A new feature of this network upgrade is the ability to rotate the consensus seed during network updates. This is a security enhancement that helps prevent attacks on the network by changing the seed used for consensus, which is the process by which network nodes agree on the current state of the blockchain.

Another significant addition is accelerated governance proposals, which are designed to speed up the process of approving important proposals. The initial parameters for accelerated proposals include a minimum deposit of 750 $SCRT, a voting time of 24 hours, and a threshold of 2/3 votes for approval. If an accelerated proposal fails to reach the threshold during the shorter voting period, it will be converted to a regular proposal and the voting process will be restarted under normal voting conditions.

Another new feature that allows users to sign up for automatic staking rewards is automatic compounding, which can help increase overall staking yield.

The network upgrade also includes lightweight block verification by clients, which helps protect against attacks that leak private data using an offline fork attack. It also allows contracts to rely on trusted block heights and times, providing greater security for smart contract developers.

The upgrade also includes several bug fixes, such as fixing issues with OSX Ledger disconnecting in secretcli (Secret Network Light Client), as well as issues with the IBC controller module.

However, the network upgrade also includes a breakthrough change that requires a mandatory update to the secret.js library. The reason for this is a change in the tx encryption key format, which is necessary to implement consensus seed rotation. Users will need to update to secret.js version 1.7.x, 1.4.6, or continue using version 0.17.8. The update should be a simple version upgrade that will not change any existing API interfaces or break functionality.

Impact

This network update includes several important security and usability features, bug fixes, and a mandatory update that will help improve the overall performance and security of the Secret Network.