In this article, you will learn what is a hard fork. Things change so fast and frequently in the crypto world since blockchain innovation due to its fast moving nature. As a result, a cryptocurrency's underlying code is in some ways always a work of progress, open to both exploitation and improvement as technology changes.
When you add new functions and features to the blockchain protocol to make it better, it might lead to a hard fork.
What is a Hard Fork?
A hard fork is a new software update implemented by a blockchain or cryptocurrency's network nodes that is incompatible with the existing blockchain protocol, causing a permanent split into two separate networks that run in parallel. Unlike soft forks, which are essentially up backwards, date-compatible Hard forks establish a permanent change in a blockchain protocol's rules, with each version propagating their own transactions and blocks.
As a result of these networks' conflicting rules, a blockchain's nodes that implement the upgraded software will cease to use the previous version, causing incompatibility issues and forcing miners to choose between either updating to the new version and its rules, or continuing on an obsolete version.
The Story of the Constantinople Upgrade
Constantinople is the name of Ethereum's most recent hard fork system upgrade. It is part of the multi-step journey towards Serenity, which implements revolutionary protocols such as Proof of Stake. On December 6th, 2018, the Ethereum core developers voted to proceed with Constantinople , to be implemented at block 7,080,000. With an average block time of ~14.5 seconds, the community prepared for the upgrade to take place in mid-January. As the block number grew nearer, the upgrade date was more narrowly estimated at January 16, 2019.
On January 15th, an independent security auditing firm named ChainSecurity published a report that indicated one of the five main system upgrades could provide attackers with the opportunity to steal funds. In response to the report, core Ethereum developers and the extended to community the delayed voted upgrade until the security loophole could be resolved. Later that month, the core developers announced the upgrade would take place at block 7,280,000. Block 7,280,000 arrived on February 28th and the Constantinople hard fork upgrade went live.
A Brief Overview
One of the most highly publicized hard forks in Ethereum's history was the hard fork that occurred after the DAO hack and restored the stolen ETH to the original owners. Because that hard fork was unplanned and contentious, the community split between those who supported the restoration funds (Ethereum) and those who rejected it on grounds of immutability (Ethereum Classic).
Uncontentious hard forks, however, have happened in Ethereum's history to implement upgrades without 'currency' splits, including Homestead and Byzantium. Because the Ethereum community at large expectations and supports the Constantinople hard fork, the token hard consequences as ETH/ETC seen in the fork are not expected.
Constantinople will integrate 5 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), which tackle a number of cost, speed, functionality, and miner issues.
EIP 145: Bitwise Shifting Instructions [Efficiency & Speed]
EIP 1052: Smart Contract Verification [Speed & Energy]
EIP 1014: CREATE2 [Scalability]
EIP 1283: SSTORE [cost]
EIP 1234: Block Rewards & Difficulty Bomb Delay
Currently, when a miner succeeds at mining a block on the Ethereum network, they receive 3 ETH as a reward. After the Constantinople hard fork, miners will receive 2 ETH per block as a reward. This reduction from 3 ETH to 2 ETH is known as the “Thirdening.” This is the second time in Ethereum's history when block rewards have been reduced. The Byzantium hard fork in late 2017 reduced the rewards from 5 ETH to 3 ETH.
Bottom Line
The Constantinople hard fork will be an exciting evolution for the Ethereum community. With the implementation of efficiency, speed, and lower costs, we are moving closer towards the full realization of Ethereum's potential. The knowledge about what is a hard fork and the Constantinople hard fork is supported in this article.
