Ethereum Hard Fork Support
The Internet is now filled with the news about the upcoming Ethereum hard fork (multiple, even). The cryptocurrency has recently gained back the second position on the list of currencies by market capitalisation – possible due to the scheduled updates.
There are three hard forks for Ethereum planned this January:
A major Ethereum Protocol Update – Constantinople Ethereum
Two chain splits:
Classic Vision, Ethereum Nowa
Why do Ethereum hard forks happen?
Ethereum was in decline for a while last year, so developers were trying their best to find the causes for such a drastic decline. As they have found out, the blocks were being very slow – to the point of extreme difficulty in mining. Due to this, the team has to update the network’s technology regularly. There already was an Ethereum hard fork leading to the creation of Ethereum Classic (ETC) – some of the participants did not agree to reverse transactions. Drastic or not, the development is needed. This is why Guarda always supports the novelties of each network we work with.
Now, let’s look into the details of each of the upcoming forks.
Ethereum hard fork explained by Guarda
Ethereum Constantinople
The most significant of all three Hard Forks on the list, Ethereum Constantinople is scheduled between 14th and 18th January 2019. The official hard fork day available now is the 16th January 2019. Ethereum network update of this scale is due to impact the flow of Ehereum blockchain life significantly and the ETH community is impatiently waiting for the change to happen.
The fork is expected to build 7080000 blocks that will help to improve the work of the network significantly. The underlying Proof of Stake transition (a.k.a. Casper update) is going to make Ethereum great again (pardon, we mean faster, cheaper and more efficient). As can be understood, the protocol upgrade is not resulting in new coins appearing, but is aimed at changing the original Ethereum blockchain.
The changes to the protocol will be immediately implemented and supported in your Guarda wallets.
As the Constantinople is waiting for the hour to come to life, two other, forks (and splits of ETH blockchain) of a lesser scale are happening:
Classic Vision and Ethereum Nowa
Ethereum Classic Vision will be a currency created after the fork scheduled for the 11th January 2019. The new coin will combine the features of both ETC and ETH.
First of all, the costs of mining will lower significantly comparing to Ethereum. Also, the feature of ETCV staking will be implemented. Staking is a protocol allowing long-time holders of currencies earn passive income and help in the network development.
Ethereum Classic Vision will surely remain truly decentralised. Besides, ETCV will be fast (more than 10000 transactions per second) and its DApp platform will feature back-end and front-end development tools.
On the 12th of January 2019, another Ethereum hard fork is going to take place. Each ETH holder will get an equal amount of ETN (Ethereum Nowa) in their wallets. The plans of this branch are quite, so to say, extensive – in 2019, Ethereum Nowa plans to launch desktop and mobile wallet, blockchain messenger as well as a decentralised exchange.
NOTE: both of these forks are being verified by Guarda. If you proceed with the forked coins – proceed at your own risk. We advise our users not to trust any unknown services that require your private key.
What should I do during the fork?
The holders of ETH will receive 3 ETCV and 1 ETN for each of ETH coins they have in their wallets. We suggest keeping our funds in a safe non-custodial wallet, where you are the one in charge of your private keys.
Note from Guarda: the users should be careful with importing their keys to unknown services as the hard forks are over. The services promising coin rewards as you import the keys may be dangerous and their use can lead to loss of funds.