BitShares(BTS) Core V6.0.0 “MEKONG” Released

INTRODUCTION

The past year has seen a lot happen in BitShares. What seems like way back, BitShares 5.0 dropped in Sept 2020. Then a huge amount of business development went down culminating in the article report from July you can find at that link. All of which is ongoing – regardless whether recent updates are low in volume. Today’s article focuses on the purely technical. BitShares Core v6.0.0 “MEKONG” is now live. All node operators are advised to upgrade. Savvy and tech-minded BitShares enthusiasts will also want to dive down on some details below (or by following the link to GitHub). On behalf of the community, Thanks goes out to BitShares Core team led by @abitmore for the continued evolution and innovation of BitShares – the original DPoS blockchain.

BitShares v6.0.0 contains other than essential fixes and enhancements, a new feature relating to zero-collateral funding. This involves a user ability to access funds from a pool or several pools and pay them back instantly in the same transaction, without the need to lock collateral.

BITSHARES CORE V6.0.0 RELEASE NOTES

These notes are taken from the draft here on BitShares GitHub repo, thus are subject to change. For reference only.

The BitShares Core software has been updated to the 6.0.0 Protocol Release. The code-name of the 6.x releases is “MEKONG”. The Core software is used to build the validation nodes that perform consensus of all transactions on the BitShares blockchain. This release includes additions, improvements and changes to the consensus protocol. Documentation for users may be be found at How BitShares Works. Documentation for BitShares developers may be found at the BitShares Developer Portal.

Who Should Upgrade

All node operators must upgrade to handle the protocol upgrade.

How To Upgrade

Precautions:

• All validation nodes must complete their upgrade prior to Protocol Activation
  
• A blockchain replay will automatically be performed after the validation node software is restarted. This typically takes a few hours on a modern CPU.

How to Upgrade from Source Code

Note:

• The code base requires a compiler that supports the C++ 14 standard
  
• The minimum supported boost version is 1.58, the maximum is 1.74
  
• The minimum supported CMake version is 3.2
  
• For Ubuntu users, it is recommended to build in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa). Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) is no longer supported.

WHEN TO UPGRADE

If you’re reading this, BitShares Core 6.0 Codename “Mekong” software is available and all node and gateway operators should start upgrade.
The BitShares Hard Fork time for MAINNET is Tuesday, January 11, 2022 14:00:00 UTC and thus also the deadline by which all node operators should have completed the upgrade. A major release occurs for BitShares approximately once every year or 12-18 months. Follow us on Twitter to be notified on new publications from the verified media source on BitShares.