Ethereum developers reached an agreement regarding the block on which the Constantinople update will be activated.
Block 7,080,000 was chosen to activate hardfork. According to release manager Parity Afri Schoedon, it will be mined from 14 to 18 January.
Updates with the necessary code to activate the update will appear in the next software releases. In addition, Martin Swende, security lead at Ethereum Foundation, noted that the new version of the go-ethereum client will contain a kind of emergency switch that will postpone the upgrade if something goes wrong.
Originally planned for November, Constantinople hardfork contains a number of changes and code optimizations. In particular, they include the transfer by 18 months of the so-called “difficulty bomb”, which contributes to timely upgrades. The developers also suggest decreasing the reward to miners from 3 to 2 ETH for the mined block.
Participants of the video conference also discussed the introduction of ProgPoW code aimed at countering ASIC miners. Despite the fact that work in this direction is gradually progressing, the developers haven't yet reached a consensus on whether it's necessary to include this code at all new software versions.
Among other things, the ethereum 1x update was discussed, the introduction of which is scheduled for 2019. Several working groups shared their achievements, stressing that the decision was still at the earliest stages of development.
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