- Version 22.10.0 will require Java 17 to build and run.
- Flexible Privacy Groups (early access) support to Tessera's EC encryptor (contracts modified) [#4282](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4282)
* Before this change, the `bytes32` type was used for the enclave public keys, just supporting encryptors with public keys of that length (like the default NaCl)
* For the EC encryptor, the encoded public key length is 91
- `--tx-pool-hashes-max-size` option removed (deprecated in 22.1.3)
- `--Xmerge-support` option remove (deprecated in 22.4.2) [#4518](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4518)
- Breaking API changes in the `OperationTracer` interface to enable performance work.
* The `traceExecution` method has been replaced with `tracePreExecution` and `tracePostExecution` methods, called just before and just after operation execution.
* See `DebugOperationTracer` and `StandardJsonTracer` for migration examples.
### Additions and Improvements
- Updated jackson-databind library to version 2.13.4.2 addressing [CVE-2022-42003](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-42003)
- Update snapsync feature to avoid restarting the download of the world state from scratch when restarting Besu [#4381](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4381)
- Added worldstate snapshot isolation to improve the stability of bonsai (`--Xbonsai-use-snapshots=true`) [#4351](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4531)
- Reduce the number of runtime exceptions (SecurityModuleException) and unnecessary executions during ECIES handshake, by trying to decrypt EIP-8 formatted messages first [#4508](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4508).
- Improved RLP processing of zero-length string as 0x80 [#4283](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4283) [#4388](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/issues/4388)
- Increased level of detail in JSON-RPC parameter error log messages [#4510](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4510)
- New unstable configuration options to set the maximum time, in milliseconds, a PoS block creation jobs is allowed to run [#4519](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4519)
- Tune EthScheduler thread pools to avoid recreating too many threads [#4529](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4529)
- RocksDB snapshot based worldstate and plugin-api addition of Snapshot interfaces [#4409](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4409)
- Continuously try to build better block proposals until timeout or GetPayload is called [#4516](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4516)
- Upgrade RocksDB database version from 6.29.5 to 7.6.0 [#4517](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4517)
- Avoid connecting to self when using static-nodes [#4521](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4521)
- EVM performance has increased 20%-100% depending on the particulars of the contract. [#4540](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4540)
- Improve calculateRootHash method performance during Block processing [#4568](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4568)
- Bring GraphQL into compliance with execution-api specs [#4112](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4112)
- Improve UX of initial sync logs, pushing not relevant logs to debug level [#4486](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4486)
- Optimize pivot block selector on PoS networks [#4488](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4488)
- Optimize Snap sync on PoS networks [#4462](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4462)
### Bug Fixes
- Fixed default fromBlock value and improved parameter interpretation in eth_getLogs RPC handler [#4513](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4513)
- Fix for NoSuchElementException for missing invalid reason when rejecting a local sent transaction [#4569](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4569)
- Fix for NoSuchElementException for missing invalid reason when rejecting a local sent transaction [#4569](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4569)
- Corrects treating a block as bad on internal error during either validation or processing [#4512](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/issues/4512)
- Corrects emission of blockadded events when rewinding during a re-org. Fix for [#4495](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/issues/4495)
- Always return a transaction type for pending transactions [#4364](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4364)
- Avoid a cyclic reference while printing EngineExchangeTransitionConfigurationParameter [#4357](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4357)
- Corrects treating a block as bad on internal error [#4512](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/issues/4512)
- In GraphQL update scalar parsing to be variable friendly [#4522](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4522)
- Initiate connection to maintained peers soon after startup. [#4469](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4469)
- Update apache-commons-text to 1.10.0 to address CVE-2022-42889 [#4542](https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/pull/4542)