Tezos bakers and node operators: The Quebec protocol upgrade will activate on Monday, January 20th , at the end of cycle 822, just before block #7,692,289 – expected around Jan 20th, 19:40 UTC. Note that this is likely to drift a few hours as bakers and node operators update their infrastructure to prepare for the protocol upgrade.
As a reminder, key Quebec features are:
- 8 second block time: The current 10 second block time on Tezos layer 1 has proven to be stable and safe. Quebec reduces minimal block time by a further 2 seconds, meaning a layer 1 finality of just 16 seconds. It improves the overall user experience and brings Tezos one step closer to the low-latency future.
- Adaptive maximum issuance: Quebec modifies Adaptive Issuance to prevent excessive tez issuance when the staked ratio is below (but close enough to) the target.
- Reduction of the relative weight of delegated funds: Quebec changes the computation of baking power for delegated funds. Their weight is reduced from 50% to 33% of their nominal value.
- Amended computation of delegation rights: Quebec amends the mechanism to compute a baker’s minimal delegated balance in a cycle, addressing an unexpected dilution of delegated rights as well as UX frictions for bakers and delegators.
- 9x limit for external stake: Quebec raises the limit of how much external stake a baker can attract from 5 times their own stake to 9 times. This change, which has been frequently brought up in recent ecosystem discussions, contributes towards increasing the staked ratio and also empowers bakers which have early-adopted the new staking mechanism to attract further external stake.
A complete list of changes can be found in the protocols Changelog.
Remember to upgrade to Octez v21!
Octez v21.0 is the minimal version supporting the Quebec protocol. We strongly recommend bakers to upgrade to v21.1, which includes significant performance improvements.
Migration from Octez v20.2 and earlier
If you are upgrading your infrastructure from Octez versions prior to v20.3, please be aware that v21.x introduces a new storage version.
Users updating Octez node versions below v20.3 are required to manually upgrade their existing storage after upgrading to v21.0, by executing the following command, before starting their newly updated node:
./octez-node upgrade storage --data-dir <data-dir>
Note that this process is irreversible and not backwards compatible. Upgrading the Octez node storage should only take up to 10s for node deployments operating in the Rolling history mode, which is the recommended setup for Tezos bakers.
Hardware requirements:
- 3 CPU cores – 2 of them are needed by the node and 1 needed by the baker (arm64 or amd64/x86-64 architectures).
- 8GB RAM + 8GB swap (or 16GB RAM).
- 100GB SSD storage (or similar I/O performance).
- A low latency, reliable internet connection.
This configuration has been tested for running an Octez node in rolling history mode. Other deployments might entail additional requirements. For instance:
- Running a node in full or archive mode requires extra storage space.
- Bakers participating in the DAL are advised to consult this article, for additional requirements.
During testing we have observed that using a Ledger Nano S hardware wallet for signing can create a bottleneck for the performance of baking setups. Our benchmarks show that the Ledger Nano S+ and Nano X models perform significantly better.
Both Paris and Quebec baking software is required for a seamless protocol activation
As with any other Tezos protocol upgrade, bakers are reminded that both v21.x Paris and Quebec baking software, octez-baker-PsParisC and octez-baker-PsQuebec, should be operational around the activation time for a seamless transition. The Quebec binary will be idle until the new protocol has been activated, and the Paris one will become idle after activation time.
The same procedure should be followed for octez-accuser-PsParisC and octez-accuser-PsQuebec accuser software.
Finally, bakers are advised to upgrade all their infrastructure to v21.x, and use the same version of Octez for all running executables – node, baker, dal node, etc.
L’avant prèmiere: activation of Quebec on the Ghostnet test network
Bakers and node operators are kindly invited to test the upgrade of their infrastructure on the Quebecnet or Ghostnet testnets. The latter network will upgrade to Quebec at the end of cycle 1342, before Ghostnet’s #10,047,489 – expected around January 13th 14h22 UTC.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any concerns about the upgrade, or if you need our support getting ready – let’s start 2025 with a smooth activation of Quebec!
