Major Milestone Unlocked: Pact 5 Launches on Kadena

Pact 5 has officially launched on Mainnet! This advancement marks a major milestone in the evolution of Kadena’s Pact smart contract language. The Pact 5 launch on mainnet follows extensive testing across both an Alpha and Beta testing phase. The multi-stage testing environment resulted in the refinement of features based on developer feedback directly from our community. Thank you to all who participated and took the time to make Pact 5 what it is today!

After implementing community feedback, we are pleased to say that Pact 5 is the strongest version of Pact yet. It is a massive boost for enhancing transaction efficiency, with reduced wait time and improved dApp performance. Furthermore, Pact 5 offers a robust array of debugging tools, enabling faster redeployment and reduced resource usage. Network performance is showing more strength than ever before, unlocking greater optimization potential and allowing more time dedicated to mining.

Why We Built Pact 5

Pact 5 represents a significant upgrade for both developers and miners, bringing enhanced efficiency, security, and performance to the Kadena ecosystem.

For developers, Pact 5 streamlines smart contract execution with improved error messaging, optimized gas logs, and enhanced debugging tools—making it easier to build, debug, and deploy scalable applications.

Miners will experience increased efficiency and reduced execution time for Pact code. Our goal was to deliver more time for miners to secure the network, resulting in a lower CPU intensity, improved network health, and greater operational efficiency. With these improvements, Pact 5 will strengthen the foundation of Kadena’s blockchain, making Kadena more powerful and reliable for our entire community.

Performance Benchmarks

Benchmarks indicate an 8x smaller improvement in the size of contract storage efficiency and a 2x to 3x speedup in smart contract execution, with Pact 5 processing full blocks significantly faster than its predecessor. Precise CPU and memory load metrics are still being evaluated, however, initial results suggest improved mining efficiency and faster block validation, leading to better network performance, lower latency, and enhanced scalability.

These benchmarks highlight Pact 5’s role in delivering superior performance and scalability.

Summary of New Features & Changes

• Faster performance and lower resource consumption through optimized smart contract execution
• Easier debugging with clearer error spans for improved error messaging
• New REPL debug flags, which will lead to greater control over code inspection and execution tracking
• Gas Log Enhancements, including more precise gas usage tracking for better contract optimization
• CBOR Encoding Support, including 6-8x compression for modules and user data
• Updated Kadena.js Toolkit & LSP, including modernized tooling for better developer experience

Next Steps & Resources

Pact 5 is now live. Developers can begin testing and deploying on Mainnet. Miners should ensure that nodes are upgraded for continued compatibility in the transition.

Resources:

• Technical Documentation
• Compatibility Advisory