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The third largest blockchain in the world by total value, ethereum, is going to update its code.
Named Constantinople, the system-level or hard-fork upgrade, is set up to implement several technological improvements, most designed to increase usability and improve the intelligent design of the contract, in the event that users of the network decide to upgrade to the new software.
Already now the enthusiasm is gathering around the update, with developers pointing to a particular update – called EIP 1014 or Skinny CREATE2 – as a potential launching path for new technical innovations.
However, statistics show that the adoption of Constantinople has so far been scarce. While the developers claim that the metrics in question are not a fair representation of the overall support, it is worth keeping in mind that this does not interfere with the update. This is because Constantinople is a sort of update known as a difficult fork. In this update, all the nodes in the network, such as miners, exchanges, companies and users who store complete copies of the blockchain, must update their software.
If platform stakeholders do not update their software, this could lead to the creation of two incompatible blockchains. Cryptocurrencies such as ethereum classic and bitcoin cash have been formed by such an event.
For this to occur, however, and for the continuation chain to continue, you need to encourage users to continue running the previous instance. In this regard, Constantinople is an update that has seen ample support from the community.
An upgrade in particular – the removal of the difficulty bomb – is largely considered necessary for the continued health of the network and the operation of the ethereum blockchain.
Despite being largely non-controversial, Constantinople has not lost its drama. Because it presents a tweak for the platform economy – reducing the reward of the block from 3 ETH to 2 ETH per block – in its preparation period, developers have been forced to navigate the conflicting views of investors and miners, each for a different result.
Because of the change, Constantinople has also been dubbed by some as "the third", a tribute to the "halved" bitcoin events, with which the software programmatically reduces the amount of new supplies it introduces at intervals.
Therefore, it is worth looking at the update as soon as it occurs.
Fork countdown
On ethereum, hard forks are activated in a given block number that has been coded in the upgrade software. To participate in the upgrade, miners, exchanges, companies and users who use complete nodes must download the new software in advance, which will activate the fixed fork when a specific block number is reached.
Constantinople is scheduled for activation at the block number 7,080,000. However, since the time it takes to create blocks tends to fluctuate, determining when exactly the hard lash is going to hit can be difficult.
However, there are a number of websites that measure the time it takes to produce blocks and try to estimate when the hard fork will occur.
A countdown of this type is available on the blockchain monitoring and analysis company, Amber Data. According to the website, Constantinople should be activated on Thursday at 4:00 UTC.
Another fork countdown website is CoinGecko, which shows similar estimates to Amber Data, predicting that the fork will activate at 3:30 UTC on Thursday.
A Parity Ethereum client release account countdown, Afri Schoedon, says that Constantinople should be activated Thursday at 3:09 UTC.
Schoedon's countdown has the broadest function of following the growth of the blockchain ethereum. While there are subtle differences between any predictions, according to him, this is due to the way in which websites approach the calculation and is likely to reconcile with the approaching block number.
"My uses a fixed-time average, so it will be more and more accurate to approach the fork," said Schoedon.
Fork monitor
Distributed by developers to monitor progress and update health, one of the most useful tools to monitor the progress of Constantinople is the fork monitor. This tool allows developers to monitor the hard fork in real time, providing a visual graph of the blockchain data as it accumulates.
Using this tool, developers can see the network diverge into Byzantium (the current software paradigm) and the blockchains of Constantinople, and can ensure that no further blockages are produced on the old chain.
The monitor also monitors the difficulty and the hashrate of both chains, which should differ substantially once the block number has been reached. If an unorthodox network activity occurs at the time of the fork, it will also be displayed on the monitor.
That said, it is worth noting that the small divergences in the ethereum blockchain are normal. The tiny forks often occur – and are quickly abandoned – due to the use of ethereum of what is called "uncle", which allows the platform to have faster blocking times by abandoning the occasional block.
When it comes to the point of activation of the bifurcation, the difference between a split and an unsealed block will be obvious, as it should be a clear and permanent divergence between the two blockchains.
However, the monitor tracks only the two most popular software clients of ethereum, Geth and Parity, which together account for about 70% of the global network and may not be 100% accurate.
Hashrate mining
The critical aspect of this particular update is the hashrate of mining and the ways in which it might differ once the hard fork has occurred. A metric that reveals how many miners are participating in the blockchain, this is a good way to demonstrate overall support for the upgrade.
In addition, miners are a key element responsible for orchestrating a chain division, because they are the part that guarantees if a transaction will confirm the ordering of these transactions in blocks.
Therefore, it is worth keeping an eye on whether the hashrate continues, and for how long, on the Byzantine blockchain.
The hash frequency on both sides of the update is visible on the foreline monitoring tool of the ethereum developer. In addition, the Etherscan metrics website shows a graph of the network hash rate over time.
However, the current software ethereum contains what is known as a bomb of difficulty, an algorithm that increases the difficulty of grueling over time, to the point that the extraction of Byzantium is impossible.
While the bomb of difficulty has been postponed to the software of Constantinople, its presence on Byzantium means that even in the case of a division, it is unlikely to last more than a couple of months, unless Byzantium is still witnessing active development.
knots
Although not responsible for confirming transactions, another critical part of the ethereum ecosystem consists of nodes, which run software ethereum and store complete copies of the blockchain.
The complete nodes are generally managed by developers, companies, mining pools and users who use complete nodes to benefit from greater privacy and security. Users running full nodes can also see the blockchain fork in real time from their computer.
Currently, a monitoring website called Ethernodes shows low statistics for the adoption of the Constantinople update. According to the monitor, the total number of Constantinople compatible nodes on Geth and Parity is only 15.5 percent.
Yet, while this number is surprisingly low, Peter Pratscher, CEO of Etna's main mining pool, Ethermine, and owner of the Ethernodes website, said the number is inaccurate and that adoption is actually closer to the majority .
"The adoption you see [Ethernodes] it is not completely accurate as the explorer calculates this statistic taking into account many obsolete ones [and] old Geth / Parity knots, "he said in an e-mail.
Speaking chirping, Parade & # 39; s Schoedon echoed this, claiming that the Ethernode scraping software includes many nodes that are no longer operational and ignores nodes that do not match its network queries.
(According to Schoedon, this includes misrepresenting the amount of nodes on ethereum – which is said to be around 30,000 – at just 10,000.)
Ethernode is about to update its software, with a new scraping technique that is currently in the process of taking samples of the network and creating a partial representation. A preview of the new scraping tool is available here.
According to this tool, the total number of updated nodes is currently 44%. While this is still low, according to Schoedon, it is not a cause for concern.
"An update rate of 44 [percent] it is (probably) beautiful as long as we communicate the importance of updating to the major stakeholders of the ethereum ecosystem, "wrote Schoedon.
Live broadcast
Perhaps the most compelling way to observe the activation of Constantinople is the live commentary of the developers who wrote the code.
Imitating the style of the biweekly ethereum core developers, developers get together to watch the code change in real time.
"It's basically a live stream of key developers and potentially some community members coming to a Zoom call. It's both a celebration of Constantinople and a call to monitor the transition," said Hudson Jameson. developer of relations for the Ethereum Foundation.
Accessible by the public on YouTube, the meeting is due to kick-off shortly before the update.
You can listen to the livestream here.
Price
Finally, another metric to monitor the update is the price of the ether, which may vary during the run up to the update.
To keep an eye on it, CoinDesk's price index will monitor all shifts in real time.
Image of Ethereum through Shutterstock
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