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Aztec v6 is live on mainnet as the new canonical rollup

Aztec's v6 rollup, a fresh deployment from genesis, is now canonical on Ethereum mainnet after the AZUP-3 governance upgrade. Sequencers must run v6.0.0, and slashing returns about seven days after the switch.

Aztec's v6 rollup is now the canonical Aztec rollup on Ethereum mainnet. The upgrade was packaged as governance proposal AZUP-3 ("Aztec Network v6"), and the v6.0.0 node release of 22 October 2026 said it could execute no earlier than Monday 26 October 2026, 08:00 UTC. On 1 November the v6 rollup contract on Ethereum (0xE37A2663Cc9c119BA41572C40fAb0bbb23a5402f) was emitting new checkpoints, and BitBasic's Aztec dashboard now follows it: checkpoint #6,867 landed at 20:46 UTC.

v6 is a fresh deployment that starts from its own genesis. No v5 chain state carries over.

What the upgrade payload does

According to the AZUP-3 description in Aztec's governance repository, the payload:

  • reserves 1,800,000 AZTEC for v5's remaining payouts;
  • cuts v5's checkpoint reward from 500 to 50 AZTEC;
  • installs a v6 escape hatch and makes v6 canonical in the Registry;
  • moves stake that follows the canonical rollup over to v6;
  • moves the entry-queue flush incentive to v6;
  • raises the proof-of-possession gas cap from 250,000 to 300,000.

It bundles a dozen Aztec improvement proposals (AZIPs). One of them limits exits: attesters can now leave the set themselves, alone or in batches, with the stake going to their withdrawer, but exits are rate-limited to about 5% of the sequencer set per rolling window.

What it means for sequencers

  • Run v6. The release says upgrading is required for everyone. The image moved to azteclabs/aztec:6.0.0; the old aztecprotocol/aztec image has no v6 releases, so a setup that still points at it pulls v5 and fails.
  • Fresh data directory, ROLLUP_VERSION unset. The node must sync v6 from genesis.
  • Config changes. ACVM_* settings are renamed NOIR_EXECUTE_* with no fallback, and the node now refuses to start without an L1 endpoint that serves debug_traceTransaction or trace_transaction, unless ETHEREUM_ALLOW_NO_DEBUG_HOSTS=true is set.
  • Fund publishers. Sequencers now skip slots they cannot afford to publish, and provers hold back proofs they cannot afford.
  • Slashing grace period. Slashing is off for the first 8,400 slots (about seven days) after v6 became canonical. Because the upgrade could not execute before 26 October, that window closes in early November. A sequencer that is still not attesting on v6 should fix it now.
  • Scripts. aztec sequencers remove and aztec remove-l1-validator now need --recipient.

Delegators and token holders

Stake that follows the canonical rollup moves to v6 as part of the upgrade, so delegators do not need to act. Check that the sequencers you stake with are producing checkpoints and attesting on v6.

The network now

On 1 November, BitBasic counted 3,165 active sequencers, 80 exiting and none queued, with about 631.8 million AZTEC staked. In epochs #844 to #847, 116 of 128 slots (90.6%) had a checkpoint. Follow the sequencer set, epochs and governance at https://bitbasic.com/aztec.

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