Customize an Avalanche L1

All Avalanche L1s can be customized by utilizing L1s Configs.

an Avalanche L1 can have one or more blockchains. For example, the Primary Network, which is an Avalanche L1, a special one nonetheless, has 3 blockchains. Each chain can be further customized using chain specific configuration file. See here for detailed explanation.

An Avalanche L1 created by or forked from Subnet-EVM can be customized by utilizing one or more of the following methods:

• Genesis
• Precompile
• Upgrade Configs
• Chain Configs

Avalanche L1 Configs​

an Avalanche L1 can customized by setting parameters for the following:

• Validator-only communication to create a private Avalanche L1
• Consensus
• Gossip

See here for more info.

Genesis​

Each blockchain has some genesis state when it's created. Each Virtual Machine defines the format and semantics of its genesis data.

The default genesis Subnet-EVM provided below has some well defined parameters:

{
  "config": {
    "chainId": 43214,
    "homesteadBlock": 0,
    "eip150Block": 0,
    "eip150Hash": "0x2086799aeebeae135c246c65021c82b4e15a2c451340993aacfd2751886514f0",
    "eip155Block": 0,
    "eip158Block": 0,
    "byzantiumBlock": 0,
    "constantinopleBlock": 0,
    "petersburgBlock": 0,
    "istanbulBlock": 0,
    "muirGlacierBlock": 0,
    "feeConfig": {
      "gasLimit": 15000000,
      "minBaseFee": 25000000000,
      "targetGas": 15000000,
      "baseFeeChangeDenominator": 36,
      "minBlockGasCost": 0,
      "maxBlockGasCost": 1000000,
      "targetBlockRate": 2,
      "blockGasCostStep": 200000
    },
    "allowFeeRecipients": false
  },
  "alloc": {
    "8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC": {
      "balance": "0x295BE96E64066972000000"
    }
  },
  "nonce": "0x0",
  "timestamp": "0x0",
  "extraData": "0x00",
  "gasLimit": "0xe4e1c0",
  "difficulty": "0x0",
  "mixHash": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  "coinbase": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
  "number": "0x0",
  "gasUsed": "0x0",
  "parentHash": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
}

Chain Config​

chainID: Denotes the ChainID of to be created chain. Must be picked carefully since a conflict with other chains can cause issues. One suggestion is to check with chainlist.org to avoid ID collision, reserve and publish your ChainID properly.

You can use eth_getChainConfig RPC call to get the current chain config. See here for more info.

Hard Forks​

homesteadBlock, eip150Block, eip150Hash, eip155Block, byzantiumBlock, constantinopleBlock, petersburgBlock, istanbulBlock, muirGlacierBlock are EVM hard fork activation times. Changing these may cause issues, so treat them carefully.

Fee Config​

gasLimit: Sets the max amount of gas consumed per block. This restriction puts a cap on the amount of computation that can be done in a single block, which in turn sets a limit on the maximum gas usage allowed for a single transaction. For reference, C-Chain value is set to 15,000,000.

targetBlockRate: Sets the target rate of block production in seconds. A target of 2 will target producing a block every 2 seconds. If the network starts producing blocks at a faster rate, it indicates that more blocks than anticipated are being issued to the network, resulting in an increase in base fees. For C-chain this value is set to 2.

minBaseFee: Sets a lower bound on the EIP-1559 base fee of a block. Since the block's base fee sets the minimum gas price for any transaction included in that block, this effectively sets a minimum gas price for any transaction.

targetGas: Specifies the targeted amount of gas (including block gas cost) to consume within a rolling 10-seconds window. When the dynamic fee algorithm observes that network activity is above/below the targetGas, it increases/decreases the base fee proportionally to how far above/below the target actual network activity is. If the network starts producing blocks with gas cost higher than this, base fees are increased accordingly.

baseFeeChangeDenominator: Divides the difference between actual and target utilization to determine how much to increase/decrease the base fee. A larger denominator indicates a slower changing, stickier base fee, while a lower denominator allows the base fee to adjust more quickly. For reference, the C-chain value is set to 36. This value sets the base fee to increase or decrease by a factor of 1/36 of the parent block's base fee.

minBlockGasCost: Sets the minimum amount of gas to charge for the production of a block. This value is set to 0 in C-Chain.

maxBlockGasCost: Sets the maximum amount of gas to charge for the production of a block.

blockGasCostStep: Determines how much to increase/decrease the block gas cost depending on the amount of time elapsed since the previous block.

