Aleph Zero Mainnet 13.3 Zahir has been launched!

With Mainnet 13.3 Zahir, transactions are 10x cheaper, and the network is ready for high-frequency usage. Learn more about the update!

The Aleph Zero 13.3 Zahir upgrade has been successfully launched on the Mainnet. The core team has delivered significant advancements–and brought core improvements across efficiency, security, and cost-effectiveness.

Here’s an overview of what has been brought by the Mainnet 13.3 Zahir!

Making network usage 10X cheaper for high-frequency usage

The transaction fees are now reduced by an order of magnitude as the L1 is striving to be as close to fee-less as possible, as the network has been prepared for high-frequency usage:

• Reducing transaction fees–and making them 10 times cheaper.
• Preparing the network for high-frequency usage–which is particularly beneficial for enterprise use cases, High-Frequency Trading, and DeFi.

Substantially enhancing reliability and security

The key developments across the areas of validator pruning, a proxy pallet, a new sync mechanism, an AlephBFT update, and API changes are:

• Validator pruning – introducing disk space-saving for validator nodes, making it possible to run setups with less disk space as the network continues to grow.
• Proxy pallet – implementing a parallel proxy mechanism for advanced users by enabling them to interact with the chain via proxy accounts with adjustable permission levels while the main account can be kept offline.
  
  For most users, a single-account setup (without a proxy) is still the advised solution for staking and using dApps.
• New sync mechanism – improving the chain’s performance and compatibility with AlephBFT consensus in Substrate implementation.
• Updated AlephBFT – incorporating a new version of the consensus model for heightened resilience for potential crashes.
• Breaking API changes – introducing breaking changes to the API and upgrading Substrate dependencies. Read the release notes to see if they affect you.

Bug rectifications and addressing false-positive equivocation panics and gas overcharging

The team addressed several small bugs identified in the Testnet phase to ensure smoother operation. Pressing issues such as false-positive equivocation panics and gas overcharging during cross-contract calls were fixed. Fixes to the consumer underflow for controller accounts with different stash accounts have also been introduced.

This release marks a significant milestone in Aleph Zero’s journey towards efficiency, security, and affordability–and we’re thrilled with the results that our dev team has delivered! After successfully laying the necessary groundwork, the network is ready to host innovative real-world applications and enterprise adoption.

Important note for Mainnet validators:

This release features an update of AlephBFT protocol introducing new version of finality justifications. The network is scheduled to be switched to the new version of the protocol on 23.04.2024 at 11:00 AM CET. All validator nodes MUST be updated before that time. After the switch, validators running older versions of Aleph Node will not be able to participate in the committee, which can result in suspension and missing rewards.