Mandatory Upgrade: Zen 2.0.14 and Super Nodes

ATTENTION: All Miners and Node Operators must upgrade to Zen 2.0. 14 by block 344700.

Zen 2.0.14 is the update previously planned before the Equihash ASIC announcement and blockchain attack events.  The time frame to include any new changes was too short to address these issues.  However, potential solutions to mitigate chain manipulation from attacks is being worked on and may not require a mandatory upgrade.  At this time we are staying on our regular deprecation schedule. All Miners and Node Operators must upgrade to Zen 2.0. 14 by block 344700.

We are pleased to announce ZenCash 2.0.14 upgrade is now available! All node operators, exchanges, and pool operators must update from the previous version before June 28th when the current version is deprecated and will stop working (at block 332576). Please follow the instructions below.

Building From Source

To upgrade from any version prior to 2.0.14 you will have to re-clone the repository. The ZencashOfficial/zen repository was replaced by a new repository based on Zcash upstream with a different commit history, merging/pulling is not possible without issues.  

Refer to detailed instructions to build from the source to update the zend daemon.

Updating From APT Repository

This is the method most secure nodes use:

Secure Node operators can reference step-by-step instructions in the Secure Node Software Upgrade Guide.

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install zen
• zen-cli stop
• wait for 30 seconds
• Check the version with: zend –version
• Start zend again

Or Migrate ZEND from Source to APT Repository

Swing wallet must be updated to function with the ZEN 2.0.14 upgrade. Follow instructions to update your Swing Wallet from Mac OS, Linux, and Windows

Zen 2.0.14 Includes

Many of the code changes in this release are focused on bringing the zen code base into alignment with Zcash in order to allow certain modifications to be included and the introduction of a mandatory upgrade manager.  Zen 2.0.14 is based on Zcash 1.0.14 and includes all of Zcash’s improvements up to 1.0.14.  The most anticipated update is the change in the block rewards to increase the secure node portion to 10%, add 10% for super nodes and increase the treasury to 10%.

• Fork manager, each past and future mandatory upgrade or hard fork is clearly defined in a separate file
• Mandatory upgrade to change the reward distribution to 10% each for community fund, secure nodes, and super nodes
• Null Data (OP_RETURN) Transactions, store up to 80 bytes of data in a provably unspendable transaction on chain  
• Improvements from Zcash upstream
  • Low-memory prover reduces JoinSplit creation memory usage from 3 GB to 1.7GB
  • Experimental feature: Payment disclosure with new RPC calls z_getpaymentdisclosure and z_validatepaymentdisclosure
  • Support for incoming viewing keys

Target Dates (these may be adjusted):

Super Nodes and Infrastructure Migration

The deployment of Super Nodes are coinciding with the migration of our tracking server infrastructure to a new hosting provider.  Making this move gives us a higher performance and more stable platform for the servers. Our plan is to test this completely new infrastructure with the Super Nodes tracking servers.   Once any issues are addressed and the infrastructure is stable the Secure Node tracking servers will be moved over. There will be a deployment and test period for the Super Nodes before the earnings start with the mandatory upgrade.

Follow our guide to migrate your Secure Nodes to a Super Node.

Target Dates (these may be adjusted):

Super Node Requirements: 

• At least 500 ZEN in a t-address for staking
• Four CPU cores minimum
• 8GB of RAM or more
• 100GB of storage or more
• Zend: Both IPv4 and IPv6
• Tracker: either IPv4 or IPv6 similar to Secure Nodes
• 96% node uptime per earning period
• Maximum Challenge time of 150 seconds (may be adjusted)
• Valid, non-expired TLS certificate

There will be additional notices and alerts as we move closer to these target dates.