If the block is produced at the target rate, the block gas cost will stay the same as the block gas cost for the parent block.

If it is produced faster/slower, the block gas cost will be increased/decreased by the step value for each second faster/slower than the target block rate accordingly.

Custom Fee Recipients​

See section Setting a Custom Fee Recipient

Alloc​

The fields nonce, timestamp, extraData, gasLimit, difficulty, mixHash, coinbase, number, gasUsed, parentHash defines the genesis block header. The field gasLimit should be set to match the gasLimit set in the feeConfig. You do not need to change any of the other genesis header fields.

nonce, mixHash and difficulty are remnant parameters from Proof of Work systems. For Avalanche, these don't play any relevant role, so you should just leave them as their default values:

nonce: The result of the mining process iteration is this value. It can be any value in the genesis block. Default value is 0x0.

mixHash: The combination of nonce and mixHash allows to verify that the Block has really been cryptographically mined, thus, from this aspect, is valid. Default value is 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.

difficulty: The difficulty level applied during the nonce discovering process of this block. Default value is 0x0.

timestamp: The timestamp of the creation of the genesis block. This is commonly set to 0x0.

extraData: Optional extra data that can be included in the genesis block. This is commonly set to 0x.

gasLimit: The total amount of gas that can be used in a single block. It should be set to the same value as in the fee config. The value e4e1c0 is hexadecimal and is equal to 15,000,000.

coinbase: Refers to the address of the block producers. This also means it represents the recipient of the block reward. It is usually set to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 for the genesis block. To allow fee recipients in Subnet-EVM, refer to this section.

parentHash: This is the Keccak 256-bit hash of the entire parent block's header. It is usually set to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 for the genesis block.

gasUsed: This is the amount of gas used by the genesis block. It is usually set to 0x0.

number: This is the number of the genesis block. This required to be 0x0 for the genesis. Otherwise it will error.

Genesis Examples​

Another example of a genesis file can be found in the networks folder. Please remove airdropHash and airdropAmount fields if you want to start with it.

Here are a few examples on how a genesis file is used: scripts/run.sh

Setting the Genesis Allocation​

Alloc defines addresses and their initial balances. This should be changed accordingly for each chain. If you don't provide any genesis allocation, you won't be able to interact with your new chain (all transactions require a fee to be paid from the sender's balance).

The alloc field expects key-value pairs. Keys of each entry must be a valid address. The balance field in the value can be either a hexadecimal or number to indicate initial balance of the address. The default value contains 8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC with 50000000000000000000000000 balance in it. Default:

"alloc": {
  "8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC": {
    "balance": "0x295BE96E64066972000000"
  }
}

To specify a different genesis allocation, populate the alloc field in the genesis JSON as follows:

"alloc": {
  "8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC": {
    "balance": "0x52B7D2DCC80CD2E4000000"
  },
  "Ab5801a7D398351b8bE11C439e05C5B3259aeC9B": {
    "balance": "0xa796504b1cb5a7c0000"
  }
},

The keys in the allocation are hex addresses without the canonical 0x prefix. The balances are denominated in Wei (10^18 Wei = 1 Whole Unit of Native Token) and expressed as hex strings with the canonical 0x prefix. You can use this converter to translate between decimal and hex numbers.

The above example yields the following genesis allocations (denominated in whole units of the native token, that is 1 AVAX/1 WAGMI):

0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC: 100000000 (0x52B7D2DCC80CD2E4000000=100000000000000000000000000 Wei)
0xAb5801a7D398351b8bE11C439e05C5B3259aeC9B: 49463 (0xa796504b1cb5a7c0000=49463000000000000000000 Wei)

Setting a Custom Fee Recipient​

By default, all fees are burned (sent to the black hole address with "allowFeeRecipients": false). However, it is possible to enable block producers to set a fee recipient (who will get compensated for blocks they produce).

To enable this feature, you'll need to add the following to your genesis file (under the "config" key):

{
  "config": {
    "allowFeeRecipients": true
  }
}

Fee Recipient Address​

With allowFeeRecipients enabled, your validators can specify their addresses to collect fees. They need to update their EVM chain config with the following to specify where the fee should be sent to.

