Ethereum’s next hard fork, dubbed Constantinople which was on track for November release has been delayed for early 2019. The same was confirmed by developers in a meeting as they found several bugs that were released on a test network.
Constantinople plans delay other proposed changes as well
The Constantinople hard fork, upon successful implementation, was expected to increase the network’s efficiency and was a system-wide update of the Ethereum network. Made up of five updates, this update was to help in shifting the network away from a Proof-of-Work consensus model, lay the groundwork for ETH’s scaling solution, and bolster and support its smart contract infrastructure.
With bugs in the code, now developers are aiming for some time in late January or February, developers on the call Friday agreed that moving ahead with the hard fork next month would be unwise.
Speaking to this during the live-streamed meeting, developer Afri Schoedon remarked:
“I keep getting the feeling that we’re trying to rush this and I would second that we should breathe and see what happens.”
A few days back, a key tweet from Infura, which is an Ethereum blockchain infrastructure firm, revealed a bit of the detail of the bug. According to the tweet a supposed “consensus issue” in the trailing of Constantinople, has rendered a testnet useless. The report also stated that the trial unexpectedly resulted in a “consensus issue on ropsten.” The information was revealed by Afri Schoedon, lead Ethereum developer, through a series of tweets. Schoedon has also pointed out that there would be “no Constantinople in 2018,” as the team would be busy investigating the reason for the problem.
Due to a consensus issue with the Constantinople fork, Ropsten is currently not usable. The Ethereum dev community is investigating. Until further notice please utilize one of the other Ethereum testnets
— Infura (@infura_io) October 13, 2018
Afri Schoedon tweet on the same
no constantinople in 2018, we have to investigate
— ???? ???????? (@5chdn) October 13, 2018
between geth and parity, we have a three-way fork now.
— ???? ???????? (@5chdn) October 13, 2018
consensus issue on ropsten
— ???? ???????? (@5chdn) October 13, 2018
Arfi finally announces a delay
consensus: earliest constantinople hardfork date end of january 2019
— ???? ???????? (@5chdn) October 19, 2018
The delay could have implications for other proposed changes as well. Martin Holste Swende, security lead at the Ethereum Foundation, said there could be time then to add code for another proposal, dubbed “ProgPow,” into Constantinople.
ProgPow is aimed at shoring up Ethereum’s resistance to the specialized mining hardware, which many think could price out smaller mining operations that use GPUs to mine – and could trigger some centralizing effects.
According to Swende, as he quotes,
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if we do decide that Constantinople isn’t until January or February, then I would probably try to push for including ProgPoW into Constantinople,”
Hudson Jameson, the communications officer for the Ethereum Foundation, said Friday that developers already had a lot to do to prepare the network for the main net – or live blockchain – release of Constantinople. Highlighting one of these items, he said:
“We need to coordinate more with miners on when we switch over hash power and that also includes mainnet.”
Nothing seems to be falling in place for Ethereum. Constantinople which was to change fortune for Ethereum now stands delayed. Hope this delay doesn’t cost Ethereum its second position on the list of cryptocurrencies by marketcap.
How much impact will this Constantinople update delay hurt Ethereum? Do let us know your views on the same.
