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ProtocolVersion.md

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Kaspa: Protocol Version

This document describes how the kaspa protocol is versioned and used.

Refers procedures/Versioning.md.

TL; DR

  • Kaspa protocol version is derived from the kaspad version it was firstly introduced on.
  • It is encoded as a uint32 with one byte per version-element and a reserved 0 byte (e.g. 3.11.26 is 0x030b1a00).
  • When two peers connect, the newer one should decide if the other's version is compatible with its own.

Meaning

The kaspa protocol version defines the version of the protocol used in the kaspa p2p-network. It is different than kaspad version, that is, the version of the code itself.

Assigning

By convention and for the sake of simplicity, the protocol version will be derived from the version of the kaspad code. That means, when a protocol change is being introduced, its version should be set according to the current kaspad version.

Examples

If a new kaspad version 3.7.2 is released, that introduces a change in the protocol, then the new protocol version will be 3.7.2 as well. If a new kaspad version is released later as 3.8.0, that contains no change to the protocol, then it will still use protocol version 3.7.2.

Encoding

The encoded form of the version is its representation within peer-to-peer message. The version is encoded as a uint32 number, where -

  • The first byte represents the major version part
  • The second byte represents the minor version part
  • The third byte represents the revision version part
  • The fourth byte is reserved and should usually be set to 0

Examples

Version 3.2.7 is encoded as 0x 03 02 07 00. Version 3.11.26 is encoded as 0x 03 0b 1a 00.

Ordering

Using this encoding, given two versions x.y.z and a.b.c, the first is newer (higher) than the latter iff the encoded version of the first is higher than the encoded version of the latter, assuming network (big) endianess.

Examples

Referring to the two versions above - the relation between the versions is 3.2.7 < 3.11.26, and in the same way, the relation between their encoded forms is 0x03020700 < 0x030b1a00.

Compatibility

When two peers connect, they should provide their protocol versions to each other. It is the responsibility of the node that uses a newer (higher) version to decide whether they are compatible or otherwise reject the connection.