Who needs to upgrade?

All operators of a Bitcoin ABC full node must upgrade to the latest major version 0.33 (current latest version is 0.33.1). This includes node operators, Avalanche staking nodes, Miners and Exchanges. This is available at the Bitcoin ABC Releases Page.

Exactly when will the upgrade activate?

In order to activate reliably at a predictable time, the network upgrade uses the "Median Time Past" mechanism. The upgrade activates when the median of the last 11 blocks reaches timestamp 1778846400 (12:00:00 UTC on May 15th, 2026). This means that the upgrade doesn't actually activate exactly at that time, but typically about one hour later, when 6 blocks with timestamps greater than the activation time have been produced.

What features are included in the Network Upgrade?

This upgrade does not include any new protocol features. However, because of the automatic replay protection that is part of the 6-month upgrade cadence, it is necessary for all full node operators to upgrade to {latestMajor}.

Versions 0.33.0 and later include improvements to the Avalanche Pre-Consensus and mining layers that enable the eCash network to handle much larger transaction volume during periods of high activity. While these improvements are not activated by the network upgrade, the mandatory update make sure it is fully deployed by the time the network upgrade activates.

How do I upgrade?

The process of upgrading your node is straightforward: simply stop the currently running node, download the new version, and start the new version. Here are some example instructions for upgrading from version 0.32.11 to the latest version (0.33.1) on Linux:

• Shut down the node: ./bitcoin-abc-0.32.11/bin/bitcoin-cli stop
• Download the new version archive from the website: wget https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.33.1/linux/bitcoin-abc-0.33.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
• Extract the archive: tar xzf bitcoin-abc-0.33.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
• Restart the node with the new version: ./bitcoin-abc-0.33.1/bin/bitcoind -daemon
• Clean up old version and archives (optional):
  • rm -rf bitcoin-abc-0.32.11
  • rm -f bitcoin-abc-0.32.11-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
  • rm -f bitcoin-abc-0.33.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

Do I need to upgrade my wallet?

The network upgrade only affects full nodes. Other eCash software, including wallets such as Electrum ABC are not affected by the network upgrade.