The makers of who conceived the platform as a global infrastructure which could transfer value seamlessly all over the world decided to implement the first hard fork on the in 2016 leading to the formation of and Classic.
heavyweights, like Vitalik Buterin, decided to support while some users chose to remain on Classic. They stuck to the ideologically driven position that they are going to keep the network immutable which, according to them, was at the core of philosophy. However, this kept them away from the subsequent updates.
Now, the Constantinople hard fork has been announced by the core developers of and is all set to be activated by 26th and 28th of February, 2019. The announcement has come after the smart contract audit firm pointed out a security vulnerability in one of the initial 5 Improvement Proposals (EIPs). Owing to ChainSecurity’s report, the upgrade will now be launched sans the faulty EIP and will be activated in 2 parts.
The Constantinople Hard Fork
While the above mentioned hard fork led to a currency split, that is the division of the currency holdings between and Classic, the subsequent upgrades of namely Homestead and Byzantium did not witness any such split within the community. The Constantinople hard fork also seems to have the support of the community and thus, does not face the risk of a currency split.
Although crypto-idealists like those who supported Classic, will say that this upgrade is another move which will take away from its initial ideals, the others will disagree. To them, such a hard fork is a necessity for realizing the broader aims of the community.
This upgrade will aim to implement a set of Improvement Proposals (EIPs) through which they will increase the efficiency and speed, lower the costs, and reduce the Block reward on the platform.
However, the most significant feature of the upgrade is the shift towards Proof of Stake (POS) from the previously running Proof of Work (POW) system.
POW to POS
The EIP 1234 apart from reducing the block reward will also delay the implementation of difficulty bombs. Difficulty bombs are designed to make the transition from the POW system to the more energy efficient POS system. The difficulty bombs will reduce the efficiency of making it more attractive to shift to a Proof of Stake system, thus reducing the chances of conflict between stakers and miners leading to a currency split.
However, due to a lack of research, the developers have stated that the implementation of difficulty bombs will be delayed.
The fork will be implemented in two segments. The first will be an upgrade to all the 5 EIPs, while in the second part the EIP 1283 which has been identified as vulnerable will be removed.
This hard fork to be implemented over the next month is set to change radically. However, it is difficult to say whether it will help realize its final aim or take it further away from it.
Published at Mon, 21 Jan 2019 17:19:53 +0000
