As reported earlier Ethereum had to deal with a lot of issues owing to the postponed Constantinople upgrade. Among others, one major concern was that several miners continued the process of mining as if the hard fork had occurred. Another cause of worry is how to move ahead with the upgrade which has considered a lot of enhancements, one of them being to provide transaction fees at lowered rates among other enhancements.
After the recent developer meeting on Friday, Ethereum has taken the decision to postpone the scheduled date of Constantinople upgrade and to weed out the origin of the “reentrancy bug” which is to get all code changes pertaining to EIP-1283. There were various reasons that ultimately led to this decision.
The next upgrade will not take place before February 27, shifting the new version to extend by another six weeks. The target decided is the Ethereum block 7280000.
Consultation regarding the re-inclusion of EIP-1283 was not considered for the upgrade. There seems to have been considerable damage caused by the security vulnerability which is haunting the Ethereum developers and community.
They were also considering a “two fork” plan to make sure that the upcoming planned hard fork witnesses the total channel on board. Few miners have not stopped mining the Ethereum Constantinople chain that never exists and thus have to be dealt with differently in order to be upgraded to the fresh version without any flaws.
A change in the name of the hard fork Constantinople was also considered which was not fruitful considering the fact that a lot of work had to be executed which is the principal concern than to think of providing a fresh name to the hard fork.
The decision to be taken was headed by Vitalik Buterin. He stated that it is required to get the new version as fast as possible owing to the “difficulty bomb” that has been rising. The difficulty bomb will create hindrances on original block times prevalent in the Ethereum channel, though it may be marginal and the users may not be aware of it either. Buterin believed that at present the block times have risen to somewhere by 9% since the ice age. So in the next six weeks, a two step launch over the ice age has to be launched. This would consume near about 20-21 seconds. He confirmed that a three week delay would definitely be more fruitful.
He stated “Right now block times are already increased something like 9% from the ice age. So in six weeks let’s say we’re rolling in two steps up from the ice age, which would take block times may be up to 20-21 seconds. If we were to be more aggressive and say something like three weeks, then we could avoid a big step like that.”
In the end, he convinced that the time frame of six weeks was practical and sensible. The process will see changes on not just restricting code in relation to EIP-1283. It would also ensure that the actual wallet of Ethereum customers is also dealt with in the process of the final upgrade.
As the news circulated about the aborted Constantinople, Ethereum rates slashed in no time by falling by 5% on Wednesday. A weekly high of $129 seems a bit distant from its present figure owing to the above news and it is highly probable that the prices could decrease further till the new fork arrives.
It is difficult to predict Ethereum rates in a market that follows a bearish trend, having ICOs that are few in number than any time before. News relating to rates creates more curiosity which in turn creates demand. We may witness an alternate effect as other domains move ahead at a great pace.