- Nodes with onion connectivity will attempt to maintain at least **two outbound onion connections** and will protect these connections from eviction.
- **Benefit:** Ensures nodes capable of accessing the onion network maintain a few onion connections, allowing network messages to propagate even if non-onion IPv4 traffic is blocked.
- **Security Enhancement:** Enables P2P encryption for these peers.
- **DSQ Message Broadcast Update**
- Starting in protocol version **70234**, DSQ messages are broadcast using the inventory system instead of relaying to all connected peers.
- **Benefit:** Reduces bandwidth needs for all nodes, especially noticeable on highly connected masternodes.
- **Compressed Block Headers Request Limit**
- Starting in protocol version **70235**, the maximum number of compressed block headers that can be requested at once has been increased from **2000** to **8000**.
- **Applies to:** Compressed block headers only.
- **Benefit:** Potential for improved header sync performance.
- **Multi-Network Connectivity Enhancement**
- Nodes with multiple reachable networks will actively try to maintain at least one outbound connection to each network.
- **Benefits:**
- Improves resistance to eclipse attacks.
- Enhances network-level resistance to partition attacks.
- **User Impact:** Users no longer need to perform active measures to ensure connections to multiple enabled networks.
- **BIP324 Encrypted Communication (Experimental)**
- Dash Core now experimentally implements [BIP324](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0324.mediawiki), introducing encrypted communication for P2P network traffic.
- **Opt-In Adoption**
- **Enable Encryption:** Users can opt-in to use BIP324 by adding `v2transport=1` to their Dash Core configuration.
- **Default Behavior:** Encryption is **disabled by default** as this is currently experimental.
- **Benefits**
- **Enhanced Privacy:** Encrypts P2P messages for v2 connections, reducing the risk of traffic analysis and eavesdropping.
- **Improved Security:** Protects against certain types of network attacks by ensuring that communication between nodes is confidential and tamper-proof.
- **Limitations and Considerations**
- **Compatibility:** Encrypted connections may only be established between nodes that have BIP324 enabled. Nodes without encryption support will continue to communicate over unencrypted channels.
- **Status and Future Plans**
- **Experimental Phase:** This feature is currently in an experimental phase. Users are encouraged to test and provide feedback to ensure stability.
- **Future Development:** BIP324 will likely be enabled by default in the next minor version, v22.1.0.
## Compatibility
- **Dark Mode Appearance**
- Dash Core changes appearance when macOS "dark mode" is activated.
- **glibc Requirement**
- The minimum required glibc to run Dash Core is now **2.31**. This means that **RHEL 8** and **Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic)** are no longer supported.
## New RPCs
- **`quorum platformsign`**
- A new subcommand has been introduced, offering a structured way to perform platform-related quorum signing operations.
- **`coinjoinsalt`**
- Allows manipulation of a CoinJoin salt stored in a wallet.
-`coinjoinsalt get`: Fetches an existing salt.
-`coinjoinsalt set`: Allows setting a custom salt.
-`coinjoinsalt generate`: Sets a random hash as the new salt.
## Updated RPCs
- **`getpeerinfo` Changes**
-`getpeerinfo` no longer returns the following fields: `addnode` and `whitelisted`, which were previously deprecated in v21.
- Instead of `addnode`, the `connection_type` field returns `manual`.
- Instead of `whitelisted`, the `permissions` field indicates if the peer has special privileges.
- **`getblockfrompeer` Parameter Renaming**
- The named argument `block_hash` has been renamed to `blockhash` to align with the rest of the codebase.
- **Breaking Change:** If using named parameters, make sure to update them accordingly.
- **`coinjoin stop` Error Handling**
-`coinjoin stop` will now return an error if there is no CoinJoin mixing session to stop.
- **`getcoinjoininfo` Adjustments**
-`getcoinjoininfo` will no longer report `keys_left` and will not incorrectly warn about keypool depletion with descriptor wallets.