{
  "feeRecipient": "<YOUR 0x-ADDRESS>"
}

This mechanism can be also activated as a precompile. See Changing Fee Reward Mechanisms section for more details.

Precompiles​

Subnet-EVM can provide custom functionalities with precompiled contracts. These precompiled contracts can be activated through ChainConfig (in genesis or as an upgrade).

AllowList Interface​

The AllowList interface is used by precompiles to check if a given address is allowed to use a precompiled contract. AllowList consist of three roles, Admin, Manager and Enabled. Admin can add/remove other Admin and Enabled addresses. Manager is introduced with Durango upgrade and can add/remove Enabled addresses, without the ability to add/remove Admin or Manager addresses. Enabled addresses can use the precompiled contract, but cannot modify other roles.

AllowList adds adminAddresses, managerAddresses, enabledAddresses fields to precompile contract configurations. For instance fee manager precompile contract configuration looks like this:

{
  "feeManagerConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "adminAddresses": [<list of addresses>],
    "managerAddresses": [<list of addresses>],
    "enabledAddresses": [<list of addresses>],
  }
}

AllowList configuration affects only the related precompile. For instance, the admin address in feeManagerConfig does not affect admin addresses in other activated precompiles.

The AllowList solidity interface is defined as follows, and can be found in IAllowList.sol:

//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
 
interface IAllowList {
  event RoleSet(
    uint256 indexed role,
    address indexed account,
    address indexed sender,
    uint256 oldRole
  );
 
  // Set [addr] to have the admin role over the precompile contract.
  function setAdmin(address addr) external;
 
  // Set [addr] to be enabled on the precompile contract.
  function setEnabled(address addr) external;
 
  // Set [addr] to have the manager role over the precompile contract.
  function setManager(address addr) external;
 
  // Set [addr] to have no role for the precompile contract.
  function setNone(address addr) external;
 
  // Read the status of [addr].
  function readAllowList(address addr) external view returns (uint256 role);
}

readAllowList(addr) will return a uint256 with a value of 0, 1, or 2, corresponding to the roles None, Enabled, and Admin respectively.

RoleSet is an event that is emitted when a role is set for an address. It includes the role, the modified address, the sender as indexed parameters and the old role as non-indexed parameter. Events in precompiles are activated after Durango upgrade.

Note: AllowList is not an actual contract but just an interface. It's not callable by itself. This is used by other precompiles. Check other precompile sections to see how this works.

Restricting Smart Contract Deployers​

If you'd like to restrict who has the ability to deploy contracts on your Avalanche L1, you can provide an AllowList configuration in your genesis or upgrade file:

{
  "contractDeployerAllowListConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
  }
}

In this example, 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC is named as the Admin of the ContractDeployerAllowList. This enables it to add other Admin or to add Enabled addresses. Both Admin and Enabled can deploy contracts. To provide a great UX with factory contracts, the tx.Origin is checked for being a valid deployer instead of the caller of CREATE. This means that factory contracts will still be able to create new contracts as long as the sender of the original transaction is an allow listed deployer.

The Stateful Precompile contract powering the ContractDeployerAllowList adheres to the AllowList Solidity interface at 0x0200000000000000000000000000000000000000 (you can load this interface and interact directly in Remix):

• If you attempt to add a Enabled and you are not an Admin, you will see something like:
• If you attempt to deploy a contract but you are not an Admin not a Enabled, you will see something like:
• If you call readAllowList(addr) then you can read the current role of addr, which will return a uint256 with a value of 0, 1, or 2, corresponding to the roles None, Enabled, and Admin respectively.

Initial Contract Allow List Configuration​

It's possible to enable this precompile with an initial configuration to activate its effect on activation timestamp. This provides a way to enable the precompile without an admin address to manage the deployer list. With this, you can define a list of addresses that are allowed to deploy contracts. Since there will be no admin address to manage the deployer list, it can only be modified through a network upgrade.

To use initial configuration, you need to specify addresses in enabledAddresses field in your genesis or upgrade file:

{
  "contractDeployerAllowListConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "enabledAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
  }
}

This will allow only 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC to deploy contracts. For further information about precompile initial configurations see Initial Precompile Configurations.

