Aztec Labs — Aztec Core Contributor Report · Q1 2026

General
1

TL;DR

  • Shipped:
    • L1 Escape Hatch: a periodic alternative block-production path on L1 that anchors liveness guarantees to Ethereum and moves Aztec from Stage 0 to Stage 1 rollup maturity.
    • Multiple Blocks Per Slot: sequencers now build and publish multiple checkpoints during their slot. Improves latency of inclusion and time between L2 state updates.
    • Alpha upgrade payload and compatible node.
  • Landing next quarter: the v5 release — sub-24s p50 user-perceived latency through pipelined block building, optimistic proving, improved slashing, and constrained delivery.
  • One ask: Let’s finish off the protocol specs. Needs prioritization from Foundation.

What we shipped this quarter

  1. L1 Escape Hatch: moves Aztec from Stage 0 to Stage 1 by giving any bonded proposer a way to force transactions through L1 even under 100% committee censorship. Near-zero impact on normal block-production cost when not in use.
  2. Checkpoint architecture (multiple L2 blocks per slot): sequencers now publish “checkpoints” that batch multiple L2 blocks within a slot, with txs building on the state of preceding blocks. Cuts perceived latency by decoupling block cadence from L1 inclusion cadence; foundational for the v5 latency target.
  3. The Great Wallet Refactor — context-free NoteEmission API, owner enshrined in notes and state variables, new state-variable traits (Owned, SinglePrivateMutable, PublicImmutable with is_initialized public), wallet capabilities/scopes, full tx batchability. Reduces aztec-nr boilerplate and makes the wallet/SDK surface coherent for external builders.
  4. PXE restructuring — JobCoordinator for managing PXE work, reorg-resistant log sync with pagination and concurrent nullifier/tag searching, IndexedDB store cleared on schema-version change, AztecNode proxy methods removed from PXE, PXE JSON-RPC dropped.
  5. New aztec CLI + dockerless install — unified CLI replacing fragmented tooling, aztec-up installs without Docker via a native binary path, multi-version management, aztec profile with gate counts and flamegraphs, contract debug logs in tx output, auto-generated CLI reference docs. Removes the Docker dependency from first-touch onboarding.

Reconciliation — what we committed to last quarter

N/A — establishing baseline. Future reports will reconcile against the explicit Q2 commitments listed below.

What we’re shipping next quarter

v5 payload with compatible node and smart contract framework — by 2026-06-24

  • Why it matters for Aztec: First release with public, measurable latency and throughput targets; sets the yardstick for the path to Beta.
  • Definition of done: Internal sepolia network running at 2 TPS on the proposed chain for at least 5 days with ≤ 1 reorg on an internal Sepolia network; Testnet upgraded to the same version; Payload for the mainnet upgrade reviewed, published to Ethereum, and approved by AZUP process.

Pipelined block building — by 2026-06-24

Optimistic proving — by 2026-06-24

  • Why it matters for Aztec: Witness generation becomes the binding constraint above ~2 TPS; optimistic proving is the prerequisite for the 10 TPS roadmap.
  • Definition of done: Checkpoint sub-trees prove as soon as available on an internal network; resource-utilization improvement measured against the current prover-fleet baseline.

Slashing updates — by 2026-06-24

Constrained delivery — by 2026-06-24

  • Why it matters for Aztec: Today every note-delivery mode depends on sender cooperation; constrained delivery lets a contract force a sender to make notes available to their recipient. It is the only known mechanism gap blocking trustless private interactions.
  • Definition of done: Registry contract deployed and tested; key-management decisions landed and documented; constrained encryption proven in circuit; example token contract using constrained delivery; v5 backport PR passing CI.

OPFS/SQLite backend for PXE — by 2026-06-24

  • Why it matters for Aztec: IndexedDB has proven unreliable. Migration to SQLite (via OPFS) will improve robustness and performance of PXE, which directly affects UX.
  • Definition of done: Default backend for PXE is SQLite.

Governance can’t brick rollups — by 2026-06-24

Risks, dependencies, and asks

  • Risk - late AZIPs. Even “config only” changes should have a cut off date.
  • Dependency - address/keys redesign. Protocol changes need to land here ASAP to ensure safe inclusion to v5.
  • Ask - Protocol spec prioritization. It has been started, Labs has put cycles in. Needs focus from Foundation to finish.

Out of scope this quarter

  • No-setup partial notes — deferred to Q3+; no team is currently blocked.
  • Proactive wallet-sdk development — reactive only; all major teams now use wallet-sdk, improvements driven by incoming reports.
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