diff --git a/HISTORY.md b/HISTORY.md
index 035daa2a83..e8bd7e541a 100644
--- a/HISTORY.md
+++ b/HISTORY.md
@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
 # Release History - open AEA
 
+
+## 1.17.0
+
+AEA:
+- Updates the deploy image Dockerfile to use Python 3.10
+- Updates the deploy image Dockerfile to utilize remote registry when fetching components
+- Improves handling for variables with potential none values
+
+Chore:
+- Bumps `mistune` to a secure version
+- Bumps `protobuf` dependencies to address `dependabot` security warning
+- Improves command regex on `scripts/check_doc_ipfs_hashes.py`
+- Updates `tox` definitions and `Makefile` targets to align with the latest changes
+
 ## 1.16.0 (2022-08-18)
 
 AEA:
diff --git a/SECURITY.md b/SECURITY.md
index 598c17438d..97ec38f2be 100644
--- a/SECURITY.md
+++ b/SECURITY.md
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ The following table shows which versions of `open-aea` are currently being suppo
 
 | Version   | Supported          |
 | --------- | ------------------ |
-| `1.16.x`   | :white_check_mark: |
-| `< 1.16.0` | :x:                |
+| `1.17.x`   | :white_check_mark: |
+| `< 1.17.0` | :x:                |
 
 ## Reporting a Vulnerability
 
diff --git a/aea/__version__.py b/aea/__version__.py
index b8f101426d..176e41b95d 100644
--- a/aea/__version__.py
+++ b/aea/__version__.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 __title__ = "open-aea"
 __description__ = "Open Autonomous Economic Agent framework (without vendor lock-in)"
 __url__ = "https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea.git"
-__version__ = "1.16.0"
+__version__ = "1.17.0"
 __author__ = "Valory AG"
 __license__ = "Apache-2.0"
 __copyright__ = "2021 Valory AG, 2019 Fetch.AI Limited"
diff --git a/deploy-image/Dockerfile b/deploy-image/Dockerfile
index 58b312f021..3bd908a197 100644
--- a/deploy-image/Dockerfile
+++ b/deploy-image/Dockerfile
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache go
 
 # aea installation
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall open-aea[all]==1.16.0 "open-aea-cli-ipfs<2.0.0,>=1.16.0"
+RUN pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall open-aea[all]==1.17.0 "open-aea-cli-ipfs<2.0.0,>=1.17.0"
 
 # directories and aea cli config
 WORKDIR /home/agents
diff --git a/deploy-image/README.md b/deploy-image/README.md
index 3e802c08d0..2d54eb2ea0 100644
--- a/deploy-image/README.md
+++ b/deploy-image/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The example uses the `fetchai/my_first_aea` project. You will likely want to mod
 Install subversion, then download the example directory to your local working directory
 
 ``` bash
-svn checkout https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/tags/v1.16.0/packages packages
+svn checkout https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/tags/v1.17.0/packages packages
 ```
 
 ### Modify scripts
diff --git a/develop-image/docker-env.sh b/develop-image/docker-env.sh
index 25a2a5ccf7..8e8933299d 100755
--- a/develop-image/docker-env.sh
+++ b/develop-image/docker-env.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 # Swap the following lines if you want to work with 'latest'
-DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-develop:1.16.0
+DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-develop:1.17.0
 # DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-develop:latest
 
 DOCKER_BUILD_CONTEXT_DIR=..
diff --git a/docs/upgrading.md b/docs/upgrading.md
index b920cd4900..d9212f9e9c 100644
--- a/docs/upgrading.md
+++ b/docs/upgrading.md
@@ -7,11 +7,16 @@ Below we describe the additional manual steps required to upgrade between differ
 
 # Open AEA
 
+## `v1.16.0` to `v1.17.0`
+
+No backwards incompatible changes.
+
+Plugins from previous versions are not compatible anymore.
+
 ## `v1.15.0` to `v1.16.0`
 
-No backwards incompatible changes, except a typo change:
-`from aea.helpers.dependency_tree import DependencyTree`
-rather than `from aea.helpers.dependency_tree import DependecyTree`.
+- A typo change, now import `from aea.helpers.dependency_tree import DependencyTree` rather than `from aea.helpers.dependency_tree import DependecyTree`.
+- The global configuration file for the `aea` CLI has a breaking change. Please remove `~/.aea/cli_config.yaml` and rerun `autonomy init --remote`.
 
 Plugins from previous versions are not compatible anymore.
 
diff --git a/examples/tac_deploy/Dockerfile b/examples/tac_deploy/Dockerfile
index edae8f5dad..460bc3e2e0 100644
--- a/examples/tac_deploy/Dockerfile
+++ b/examples/tac_deploy/Dockerfile
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache go
 
 # aea installation
 RUN python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-RUN pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall aea[all]==1.16.0
+RUN pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall aea[all]==1.17.0
 