Restricting Who Can Submit Transactions​

Similar to restricting contract deployers, this precompile restricts which addresses may submit transactions on chain. Like the previous section, you can activate the precompile by including an AllowList configuration in your genesis file:

{
  "config": {
    "txAllowListConfig": {
      "blockTimestamp": 0,
      "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
    }
  }
}

In this example, 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC is named as the Admin of the TransactionAllowList. This enables them to add other Admins or to add Allowed. Admins, Manager and Enabled can submit transactions to the chain.

The Stateful Precompile contract powering the TxAllowList adheres to the AllowList Solidity interface at 0x0200000000000000000000000000000000000002 (you can load this interface and interact directly in Remix):

• If you attempt to add an Enabled and you are not an Admin, you will see something like:
• If you attempt to submit a transaction but you are not an Admin, Manager or not Enabled, you will see something like: cannot issue transaction from non-allow listed address
• If you call readAllowList(addr) then you can read the current role of addr, which will return a uint256 with a value of 0, 1, 2 or 3 corresponding to the roles None, Allowed, Admin and Manager respectively.

Initial TX Allow List Configuration​

It's possible to enable this precompile with an initial configuration to activate its effect on activation timestamp. This provides a way to enable the precompile without an admin address to manage the TX allow list. With this, you can define a list of addresses that are allowed to submit transactions.

Since there will be no admin address to manage the TX list, it can only be modified through a network upgrade. To use initial configuration, you need to specify addresses in enabledAddresses field in your genesis or upgrade file:

{
  "txAllowListConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "enabledAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
  }
}

This will allow only 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC to submit transactions. For further information about precompile initial configurations see Initial Precompile Configurations.

Minting Native Coins​

You can mint native(gas) coins with a precompiled contract. In order to activate this feature, you can provide nativeMinterConfig in genesis:

{
  "config": {
    "contractNativeMinterConfig": {
      "blockTimestamp": 0,
      "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
    }
  }
}

adminAddresses denotes admin accounts who can add other Admin, Manager or Enabled accounts. Admin, Manager and Enabled are both eligible to mint native coins for other addresses. ContractNativeMinter uses same methods as in ContractDeployerAllowList.

The Stateful Precompile contract powering the ContractNativeMinter adheres to the following Solidity interface at 0x0200000000000000000000000000000000000001 (you can load this interface and interact directly in Remix):

// (c) 2022-2023, Ava Labs, Inc. All rights reserved.
// See the file LICENSE for licensing terms.
 
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
import "./IAllowList.sol";
 
interface INativeMinter is IAllowList {
  event NativeCoinMinted(
    address indexed sender,
    address indexed recipient,
    uint256 amount
  );
 
  // Mint [amount] number of native coins and send to [addr]
  function mintNativeCoin(address addr, uint256 amount) external;
}

mintNativeCoin takes an address and amount of native coins to be minted. The amount denotes the amount in minimum denomination of native coins (10^18). For example, if you want to mint 1 native coin (in AVAX), you need to pass 1 * 10^18 as the amount. A NativeCoinMinted event is emitted with the sender, recipient and amount when a native coin is minted.

Note that this uses IAllowList interface directly, meaning that it uses the same AllowList interface functions like readAllowList and setAdmin, setManager, setEnabled, setNone. For more information see AllowList Solidity interface.

Initial Native Minter Configuration​

It's possible to enable this precompile with an initial configuration to activate its effect on activation timestamp. This provides a way to enable the precompile without an admin address to mint native coins. With this, you can define a list of addresses that will receive an initial mint of the native coin when this precompile activates. This can be useful for networks that require a one-time mint without specifying any admin addresses. To use initial configuration, you need to specify a map of addresses with their corresponding mint amounts in initialMint field in your genesis or upgrade file:

{
  "contractNativeMinterConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "initialMint": {
      "0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC": "1000000000000000000",
      "0x10037Fb06Ec4aB8c870a92AE3f00cD58e5D484b3": "0xde0b6b3a7640000"
    }
  }
}

In the amount field you can specify either decimal or hex string. This will mint 1000000000000000000 (equivalent of 1 Native Coin denominated as 10^18) to both addresses. Note that these are both in string format. "0xde0b6b3a7640000" hex is equivalent to 1000000000000000000. For further information about precompile initial configurations see Initial Precompile Configurations.

