Announcing Lotus v1.28.1: Elevating Filecoin to Network Version 23 (Waffle) 🧇

We are thrilled to share with you the announcement the Filecoin release of Lotus v1.28.1, a mandatory update for the network that introduces Network Version 23, codenamed Waffle. This upgrade marks a significant milestone as it not only introduces new features and fixes but also prepares us for more robust and efficient network performance.

• Upgrade Timing: The mainnet upgrade is scheduled for epoch 4154640, translating to a target date and time of 2024-08-06 at 12:00 UTC.

• Minimum Version Requirement: Lotus v1.28.1 is the minimal required version that supports Network Version 23 (nv23).

• Previous Versions: Users on Lotus v1.26.x should review the Upgrade Warnings from v1.27.* releases before proceeding with this upgrade. It’s crucial as v1.28.0 was retracted due to a need for bug fixes and feature enhancements.

• Database Migration: An additional migration for the events database will be conducted. Operators using Lotus with events enabled might experience a slight delay during the initial start-up post-upgrade.

• Sector Onboarding: Storage Providers must ensure all sectors with deal IDs in the PreCommitSectors OnChainSectorInfos are onboarded before upgrading the Lotus miner to avoid losing them.

• FIP-0065: Excludes built-in market locked balance from the circulating supply calculation.

• FIP-0079: Adds BLS Aggregate Signatures to the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM).

• FIP-0084: Deprecates the Storage Miner Actor Method ProveCommitSectors in favor of a more efficient method introduced in previous upgrades.

• FIP-0085 & FIP-0091: Introduce changes to the Mining Reserve Actor and support for legacy Ethereum transactions.

• NI-PoRep & Fast Finality: Introduces improvements in proofs of replication and initiates a soft launch of Fast Finality (F3), aiming to significantly reduce the finality time from hours to approximately a minute.

The soft launch of Fast Finality (F3) is a crucial step towards improving the efficiency of consensus on the Filecoin network. We encourage node operators, especially storage providers, to participate actively in the F3 testing on the mainnet.

It's recommended to opt-out of F3 functionalities temporarily by setting the  environment variable until the functionalities have stabilized in future releases.

• Dependencies Update: Ensure all dependencies are updated as per the release guidelines to avoid compatibility issues.

• Community Support: For any issues or queries, please reach out through the zondax slack channel.

This upgrade is not just a step but a leap towards a more resilient and capable Filecoin network. We look forward to seeing the community benefit from these enhancements and thank everyone for their continued support and collaboration in strengthening the Filecoin ecosystem.

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