## Highlights ### NV28 upgrade Forest joins Lotus and Venus in supporting the [NV28 upgrade](https://github.com/filecoin-project/core-devs/discussions/205). See the post for details regarding the new features brought to the network. The calibration network upgrade is scheduled for May 7th - make sure to upgrade your Forest node before that date to avoid any issues; the [v0.33.2 Night Mare](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/discussions/6985#discussioncomment-16769263) is already available. ### Finality calculator integration New Forest releases integrate the [finality calculator](https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs/blob/master/FRCs/frc-0089.md). This allows Forest to provide a safe finality estimate for the latest block, especially in cases where fast finality is not available (currently on mainnet). See Lotus [finality docs](https://github.com/filecoin-project/lotus/blob/master/documentation/en/finality.md#overview) for more details. This is already available in `/v1` and `/v2` APIs, no additional configuration is needed. ## Development ### Strict JSON validation JSON-RPC is a quite forgiving protocol when it comes to parsing JSON. This can lead to some unexpected behaviour, e.g., when missing fields are silently ignored or when map key are not unique. Setting `FOREST_STRICT_JSON` will catch some of these issues, punishing technically-correct-but-probably-broken JSON with an error instead of silently accepting it. Useful in development and testing, but adds some overhead, so it's not enabled by default. ### State Tree snapshots We're tinkering with a different approach to archival snapshots. @hanabi1224 came up with a leaner snapshot format that would improve archival snapshot ergonomics and reduce the amount of disk space needed. Check out his [proposal](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/discussions/6902). ### Random improvements and fixes Lots of small improvements and fixes, including: - adaptive compression for RPC responses, see [this PR](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/pull/6951). This significantly reduces latency for small RPC responses, while still providing compression benefits for larger responses. - snapshot export and GC improvements, see [this PR](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/pull/6939). This trades off some disk space and time for less memory usage, which is especially beneficial for users with limited resources. - improvements in the P2P layer ([here](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/pull/6972) and [there](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/pull/6976)) to reduce memory usage and improve stability. - lots of mempool improvements (and we're not done yet). See the [CHANGELOG](https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) for details. Note that it primarily contains client-facing changes, so if you're interested in the nitty-gritty details, you'll need to review the commit history. :nerd_face: ## Upcoming work Our immediate focus is on: - making sure the NV28 upgrade goes smoothly, including monitoring the network and providing support to users as needed. - more mempool improvements and internal refactors. - we'll likely start looking into archival node use case; while Forest can be used as one, the performance of it has lots of room for optimisation. And then, of course, we will continue with our regular maintenance and improvements. ## Outside of Forest This is for reporting purposes only. ### FVM maintenance Quite a bit of work around FVM-related releases, including: - - - - - - - ### `builtin-actors` and `builtin-actors-bundler` maintenance - - ### `lotus` and `lotus-gateway` fixes Fix to `lotus` discovered during RPC parity testing with Forest. - ### `go-state-types` maintenance - ### `rust-libp2p` maintenance - ### `multiformats` org Various necessary maintenance: - - - -