Clarification needed: 2.8.0-rc.1 vs stable release

[553589912]

Hi,

From the release notes, we understand that protocol version 80 voting will start on Tuesday, 2025-09-09 14:00:00 UTC, and that validators must upgrade before this time in order to continue participating in consensus.

Does this mean that if we do not upgrade before the deadline, our node will stop producing blocks once the protocol upgrade takes effect (expected around Sept 10)?

If upgrading is indeed mandatory, why is the only available version marked as a release candidate (2.8.0-rc.1) instead of a stable release? Should we proceed with upgrading to this RC version now, or wait for a stable 2.8.0 release?

Thanks for clarifying.