Cardano 1.3.0: Daedalus 0.11.0 and Cardano SL 1.3.0 - Release Notes
Daedalus 0.11.0
FEATURES
HIDING AND SHOWING USED ADDRESSES
A switch for showing and hiding addresses that have been used has been added to the Receive screen.
BUG FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
INTEGRITY VERIFICATION FOR DAEDALUS INSTALLERS
From this release, Daedalus installers will be signed with IOHK’s organizational PGP key. Also, on the Daedalus download web page, a checksum will be published for each installer with instructions for verifying their signatures and checksums. This will enable users to verify the integrity of an installer so they can be sure that they are using the genuine, unmodified, software.
SMALLER AND FASTER USING LESS MEMORY
The size of the output application bundle built from the source has been reduced by a factor of 10 by not embedding any font, image or other static assets. This reduces the memory usage by the same factor, a change that will be noticeable for users running Daedalus on slower machines with a small amount of memory.
LINUX KANJI CHARACTERS
The font used in Daedalus has been changed to Google’s Noto Sans. This fixes a problem rendering kanji characters on Linux in preparation for the first Daedalus Linux release.
ABOUT DIALOG CHANGED TO OVERLAY
The About dialog is no longer a standalone window and is now in an overlay on the user interface. This reduces the number of rendering processes Daedalus uses and reduces memory use.
ADA REDEMPTION ICON REMOVED FROM THE MAIN MENU
The Ada redemption feature is rarely used because most people have already redeemed their ada, so the icon has been removed from the main menu. It is now available from the system menu.
Cardano SL 1.3.0
FEATURES
A subset of endpoints from the Cardano wallet API, used by cryptocurrency exchanges, was moved to the new Cardano REST API v1. The remaining endpoints will move from v0 to v1 in the next release. Cryptocurrency exchanges are encouraged to move to API v1 because the old API is now regarded as deprecated and will be removed in future versions (CBR-101).
SUBSCRIPTION STATUS ADDED TO NODE INFORMATION
The endpoint that provides information about the node (/api/v1/node-info) has been expanded to include information about the node subscription status, which can be used to check if the Cardano node is connected to the network or not.
IMPROVED ERROR MESSAGE FOR MISSING CHARSET IN API CALLS
The generic message returned from Cardano node endpoint calls when the charset was not specified is replaced with a more descriptive error message to help users of the API troubleshoot the problem.
SUPPORT FOR SENDING RAW DATA ON THE NETWORK
It is now possible to send raw, CBOR serialized data to the network using the diffusion layer. Previously, the data had to be serialized before sending it to the network, which slowed things down.
SPECIFICATIONS AND DOCUMENTATION
The formal specification of a wallet for Cardano (or any UTXO-based cryptocurrency) is available here: cardanodocs.com/technical/formal-specification-for-a-cardano-wallet.
BUG FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
Sending and receiving blocks on the network now works better. First, deserialization performance has been improved by optimizing memory use. Next, blocks are now downloaded concurrently without batching. Finally, block traversal is optimized by the introduction of 'forward links', which removes the need for header retrieval and serialization.
OPTIMISED BLOCK STORAGE
Block storage is now optimized by consolidating block and undo data in a single file. This change reduces disk use and improves performance when reading and writing blocks. In later Cardano versions, block storage will be improved even more, so this is only an interim solution.
Read more at Blockchain storage consolidation
HIGH (AND RECURRENT) I/O TRAFFIC IN WALLET REDUCED
I/O spikes in traffic were being caused by large logs being flushed. This issue has been fixed.
FAILURE TO RECONNECT TO THE NETWORK
Improper handling of DNS failures would sometimes cause the Cardano node to fail to reconnect to the network after an internet connection was interrupted and would need to be restarted. This issue has been fixed.
TIME ERROR BETWEEN USER’S COMPUTER AND THE NETWORK
The endpoint (/api/settings/time/difference) for calculating the time difference between a user’s computer and Cardano network was returning an incorrect value in some cases. This was because the calculation was not properly handling the time needed to request the current time from NTP servers and to get the response. As a result, some Daedalus users were prevented from using their wallet because Daedalus cannot be used if there is a time difference of more than 15 seconds. This issue has been fixed.
KNOWN ISSUES
Some graphics card drivers are rendering a white blank screen instead of the user interface.
INCOMPATIBILITY OF QR CODES FROM PAPER WALLET CERTIFICATES
Some QR code readers are unable to scan QR codes from paper wallet certificates because there is too much error correction data in printed QR codes.
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE SLOWS DOWN WALLET RESTORATION AND BLOCKCHAIN SYNCHRONIZATION
Some antivirus software, including Windows Defender, which is installed with Windows 10 by default, can slow down wallet restoration and initial blockchain synchronization. All Windows users are warned that antivirus software may reduce wallet restoration performance. This warning is in the form of a prompt shown when wallet restoration begins. Note that Daedalus is not detecting which antivirus software is on the user’s machine and is displaying this warning for all Windows users. The development team will try to solve this issue in future releases.
INTERNET DISRUPTION CAUSES BLOCKCHAIN SYNCHRONIZATION TO STOP
In some cases, after an internet connection has been lost, blockchain synchronization does not continue when the link is re-established. Users who experience this will see a Connecting to network’ message on the loading screen. The only way to fix the problem is by restarting Daedalus. This issue will be fixed in the next release.