* We will be upgrading from chain-id "kava-6" to chain-id "kava-7". This is to keep the features in our roadmap aligned with the features on mainnet going forward.
* The version of Kava for kava-7 is v0.14.1
* Kava-6 validators should prepare to shutdown their nodes April 8th, 2021 at 13:00 UTC by setting `--halt-time` to `1617886800`
* kava-7 genesis time is set to April 8th, 2021 at 15:00 UTC
* The version of cosmos-sdk for kava-7 is v0.39.2
* The version of tendermint for kava-7 v0.33.9
* The minimum version of golang for kava-7 is 1.13+, 1.15+ has been tested and is recommended.
As a validator, performing the upgrade procedure on your consensus nodes carries a heightened risk of double-signing and being slashed. The most important piece of this procedure is verifying your software version and genesis file hash before starting your validator and signing.
The riskiest thing a validator can do is discover that they made a mistake and repeat the upgrade procedure again during the network startup. If you discover a mistake in the process, the best thing to do is wait for the network to start before correcting it. If the network is halted and you have started with a different genesis file than the expected one, seek advice from a Kava developer before resetting your validator.
Prior to exporting kava-6 state, validators are encouraged to take a full data snapshot at the export height before proceeding. Snap-shotting depends heavily on infrastructure, but generally this can be done by backing up the .kvd and .kvcli directories.
It is critically important to back-up the .kvd/data/priv_validator_state.json file after stopping your kvd process. This file is updated every block as your validator participates in consensus rounds. It is a critical file needed to prevent double-signing, in case the upgrade fails and the previous chain needs to be restarted.
In the event that the upgrade does not succeed, validators and operators must downgrade back to v0.12.4 of the Kava software and restore to their latest snapshot before restarting their nodes.
__The kava chain is expected to halt at 13:00 UTC, and restart with new software at 15:00 UTC April 8th. Do not stop your node and begin the upgrade before 13:00UTC on April 8th, or you may go offline and be unable to recover until after the upgrade!__
Kava developers will update this PR with the final block number when it is reached. __Make sure the kvd process is stopped before proceeding and that you have backed up your validator__. Failure to backup your validator could make it impossible to restart your node if the upgrade fails.
If the kava-7 chain does not launch by April 8, 2021 at 17:00 UTC, the launch should be considered a failure and validators should refer to the [rollback](./rollback.md) instructions to restart the previous kava-6 chain. In the event of launch failure, coordination will occur in the [Kava discord](https://discord.com/invite/kQzh3Uv).