diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4126529df..222dccd78 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,11 +9,13 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## v1.0.0-rc.1
+
 ### Added
 
 - Implement forced inclusion and based sequencing ([#2797](https://github.com/evstack/ev-node/pull/2797))
-  This changes requires to add a `da_epoch_forced_inclusion` field in `genesis.json` file.
-  To enable this feature, set the force inclusion namespace in the `evnode.yaml`.
+  **This change requires to add a `da_epoch_forced_inclusion` field in node's `genesis.json` file.**
+  To enable this feature, set the force inclusion namespace in the `evnode.yaml` (enableable from rc.2).
 - Added `post-tx` command and force inclusion server to submit transaction directly to the DA layer. ([#2888](https://github.com/evstack/ev-node/pull/2888))
   Additionally, modified the core package to support marking transactions as forced included transactions.
   The execution client ought to perform basic validation on those transactions as they have skipped the execution client's mempool.
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 1b9060afd..79d79f74e 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/celestiaorg/go-square/v3 v3.0.2
 	github.com/celestiaorg/nmt v0.24.2
 	github.com/celestiaorg/utils v0.1.0
-	github.com/evstack/ev-node/core v1.0.0-beta.5
+	github.com/evstack/ev-node/core v1.0.0-rc.1
 	github.com/filecoin-project/go-jsonrpc v0.10.0
 	github.com/go-kit/kit v0.13.0
 	github.com/goccy/go-yaml v1.19.0
@@ -186,8 +186,6 @@ require (
 	lukechampine.com/blake3 v1.4.1 // indirect
 )
 
-replace github.com/evstack/ev-node/core => ./core
-
 // pin google genproto to a single version to avoid ambiguous imports pulled by transitive deps
 replace (
 	google.golang.org/genproto => google.golang.org/genproto v0.0.0-20240213162025-012b6fc9bca9
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index e06fe277b..89da33254 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -365,6 +365,8 @@ github.com/envoyproxy/protoc-gen-validate v0.10.0/go.mod h1:DRjgyB0I43LtJapqN6Ni
 github.com/envoyproxy/protoc-gen-validate v0.10.1/go.mod h1:DRjgyB0I43LtJapqN6NiRwroiAU2PaFuvk/vjgh61ss=
 github.com/envoyproxy/protoc-gen-validate v1.0.1/go.mod h1:0vj8bNkYbSTNS2PIyH87KZaeN4x9zpL9Qt8fQC7d+vs=
 github.com/envoyproxy/protoc-gen-validate v1.0.2/go.mod h1:GpiZQP3dDbg4JouG/NNS7QWXpgx6x8QiMKdmN72jogE=
+github.com/evstack/ev-node/core v1.0.0-rc.1 h1:Dic2PMUMAYUl5JW6DkDj6HXDEWYzorVJQuuUJOV0FjE=
+github.com/evstack/ev-node/core v1.0.0-rc.1/go.mod h1:n2w/LhYQTPsi48m6lMj16YiIqsaQw6gxwjyJvR+B3sY=
 github.com/fatih/color v1.10.0/go.mod h1:ELkj/draVOlAH/xkhN6mQ50Qd0MPOk5AAr3maGEBuJM=
 github.com/fatih/color v1.13.0/go.mod h1:kLAiJbzzSOZDVNGyDpeOxJ47H46qBXwg5ILebYFFOfk=
 github.com/fatih/color v1.15.0 h1:kOqh6YHBtK8aywxGerMG2Eq3H6Qgoqeo13Bk2Mv/nBs=