Kadena is releasing a new version of Chainweb Node, version 2.17 which will have a service date in effect as of 2022–12–01T00:00:00Z. In addition to various bug fixes and performance optimizations, this release will change the current Pact and Chainweb Node experience for some dApp developers and users. In this article, we will explain the UX/DX-relevant changes in depth, and provide a migration path.

As of Pact 4.4, we’ve introduced the concept of Namespaced Keysets, which changed the Pact developer experience in favor of more flexibility and security. As of Chainweb 2.17, Pact 4.4 will become the new node standard. For a more detailed explanation of how this will affect users and developers, we wrote about this in a previous post.

Pact features rich error messages to help builders debug problems and handle failures in production. However, this has caused problems for recording transactions on the Kadena blockchain, which has to preserve bit-for-bit behavior for every block. For example, if a miner builds a binary with a slightly different library version, an unexpected error can result in different hashes for blocks. To resolve this, error details and stack traces will no longer appear in failed transactions sent to the /send endpoint, but the error type is still available. This also gives some performance gains by not computing code to assemble the message.

Full error messages are still available using the /local endpoint, and builders are recommended to use /local to execute pre-flight simulation, which is the best practice anyway, and can detect errors before submitting to the blockchain and spending gas.

In previous Chainweb node versions, our work centered on fixing various security threat vectors, which affected the gas model. As we work to fine tune the gas model, we’ve actually found a way to make operations such as transferring coins cheaper than ever before. Developers will want to recalibrate the gas limits they use for transactions. You can see how much a gas a particular transaction takes using the /local endpoint for pre-flight simulation.

In addition to the above changes, Chainweb 2.17 features the following performance improvements:

Along with the following bug fixes:

The Kadena public blockchain is constantly evolving to meet the demands of dApp developers and bring innovative technology to the forefront of the crypto industry. We are listening and addressing feedback as it comes to us, and providing bull-market solutions in a bear-market winter. We welcome your feedback, and hope to hear more from builders.