The Ethereum (ETH) developers community met and reached an agreement to apply the Constantinople hard fork to the Ethereum Ropsten TestNet from block 4.200.000. The objective of implementing this update in a test network is to minimize the possible risks associated with this type of forks. The agreement was total, and the proposal was accepted without inconvenience. Thus, the tentative date of application of the hard fork would be October 9th, taking into account the current block generation speed. The fork will also be made in Kovan, from block 9.200.000.
Jameson Hudson moderated the meeting, and the co-creator of Ethereum (ETH), Vitalik Buterin, participated, although he did not offer more information.
Let’s remember that EIP 1013, Constantinople, created on April 20th, 2017, by Nick Savers, will allow for the transition of the Ethereum network consensus from Proof of Work to Proof of Participation. The beginning of Constantinople marks the end of the first phase of Metropolis, a planned hard fork for the development of the network.
This update will help the network to solve its scalability problems, according to its own developers, lowering the commissions for the transactions made in it by increasing the efficiency of the blockchain.
Constantinople to deploy on Ethereum (ETH) blockchain on October 9th
Additionally, they discussed the status of Prog PoW, a working test algorithm designed to “close the efficiency gap available to specialized ASICs.” The goal is to extend the lifespan of Ethereum (ETH) mining equipment. According to Kristy-Leigh Minehan, the code is ready.
However, the dev assured that until the community demonstrates a real interest in implementing the algorithm, the team will not advance further in its application throughout the network, since it involves a considerable investment that might not be included in the implementation of the hard fork.
“Until then I don’t think it’s worth wasting work hours or money on a project that could be ignored,” the dev said during the meeting.
In another meeting held this year, the team of developers decided to reduce Ethereum (ETH) mining and delay the application of the hardship pump on the network, to revalue the cryptocurrencies, in the middle of a tough year for ETH, especially concerning the fall in its price.