diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a326e7a..c487d22 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ Operators, you should copy/paste content of this content straight to your projec
 
 If you were at `firehose-core` version `1.0.0` and are bumping to `1.1.0`, you should copy the content between those 2 version to your own repository, replacing placeholder value `fire{chain}` with your chain's own binary.
 
+## v1.6.8
+
+* Substreams: add `--substreams-tier1-enforce-compression` to reject connections from clients that do not support GZIP compression
+* Substreams performance: reduced the number of `mallocs` (patching some third-party libraries)
+* Substreams performance: removed heavy tracing (that wasn't exposed to the client)
+* Fixed `reader-node-line-buffer-size` flag that was not being respected in `reader-node-stdin` app
+* Well-known chains: change genesis block for near-mainnet from 9820214 to 9820210
+* BlockPoller library: reworked logic to support more flexible balancing strategy
+
 ## v1.6.7
 
 * `firehose-grpc-listen-addr` and `substreams-tier1-grpc-listen-addr` flags now accepts comma-separated addresses (allows listening as plaintext and snakeoil-ssl at the same time or on specific ip addresses)
diff --git a/cmd/apps/substreams_tier1.go b/cmd/apps/substreams_tier1.go
index 848a61c..abe60d2 100644
--- a/cmd/apps/substreams_tier1.go
+++ b/cmd/apps/substreams_tier1.go
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ func RegisterSubstreamsTier1App[B firecore.Block](chain *firecore.Chain[B], root
 			cmd.Flags().String("substreams-tier1-discovery-service-url", "", "URL to configure the grpc discovery service, used for communication with tier2") //traffic-director://xds?vpc_network=vpc-global&use_xds_reds=true
 			cmd.Flags().Bool("substreams-tier1-subrequests-insecure", false, "Connect to tier2 without checking certificate validity")
 			cmd.Flags().Bool("substreams-tier1-subrequests-plaintext", true, "Connect to tier2 without client in plaintext mode")
+			cmd.Flags().Bool("substreams-tier1-enforce-compression", true, "Reject any request that does not accept gzip encoding in their GRPC/Connect header")
 			cmd.Flags().Int("substreams-tier1-max-subrequests", 4, "number of parallel subrequests that the tier1 can make to the tier2 per request")
 			cmd.Flags().String("substreams-tier1-block-type", "", "Block type to use for the substreams tier1 (Ex: sf.ethereum.type.v2.Block)")
 
@@ -127,7 +128,8 @@ func RegisterSubstreamsTier1App[B firecore.Block](chain *firecore.Chain[B], root
 
 			return app.NewTier1(appLogger,
 				&app.Tier1Config{
-					MeteringConfig: GetCommonMeteringPluginValue(),
+					MeteringConfig:     GetCommonMeteringPluginValue(),
+					EnforceCompression: viper.GetBool("substreams-tier1-enforce-compression"),
 
 					MergedBlocksStoreURL: mergedBlocksStoreURL,
 					OneBlocksStoreURL:    oneBlocksStoreURL,
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 5e3761a..782beb9 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/streamingfast/payment-gateway v0.0.0-20240426151444-581e930c76e2
 	github.com/streamingfast/pbgo v0.0.6-0.20240823134334-812f6a16c5cb
 	github.com/streamingfast/snapshotter v0.0.0-20230316190750-5bcadfde44d0
-	github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.2-0.20241202193558-30d991758e7c
+	github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.3
 	github.com/stretchr/testify v1.9.0
 	github.com/test-go/testify v1.1.4
 	go.uber.org/multierr v1.10.0
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 341f45b..639c95b 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -2172,8 +2172,8 @@ github.com/streamingfast/shutter v1.5.0 h1:NpzDYzj0HVpSiDJVO/FFSL6QIK/YKOxY0gJAt
 github.com/streamingfast/shutter v1.5.0/go.mod h1:B/T6efqdeMGbGwjzPS1ToXzYZI4kDzI5/u4I+7qbjY8=
 github.com/streamingfast/snapshotter v0.0.0-20230316190750-5bcadfde44d0 h1:Y15G1Z4fpEdm2b+/70owI7TLuXadlqBtGM7rk4Hxrzk=
 github.com/streamingfast/snapshotter v0.0.0-20230316190750-5bcadfde44d0/go.mod h1:/Rnz2TJvaShjUct0scZ9kKV2Jr9/+KBAoWy4UMYxgv4=
-github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.2-0.20241202193558-30d991758e7c h1:nMc8fGRXc97t4vBsNMCDGQrG1o9nc5Yf+LO+Dc4orcA=
-github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.2-0.20241202193558-30d991758e7c/go.mod h1:6qjmyNq0INxC/3EXF4M2QEf1Su7X8Lq2FCKfGIFXupU=
+github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.3 h1:enNRo1M67Pzkx1vzGWj+M2birgZvC3n46mUcbdUeLQA=
+github.com/streamingfast/substreams v1.11.3/go.mod h1:6qjmyNq0INxC/3EXF4M2QEf1Su7X8Lq2FCKfGIFXupU=
 github.com/streamingfast/wazero v0.0.0-20241202185309-91287c3640ed h1:LU6/c376zP1cMAo9L6rFLyjo0W7RU+hIh7BegH8Zo5M=
 github.com/streamingfast/wazero v0.0.0-20241202185309-91287c3640ed/go.mod h1:yAI0XTsMBhREkM/YDAK/zNou3GoiAce1P6+rp/wQhjs=
 github.com/stretchr/objx v0.1.0/go.mod h1:HFkY916IF+rwdDfMAkV7OtwuqBVzrE8GR6GFx+wExME=