The recent V0.6.16 and V0.6.17 releases of the DFINITY Canister SDK, both of which are available for download but have not been promoted to the latest publicly-available version, include a change to the encoding used to generate principals. This change enhances security and interoperability and supports future features of the Internet Computer but will result in several short-term impacts to developers. Please read the following carefully:
- For developers who use
DFX_VERSIONto access new versions ofdfxthat have not yet been promoted to “latest,” please refrain from doing so forV0.6.16orV0.6.17. If you install either of these versions, you will not be able to deploy to the Internet Computer network. Both versions can be used for local development, but you will need to rebuild your canisters. - With this change, you will lose access to the wallet canisters that were created for your old principal ID on the
icnetwork. Because wallets are not currently required to make calls or deploy canisters to theicnetwork, this change should not affect your ability to continue developing, deploying, and testing canisters locally or on theicnetwork. - You can still deploy to the network without a wallet canister and using the current publicly-available version of the SDK (
V0.6.14) by following the steps in the Network Quick Start.
We will reach out to all of those previously onboarded through the Tungsten and Sodium processes at the beginning of January to advise you on how to obtain your new principal ID, and to provide additional information about changes to the use of wallets. Please note that if you submitted your information through the Sodium onboarding form recently and have not heard back from us, it is due to these recent changes and you will be informed as well in January.
For technical issues or questions related to this change, email support@dfinity.org.