During December 2024, Mbee upgraded the HotShot dependency from version 0.5.81 to 0.5.82 in the EspressoSystems/espresso-sequencer repository, focusing on maintaining compatibility and build stability. The work involved careful dependency management using Cargo, with updates to both Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock to ensure reproducible builds and prevent dependency drift. Mbee also performed a minor refactor in the example initialization code to align with the new HotShot version, preserving backward compatibility for downstream crates. This targeted feature work, implemented in Rust, supported ongoing platform upgrades and reduced the risk of build-time issues, reflecting a focused and methodical engineering approach.