Originally scheduled for release on 16 January 2019 at block 7,080,000, the latest update 3.5 — a.k.a. Constantinople Hard Fork — is something the crypto space has been very excited about, partly due to its contributions to the Casper transition but mostly a result of its promises to improve efficiency and performance for those involved.
Unfortunately, due to last minute discoveries of security vulnerabilities — specifically associated with re-entrancy attacks — the core development team announced a postponement to buy some patch time. The release was subsequently re-scheduled for 28 February 2019 (fingers-crossed) at block 7,280,000, and is expected to come with 5 main implementations of new code adjustments, a.k.a. Improvement Proposals (EIP) that are created to up by more than a meagre notch.
While there are a total of 5 proposals, the update has been characterised by a few of its strongest and most chatter-worthy ones — subtle, but sharp tweaks to the network efficiency, upgrades that will pave way for ’s famed transition from the Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) protocol — a.k.a. The Casper update, and not forgetting the controversial changes in fee structure everyone cannot stop talking about.
The Five EIPs That Will Come With the Constantinople Upgrade
EIP 145: Bitwise Shifting Instructions in EVM
To improve efficiency and speed. This proposal will make the execution of shifts in smart contracts 10 times cheaper through the addition of Bitwise shifting instructions to the Virtual Machine (EVM).
EIP 1052: Smart Contract Verification
To improve speed and energy consumption. This proposal will reduce the time needed for verification of smart contracts by requiring just the hash of the other smart contract, instead of the entire code in the current system.
EIP 1014: CREATE2
To improve scalability. This proposal stands out because it was developed by Vitalik Buterin himself and improves the enablement of state channels — an scaling solution based on off-chain transactions.
EIP 1283: Net Gas Metering for SSTORE Without Dirty Maps
To improve cost incurrence. This proposal will reduce the gas cost for the SSTORE operation, hence allowing for an overall lower cost even with multiple updates within a single transaction.
EIP 1234: Block Rewards & Difficulty Bomb Delay
To reduce block rewards and delay the difficulty bomb. This proposal will reduce the reward per block from 3 ETH to 2 ETH — a.k.a. “Thirdening”, hence alleviating the inflation of Ether in basic supply and demand economics. At the same time, the difficulty bomb will also be delayed for another 12 months, allowing for miners to continue blocks on the without any increase in difficulty.
Alright, is there anything I have to do?
Well, with all the commotion surrounding this upgrade, you probably feel a little bit nervous as a holder of the . We’re here to assure you that unless you run a node, there is nothing that needs to be done on your part or have to worry about.
Your ETH will exist simultaneously on both the new ETH and the old ETH . All the exchange services and node providers will also update their nodes; changes so subtle you probably wouldn’t even take notice.
As for node runners, all you need to do is a quick update to the latest software and you’re good to go.
In closing, while the delays in release and changes to fee structure can be a little annoying, we musn’t forget that this upgrade is THAT spacecraft that will be lifting us off from the current substandard network that keeps getting tipped over by its overly-zealous contenders. It is one that will trigger a brand new evolution of the network.
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Published at Thu, 28 Feb 2019 04:06:13 +0000
