- The performance and stability of the message `store` has improved dramatically. Query durations, even for long-term stores, have improved by more than a factor of 10.
- Support for Waku Peer Exchange - a discovery method for resource-restricted nodes.
- Messages can now be marked as "ephemeral" to prevent them from being stored.
- [Zerokit](https://github.com/vacp2p/zerokit) is now the default implementation for spam-protected `relay` with RLN.
The full list of changes is below.
### Features
- Default support for [Zerokit](https://github.com/vacp2p/zerokit) version of [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation.
- Added Filter REST API OpenAPI specification.
- Added POC implementation for [43/WAKU2-DEVICE-PAIRING](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/43/).
- [14/WAKU2-MESSAGE](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/14/) can now be marked as `ephemeral` to prevent them from being stored.
- Support for [34/WAKU2-PEER-EXCHANGE](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/34/).
### Changes
- [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation now handles on-chain transaction errors.
- [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation now validates the Merkle tree root against a window of acceptable roots.
- Added metrics for [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation.
- Continued refactoring of several protocol implementations to improve maintainability and readability.
- Cleaned up nwaku imports and dependencies.
- Refactored and organised nwaku unit tests.
- Nwaku now periodically logs node metrics by default.
- Further improvements to the `store` implementation:
- Better logging and query traceability.
- More useful metrics to measure query and insertion time.
- Reworked indexing for faster inserts and queries.
- Reworked data model to use a simple, single timestamp for indexing, ordering and querying.
- Improved retention policy management with periodic execution.
- Run sqlite database vacuum at node start.
- Improved logging when migrating the database to a newer version.
-`relay` no longer auto-mounted on all nwaku nodes.
- The most complete node ENR now included in response to API requests for node `info()`.
- Updated Grafana dashboards included with nwaku.
- Github CI test execution now skipped for doc-only changes.
### Fixes
- Fixed nwaku unnecessary sleep when no dynamic bootstrap nodes retrieved.
- Fixed [`12/WAKU2-FILTER`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/12/) not working from browser-based clients due to nwaku peer manager failing to reuse existing connection.
- Waku Message payload now correctly encoded as base64 in the Relay REST API.
- Fixed handling of bindParam(uint32) in sqlite.
-`chat2` application now correctly selects a random store node on startup.
- Fixed macos builds failing due to an unsupported dependency.
- Fixed nwaku not reconnecting to previously discovered nodes after losing connection.
- Fixed nwaku failing to start switch transports with external IP configuration.
- Fixed SIGSEGV crash when attempting to start nwaku store without `db-path` configuration.
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/blob/14abdef79677ddc828ff396ece321e05cedfca17/docs/operators/droplet-quickstart.md) on running nwaku from a DigitalOcean droplet.
- Added [guide](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/blob/14abdef79677ddc828ff396ece321e05cedfca17/docs/operators/how-to/monitor.md) on how to monitor nwaku using Prometheus and Grafana.
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- Major improvements in the performance of historical message queries to longer-term, sqlite-only message stores.
- Introduction of an HTTP REST API with basic functionality
- On-chain RLN group management. This was also integrated into an [example spam-protected chat application](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/blob/4f93510fc9a938954dd85593f8dc4135a1c367de/docs/tutorial/onchain-rln-relay-chat2.md).
The full list of changes is below.
### Features
- Support for on-chain group membership management in the [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation.
- Integrated HTTP REST API for external access to some `wakunode2` functionality:
- Debug REST API exposes debug information about a `wakunode2`.
- Relay REST API allows basic pub/sub functionality according to [`11/WAKU2-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/11/).
- [`35/WAKU2-NOISE`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/35/) implementation now adds padding to ChaChaPoly encryptions to increase security and reduce metadata leakage.
### Changes
- Significantly improved the SQLite-only historical message `store` query performance.
- Refactored several protocol implementations to improve maintainability and readability.
- Major code reorganization for the [`13/WAKU2-STORE`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/13/) implementation to improve maintainability. This will also make the `store` extensible to support multiple implementations.
- Disabled compiler log colors when running in a CI environment.
- Refactored [`35/WAKU2-NOISE`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/35/) implementation into smaller submodules.
- [`11/WAKU2-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/11/) implementation can now optionally be compiled with [Zerokit RLN](https://github.com/vacp2p/zerokit/tree/64f508363946b15ac6c52f8b59d8a739a33313ec/rln). Previously only [Kilic's RLN](https://github.com/kilic/rln/tree/7ac74183f8b69b399e3bc96c1ae8ab61c026dc43) was supported.
