ZIP: 254
Title: Deployment of the NU7 Network Upgrade
Owners: Arya <arya@zfnd.org>
Status: Draft
Category: Consensus / Network
Created: 2024-10-31
License: MIT
Discussions-To: <https://github.com/zcash/zips/issues/839>

Terminology

The key word “MUST” in this document is to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 1 when, and only when, it appears in all capitals.

The term “network upgrade” in this document is to be interpreted as described in ZIP 200. 2

The character § is used when referring to sections of the Zcash Protocol Specification. 3

The terms “Mainnet” and “Testnet” are to be interpreted as described in § 3.12 ‘Mainnet and Testnet’. 4

Abstract

This proposal defines the deployment of the NU7 network upgrade.

Specification

NU7 deployment

The primary sources of information about NU7 consensus protocol changes are:

The network handshake and peer management mechanisms defined in ZIP 201 7 also apply to this upgrade.

The following network upgrade constants 8 are defined for the NU7 upgrade:

CONSENSUS_BRANCH_ID
0x77190AD8
ACTIVATION_HEIGHT (NU7)
Testnet: TBD
Mainnet: TBD
MIN_NETWORK_PROTOCOL_VERSION (NU7)
Testnet: 170130
Mainnet: 170140

For each network (Testnet and Mainnet), nodes compatible with NU7 activation on that network MUST advertise a network protocol version that is greater than or equal to the MIN_NETWORK_PROTOCOL_VERSION (NU7) for that activation.

Backward compatibility

Prior to the network upgrade activating on each network, NU7 and pre-NU7 nodes are compatible and can connect to each other. However, NU7 nodes will have a preference for connecting to other NU7 nodes, so pre-NU7 nodes will gradually be disconnected in the run up to activation.

Once the network upgrades, even though pre-NU7 nodes can still accept the numerically larger protocol version used by NU7 as being valid, NU7 nodes will always disconnect peers using lower protocol versions.

References


  1. Information on BCP 14 — “RFC 2119: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels” and “RFC 8174: Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words”↩︎

  2. ZIP 200: Network Upgrade Mechanism↩︎

  3. Zcash Protocol Specification, Version 2024.5.1 or later↩︎

  4. Zcash Protocol Specification, Version 2024.5.1 [NU6]. Section 3.12: Mainnet and Testnet↩︎

  5. Zcash Protocol Specification, Version 2024.5.1 or later↩︎

  6. ZIP 200: Network Upgrade Mechanism↩︎

  7. ZIP 201: Network Peer Management for Overwinter↩︎

  8. ZIP 200: Network Upgrade Mechanism↩︎