Network Upgrades

Historical record of Tidecoin consensus upgrades. Each entry documents the activation mechanism, the height it fired on each network, what it changed in validation rules, and the source commits that implemented it. For the current state of any feature, see Activation Status.

This page is not the live network dashboard. Live height, peers, hashrate, and service availability belong on the main website status page. This page records durable protocol history and scheduled consensus gates.

Upgrade timeline

Upgrade	Mainnet	Testnet	Regtest	Activation mechanism
Genesis ruleset	Block 0	Block 0	Block 0	Chain launch parameters.
AuxPoW ruleset	Pending	Block 1000	Block 0	Height gate through `nAuxpowStartHeight`.

Genesis ruleset

Tidecoin launched with a Bitcoin-style UTXO model, 60-second target block spacing, Falcon-512 transaction signatures, and YespowerTIDE proof-of-work. The genesis block timestamp is 1609074580, which is December 27, 2020 UTC.

Rule area	Genesis behavior
Transaction model	UTXO model with Bitcoin-style scripts and SegWit active from height 1 on mainnet and testnet.
Signature scheme	Falcon-512 is the active spend authorization scheme.
Proof-of-work	YespowerTIDE is the active proof-of-work phase.
Block target spacing	60 seconds.
Difficulty target timespan	5 days on mainnet and testnet.
AuxPoW	Not active on mainnet at genesis.
Additional PQ schemes	Falcon-1024 and ML-DSA are implemented but not allowed before AuxPoW.
SHA-512 witness extensions	Implemented but not active before AuxPoW.

The genesis block uses the message:

spectrum.ieee.org 09/Dec/2020 Photonic Quantum Computer Displays 'Supremacy' Over Supercomputers.

AuxPoW ruleset

The AuxPoW ruleset is the next major consensus gate. It is already active on testnet from block 1000 and on regtest from genesis. Mainnet activation is pending because mainnet currently sets nAuxpowStartHeight to disabled.

At activation height, the consensus rules move from the pre-AuxPoW phase to the post-AuxPoW phase:

Rule area	Before AuxPoW	At and after AuxPoW
Block work hash	YespowerTIDE block proof-of-work hash	Scrypt proof-of-work hash
Mining model	Standalone Tidecoin mining	AuxPoW merged mining
AuxPoW chain ID	Not used for accepted blocks	Chain ID `8`, with strict chain ID enforcement
Signature schemes	Falcon-512 only	Falcon-512, Falcon-1024, ML-DSA-44, ML-DSA-65, ML-DSA-87
Falcon verification	Legacy pre-AuxPoW acceptance mode	Strict PQClean-compatible mode
Script flags	Pre-AuxPoW verification flags	Adds `SCRIPT_VERIFY_PQ_STRICT`, `SCRIPT_VERIFY_WITNESS_V1_512`, and `SCRIPT_VERIFY_SHA512`
Witness programs	Existing witness rules	Adds witness v1 64-byte scripthash validation
SHA-512 script support	OP_SHA512 not enabled	OP_SHA512 enabled
Difficulty retarget	Periodic legacy retarget	Averaging-window retarget using median time past

Release notes versus activation state

Release notes can describe implemented features before they are active on mainnet. For activation state, prefer code-backed sources:

Question	Source to check
Is a feature active on a network?	`src/kernel/chainparams.cpp` and Activation Status.
Which signature schemes are allowed at a height?	`src/pq/pq_scheme.h`.
Which script flags are enforced at a height?	`src/validation.cpp` and `src/script/interpreter.h`.
Which proof-of-work hash is checked at a height?	`src/pow.cpp`.
What changed in a packaged release?	Release Notes.

Source of truth

Source	What it defines
`src/kernel/chainparams.cpp`	Genesis blocks, network parameters, AuxPoW heights, chain ID, ports, and magic bytes.
`src/pow.cpp`	Pre-AuxPoW and post-AuxPoW proof-of-work and difficulty behavior.
`src/pq/pq_scheme.h`	Signature scheme registry and height-based scheme allowance.
`src/script/interpreter.h`	Post-AuxPoW script verification flags.
`src/validation.cpp`	Validation-time enforcement of post-AuxPoW flags.
`doc/release-notes.md`	Human-readable release summary for implemented features.