Dev Release-214

This release marks a significant leap forward for the BlockDAG ecosystem, combining enhanced network observability, governance-driven automation, and consensus-aware upgrade coordination. From real-time Stats & Charts in the explorer to automated node upgrades triggered by on-chain proposals, every enhancement strengthens our ability to operate, monitor, and evolve the network without compromising uptime or data integrity.
 

We’re also introducing versioning bits in block headers, a feature that will give us live insight into how quickly miners are adopting new binaries critical for safely executing hard forks and protocol-level changes in a Proof-of-Work environment.

Meanwhile, the Explorer team has addressed key usability and data accuracy issues around NFT handling, while our blockchain engineers have closed high-impact bugs affecting metadata, event labeling, and total supply calculations.
 

Together, these upgrades position BlockDAG for a more transparent, autonomous, and upgrade-ready future one where governance decisions are enforced directly on-chain, consensus tracking is built into the protocol, and users have access to reliable, real-time network analytics.

• Provide developers, node operators, and community members with accurate, real-time insights into network health and activity through the Explorer.
• Enable seamless, automated node upgrades triggered by governance events, reducing operational overhead.
• Introduce version adoption tracking to ensure network-wide upgrade readiness before executing protocol changes.
• Address NFT-related inconsistencies in ownership display, metadata rendering, and supply tracking to improve trust and clarity for token holders.

• Stats & Charts module is now entering development, bringing interactive analytics to the Explorer.
• An on-chain binary upgrade system is implemented, triggered by governance proposals.
• Versioning bits in block headers to track adoption rates for new protocol versions.
• Default NFT placeholder image in progress for missing metadata cases.
• ERC-1155 ownership display fix underway for post-transfer accuracy.
• Closed major NFT-related bugs, including large value formatting, ABI-based method labeling, and burned token supply tracking.

Stats & Charts Module: From Design to Development

Following the completion of the design phase, development has now begun on the Stats & Charts module, a powerful analytics interface embedded directly into the Explorer. This feature will provide real-time, filterable, and interactive insights into blockchain activity, aimed at both technical and non-technical users.
 

Core Metrics to Be Tracked:

• Total Accounts: The cumulative count of unique wallet addresses generated on the network. This metric is derived from indexed address-creation events in block headers, synced to the Explorer cache every few seconds.
• Total Transactions: The running total of confirmed transactions, including wallet transfers, smart contract calls, NFT mint/burn events, and more.
• Daily Transaction Volume: A time-series chart visualizing transaction counts per day with zoom and date filtering, powered by a MapReduce pipeline for efficiency.
• Price Analytics (Beta): Early integration with price feed oracles to enable token price charting, designed for future DEX integrations.
   

This feature is not just cosmetic; it will serve as the data backbone for future governance dashboards, staking analytics, and validator performance tracking.

Governance-Triggered Binary Upgrades

We’ve implemented a fully automated upgrade pipeline directly linked to the governance contract’s Proposal Accepted event, enabling the network to self-update without manual intervention. When an upgrade proposal passes, the system automatically retrieves the new binary’s download URL from the proposal payload, securely downloads it using a checksum-verified, TLS-encrypted connection, gracefully shuts down the current node while preserving ledger state and peer connections, and restarts the node with the updated binary from the same data directory. This process reduces downtime, eliminates human error, ensures chain integrity by preventing version mismatches, and empowers governance-driven protocol evolution without relying on manual, trust-based steps.

Versioning Bits in Block Headers

To enable precise coordination of network-wide upgrades, we are integrating version bits into block headers, providing a native, consensus-aware mechanism for tracking binary adoption across the mining network. Each miner will embed their current binary version into a dedicated field in the block header, allowing the protocol to aggregate and analyze the proportion of blocks signaling a given version over a rolling window (e.g., the most recent 1,000 blocks). Once the signaling rate meets or exceeds a predefined threshold (such as 80%), the network can automatically trigger protocol-level actions, including the activation of new consensus rules, fork-choice adjustments to align with the majority version, and targeted alerts to node operators who are running outdated binaries. This approach delivers transparent, verifiable adoption metrics to all stakeholders, removes guesswork from hard fork coordination, and ensures upgrade governance decisions are based on real-time, on-chain data rather than off-chain assumptions.

• NFT Placeholder Image: A default image will replace broken or empty displays when tokenURI metadata is missing.
• ERC-1155 Ownership Sync: After transferring ownership of an ERC-1155 contract, the Explorer still shows the original deployer as the owner. Backend logic is being updated to reflect the new owner in real time.

• Large Value Display: Numbers like 1e+21 now display in human-readable formats with commas or suffixes (K, M, B).
• Method Labeling Accuracy: ABI parsing now ensures the Events tab shows the actual method invoked (e.g., mint(), burn()) instead of defaulting to Transfer.
• Burned NFT Supply: Supply counters now decrease when NFTs are burned (transferred to the zero address), ensuring accurate circulation metrics.

• Deploy the Stats & Charts module to production.
• Activate governance-driven binary upgrades on the staging network.
• Launch version-bits tracking for miners on testnet, then mainnet.
• Roll out NFT placeholder images and ERC-1155 ownership sync fixes.
• Begin building fork-readiness dashboards combining versioning bits and governance data.

We encourage developers, miners, and governance participants to test these features and share feedback. Every release is shaped by community involvement, and your input directly informs our roadmap.

Email: [email protected]
Join: Developer forums, testnet channels, and governance proposal discussions.

This release strengthens the autonomy, transparency, and adaptability of the BlockDAG network. By combining live analytics, governance-triggered upgrades, and version adoption tracking, we’re setting the stage for a blockchain that evolves as seamlessly as it operates.
 

Our vision is simple: make upgrades safe, make data accessible, and make governance actionable without ever pausing the chain.
 

The path ahead is clear, and the tools we’re building will ensure BlockDAG can grow without losing momentum. As always, the future is forged block by block.