Developer weekly update January 22, 2025

Hello developers, and welcome to this week's developer weekly update! This week, we have a new release of Motoko, a forum discussion regarding some changes to dfx, and an NNS proposal that adds 17 new API boundary nodes to the network. Let's get started!

Motoko v0.13.6

A new version of Motoko has been released! This release includes an important breaking change regarding orthogonal persistence:

• The Wasm persistence modes used internally for canister upgrades now use lowercase names keep and replace rather than Keep and Replace. If you are using actor classes with orthogonal persistence, you will need to recompile your code and upgrade it to use the latest moc and dfx.

This release also includes support for low Wasm memory hooks system func lowmemory() : async* () { ... } and a few bug fixes:

• Mitigations and checks regarding timers.

• Valid upgrades that delete a stable variable previously failed the --enhanced-orthogonal-persistence stable compatibility check.

Read the full release notes.

Proposed dfx changes

A new change has been proposed on the forum for dfx: Remove the local replica with PocketIC. PocketIC is a canister testing tool that provides extensive, customizable testing capabilities in the local environment. dfx currently uses PocketIC in parallel with the local replica for CI testing without any substantial differences.

Replacing the replica with PocketIC will make dfx smaller to download, plus speed up local deployment times.

The SDK team has proposed a plan to remove the replica from dfx and replace it with PocketIC. You can read more about this plan on the developer forum and contribute to the discussion.

New API boundary nodes

NNS proposal 134902 has been executed, adding 17 new API boundary nodes to the ICP network. Each node was already part of the network but was previously unused before being converted into a boundary node. Nodes were chosen based on geographic location to ensure distribution across different regions.

This is a significant change and an important architecture milestone, as the network previously only had 3 API boundary nodes. With a total of 20 API boundary nodes in various regions across the globe, ICP will now feature a fully NNS-managed edge architecture, enabling clients such as agent-rs to connect directly to the network without relying on the traditional boundary node infrastructure.

You can learn more about this network change on the forum.

That'll wrap up this week. Tune back in next week for more developer updates!

-DFINITY