v0.8.1

Which download do I need?

Two of them, and you only ever need one.

I want to…	Download
Run a node or validator (server, headless, no desktop)	helix-cli-… for your platform — unpack it and run helix start. No installer, no dependencies.
Use the wallet on my desktop (send, stake, explorer, run a node from the UI)	helix-gui-… for your platform. The wallet already contains the node — you do not need the CLI as well.

Which wallet installer?

• Linux — .AppImage runs anywhere without installing (make it executable and start it) · .deb for Debian/Ubuntu · .rpm for Fedora/RHEL
• macOS — .dmg (Apple Silicon)
• Windows — .exe is the normal installer · .msi is for managed/automated rollout

Running a validator?

Start the node first, confirm peer_count is above zero, and only then send the stake
transaction — see the founding-validator checklist in the
README. Staking before your node is connected
gets it jailed for downtime.

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What's in v0.8.1

validators are no longer jailed for the wait the protocol imposes

A validator serving the one-epoch activation delay was scored for downtime
and jailed after 150 blocks, before the rotation that would have activated
it ever arrived. Since jailing also cost it its accrued wait, whether a new
validator could join at all came down to where in the 100-block epoch it
happened to stake. Found live, three identical cycles, never once active.

Also: the epoch rotation moved into block execution, so a node catching up
over RPC no longer computes different state from the same blocks; a slashed
double-signer leaves the scored set at once instead of collecting a downtime
jail on top of its slash; and a node now warns when its sync peer runs a
different version.

Upgrading from 0.8.0 is a restart, not a reset — genesis reconstruction is
unchanged. But it is not mix-and-match: a node left on 0.8.0 jails a waiting
validator that 0.8.1 considers fine and stalls block production. Move every
node on a shared chain together.

Full Changelog: v0.8.0...v0.8.1