[PROPOSAL][DRAFT] Gaia v25.0.0 Software Upgrade

Hub Proposals Software Upgrade
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Background

This upgrade unforks Gaia from the Cosmos SDK while upgrading from version 0.50.13 to 0.53.0. This significantly reduces technical debt and eases future development.

Gaia v25.0.0 is a major release that will follow the regular governance process for software upgrades on the Cosmos Hub.

Reminder – This proposal will have a voting period of just ONE WEEK.

If the proposal passes, validators will be required to update the Cosmos Hub binary at the halt-height specified in the on-chain proposal.

Release Details

We are targeting the upgrade for Wednesday July 2nd.

  • The release candidate can be found here. A final release will be cut and shared after testing completes on testnet.
  • The changelog can be found here.

The release bumps the following dependencies:

This upgrade is state-breaking and mandatory once the on-chain vote passes and the upgrade-height is reached.

Testing and Testnets

The v25.0.0 release has gone through rigorous testing, including e2e tests, and integration tests by Interchain Labs. In addition, the upgrade process has been independently tested by the team at Hypha Co-op and has been performed by validators and node operators on a public testnet prior to going on-chain.

If you wish to participate in the testnet upgrade process in the future, you can find the relevant information (genesis file, peers, etc.) to join the Cosmos Hub’s Interchain Security Testnet (provider) here.

Potential risk factors

As with any major upgrade, there always exists a risk that the Cosmos Hub might experience problems due to potential bugs or errors, even though extensive testing and simulation has been completed. In the case of serious problems, validators should stop operating the network immediately.

Coordination with validators will happen in the #cosmos-hub-validators-verified channel of the Cosmos Network Discord to create and execute a contingency plan. Likely this will be an emergency release with fixes or the recommendation to consider the upgrade aborted and revert back to the previous release of Gaia (v24.0.0).

Governance votes

The following items summarize the voting options and what it means for this proposal:

YES - You agree that the Cosmos Hub should upgrade to v25.0.0.

NO - You disagree that the Cosmos Hub should upgrade to v25.0.0.

NO WITH VETO - A ‘NoWithVeto’ vote indicates a proposal either (1) is deemed to be spam, i.e., irrelevant to Cosmos Hub, (2) disproportionately infringes on minority interests, or (3) violates or encourages violation of the rules of engagement as currently set out by Cosmos Hub governance. If the number of ‘NoWithVeto’ votes is greater than a third of total votes, the proposal is rejected and the deposits are burned.

ABSTAIN - You wish to contribute to the quorum but you formally decline to vote either for or against the proposal.

1 Like
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We’re pleased to see the Cosmos Hub finally moving away from its SDK fork. While one might argue it should never have diverged in the first place, every path comes with its share of detours.

That said, this step marks a significant improvement in reliability and a notable reduction in technical debt, as you rightly pointed out. These are crucial milestones for the long-term maintainability of the chain.

Thank you once again for your continued coordination and effort in delivering these updates.
Govmos.
pro-delegators-sign

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No, it simply means they are no longer interested in sponsoring the maintenance of the Cosmos SDK,
and that the Cosmos SDK as a tool for building within the Cosmos ecosystem is no longer being validated by the main blockchain — the Cosmos Hub.

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This is not true, and I’m not sure how you would get to that conclusion based on the proposal. Gaia was running on a fork of the Cosmos SDK which was needed for the old LSM module. The new x/liquid module allowed us to move away from maintaining a fork and just use mainline Cosmos SDK.

We are most certainly continuing development of the Cosmos SDK and it will remain the basis of Gaia and other Cosmos chains for many years to come.

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I misunderstood.
So right now Gaia is built on CometBFT and an application that inherits modules from the Cosmos SDK stack?

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Yes, most Cosmos chains are built with CometBFT for consensus and the Cosmos SDK as the execution layer. There are several modules that come default with the SDK (like staking, IBC and governance) and chains build their own modules for their specific needs, or add a virtual machine like CosmWasm or the EVM to allow smart contracts to be developed.