- **`creditOutputs` Format Change**
-`creditOutputs` entries in various RPCs that output transactions as JSON are now shown as objects instead of strings.
- **`quorum dkgsimerror` Argument Update**
-`quorum dkgsimerror` will no longer accept a decimal value between 0 and 1 for the `rate` argument.
- It will now expect an integer between **0** to **100**.
- **Deprecated `protx *_hpmn` RPC Endpoints**
- Deprecated `protx *_hpmn` RPC entry points have been dropped in favor of `protx *_evo`.
- **Removed Endpoints:**
-`protx register_fund_hpmn`
-`protx register_hpmn`
-`protx register_prepare_hpmn`
-`protx update_service_hpmn`
- **`governance` Descriptor Wallet Support**
- The `governance votemany` and `governance votealias` RPC commands now support descriptor-based wallets.
- **`createwallet` Behavior for Descriptor Wallets**
- When creating descriptor wallets, `createwallet` now requires explicitly setting `load_on_startup`.
## Command-line Options
### Changes in Existing Command-line Options
- **`-walletnotify=<cmd>` Enhancements**
- Introduces new format options `%h` and `%b`.
-`%b`: Replaced by the hash of the block including the transaction (set to `'unconfirmed'` if the transaction is not included).
-`%h`: Replaced by the block height (**-1** if not included).
- **`-maxuploadtarget` Format Update**
- Now allows human-readable byte units `[k|K|m|M|g|G|t|T]`.
- **Example:** `-maxuploadtarget=500g`.
- **Constraints:** No whitespace, `+`, `-`, or fractions allowed.
- **Default:** `M` if no suffix is provided.
## Devnet Breaking Changes
- **Hardfork Activation Changes**
-`BRR` (`realloc`), `DIP0020`, `DIP0024`, `V19`, `V20`, and `MN_R` hardforks are now activated at **block 2** instead of block **300** on devnets.
- **Implications:**
- Breaking change.
- Inability to sync on devnets created with earlier Dash Core versions and vice versa.
- **LLMQ Type Enhancement**
- **LLMQ_50_60** is enabled for **Devnet** networks.
- Necessary for testing on a large Devnet.
## Tests
- **Regtest Network Softfork Activation Heights**
- For the `regtest` network, the activation heights of several softforks have been set to **block height 1**.
- **Customization:** Can be changed using the runtime setting `-testactivationheight=name@height`.
- *(dash#6214)*
## Statistics
### New Features
- **Statsd Client Enhancements**
- Supports queueing and batching messages.
- **Benefits:**
- Reduces the number of packets.
- Lowers the rate at which messages are sent to the Statsd daemon.
- **Batch Configuration Options**
- **Maximum Batch Size:**
- Adjustable using `-statsbatchsize` (in bytes).
- **Default:** **1KiB**.
- **Batch Send Frequency:**
- Adjustable using `-statsduration` (in milliseconds).
- **Default:** **1 second**.
- **Note:** `-statsduration` does not affect `-statsperiod`, which dictates how frequently some stats are *collected*.
### Deprecations
- **Deprecation of `-platform-user`**
-`-platform-user` is deprecated in favor of the whitelist feature.
- In releases **22.x** of Dash Core, it has been renamed to `-deprecated-platform-user`.
- It will be removed in version **23.x**.
- **`-statsenabled` Deprecation**
- Now implied by the presence of `-statshost`.
- It will be removed in version **23.x**.
- **`-statshostname` Replacement**
- Deprecated and replaced with `-statssuffix` for better representation of the argument's purpose.
- **Behavior:** Behave identically to each other.
- It will be removed in version **23.x**.
- **`-statsns` Replacement**
- Deprecated and replaced with `-statsprefix` for better representation of the argument's purpose.
- **Behavior:** `-statsprefix` enforces the usage of a delimiter between the prefix and key.
- It will be removed in version **23.x**.
## GUI Changes
- **RPC Server Functionality Option**
- A new option has been added to the "Main" tab in "Options" that allows users to enable RPC server functionality.