Configuring Dynamic Fees​

You can configure the parameters of the dynamic fee algorithm on chain using the FeeConfigManager. In order to activate this feature, you will need to provide the FeeConfigManager in the genesis:

{
  "config": {
    "feeManagerConfig": {
      "blockTimestamp": 0,
      "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
    }
  }
}

The precompile implements the FeeManager interface which includes the same AllowList interface used by ContractNativeMinter, TxAllowList, etc. For an example of the AllowList interface, see the TxAllowList above.

The Stateful Precompile contract powering the FeeConfigManager adheres to the following Solidity interface at 0x0200000000000000000000000000000000000003 (you can load this interface and interact directly in Remix). It can be also found in IFeeManager.sol:

//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
import "./IAllowList.sol";
 
interface IFeeManager is IAllowList {
  struct FeeConfig {
    uint256 gasLimit;
    uint256 targetBlockRate;
    uint256 minBaseFee;
    uint256 targetGas;
    uint256 baseFeeChangeDenominator;
    uint256 minBlockGasCost;
    uint256 maxBlockGasCost;
    uint256 blockGasCostStep;
  }
  event FeeConfigChanged(
    address indexed sender,
    FeeConfig oldFeeConfig,
    FeeConfig newFeeConfig
  );
 
  // Set fee config fields to contract storage
  function setFeeConfig(
    uint256 gasLimit,
    uint256 targetBlockRate,
    uint256 minBaseFee,
    uint256 targetGas,
    uint256 baseFeeChangeDenominator,
    uint256 minBlockGasCost,
    uint256 maxBlockGasCost,
    uint256 blockGasCostStep
  ) external;
 
  // Get fee config from the contract storage
  function getFeeConfig()
    external
    view
    returns (
      uint256 gasLimit,
      uint256 targetBlockRate,
      uint256 minBaseFee,
      uint256 targetGas,
      uint256 baseFeeChangeDenominator,
      uint256 minBlockGasCost,
      uint256 maxBlockGasCost,
      uint256 blockGasCostStep
    );
 
  // Get the last block number changed the fee config from the contract storage
  function getFeeConfigLastChangedAt()
    external
    view
    returns (uint256 blockNumber);
}

FeeConfigManager precompile uses IAllowList interface directly, meaning that it uses the same AllowList interface functions like readAllowList and setAdmin, setManager, setEnabled, setNone. For more information see AllowList Solidity interface.

In addition to the AllowList interface, the FeeConfigManager adds the following capabilities:

• getFeeConfig: retrieves the current dynamic fee config
• getFeeConfigLastChangedAt: retrieves the timestamp of the last block where the fee config was updated
• setFeeConfig: sets the dynamic fee config on chain (see here for details on the fee config parameters). This function can only be called by an Admin, Manager or Enabled address.
• FeeConfigChanged: an event that is emitted when the fee config is updated. Topics include the sender, the old fee config, and the new fee config.

You can also get the fee configuration at a block with the eth_feeConfig RPC method. For more information see here.

Initial Fee Config Configuration​

It's possible to enable this precompile with an initial configuration to activate its effect on activation timestamp. This provides a way to define your fee structure to take effect at the activation.

To use the initial configuration, you need to specify the fee config in initialFeeConfig field in your genesis or upgrade file:

{
  "feeManagerConfig": {
    "blockTimestamp": 0,
    "initialFeeConfig": {
      "gasLimit": 20000000,
      "targetBlockRate": 2,
      "minBaseFee": 1000000000,
      "targetGas": 100000000,
      "baseFeeChangeDenominator": 48,
      "minBlockGasCost": 0,
      "maxBlockGasCost": 10000000,
      "blockGasCostStep": 500000
    }
  }
}

This will set the fee config to the values specified in the initialFeeConfig field. For further information about precompile initial configurations see Initial Precompile Configurations.

Avalanche Warp Messaging​

Contract Examples​

Subnet-EVM contains example contracts for precompiles under /contracts. It's a hardhat project with tests and tasks. For more information see contract examples README.

Network Upgrades: Enable/Disable Precompiles​

In addition to specifying the configuration for each of the above precompiles in the genesis chain config, they can be individually enabled or disabled at a given timestamp as a network upgrade. Disabling a precompile disables calling the precompile and destructs its storage so it can be enabled at a later timestamp with a new configuration if desired.

