Tezos successfully performed a live upgrade of its network to the Mumbai protocol on March 29, 2023. The protocol received the endorsement by the Tezos community through its on-chain voting process.

The chart below shows block times before and after the upgrade.

The upgrade itself went smoothly, with minor block delays for ~5 minutes before the network started baking blocks at a newly configured interval of 15 seconds per block. Although faster block times will be the most immediate UX improvement, the upgrade also brings smart contract roll-ups to the protocol, which might be much more significant in the long-term.

Smart Contract Roll-Ups add a new so-called 'layer 2' scaling capability. This extra layer in the blockchain tech stack enables developers to write software that compiles to WASM and connect it to the Tezos blockchain network while using dedicated roll-up nodes for computational scalability.

For further reading about the Tezos Roll-up architecture we refer you to the documentation by the core developer teams: https://tezos.gitlab.io/alpha/smart_rollups.html.

This is another building block for a permissionless, de-centralized tech stack for the internet, and as such The Stack Report will of course keep you updated on the latest developments in this space.

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Mumbai protocol upgrade

The Mumbai protocol upgrade was developed by Nomadic Labs, Marigold, TriliTech, Oxhead Alpha, Tarides, DaiLambda & Functori.

The upgrade was proposed and announced on the Tezos Agora forums on January 17, 2023. For the announcement message and discussion, see https://forum.tezosagora.org/t/ptmumbaii/4988. The first vote for the protocol during the Proposal phase came from BakingBenjamins in the following transaction.

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About Tezos on-chain governance

Tezos is a blockchain platform that allows for the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications. To keep the platform running smoothly and to introduce new features, Tezos uses a protocol upgrade mechanism.

The protocol upgrade mechanism is designed to be decentralized, meaning that it doesn't rely on any central authority or decision-making body. Instead, it allows anyone who holds Tezos tokens (XTZ) to propose and vote on upgrades to the protocol.

When a proposed upgrade is submitted, it goes through a testing and verification process to make sure that it won't cause any issues or disruptions to the network. Once the upgrade is approved, Tezos token holders are given the opportunity to vote on whether or not to accept the upgrade.

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Further reading

The Stack Report previously covered the Tezos Ithaca Upgrade.

Tezos Governance allows bakers to vote with delegated xtz. Which creates unique patterns in the on-chain Tezos data.