### Fixes
- Fixed wire encoding of protocol buffers to use proto3.
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/blob/4f93510fc9a938954dd85593f8dc4135a1c367de/docs/tutorial/onchain-rln-relay-chat2.md) on how to run a spam-protected chat2 application with on-chain group management.
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- Support for key exchange using Noise handshakes.
- Support for a SQLite-only historical message `store`. This allows for cheaper, longer-term historical message storage on disk rather than in memory.
- Several fixes for native WebSockets, including slow or hanging connections and connections dropping unexpectedly due to timeouts.
- A fix for a memory leak in nodes running a local SQLite database.
### Features
- Support for [`35/WAKU2-NOISE`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/35/) handshakes as key exchange protocols.
- Support for TOML config files via `--config-file=<path/to/config.toml>`.
- Support for `--version` command. This prints the current tagged version (or compiled commit hash, if not on a version).
- Support for running `store` protocol from a `filter` client, storing only the filtered messages.
- Start of an HTTP REST API implementation.
- Support for a memory-efficient SQLite-only `store` configuration.
### Changes
- Added index on `receiverTimestamp` in the SQLite `store` to improve query performance.
- GossipSub [Peer Exchange](https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.1.md#prune-backoff-and-peer-exchange) is now disabled by default. This is a more secure option.
- Progress towards dynamic group management for the [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation.
- Nodes with `--keep-alive` enabled now sends more regular pings to keep connections more reliably alive.
- Disabled `swap` protocol by default.
- Reduced unnecessary and confusing logging, especially during startup.
- Added discv5 UDP port to the node's main discoverable ENR.
### Fixes
- The in-memory `store` now checks the validity of message timestamps before storing.
- Fixed underlying bug that caused connection leaks in the HTTP client.
- Fixed Docker image compilation to use the correct external variable for compile-time flags (`NIMFLAGS` instead of `NIM_PARAMS`).
- Fixed issue where `--dns4-domain-name` caused an unhandled exception if no external port was available.
- Avoids unnecessarily calling DB migration if a `--db-path` is set but nothing is persisted in the DB. This led to a misleading warning log.
- Fixed underlying issues that caused WebSocket connections to hang.
- Fixed underlying issue that caused WebSocket connections to time out after 10 mins.
- Fixed memory leak in nodes that implements a SQLite database.
### Docs
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/blob/16dd267bd9d25ff24c64fc5c92a20eb0d322217c/docs/operators/how-to/configure-key.md) on how to generate and configure a node key.
- Added first [guide](https://github.com/status-im/nwaku/tree/16dd267bd9d25ff24c64fc5c92a20eb0d322217c/docs/operators) for nwaku operators.
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- Support for Peer Exchange (PX) when a peer prunes a [`11/WAKU2-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/11/) mesh due to oversubscription. This can significantly increase mesh stability.
- Improved start-up times through managing the size of the underlying persistent message storage.
- New websocket connections are no longer blocked due to parsing failures in other connections.
- Support for GossipSub [Peer Exchange](https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.1.md#prune-backoff-and-peer-exchange)
- Added [RAM requirements](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/tree/ee96705c7fbe4063b780ac43b7edee2f6c4e351b/waku/v2#wakunode) to `wakunode2` build instructions
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/ee96705c7fbe4063b780ac43b7edee2f6c4e351b/docs/tutorial/rln-chat2-live-testnet.md) on communicating with waku2 test fleets via the chat2 `toy-chat` application in spam-protected mode using [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/).
- Added a [section on bug reporting](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/ee96705c7fbe4063b780ac43b7edee2f6c4e351b/README.md#bugs-questions--features) to `wakunode2` README
- Fixed broken links in the [JSON-RPC API Tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/5ceef37e15a15c52cbc589f0b366018e81a958ef/docs/tutorial/jsonrpc-api.md)
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) implementation now supports spam-protection for a specific combination of `pubsubTopic` and `contentTopic` (available under the `rln` compiler flag).
