Monero Releases Stressnet v3.0 Ahead of FCMP++ and CARROT Beta-Stressnet Fork

A new Monero beta stressnet release arrived Friday, Sept. 25, with network and wallet updates for testing the proposed FCMP++ and CARROT privacy upgrades before a planned hard fork.

The release, tagged v0.19.0.0-beta.3.0, is incompatible with earlier beta stressnet versions. Existing stressnet users must resync from scratch or reuse a testnet database.

The beta stressnet is scheduled to fork from the current testnet Monday, Oct. 5, at block 3,102,800. The update is intended to support broader testing before that transition and asks participants to identify and report problems.

Version 3.0 adds hot-cold wallet support, major improvements to the transaction relay v2 protocol and RandomX v2 support. It also includes fixes from beta stressnet v2 and the latest code from Monero’s upstream master branch.

FCMP++ is a proposed replacement for Monero’s ring signatures. Its membership proofs are designed to span eligible outputs across the blockchain, expanding the group used to obscure which output a transaction spends. The release contrasts the current proof involving one of 16 Monero outputs with a proposed proof involving more than 150 million outputs.

CARROT is a proposed addressing upgrade intended to add security, privacy and usability features while maintaining compatibility with existing addresses. FCMP++ and CARROT have been in development for more than two years, and the beta stressnet is the second live public network testing their integration.

The beta stressnet remains separate from Monero’s mainnet. Its anonymity set may include only dozens of participants at best, compared with thousands on mainnet, while node IP addresses may be visible to other participants. Hardware-wallet support, multisig and transaction proofs are also unavailable.

The next scheduled step is the beta stressnet hard fork at block 3,102,800 on Monday, Oct. 5.