TL;DR
NEAR has released nearcore 2.14.0-rc.1.
The release is marked as both a protocol and database upgrade.
It remains a release candidate rather than the final stable build.
NEAR developers have published the first release candidate for nearcore 2.14.0, bringing a fresh set of protocol changes into testing.
The release, 2.14.0-rc.1, is explicitly marked as both a protocol upgrade and a database upgrade.
That makes it more consequential for node operators than a routine bug-fix release.
It is still an RC, though, so this is not the point to treat every included change as permanently locked into the final production version.
The Protocol Itself Is Changing
The 2.14.0 changelog contains several notable changes.
One removes contract gas rewards, reducing the burnt-gas reward parameter from 30% to zero.
Another introduces a bound on the combined size of resolved promise inputs, preventing excessively large receipt inputs from growing without an explicit protocol limit.
The release also adds an ml_dsa_verify host function, allowing contracts to verify ML-DSA-65 signatures on-chain.
That last addition is particularly interesting because ML-DSA is a post-quantum digital signature standard.
It does not suddenly make the whole NEAR network quantum-proof.
But it gives smart contracts a native primitive for verifying that class of signature where developers want to use it.
Release Candidate Means Test It First
The RC label matters.
Release candidates are where validator operators and developers get a chance to run the software under realistic conditions before the final stable build is promoted.
Database upgrades deserve particular care because they can affect how node state is stored and migrated.
A protocol-version change raises the stakes further.
Nodes need compatible software before the associated protocol upgrade activates if they want to keep participating normally in consensus.
For ordinary NEAR users, there is nothing obvious to install.
This is infrastructure software for the people running the network.
But those infrastructure releases are where many of the features users eventually experience first arrive.
nearcore 2.14.0 is now moving through that pipeline.
Source: NEAR nearcore GitHub release — https://github.com/near/nearcore/releases/tag/2.14.0-rc.1
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
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