We just released a major network update. This update is intended to mitigate recent attacks on GRAFT blockchain and improve the stability of the block intervals. There are two major changes included in this release: timestamp manipulation prevention and improved difficulty adjustment algorithm. The major network update will be triggered at block

The block timestamp manipulation allows a miner with significant hashrate power to generate an alternative chain of several blocks and add it to the main chain. The corresponding code fix will disable this possibility.

The original LWMA-based difficulty adjustment algorithm used the same adjustment rate to increase and decrease difficulty. As the result, it was taking significant time to restore after a peak, leaving users suffering from a higher difficulty. In our novel approach, we introduce an adaptive adjustment rate, making return to a normal difficulty level faster. The mechanism detects a failing edge of the difficulty curve and change the rate accordingly, using the following formula:

The major network update is scheduled for block height 68000. Each GRAFT network node must be updated to the new software version before that block, otherwise, the node that wasn’t updated is going to be on the wrong version of the blockchain. Major network update means that if you are running the GRAFT network node (graftnoded daemon), you must upgrade it to the current software release as soon as possible. If you do not install the updated node before the block 68000, your node will be blocked by other nodes. Note that the users of GRAFT mobile and desktop wallets (GUI wallets) are not affected by the upcoming network update and don’t need to do anything – as long as they are still connected to the default proxy supernodes (if you are connected to your own supernode, however, do not forget to upgrade the underlying network node).

The source code of the version 1.2.1 is now released and available for download from master. The binaries of the new release are located here:

Ubuntu: https://s3-sa-east-1.amazonaws.com/graftbuilds/graft-1.2.1-20180422-release.tar.gz

Windows: https://s3-sa-east-1.amazonaws.com/graftbuilds/graft-1.2.1-20180422-win-release.zip

In order to check whether you are running the right version of GRAFT network node, launch graftnoded daemon in terminal window (in interactive mode) and type help command. If you are running the right version you should see Graft ‘Beta Lyrae’ (v1.2.1-release) in the first line of the help result.