Testnet v6 is live

Testnet v6 goes live on Monday, 28 September.

Upgrade is recommended if you want to test your Mainnet setup early. Testnet v6 is a new rollup instance, not only a software update, and it is a dry run for the Mainnet upgrade on 20 October.

If you already run a node on Testnet: upgrade to the image below. Nodes left on the old version will be slashed on the new Testnet instance. There is no Mainnet consequence, but recovery means requesting tokens and relaunching.

Testnet image
azteclabs/aztec:6.0.0-rc.1
Do not use this image to run sequencers on Mainnet.

Two changes to note
v6 ships from a new repository: github.com/aztec-labs-eng/aztec-node. Images now publish to the azteclabs Docker Hub org, not aztecprotocol. Update your watch and pull sources. This applies to Testnet and Mainnet.

AztecProtocol/aztec-packages stays the home for protocol-owned code: L1 contracts, circuits, and Barretenberg.

Mainnet timeline
7 October — payload publication. The v6 Mainnet payload becomes open source on this date.
~18 October (estimate) — Mainnet v6.0.0 binaries released. Binaries ship shortly before the upgrade because security fixes are developed privately; releasing them earlier makes exploitation easier.
~20 October (estimate) — v6 expected live on Mainnet.

Dates after 7 October are estimates and may move.