What to expect during the ETH Constantinople hard fork ⛓
⚠️ Update 18 Jan 2019: The Ethereum core developer community decided to postpone the fork until block number 7,280,000 which is expected on 27 February 2019, according to a tweet from a senior member of the community.
While cryptocurrencies have not been making front page news lately, the communities of developers that run and maintain many of these digital currencies have been hard at work improving every aspect of these new digital assets and their underlying technologies.
Following the recent BCH fork, the Ethereum network will be undergoing a scheduled upgrade, also known as a hard fork, which is expected to take place sometime over the next few days.
What is a hard fork? 🤷♂️
In the world of cryptocurrencies, a hard fork refers to a software upgrade of the entire network that a specific cryptocurrency runs on.
Upgrades to cryptocurrency platforms are called forks because they’re similar to a fork in the road, where a single chain of blocks (blockchain) gets separated into two chains.
One of the chains may be used by people who want to continue to play by the old set of rules, or by those who don’t upgrade their nodes, while the other chain is used by those who start following the newly updated set of rules.
What is the ETH Constantinople fork? 🍴
The Constantinople fork consists of a series of upgrades to the operating software of the Ethereum blockchain, that will improve performance and cost efficiency of the entire Ethereum network.
At this time, no chain split is expected to occur as a result of this update, which means that no secondary cryptocurrency is expected to emerge. If this changes, we will update you as soon as possible.
When will the ETH hard fork take place? 📆
The fork is scheduled to take place on block number 7,080,000, which is predicted to occur on Wednesday, January 16, 2019. You’ll find a countdown to the fork at Amberdata.
The reason why there isn’t an exact date and time for the upgrade has to do with different processing times for transactions on the blockchain.
What will happen with the ETH I hold with Revolut? 📲
We have been working closely with our partners to ensure that all client funds are protected at all times, including during the fork.
We expect ETH trading to be available at Revolut with no interruptions, both during and after the fork. If this changes, we will update you as soon as possible via the app.
What happens if the fork produces two new viable chains? 🧐
We expect no chain splitting to occur as a result of the Constantinople hard fork, which means that no new cryptocurrency will emerge. If this changes, we will keep you updated via the app.
That said, there is always extreme uncertainty around such events, and therefore there are no guarantees that we will or will not support the introduction of any new cryptocurrencies as a result of hard forks.
Since Revolut is not an exchange and instead provides cryptocurrency access via trusted partners, any final decision to add or to remove a cryptocurrency from the current lineup in the Revolut app is dependant on our exchange providers.
Rest assured - we will always let you know in advance if we plan to make any changes to our current cryptocurrency line-up.
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