I haven’t figured it out yet.
That patch only changed the default checksum from md5 to sha256 in the proto files:
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proto: Change the default checksum from md5 to sha256 (aa3a1bc3) · Commits ·...
MD5 isn't a very good checksum, and the PKGBUILD page on the Arch Wiki states that it should not be used, instead recommending sha256 or b2. This patch changes the...