Tezos Activates the Quebec Upgrade, Bringing Faster Transactions, Enhanced Staking Mechanics, and a Step Closer to Tezos X

Quebec activates a number of features designed to improve the overall experience of using, running and building on Tezos.

The Quebec protocol upgrade for the Tezos blockchain has been successfully activated, introducing a range of features designed to enhance usability, performance, and staking mechanics.

Announced on January 22, the upgrade also includes key performance improvements that contribute to fulfilling the vision laid out in the Tezos X roadmap, which outlines a unified vision for the future of the Tezos network and ecosystem.

As a pioneering blockchain with self-amending capabilities and a community-driven, on-chain governance system, Quebec introduces several enhancements to further optimize Tezos for builders, institutions, and businesses of all sizes.

Most notably, layer 1 block time has been reduced from 10 seconds to just 8 seconds, making transactions on the network faster than ever. This achieves finality in 16 seconds — rendering Tezos an ideal solution for use cases such as payments, gaming, and more.

Despite these performance improvements, there has been no change to the hardware requirements for taking part in Tezos consensus. This ensures that bakers (validators) operating affordable, lower-end infrastructure can continue to participate in Tezos consensus, preserving community-inclusive decentralization as Tezos evolves.

Commenting on the upgrade, Yann Régis-Gianas, Head of Engineering at Nomadic Labs, said, “With the Quebec upgrade, Tezos has become faster, economically stronger, and more attractive for staking – all without compromising on decentralization. It’s a remarkable achievement by the protocol developers and a significant step toward realizing the vision of Tezos X.”

He added, “The Quebec upgrade shows Tezos’ ability to evolve through decentralized governance, and with broad stakeholder involvement. I particularly valued the in-depth community conversations on tokenomics and how to keep inflation strictly tied to the chain’s long-term security.”

The Quebec upgrade also introduces adjustments to Tezos’ staking mechanics, which are aimed at minimizing inflation of the native currency, tez, while maintaining network security.

The Adaptive Issuance mechanism, which was previously introduced in the Paris protocol upgrade, is designed to keep staking rewards just high enough to incentivize a secure network while avoiding excessive tez issuance. The Quebec protocol upgrade refines this mechanism, addressing some scenarios where issuance could become higher than what is justified by security needs.

Following consultations with bakers and the community at large, the Quebec upgrade also raises the limit on how much external stake a baker can accept, from 5x to 9x the baker’s own stake. This can benefit network security, as it makes baking more attractive and staking more accessible, while continuing to limit centralization risks.

To further incentivize staking, Quebec also reduces the weight of delegated funds, which contribute less to network security. As a result, staking now yields 3x the rewards versus delegation, instead of the previous 2x.

The successful implementation of Quebec is a further step towards Tezos X and a clear illustration of both Tezos’ long-term upgradability and of the commitment to persistent innovation demonstrated by community and developer teams across the Tezos ecosystem.

The announcement comes during a busy period for the Tezos ecosystem, following the recent launch of the uranium.io marketplace on Etherlink, the EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain powered by Tezos Smart Rollups.

Purpose-built to eliminate barriers to an asset class that is powering the AI revolution and which has, until now, only been accessible to institutional investors, the launch of uranium.io comes at a time of renewed interest in real world asset (RWA) tokenization, which is emerging as a growth-driver for the blockchain sector.

About Tezos

Tezos is an open-source and energy-efficient blockchain designed to empower institutions, developers, and businesses and facilitate value transfer in a digital environment. It is designed for the scalable deployment of decentralized applications.

As one of the first Proof of Stake blockchains, Tezos is globally supported and valued for its strong governance, long-term upgradability, and smart contract capabilities. For more information about Tezos, visit http://www.tezos.com.