These upgrades must be specified in a file named upgrade.json placed in the same directory where config.json resides: {chain-config-dir}/{blockchainID}/upgrade.json. For example, WAGMI Subnet upgrade should be placed in ~/.avalanchego/configs/chains/2ebCneCbwthjQ1rYT41nhd7M76Hc6YmosMAQrTFhBq8qeqh6tt/upgrade.json.

The content of the upgrade.json should be formatted according to the following:

{
  "precompileUpgrades": [
    {
      "[PRECOMPILE_NAME]": {
        "blockTimestamp": "[ACTIVATION_TIMESTAMP]", // unix timestamp precompile should activate at
        "[PARAMETER]": "[VALUE]" // precompile specific configuration options, eg. "adminAddresses"
      }
    }
  ]
}

To disable a precompile, the following format should be used:

{
  "precompileUpgrades": [
    {
      "<precompileName>": {
        "blockTimestamp": "[DEACTIVATION_TIMESTAMP]", // unix timestamp the precompile should deactivate at
        "disable": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

Each item in precompileUpgrades must specify exactly one precompile to enable or disable and the block timestamps must be in increasing order. Once an upgrade has been activated (a block after the specified timestamp has been accepted), it must always be present in upgrade.json exactly as it was configured at the time of activation (otherwise the node will refuse to start).

Enabling and disabling a precompile is a network upgrade and should always be done with caution.

If aborting an upgrade becomes necessary, you can remove the precompile upgrade from upgrade.json from the end of the list of upgrades. As long as the blockchain has not accepted a block with a timestamp past that upgrade's timestamp, it will abort the upgrade for that node.

Example​

{
  "precompileUpgrades": [
    {
      "feeManagerConfig": {
        "blockTimestamp": 1668950000,
        "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
      }
    },
    {
      "txAllowListConfig": {
        "blockTimestamp": 1668960000,
        "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
      }
    },
    {
      "feeManagerConfig": {
        "blockTimestamp": 1668970000,
        "disable": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

This example enables the feeManagerConfig at the first block with timestamp >= 1668950000, enables txAllowListConfig at the first block with timestamp >= 1668960000, and disables feeManagerConfig at the first block with timestamp >= 1668970000.

When a precompile disable takes effect (that is, after its blockTimestamp has passed), its storage will be wiped. If you want to reenable it, you will need to treat it as a new configuration.

After you have created the upgrade.json and placed it in the chain config directory, you need to restart the node for the upgrade file to be loaded (again, make sure you don't restart all Avalanche L1 validators at once!). On node restart, it will print out the configuration of the chain, where you can double-check that the upgrade has loaded correctly. In our example:

INFO [08-15|15:09:36.772] <2ebCneCbwthjQ1rYT41nhd7M76Hc6YmosMAQrTFhBq8qeqh6tt Chain>
github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/eth/backend.go:155: Initialised chain configuration
config=“{ChainID: 11111 Homestead: 0 EIP150: 0 EIP155: 0 EIP158: 0 Byzantium: 0
Constantinople: 0 Petersburg: 0 Istanbul: 0, Muir Glacier: 0, Subnet EVM: 0, FeeConfig:
{\“gasLimit\“:20000000,\“targetBlockRate\“:2,\“minBaseFee\“:1000000000,\“targetGas\
“:100000000,\“baseFeeChangeDenominator\“:48,\“minBlockGasCost\“:0,\“maxBlockGasCost\
“:10000000,\“blockGasCostStep\“:500000}, AllowFeeRecipients: false, NetworkUpgrades: {\
“subnetEVMTimestamp\“:0}, PrecompileUpgrade: {}, UpgradeConfig: {\"precompileUpgrades\":[{\"feeManagerConfig\":{\"adminAddresses\":[\"0x8db97c7cece249c2b98bdc0226cc4c2a57bf52fc\"],\"enabledAddresses\":null,\"blockTimestamp\":1668950000}},{\"txAllowListConfig\":{\"adminAddresses\":[\"0x8db97c7cece249c2b98bdc0226cc4c2a57bf52fc\"],\"enabledAddresses\":null,\"blockTimestamp\":1668960000}},{\"feeManagerConfig\":{\"adminAddresses\":null,\"enabledAddresses\":null,\"blockTimestamp\":1668970000,\"disable\":true}}]}, Engine: Dummy Consensus Engine}"

Notice that precompileUpgrades entry correctly reflects the changes. You can also check the activated precompiles at a timestamp with the eth_getActivePrecompilesAt RPC method. The eth_getChainConfig RPC method will also return the configured upgrades in the response.

