Upcoming Celestia Upgrade: Hibiscus (V7)
Celestia’s next upgrade, Hibiscus (V7), is scheduled for mid-March.
Hibiscus moves Celestia closer to resolving the tradeoff between sovereignty and interoperability, making networks built on Celestia feel more unified. It introduces two new features that enable better interoperability between networks on Celestia:
- A forwarding module that enables single-signature token transfers via Hyperlane, removing friction for users routing assets across chains
- A ZK Interchain Security Module that adds cryptographic proof-based verification for cross-chain messages, giving high-value applications a trust-minimised alternative to multisigs.
What is included in the V7 upgrade?
CIP-45: Forwarding Module
CIP-45 introduces a forwarding module that enables single-signature cross-chain token transfers via Hyperlane, eliminating the need for users to sign multiple transactions when routing tokens through Celestia to another chain. Users send tokens to deterministically-derived forwarding addresses that cryptographically bind to a specific destination, and permissionless relayers then execute the transfer to the pre-committed recipient. This provides Hyperlane transfers with the same multi-hop convenience that IBC's Packet Forward Middleware offers for IBC routes.
CIP-46: ZK Interchain Security Module
CIP-46 introduces a zero-knowledge proof-based Hyperlane Interchain Security Module (x/zkism) that currently uses Groth16 verification to enable trust-minimised cross-chain message verification, replacing reliance on trusted multisig validators. Networks can configure their own proof-based security using SP1 prover programs (with future support for other ZKVMs like Risc0), allowing them to verify consensus proofs, TEE-based proofs, or full ZK execution proofs for cross-chain transfers through Celestia.
This module enables users to pick between either multisig or cryptographic proofs based on their needs. While the ZK ISM has higher proof generation costs and latency compared to the multisig ISM, it provides cryptographic security guarantees suitable for high-value transfers or networks prioritising trustlessness over speed.
CIP-44: Adjust Validator Commission Bounds
This CIP increases the maximum validator commission from 25% to 60% and raises the protocol-enforced minimum commission from 10% to 20% to allow validators to operate more sustainable businesses, following the reduction to protocol inflation made in the previous upgrade. Validators with commission rates below 20% will be automatically migrated to 20% during the upgrade.
Reduces minimum block retention for consensus nodes
Now, consensus nodes can set the pruning window as low as 3,000 blocks (the last ~5 hours’ worth of blocks). The previous minimum was 14 days’ worth.
When does it go live?
V7 will roll out across these networks in sequence:
- arabica -- live now
- mocha -- upgrading imminently
- mainnet -- scheduled for mid-March
Reach out to us
If you are building a high throughput, low latency exchange or payments chain and require the most scalable infrastructure in crypto, reach out to our Head of Partnerships, @0xNoroc.