Cardano Rolls out Major Node Update in Anticipation of Chang 2: Details
2024-10-31

Chang 2, the second controlled Chang hard fork is anticipated to complete the metamorphosis of Cardano to the age of Voltaire. 
The current roadmap saw a prerelease of Cardano node v10 for testing. In line with ongoing preparations for the Chang 2 hard fork, Cardano Node 10.1.1 has just been released.
The process to enact the Chang upgrade is expected to begin in November, ushering in a critical phase for Cardano’s governance evolution. Chang #2 requires five governance actions to be successfully enacted on-chain. 
Cardano node 10.1.1 release published and approved for mainnet usage! This is the version for HF to Chang#2. Please make sure to get your nodes updated, especially on preview which we plan on forking later this week. Details here: https://t.co/O8U0Uucrk8
In this bootstrap phase of governance, the ICC (Interim Constitution Committee) and SPOs (stake pool operators) will be required to vote accordingly. DReps do not vote during the hard fork process; they only become part of governance after Chang #2 has been enacted.
While governance is in bootstrap mode, the decision to upgrade will be made when Cardano's stake pool operators (SPOs) meet the required threshold, and the Interim Constitution Committee (ICC) votes "yes."
Should the community ratify the hard fork, the upgrade will be enacted five days later (one epoch), bringing on Cardano's final governance features as defined by CIP-1694.
About node 10.1.1
The new Cardano Node 10.1.1 is a mainnet release of the Cardano node that is capable of crossing the Chang 2 hard fork.
According to GitHub documentation, the Node version includes several improvements to the governance system, including support for SPO delegation to predefined voting options and auto-abstain DRep votes, supplanting abstaining via rewards address delegation. It also enables new Plutus primitives specified in CIP-0122, CIP-0123 and CIP-0127.
The update also includes some other improvements to the ledger, CLI, API and networking code bases.