergency hotfix that prevents the node from accidentally deleting valid block data if its descendant microblock stream is invalid for some reason.

Fixed

• Do not delete a valid parent Stacks block.

[2.0.6] - 2021-02-15

The database schema has not changed since 2.0.5, so when spinning up a 2.0.6 node from a 2.0.5 chainstate, you do not need to use a fresh working directory. Earlier versions' chainstate directories are incompatible, however.

Fixed

• Miner RBF logic has two "fallback" logic changes. First, if the RBF logic has increased fees by more than 50%, do not submit a new transaction. Second, fix the "same chainstate hash" fallback check.
• Winning block txid lookups in the SortitionDB have been corrected to use the txid during the lookup.
• The miner will no longer attempt to mine a new Stacks block if it receives a microblock in a discontinuous microblock stream.

[2.0.5] - 2021-02-12

The database schema has changed since 2.0.4, so when spinning up a 2.0.5 node from an earlier chainstate, you must use a fresh working directory.

Added

• Miner heuristic for handling relatively large or computationally expensive transactions: such transactions will be dropped from the mempool to prevent miners from re-attempting them once they fail. Miners can also now continue processing transactions that are behind those transactions in the mempool "queue".

Fixed

• Miner block assembly now uses the correct block limit available via the node config
• tx_fees_streamed_produced fees are included in miner coinbase events for event observers
• SQLite indexes are now correctly created on database instantion

Changed

• STX unlock events are now sent over the events endpoint bundled into an associated unlock transaction
• Atlas attachments networking endpoints are disabled for this release, while networking issues are addressed in the implementation

[2.0.4] - 2021-02-07

Changed

• Atlas attachments networking endpoints are disabled for this release, while networking issues are addressed in the implementation.

[2.0.3] - 2021-02-04

Added

• stacks-node --mine-at-height commandline option, which tells the stacks-node not to mine until it has synchronized to the given Stacks block height
• A new RPC endpoint /v2/blocks/upload/{consensus_hash} that accepts an uploaded a Stacks block for a given sortition

Changed

• Enabled WAL mode for the chainstate databases. This allows much more concurrency in the stacks-node, and improves network performance across the board. NOTE: This changed the database schema, any running node would need to re-initialize their nodes from a new chain state when upgrading.
• Default value wait_time_for_microblocks: from 60s to 30s
• The mempool now performs more transfer semantics checks before admitting a transaction (e.g., reject if origin = recipient): see issue #2354
• Improved the performance of the code that handles GetBlocksInv p2p messages by an order of magnitude.
• Improved the performance of the block-downloader's block and microblock search code by a factor of 5x.

Fixed

• Miner mempool querying now works across short-lived forks: see issue #2389
• JSON deserialization for high-depth JSON objects
• Atlas attachment serving: see PR #2390
• Address issues #2379, #2356, #2347, #2346. The tracking of the LeaderBlockCommit operations inflight is improved, drastically reducing the number of block commit rejections. When aLeaderBlockCommit is not included in the Bitcoin block it was targeting, it is condemned to be rejected, per the Stacks consensus. To avoid wasting BTC, the miner now tries to send its next LeaderBlockCommit operations using the UTXOs of the previous transaction with a replacement by fee. The fee increase increments can be configured with the setting rbf_fee_increment.