A big congratulations to the Ethereum (ETH)trade community and the global crypto industry at large. The long expected Ethereum’s hard fork tagged ‘Istanbul’ is finally here and over. Okay, not entirely over as two other networks are expected to go live in the first quarter of 2020.
Notwithstanding, the just-concluded upgrade of the second-largest cryptocurrency (by market capitalization) was a total success and it poses great hope for the future of crypto.
The hard fork, which took place at block number 9,069,000, saw a successful upgrade at six different stages. All of which were targeted at expediting the rate of transactions, cutting back on cost, ensuring a better privacy for users and improving the interoperability with Zcash.
With Istanbul in place, we expect to see improvements all around. As Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, rightly stated, the Ethereum blockchain network now has the potential to reach up to 3,000 transactions per second. Faster. Easier. Safer. Cheaper.
Shedding light on the activities behind the scene, the official Istanbul-dedicated page disclosed that the six different upgrades or Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) were dubbed EIP 2200, 1108, 152, 1884, 1344, 2028, each with a peculiar task to address. Notable among them include enhanced speed, prevention of spamming of the blocks, and Zcash interoperability.
Some Crypto Users More Affected Than Others
While these upgrades are expected to address one issue or the other, there is no denying that this affects top players in the cryptocurrency industry. As an everyday crypto user, you may not be directly affected, but top players in the ring such as miners and node operators are expected to shut down services for some time (usually during the upgrade) and even upgrade their own system after each hard fork – or incur extra spends. With 2019 seeing three hard forks so far, it is definitely not a ride in the park for those affected.
Consequently, the CTO of Aragon One, Jorge Izquierdo was quoted saying:
“Ethereum is not a toy anymore, it’s a platform with a sizable investment and a big reach, and as such changes like this need to be professionally measured before being taken.”
Lastly, the ultimate switch from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) is expected to come out in 2021. This is yet another critical upgrade we all look forward to.
What is your take on the recent upgrades? How do you think these upgrades from time to time would affect the Ethereum community and the crypto community at large?
