The Alsephina Release

Later today (2/02/22, ~05:00-07:00 UTC), the Alsephina release will begin. There will not be any downtime on L1 or L2 during this release. Here's what’s included in this release:

• SIP-184: Dynamic Exchange Fees: Add a dynamic fee in addition to base exchange fees that responds to and neutralizes oracle frontrunning opportunities.
• SIP-193: Refactor SystemSettings into Library to reduce contract size: Refactor and deploy a new library for SystemSettings to reduce contract size.
• SIP-196: Remove Centralized Oracle: Removes all centralized oracle code from Synthetix contracts and testing.

SIP-184 introduces a fee system that dynamically responds to market conditions obviating the need to levy a base exchange fee that is sufficiently punitive to neutralize every possible exploitable environment. With such a mechanism in place, base exchange fees can be safely lowered significantly and the overall cost of trade execution on Synthetix can be drastically reduced.

SIP-193 and SIP-196 refactor and remove outdated code from the Synthetix codebase and also simplify the implementation of SIP-184. SIP-193 refactors the SystemSettings library to reduce the contract size. SIP-196 removes all centralized oracle code from Synthetix contracts, which no longer rely on centralized oracles and instead utilize fully decentralized and trustless feeds from Chainlink.

Alsephina Release Smart Contract Audit (by Iosiro) - https://iosiro.com/audits/synthetix-alsephina-release-smart-contract-audit

This release is called Alsephina, which like all releases, is named after a star (in order of visual magnitude). If you've got any comments or questions about the release, please join the conversation in Discord.