Schedule

Devnet activation, D2.0.4.0

Epoch arithmetic

Mainnet activation epoch is 2233. The epoch stays 24 hours, matching testnet and devnet, which both kept their length across the change. The activation epoch itself runs about 22 minutes long: 221 rounds of 6 seconds between the epoch opening and the activation round. It opens on the old clock, so those rounds still take 6 seconds each and the epoch absorbs the difference. Every epoch after it is 24 hours. Missed rounds push both boundaries later by minutes.

The drain period

Between the epoch opening and the activation round, transactions are accepted into the pool and held, not rejected. They execute once the new clock starts. This is planned: it drains the transactions still in flight on the old clock so nothing is half-processed across the change. Devnet used 200 rounds. Mainnet is currently 240, about 22 minutes, and engineering is still calibrating that number because it decides how much existing load can be drained. The exact figure is published next week.

If you submit during that window, expect it to sit in the pool until the new clock starts. Exchanges, bridges, wallets and anything with a retry loop or a submission timeout should know this before the day.

Source: Adrian Dobrita, 21 August.

What changes

Why the seconds API is safe

GetBlockTimestamp and GetBlockTimestampMs are separate, separately metered VM hooks. The node divides on the way to the seconds accessor, so a contract that did not ask for milliseconds does not get them.

Breaks after activation

if new_ts > last_ts { /* assumes one block, one second */ }
elapsed_secs = now_secs - start_secs      // 1s resolution on a 600ms chain

Types, mx-sdk-rs

Timestamps and durations do not mix, so unit errors fail the build rather than the contract.

Test on testnet

curl -s "https://testnet-api.multiversx.com/blocks?size=10&shard=1&fields=nonce,timestamp"

Ten blocks span about five seconds, against about a minute on mainnet. Adjacent blocks can carry the same second.

Resources

Questions

Name the integration you want checked before September in the MultiversX Developers chat ↗, and we will put the right engineer on it.