THORChain (RUNE) Prepares for September 2024 Hard Fork

THORChain’s native blockchain is set to undergo a significant hard fork upgrade on September 4, 2024, at 4pm UTC, estimated at block 17561740, according to Nine Realms. This upgrade will bring several key improvements and planned downtime for various services.

What is being upgraded during the hard fork?

Cosmos SDK version upgrade from 45.1 to 45.16
Removal of obsolete legacy code
Removal of unnecessary Cosmos modules
Trimming node state for faster sync (>1 TB)
Adding support for Bitcoin Taproot addresses
Various updates as outlined in GitLab Milestones

Why is there an upcoming hard fork?

THORChain typically follows a normal upgrade path when 100% of validators adopt a new version of THORNode. However, certain updates require a coordinated hard fork to ensure the security and efficiency of the network. During this period, nodes will pause swaps and validator churning to protect user funds. Upon reaching the hard fork block, nodes will upgrade to the new version (2.135.0) of THORNode, resuming normal operations once all nodes are updated.

Preparing for the Hard Fork

What do users need to do during the hard fork?

No user action is necessary.

What do interfaces and exchanges need to do to prepare for the hard fork?

Projects supporting RUNE, synths, or trade assets must update the chain-id to support the new chain.
All THORChain services, including transferring RUNE, swapping, savers, lending, thorname, and node operations, will experience planned downtime.

Supporting the new Chain-ID

Projects should dynamically pull THORChain’s current chain-id in transaction creation to avoid service interruptions post-fork.
Use the endpoint: https://rpc.ninerealms.com/status to retrieve the current chain-id and use this for all THORChain transactions. This value will automatically update with the new chain id after the hard fork.

Service Outages:

Ensure interfaces do not allow any swaps, savers actions, lending actions, RUNE transfers, or other network operations during the planned downtime.
If using the quote endpoint, ensure no swaps are sent if an error is received or if the endpoint is unavailable.

Announcements, Support, and Questions

Interfaces and exchanges needing support should join the THORChain Developers Community Discord and contact community developers. Announcements regarding the hard fork will be made in the #thornode-mainnet and #interface-alerts channels.

Community