 # directories and aea cli config
 COPY /.aea /home/.aea
diff --git a/plugins/aea-cli-benchmark/setup.py b/plugins/aea-cli-benchmark/setup.py
index ccd1551cb7..4b3cd47486 100755
--- a/plugins/aea-cli-benchmark/setup.py
+++ b/plugins/aea-cli-benchmark/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="open-aea-cli-benchmark",
-    version="1.16.0",
+    version="1.17.0",
     author="Valory AG",
     license="Apache-2.0",
     description="CLI extension for AEA framework benchmarking.",
diff --git a/plugins/aea-cli-ipfs/setup.py b/plugins/aea-cli-ipfs/setup.py
index 04616246e2..102e64300c 100755
--- a/plugins/aea-cli-ipfs/setup.py
+++ b/plugins/aea-cli-ipfs/setup.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="open-aea-cli-ipfs",
-    version="1.16.0",
+    version="1.17.0",
     author="Valory AG",
     license="Apache-2.0",
     description="CLI extension for open AEA framework wrapping IPFS functionality.",
diff --git a/plugins/aea-ledger-cosmos/setup.py b/plugins/aea-ledger-cosmos/setup.py
index ab291b93e5..636d37c009 100644
--- a/plugins/aea-ledger-cosmos/setup.py
+++ b/plugins/aea-ledger-cosmos/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="open-aea-ledger-cosmos",
-    version="1.16.0",
+    version="1.17.0",
     author="Valory AG",
     license="Apache-2.0",
     description="Python package wrapping the public and private key cryptography and ledger api of Cosmos.",
diff --git a/plugins/aea-ledger-ethereum/setup.py b/plugins/aea-ledger-ethereum/setup.py
index d703d8241c..e2ce7a0091 100644
--- a/plugins/aea-ledger-ethereum/setup.py
+++ b/plugins/aea-ledger-ethereum/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="open-aea-ledger-ethereum",
-    version="1.16.0",
+    version="1.17.0",
     author="Valory AG",
     license="Apache-2.0",
     description="Python package wrapping the public and private key cryptography and ledger api of Ethereum.",
diff --git a/plugins/aea-ledger-fetchai/setup.py b/plugins/aea-ledger-fetchai/setup.py
index 9e1619b9f2..07ebc7af27 100644
--- a/plugins/aea-ledger-fetchai/setup.py
+++ b/plugins/aea-ledger-fetchai/setup.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 
 setup(
     name="open-aea-ledger-fetchai",
-    version="1.16.0",
+    version="1.17.0",
     author="Valory AG",
     license="Apache-2.0",
     description="Python package wrapping the public and private key cryptography and ledger API of Fetch.AI.",
diff --git a/scripts/install.ps1 b/scripts/install.ps1
index 4cbc98c5dc..2ddc4476f7 100644
--- a/scripts/install.ps1
+++ b/scripts/install.ps1
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ function instal_choco_golang_gcc {
 }
 function install_aea {
 	echo "Install aea"
-    $output=pip install open-aea[all]==1.16.0 --force --no-cache-dir 2>&1 |out-string;
+    $output=pip install open-aea[all]==1.17.0 --force --no-cache-dir 2>&1 |out-string;
     if ($LastExitCode -ne 0) {
         echo $output
         echo "AEA install failed!"
diff --git a/scripts/install.sh b/scripts/install.sh
index 586be8c9ba..98a5aefab0 100755
--- a/scripts/install.sh
+++ b/scripts/install.sh
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ function is_python_version_ok() {
 
 function install_aea (){
 	echo "Install AEA"
-	output=$(pip3 install --user open-aea[all]==1.16.0 --force --no-cache-dir)
+	output=$(pip3 install --user open-aea[all]==1.17.0 --force --no-cache-dir)
 	if [[  $? -ne 0 ]];
 	then
 		echo "$output"
diff --git a/skaffold.yaml b/skaffold.yaml
index 79b5069791..a9dde79c93 100644
--- a/skaffold.yaml
+++ b/skaffold.yaml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ metadata:
 build:
   tagPolicy:
     envTemplate:
-      template: "1.16.0"
+      template: "1.17.0"
   artifacts:
   - image: valory/open-aea-develop
     docker:
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ profiles:
     build:
       tagPolicy:
         envTemplate:
-          template: "1.16.0"
+          template: "1.17.0"
       artifacts:
       - image: valory/open-aea-docs
         docker:
diff --git a/tests/test_docs/test_bash_yaml/md_files/bash-quickstart.md b/tests/test_docs/test_bash_yaml/md_files/bash-quickstart.md
index 57c53c64dc..db4cf60515 100644
--- a/tests/test_docs/test_bash_yaml/md_files/bash-quickstart.md
+++ b/tests/test_docs/test_bash_yaml/md_files/bash-quickstart.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ pip install open-aea[all]
 pip install open-aea-cli-ipfs
 ```
 ```
-svn checkout https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/tags/v1.16.0/packages packages
+svn checkout https://github.com/valory-xyz/open-aea/tags/v1.17.0/packages packages
 ```
 
 ``` bash
diff --git a/user-image/docker-env.sh b/user-image/docker-env.sh
index d6be7a80bd..d8a7cd6683 100644
--- a/user-image/docker-env.sh
+++ b/user-image/docker-env.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 # Swap the following lines if you want to work with 'latest'
-DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-user:1.16.0
+DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-user:1.17.0
 # DOCKER_IMAGE_TAG=valory/open-aea-user:latest
 
 DOCKER_BUILD_CONTEXT_DIR=..