Big Changes to Come for Ethereum: Metropolis Release
Metropolis was first announce way back in February when Ethereum released their roadmap for 2017, and I’ll be honest, after the multiple delays I didn’t let myself get too excited for it, but now it seems Ethereum is nearly ready for their next hard fork update.
For those of you who are new to crypto and you’re not quite sure why they would plan a hard fork, let me explain what the Metropolis update has in store for Ethereum and what affect it can have on its future.
Metropolis is the third of four of Ethereum’s major updates, the first was called Frontier, we are currently in the Homestead release, next is Metropolis and the last is Serenity.
These are updates that have been planned from the beginning as a way to continue growth and improvement of Ethereum.
So this new release called Metropolis will come in two waves, the first titled Byzantium, and the second is Constantinople.
Here’s what you can expect with the first phase of Metropolis, the Byzantium phase:
Increased security for lite client wallets,
zkSNARKS will bring improvements to transaction privacy through anonymity.
More predictable gas charges
Now the big change that metropolis is set to unveil is the change from proof of work consensus to proof of stake consensus.
We can expect this change to occur during the Constantinople release.
In order to ensure that this hardfork will not result in yet another chain split, they are going to implement a difficulty bomb. This will effectively make it increasingly difficult to mine ethereum, thus forcing the switch.
For those who wish that Ethereum would remain using proof-of-work consensus, let me take this time to remind you that there is still Ethereum Classic.
Although I’d love to give you an exact date for when this will take place, the best I can do based on my research is that it will happen anywhere from the last week of September to the first week of October, that is unless something else comes up that causes one more delay.
They are just now beginning to test this fork on their test network in order to screen for any bugs or mishaps and to ensure a better experience for users once it’s released to the main network
Many are speculating that the recent rise in price for Ethereum has to do with the anticipation of this new release.
Updates are commonly followed by a rise in price, and I think this will be the case for the Byzantium phase of Metropolis.
However, keep an eye out for the Constantinople phase as this is where we will be seeing the repercussions of the difficulty bomb and the reduced block rewards for miners.
Additional Reading/Sources:
Ethereum Website
The Merkle Article Explains Metropolis
Read more on Difficulty Bomb
See Metropolis Activity on GitHub
More on Byzantium and Constantinople Releases
More on zkSNARKS for Ethereum
Thanks. Anyone mining ETH now want to share opinion on what to switch their mining power to?
I think the second most profitable chain would be ZCASH. It is a perfect fit for graphic card based mining.
How about Dogecoin??? What do you think about it??
If you really want to make money out of your mining operations, you shouldn`t focus on dodgecoin.
https://steemit.com/bmt/@adryatyca/become-a-member-of-the-system-which-turns-the-human-s-benefit-into-money
ETH will grow just like bitcoin did, the better thing we can do now is put some money on it!
It will grow for sure. There are all the developers, startups and synergies. Everyone should keep an eye on Ethereum.
Heidi was right, just checked the current rates and ETC actually yield the same return for mining if not a bit better.
Interesting, could you provide a link where you found those informations ?
I used the minergate.com calculator with the same hash rate for ETH vs ETC to compare the value of crypto mined. There are many calculators out there that probably give a better estimate than minergate but since I am only interested in finding an alternate to mine the rough estimate works.
what about whattomine.com?
Amazing info !!
I battle that EmberCoins price increase will beat metropolic's :
https://steemit.com/embercoin/@lasseehlers/embercoin-embercoin-is-a-safe-heaven-while-high-value-crypto-currencies-are-falling-in-price-it-might-be-that-china-bans-ico-s
I guess all those ETH GPU miners will be switching to ETC after ETH goes Proof-of-Stake. And the increasing difficulty on ETC may also lead to a much higher price!
It's nice and well, I just don't think Metropolis will be released soon. POS for Eth seems like a really difficult undertaking.
Metropolis will not be the switch of PoW to PoS.
Has there been any statement as to when Constantinople is supposed to be released? So you reckon they'll delay the announced release?
Thanks for the update!
Heidi and the Water are so Beautiful.........Thank You Heidi for sharing the World with us.
STEEM On Sweet Lady !!
nice to know, thanks
I've read that this switch to PoS is not a full transition. Etherium will still be largely operate under Proof of Work, allowing the first ever cryptocurrency to run both on PoW and PoS simultaneously. I think the numer i've seen is for every 100 blocks written to the chain through PoW, 1 will go through under PoS protocols. This hardfork is necessary to move the platform away from PoW, which I think everyone is excited about, rightfully so!
it makes sense @motoengineer! I just wonder how in this transition speculators will react.
Thanks @heiditravels, so ETH will continue to trade as is post Metropolis and the difficulty bomb? Will there be any new token created for Byzantium or Constantinople?
No, there won't be a new coin after this hardfork. Buterin made sure of that with the difficulty bomb.