v0.27.8

Fixes live block-range catch-up reporting: eth_syncing now returns actual progress while the node catches up, and WebSocket syncing subscriptions receive the current status, progress changes and completion. HTTP and dedicated WebSocket listeners share the same state.

Progress uses validated canonical heights. startingBlock stays fixed for a catch-up session; highestBlock is the highest validated height observed in that session, because peers do not advertise network-wide tips. false means no active catch-up request and does not certify network health.

The existing signed two-node acceptance now checks sync reporting, independent canonical import and a follower process reopen. Historical contract-state, retained-state/body-pruning and gas-weighted fee-history regressions are also included.

Native archives include RocksDB persistence and libp2p networking for Linux x86_64 and macOS arm64. Use the matching V2 SDK (shell-sdk@0.14.0-rc.2) for V2 signed transactions. Downloading this release does not perform protocol activation or migrate a running network.

Verify downloads with the attached SHA256SUMS. Source changes: sync reporting, release metadata.