PIVX Core version 3.4.0 is now available from: https://github.com/pivx-project/pivx/releases
Please report bugs using the issue tracker at github: https://github.com/pivx-project/pivx/issues
PIVX Core v3.4.0 is a mandatory update for all users. This release contains new consensus rules and improvements that are not backwards compatible with older versions. Users will need to update their clients before enforcement of this update goes into effect.
Update enforcement goes into effect at the following times:
Testnet: Tuesday, August 27, 2019 7:00:00 PM GMT
Mainnet: Friday, August 30, 2019 4:00:00 PM GMT
Masternodes will need to be restarted once both the masternode daemon and the controller wallet have been upgraded.
How to Upgrade
If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/PIVX-Qt (on Mac) or pivxd/pivx-qt (on Linux).
Compatibility
PIVX Core is extensively tested on multiple operating systems using the Linux kernel, macOS 10.10+, and Windows 7 and later.
Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 8th, 2014, No attempt is made to prevent installing or running the software on Windows XP, you can still do so at your own risk but be aware that there are known instabilities and issues. Please do not report issues about Windows XP to the issue tracker.
Apple released it’s last Mountain Lion update August 13, 2015, and officially ended support on December 14, 2015. PIVX Core software starting with v3.2.0 will no longer run on MacOS versions prior to Yosemite (10.10). Please do not report issues about MacOS versions prior to Yosemite to the issue tracker.
PIVX Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not frequently tested on them.
Notable Changes
Internal (Core) Changes
Version 2 Stake Modifier
A new 256-bit modifier for the proof of stake protocol has been defined, CBlockIndex::nStakeModifierV2.
It is computed at every block, by taking the hash of the modifier of previous block along with the coinstake input.
To meet the protocol, the PoS kernel must comprise the modifier of the previous block.
Changeover enforcement of this new modifier is set to occur at block 1214000 for testnet and block 1967000 for mainnet.
Block index batch writing
Block index writes are now done in a batch. This allows for less frequent disk access, meaning improved performances and less data corruption risks.
Eliminate needless key generation
The staking process has been improved to no longer request a new (unused) key from the keypool. This should reduce wallet file size bloat as well as slightly improve staking efficiency.
Fix crash scenario at wallet startup
A program crash bug that happens when the wallet.dat file contains a zc public spend transaction (input) and the user had removed the chain data has been fixed.
GUI Changes
Removal of zero-fee transaction option
The long term viability of acceptable zero-fee transaction conditions is in need of review. As such, we are temporarily disabling the ability to create zero-fee transactions.
Show latest block hash and datadir information tab
A QoL addition has been made to the Information tab of the UI’s console window, which adds the display of both the current data directory and the latest block hash seen by the client.
RPC Changes
Require valid URL scheme when preparing/submitting a proposal
The preparebudget and submitbudget RPC commands now require the inclusion of a canonical URL scheme as part of their url parameter. Strings that don’t include either http:// or https:// will be rejected.
The 64 character limit for the url field is inclusive of this change, so the use of a URL shortening service may be needed.
Testing Suite Changes
Functional testing readability
Several changes have been introduced to the travis script in order to make the output more readable. Specifically it now lists tests left to run and prints the output of failing scripts.
Build System Changes
OpenSSL configure information
When the configure step fails because of an unsupported OpenSSL (or other library), it now displays more information on using an override flag to compile anyways. The long term plan is to ensure that the consensus code doesn’t depend on OpenSSL in any way and then remove this configure step and related override flag.
3.4.0 Change log
Detailed release notes follow. This overview includes changes that affect behavior, not code moves, refactors and string updates. For convenience in locating the code changes and accompanying discussion, both the pull request and git merge commit are mentioned.
Core Features
- #983 ac8cb7376d [PoS] Stake Modifier V2 (random-zebra)
- #958 454c487424 [Staking] Modify miner and staking thread for efficiency (Cave Spectre)
- #915 9c5a300624 Modify GetNextWorkRequired to set Target Limit correctly (Cave Spectre)
- #952 7ab673f6fa [Staking] Prevent potential negative out values during stake splitting (Cave Spectre)
- #941 0ac0116ae4 [Refactor] Move ThreadStakeMinter out of net.cpp (Fuzzbawls)
- #932 924ec4f6dd [Node] Do all block index writes in a batch (Pieter Wuille)
Build System
- #934 92aa6c2daa [Build] Bump master to 3.3.99 (pre-3.4) (Fuzzbawls)
- #943 918852cb90 [Travis] Show functional tests progress (warrows)
- #957 2c9f624455 [Build] Add info about ‘–with-unsupported-ssl’ (Warrows)
P2P Protocol and Network Code
- #987 fa1dbab247 [Net] Protocol update enforcement for 70917 and new spork keys (Fuzzbawls)
GUI
- #933 e47fe3d379 [Qt] Add blockhash + datadir to information tab (Mrs-X)
RPC/REST
- #950 3d7e16e753 [RPC] require valid URL scheme on budget commands (Cave Spectre)
- #964 a03fa6236d [Refactor] Combine parameter checking of budget commands (Cave Spectre)
- #965 b9ce433bd5 [RPC] Correct issues with budget commands (Cave Spectre)
Wallet
- #939 37ad934ad8 [Wallet] Remove (explicitely) unused tx comparator (warrows)
- #971 bbeabc4d63 [Wallet][zPIV] zc public spend parse crash in wallet startup. (furszy)
- #980 8b81d8f6f9 [Wallet] Remove Bitcoin Core 0.8 block hardlinking (JSKitty)
- #982 a0a1af9f78 [Miner] Don’t create new keys when generating PoS blocks (random-zebra)
Test Suites
- #961 2269f10fd9 [Trivial][Tests] Do not fail test when warnings are written to stderr (random-zebra)
- #974 f9d4ee0b15 [Tests] Add Spork functional test and update RegTest spork key (random-zebra)
- #976 12de5ec1dc [Refactor] Fix stake age checks for regtest (random-zebra)
Miscellaneous
- #947 6ce55eec2d [Scripts] Sync github-merge.py with upstream (Fuzzbawls)
- #948 4a2b4831a9 [Docs] Clean and re-structure the gitian-keys directory (Fuzzbawls)
- #949 9e4c3576af [Refactor] Remove all “using namespace” statements (warrows)
- #951 fa40040f80 [Trivial] typo fixes (Cave Spectre)
- #986 fdd0cdb72f [Doc] Release notes update (Fuzzbawls)
Credits
Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:
- Cave Spectre
- Chun Kuan Lee
- Fuzzbawls
- Isidoro Ghezzi
- JSKitty
- MarcoFalke
- Mrs-X
- Pieter Wuille
- Steven Roose
- Warrows
- furszy
- random-zebra
As well as everyone that helped translating on Transifex, the QA team during Testing and the Node hosts supporting our Testnet.
