Steroid 4.0 — Next-Generation Core Reaches First Major Milestones
Steroid 4.0's new core is producing blocks in our development environment. Key milestones reached: fair leader selection, existing wallet addresses preserved, and current integrations kept working.
Steroid 4.0 is the next-generation chain purpose-built for planet-scale retail payments — instant finality, high throughput, and full feature parity with everything the network runs today. Development is well underway, and we've passed a set of milestones worth sharing with the community.
Where We Are
The new chain is producing blocks
The core of Steroid 4.0 is now running in our development environment, producing and finalising blocks. This is the first time the new chain has been stood up end-to-end — from genesis through live block production. It is not yet on mainnet, but the foundation is solid and working.
Cryptographically fair leader selection
One of the most important decisions in building Steroid 4.0 was how to choose which masternode proposes each block. The new chain uses a verifiable random function — a cryptographic tool that makes the selection unpredictable and tamper-proof, while still being publicly verifiable. No participant can predict or influence who produces the next block. Everyday transactions on the network feed the randomness source, so the selection process is continuously renewed by real activity.
Your existing wallet address carries over
Every Steroid wallet address in use today will carry over to the new chain unchanged. No re-registration, no new addresses, no disruption. The new chain uses the same address format the network has always used, derived the same way — continuity is by design, not an afterthought.
Existing wallets and integrations keep working
BeepWallet, merchant integrations, block explorers, and the PHP SDK will all continue to work through the migration without any changes on their end. The new chain includes a full compatibility layer that mirrors the existing API surface — the same requests, the same responses, the same behaviour. The switch to the new core will be invisible to end users and integrators.
What Is Coming Next
The next phase of development focuses on the economic model — staking rewards, masternode bond parameters, and the emission schedule — followed by the migration tooling that will carry all balances, masternodes, governance history, and aliases from the live chain into the new genesis. All existing balances are preserved, balance for balance, before the switch is flipped.
We will continue to share progress as each milestone is reached. The live chain remains fully operational throughout — nothing changes for users or operators until cutover is authorised and confirmed.
Questions about Steroid 4.0 or the migration timeline? Reach out to our team.