That's it, your Avalanche L1 is all set and the desired upgrades will be activated at the indicated timestamp!

Initial Precompile Configurations​

Precompiles can be managed by some privileged addresses to change their configurations and activate their effects. For example, the feeManagerConfig precompile can have adminAddresses which can change the fee structure of the network.

{
  "precompileUpgrades": [
    {
      "feeManagerConfig": {
        "blockTimestamp": 1668950000,
        "adminAddresses": ["0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

In this example, only the address 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC is allowed to change the fee structure of the network. The admin address has to call the precompile in order to activate its effect; that is it needs to send a transaction with a new fee config to perform the update. This is a very powerful feature, but it also gives a large amount of power to the admin address. If the address 0x8db97C7cEcE249c2b98bDC0226Cc4C2A57BF52FC is compromised, the network is compromised.

With the initial configurations, precompiles can immediately activate their effect on the activation timestamp. With this way admin addresses can be omitted from the precompile configuration. For example, the feeManagerConfig precompile can have initialFeeConfig to setup the fee configuration on the activation:

{
  "precompileUpgrades": [
    {
      "feeManagerConfig": {
        "blockTimestamp": 1668950000,
        "initialFeeConfig": {
          "gasLimit": 20000000,
          "targetBlockRate": 2,
          "minBaseFee": 1000000000,
          "targetGas": 100000000,
          "baseFeeChangeDenominator": 48,
          "minBlockGasCost": 0,
          "maxBlockGasCost": 10000000,
          "blockGasCostStep": 500000
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Notice that there is no adminAddresses field in the configuration. This means that there will be no admin addresses to manage the fee structure with this precompile. The precompile will simply update the fee configuration to the specified fee config when it activates on the blockTimestamp 1668950000.

See every precompile initial configuration in their relevant Initial Configuration sections under Precompiles.

AvalancheGo Chain Configs​

As described in this doc, each blockchain of Avalanche L1s can have its own custom configuration. If an Avalanche L1's ChainID is 2ebCneCbwthjQ1rYT41nhd7M76Hc6YmosMAQrTFhBq8qeqh6tt, the config file for this chain is located at {chain-config-dir}/2ebCneCbwthjQ1rYT41nhd7M76Hc6YmosMAQrTFhBq8qeqh6tt/config.json.

For blockchains created by or forked from Subnet-EVM, most C-Chain configs are applicable except Avalanche Specific APIs.

Priority Regossip​

A transaction is "regossiped" when the node does not find the transaction in a block after priority-regossip-frequency (defaults to 1m). By default, up to 16 transactions (max 1 per address) are regossiped to validators per minute.

Operators can use "priority regossip" to more aggressively "regossip" transactions for a set of important addresses (like bridge relayers). To do so, you'll need to update your chain config with the following:

{
  "priority-regossip-addresses": ["<YOUR 0x-ADDRESS>"]
}

By default, up to 32 transactions from priority addresses (max 16 per address) are regossipped to validators per second. You can override these defaults with the following config:

{
  "priority-regossip-frequency": "1s",
  "priority-regossip-max-txs": 32,
  "priority-regossip-addresses": ["<YOUR 0x-ADDRESS>"],
  "priority-regossip-txs-per-address": 16
}

Fee Recipient​

This works together with allowFeeRecipients and RewardManager precompile to specify where the fees should be sent to.

With allowFeeRecipients enabled, validators can specify their addresses to collect fees.

{
  "feeRecipient": "<YOUR 0x-ADDRESS>"
}

Network Upgrades: State Upgrades​

Subnet-EVM allows the network operators to specify a modification to state that will take place at the beginning of the first block with a timestamp greater than or equal to the one specified in the configuration.

This provides a last resort path to updating non-upgradeable contracts via a network upgrade (for example, to fix issues when you are running your own blockchain).

The timestamps for upgrades in stateUpgrades must be in increasing order. stateUpgrades can be specified along with precompileUpgrades or by itself.

