The new release introduces several breaking changes which make previous platform data invalid. Instead of adding a significant amount of extra work to handle these changes we had to wipe Layer 2 platform state data as part of this release. Layer 1 Core chain and payment transactions remain untouched.
In addition, updates to the DashPay wallets for Android and iOS are being verified on this new version of Dash Platform. Alpha Program users will receive an update after stability of the network has been confirmed.
- Platform Protocol Upgrade The initial implementation of protocol versioning was introduced in version 0.15. The main focus of the v0.21 update was defining and introducing the network protocol upgrade process. Masternodes will signal when a new version of the software is available and the network can then make a decision to switch to the new version once a majority of nodes have updated. Until we determine this critical logic is stable, platform feature flags (analogous to L1 sporks) will be used to manually trigger network protocol upgrades. The new 0.21 version also contains several improvements such as versioning of Drive’s consensus logic and data serialization.
- Comprehensive Error Codes Platform team refactored all errors returned by Platform and assigned specific error codes to each of them. SDK support for the new platform error codes provides a clear and convenient framework to allow developers to easily handle errors and respond accordingly in their applications.
- Cryptographic Proofs Improvements In the previous version of Platform, the initial implementation of cryptographic proofs was introduced to allow light clients to securely interact with Dash Platform. The new version delivers the second set of improvements which allow the system to cryptographically verify the existence and nonexistence of platform data in client libraries. Some remaining limitations will be finalized and optimized in the upcoming 0.22 version.
- Simulated Network Latency for Testnet/Devnets To simulate real-world network conditions on development networks, a network latency option was introduced in the network deployment tool. This helps us to discover potential latency-based issues in Dash Core and Platform.
- Node.JS 16 Migration Platform packages and components were updated to the current LTS version of Node.JS. This version has many performance and functional improvements.
- Dashmate Stability Improvements In this version, Dashmate has seen further testing and fixes to improve stability and user experience. Please note, Dashmate doesn’t support Docker Compose V2 yet, which is enabled by default in Docker Desktop. Please go to “Settings -> General -> Use Docker Compose V2” and disable the checkbox to use Dashmate.
- JavaScript Wallet lib Improvements The 0.21 version of Wallet lib consists of many bug fixes and improvements, mostly related to transaction synchronization. Additionally, changes were made to support the implementation of DashPay for JavaScript (DIP-15).