- [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) integrated into chat2 `toy-chat` (available under the `rln` compiler flag)
- Documented [use of domain certificates](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/tree/2972a5003568848164033da3fe0d7f52a3d54824/waku/v2#enabling-websocket) for secure websockets
- Documented [how to configure a `dns4` domain name](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/tree/2972a5003568848164033da3fe0d7f52a3d54824/waku/v2#using-dns-discovery-to-connect-to-existing-nodes) for a node
- Clarified [use of DNS discovery](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/tree/2972a5003568848164033da3fe0d7f52a3d54824/waku/v2#using-dns-discovery-to-connect-to-existing-nodes) and provided current URLs for discoverable fleet nodes
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/2972a5003568848164033da3fe0d7f52a3d54824/docs/tutorial/rln-chat2-local-test.md) on using [`17/WAKU-RLN-RELAY`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/17/) with the chat2 `toy-chat` application
- Added [tutorial](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/2972a5003568848164033da3fe0d7f52a3d54824/docs/tutorial/bridge.md) on how to configure and a use a [`15/WAKU-BRIDGE`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/15/)
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- resuming the history via `resume` now takes the answers of all peers in `peerList` into consideration and consolidates them into one deduplicated list
- Increased maximum length for reading from a libp2p input stream to allow largest possible protocol messages, including `HistoryResponse` messages at max size
- GossipSub [prune backoff period](https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.1.md#prune-backoff-and-peer-exchange) is now the recommended 1 minute
- Conversion between topics for the Waku v1 <-> v2 bridge now follows the [RFC recommendation](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/23/).
- Fixed field order of `HistoryResponse` protobuf message: the field numbers of the `HistoryResponse` are shifted up by one to match up the [13/WAKU2-STORE](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/13/) specs.
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- The [toy-chat application](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/tutorial/chat2.md) can now perform `lightpush` and request content-filtered messages from remote peers.
- The [toy-chat application](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/tutorial/chat2.md) now uses default content topic `/toy-chat/2/huilong/proto`
- Improve `toy-chat` [briding to matterbridge]((https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/tutorial/chat2.md#bridge-messages-between-chat2-and-matterbridge))
- Improve [`swap`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/18/) logging and enable soft mode by default
- Content topics are no longer in a redundant nested structure
- A peer manager for `relay`, `filter`, `store` and `swap` peers
- Persistent storage for peers: A node with this feature enabled will now attempt to reconnect to `relay` peers after a restart. It will respect the gossipsub [PRUNE backoff](https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/pubsub/gossipsub/gossipsub-v1.1.md#prune-backoff-and-peer-exchange) period before attempting to do so.
-`--persist-peers` CLI option to persist peers in local storage
-`--persist-messages` CLI option to store historical messages locally
-`--keep-alive` CLI option to maintain a stable connection to `relay` peers on idle topics
- A CLI chat application ([`chat2`](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/tutorial/chat2.md)) over Waku v2 with [bridging to matterbridge](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/tutorial/chat2.md#bridge-messages-between-chat2-and-matterbridge)
- Split out `waku_types` types into the right place; create `utils` folder.
- Change type of `contentTopic` in [`ContentFilter`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/12/#protobuf) to `string`.
- Replace sequence of `contentTopics` in [`ContentFilter`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/12/#protobuf) with a single `contentTopic`.
- Add `timestamp` field to [`WakuMessage`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/14/#payloads).
- Ensure CLI config parameters use a consistent naming scheme. Summary of changes [here](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/pull/543).
#### Docs
Several clarifications and additions aimed at contributors, including
- information on [how to query Status test fleet](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/faq.md) for node addresses,
- [how to view logs](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/contributors/cluster-logs.md), and
- [how to update submodules](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/contributors/git-submodules.md).
#### Schema
- Add `Message` table to the persistent message store. This table replaces the old `messages` table. It has two additional columns, namely
-`pubsubTopic`, and
-`version`.
- Add `Peer` table for persistent peer storage.
#### API
- [JSON-RPC Admin API](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/16): Added a [`post` method](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/16/#post_waku_v2_admin_v1_peers) to connect to peers on an ad-hoc basis.
- [Nim API](https://github.com/status-im/nim-waku/blob/master/docs/api/v2/node.md): PubSub topic `subscribe` and `unsubscribe` no longer returns a future (removed `async` designation).
- [`HistoryQuery`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/13/#historyquery): Added `pubsubTopic` field. Message history can now be filtered and queried based on the `pubsubTopic`.
- [`HistoryQuery`](https://rfc.vac.dev/spec/13/#historyquery): Added support for querying a time window by specifying start and end times.
### Fixes
- Running nodes can now be shut down gracefully
- Content filtering now works on any PubSub topic and not just the `waku` default.
- Nodes can now mount protocols without supporting `relay` as a capability
The [Waku v2 suite of protocols](https://rfc.vac.dev/) are still in a raw/draft state.
This release supports the following [libp2p protocols](https://docs.libp2p.io/concepts/protocols/):
- Calls to `publish` a message on `wakunode2` now `await` instead of `discard` dispatched [`WakuRelay`](https://github.com/vacp2p/specs/blob/master/specs/waku/v2/waku-relay.md) procedures.
