Drop unchained merkle shreds
- Idea
- Draft
- Review
- Accept
- Implement
- Active
Decision brief
Why this proposal matters
As the new shred format is being sent by all clients, this feature deprecates the old shred format.
Proposal at a glance
What changes
- As the new shred format is being sent by all clients, this feature deprecates the old shred format.
Stakeholder map
Who is affected
Builders & client teams Medium impact
Any clients still producing blocks using the old shred format will have their shreds ignored on ingest.
Action requirement unknownValidators & operators Impact unknown
No proposal-specific evidence was found for this group.
Action requirement unknownUsers & stakers Impact unknown
No proposal-specific evidence was found for this group.
Action requirement unknownGovernance & ecosystem Impact unknown
No proposal-specific evidence was found for this group.
Action requirement unknownExact source revision
Full proposal document
f1f6c8b05dc2Summary
As the new shred format is being sent by all clients, this feature deprecates the old shred format.
Motivation
It is inconvinient to support both formats, and upcoming consensus changes (alpenglow) expect all shreds to be of the chained variety.
New Terminology
N/A
Detailed Design
The chained merkle shred variant, adds an additional field to Data and Coding shreds. It adds the Merkle root of the previous erasure batch after the data buffer or erasure coded shard respectively, before the merkle proof:
// Layout: {common, data} headers | data buffer
// | [Merkle root of the previous erasure batch if chained]
// | Merkle proof
// | [Retransmitter's signature if resigned]
// The slice past signature till the end of the data buffer is erasure coded.
// The slice past signature and before the merkle proof is hashed to generate
// the Merkle tree. The root of the Merkle tree is signed.
// Layout: {common, data} headers | data buffer
// | [Merkle root of the previous erasure batch if chained]
// | Merkle proof
// | [Retransmitter's signature if resigned]
// The slice past signature till the end of the data buffer is erasure coded.
// The slice past signature and before the merkle proof is hashed to generate
// the Merkle tree. The root of the Merkle tree is signed.
Additionally in the common shred header, the first 4 bits of the shred variant field are reserved to specify the shred variant. The second bit indicates if this shred is of the chained merkle shred variant.
If drop_unchained_merkle_shreds: 5KLGJSASDVxKPjLCDWNtnABLpZjsQSrYZ8HKwcEdAMC8
is active, then any shred with the second bit of the shred variant as zero will
be dropped on ingest.
Alternatives Considered
None
Impact
Any clients still producing blocks using the old shred format will have their shreds ignored on ingest.
Security Considerations
None
Backwards Compatibility
This feature is not backwards compatible.
Evidence graph
Related proposals and rollout
One or more sources are unavailable.
Upstream review record
Upstream discussion & review
One or more sources are unavailable.
Provenance
Evidence & technical details
Rollout or chain data, source revisions, freshness and integrity. 3
Provenance
Evidence & technical details
Rollout or chain data, source revisions, freshness and integrity.SIMD
Deployment Status
5KLGJSASDVxKPjLCDWNtnABLpZjsQSrYZ8HKwcEdAMC8Exact source revision
Sources & integrity
- Proposal document pinned_commit_blob
f1f6c8b05dc205552d3c290a854a438392701107 - simd-document document · stale · Oct 18, 2026
f1f6c8b05dc205552d3c290a854a438392701107
One or more sources are unavailable.
One or more sources are unavailable.
simd.watch community discussion · SIMD-0313
Powered by Giscus · Sign in with GitHub to comment
Community comments load when this section approaches the viewport.