The following three state modifications are supported:

• balanceChange: adds a specified amount to the balance of a given account. This amount can be specified as hex or decimal and must be positive.
• storage: modifies the specified storage slots to the specified values. Keys and values must be 32 bytes specified in hex, with a 0x prefix.
• code: modifies the code stored in the specified account. The code must only be the runtime portion of a code. The code must start with a 0x prefix.

The upgrades.json file shown below describes a network upgrade that will make the following state modifications at the first block after (or at) March 8, 2023 1:30:00 AM GMT:

• Sets the code for the account at 0x71562b71999873DB5b286dF957af199Ec94617F7,
• And adds 100 wei to the balance of the account at 0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268,
• Sets the storage slot 0x1234 to the value 0x6666 for the account at 0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268.

{
  "stateUpgrades": [
    {
      "blockTimestamp": 1678239000,
      "accounts": {
        "0x71562b71999873DB5b286dF957af199Ec94617F7": {
          "code": "0x6080604052348015600f57600080fd5b506004361060285760003560e01c80632e64cec114602d575b600080fd5b60336047565b604051603e91906067565b60405180910390f35b60008054905090565b6000819050919050565b6061816050565b82525050565b6000602082019050607a6000830184605a565b9291505056fea26469706673582212209421042a1fdabcfa2486fb80942da62c28e61fc8362a3f348c4a96a92bccc63c64736f6c63430008120033"
        },
        "0xb794f5ea0ba39494ce839613fffba74279579268": {
          "balanceChange": "0x64",
          "storage": {
            "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001234": "0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000006666"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Network Upgrades: Rescheduling Mandatory Network Upgrades​

A typical case when a network misses any mandatory activation would result in a network that is not able to operate. This is because validators/nodes running the old version would process transactions differently than nodes running the new version and end up different state. This would result in a fork in the network and new nodes would not be able to sync with the network. Normally this puts the chain in a halt and requires a hard fork to fix the issue. Starting with Subnet-EVM v0.6.3, you can reschedule mandatory activations like Durango via upgrade configs (upgrade.json in chain directory). This is a very advanced operation and should be done only if your network cannot operate going forward. The reschedule operation should be coordinated with your entire network nodes. Network upgrade overrides can be defined in the upgrade.json as follows:

{
  "networkUpgradeOverrides": {
    "{networkUpgrade1}": timestamp1,
    "{networkUpgrade2}": timestamp2,
  }
}

The timestamp should be a Unix timestamp in seconds.

For instance, if you missed the Durango activation in Fuji (February 13th, 2024, 16:00 UTC) or Mainnet (March 6th, 2024, 16:00 UTC) and having issues in your network, you can reschedule the Durango activation via upgrades. In order to do this, you need to prepare a new upgrade.json including following:

{
  "networkUpgradeOverrides": {
    "durangoTimestamp": 1712419200
  }
}

This reschedules the Durango activation to 2024-11-06 16:00:00 UTC (one month later than the actual activation). After preparing the upgrade.json, you need to update the chain directory with the new upgrade.json and restart your nodes. You should see logs similar to the following:

INFO [03-22|14:04:48.284] <fPypUHjNvJqBKXBx2LEoJ9u5b8rRxMtEhb4v2QEDQejEiTtMG Chain> github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/plugin/evm/vm.go:367: Applying network upgrade overrides overrides="{\"durangoTimestamp\":1712419200}"
...
INFO [03-22|14:04:48.288] <fPypUHjNvJqBKXBx2LEoJ9u5b8rRxMtEhb4v2QEDQejEiTtMG Chain> github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/core/blockchain.go:335: Avalanche Upgrades (timestamp based):
INFO [03-22|14:04:48.288] <fPypUHjNvJqBKXBx2LEoJ9u5b8rRxMtEhb4v2QEDQejEiTtMG Chain> github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/core/blockchain.go:335:  - SubnetEVM Timestamp:           @0          (https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego/releases/tag/v1.10.0)
INFO [03-22|14:04:48.288] <fPypUHjNvJqBKXBx2LEoJ9u5b8rRxMtEhb4v2QEDQejEiTtMG Chain> github.com/ava-labs/subnet-evm/core/blockchain.go:335:  - Durango Timestamp:            @1712419200 (https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanchego/releases/tag/v1.11.0)
...

This means your node is lock and loaded for the new Durango activation. After the new timestamp is reached, your node will activate Durango and start processing transactions with the new Durango features.