The Dash blockchain stalled during the activation of its Dash Core v19 hard fork, chief technical officer Samuel Westrich announced by tweet on the morning of May 21. Developers announced a v19.1.0 fix about 13 hours afterward.
“It is important to realize that blocks and transactions on the Dash network that are not ChainLocked and not InstantSend locked should not be assumed to have true finality,” Dash developers warned while the chain was down. ChainLocked and InstantSend are security features unique to Dash.
Binance temporarily suspended the distribution of Dash mining rewards while the blockchain was down.
There was a problem during v19 activation of Dash Core. The chain is stalled and currently not producing blocks. We have everyone investigating the issue. I will continue with updates on Twitter as we have more information.
— Samuel Westrich (@SamWestrich) May 22, 2023
The update, announced on April 10, was intended to improve security with BLS signatures and implement high-performance master node implementation and wallet improvements, among other things, in preparation for the release of Dash Platform to the mainnet.
According to the description of the v19.1.0 release, that upgrade will fix bugs, while the v19.0.0 release is delayed until June 14. The developers said:
“This release should resolve the chain stall once a sufficient number of masternodes and miners have upgraded. Please be aware of the known issues listed in the release announcement. A reindex may be needed.”
At the time of writing, a Dash blockchain explorer showed that the last Dash block was processed about 16 hours ago.
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Dash’s v18 update was implemented around Sept. 13, 2022 and upgraded in January after an attempted hack forced some master nodes offline. The chain had been halted “by the release and subsequent withdrawal of Dash Core v18.2.0.”
Dash Core is the network that the Dash (DASH) privacy coin operates on. It spun off from Litecoin (LTC) in 2014. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission claimed the Dash coin was a security in its April complaint against Bittrex.
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