eCash(XEC) Network Upgrade

As part of its rapid development roadmap, the eCash network undergoes periodic network upgrades. Check here to find up-to-date information so you can stay informed, and be prepared for the next upgrade.

Who needs to upgrade?

All operators of a Bitcoin ABC full node must upgrade to the latest major version (0.28.x). This is available at the Bitcoin ABC Releases Page.

Exactly when will the upgrade activate?

In order to activate reliably at a predictable time, the network upgrade uses the "Median Time Past" mechanism. The upgrade activates when the median of the last 11 blocks reaches timestamp 1700049600 (12:00:00 UTC on November 15th, 2023). This means that the upgrade does not actually activate exactly at that time, but typically about one hour later, when 6 blocks with timestamps greater than the activation time have been produced.

What features are included in the Network Upgrade?

• Staking Rewards

A block policy is added that 10% of the block reward is allocated as a staking reward. There is one recipient in each block, chosen from the avalanche quorum. The reward is sent to the Proof `payoutAddress` field, chosen deterministically from the quorum based on the previous block hash, with probability weighted by the Proof's stake amount.

eCash miners must ensure that their mining setup is properly configured to add the staking rewards to the coinbase outputs. The payout address and amount are available via the `getblocktemplate` RPC.

• Miner fund increase

The miner fund, part of the block reward that is funding eCash network development, will increase from 8% of the block reward to 32%.

eCash miners must ensure that their mining setup is properly configured to use the proper miner fund amount. This information is available via the `getblocktemplate` RPC.