Hard fork Ethereum Istanbul. What’s next?
More recently, on December 8, at 3:25, a new division of the popular cryptocurrency network took place. Digital Silver, or Ethereum, received a massive update called Istanbul. Now that the system has finally calmed down after the innovation, we can safely figure out how Istanbul will affect ordinary cryptocurrency users. So let’s get started.
The necessary theory
It is worth noting that Istanbul is the third update of Ethereum this year. Before him, St. Petersburg and Constantinopole took place. But, of course, Istanbul is the largest and most significant of all system updates. The fact is that very soon the coin will enter its second phase – Ethereum 2.0, and Istanbul is the last hard fork of the Ethereum familiar to us.
The update took place early in the morning at block No. 9,069,000, before this significant event the hard fork was delayed several times. The reason for the delay was the unwillingness of large companies to work with the new versions of ETH, which is why the hard fork did not take place in the summer, as the developers promised, but only in the winter.
What is Istanbul influencing?
A global update of the ETH network cannot occur immediately; the transition to the second version of the coin must be gradual. Istanbul is another stepping stone to ETH 2.0. This hard fork presents the following innovations:
- Increased resistance to DDOS. Such attacks are very popular with hackers of various levels who seek to attack coin networks. Ethereum has always been reliable, but now protection has reached a new level;
- The best combination with cryptocurrencies on Equihash. The ETH team understands that it is very important to guarantee comfortable work with other popular cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is now compatible with coins like Zcash, which is very convenient;
- The network requires less gas. Gas is a functional unit in the Ethereum system, which is necessary for transfers and the creation of smart contracts. From now on, tariffs are significantly reduced, it is quite possible that in the future gas will completely leave the ETH network;
As we can see, the updates are really significant. On Vitalik Buterin’s official Twitter, the team leader asked users to update their customers to start using the latest version of Ethereum.
Note that after the Istanbul issue, the price of Ethereum rose sharply from $147 to $151, but right now the coin has dropped significantly in value.
However, very soon experts predict active price growth. So update ETH clients and follow all the news of the crypto industry with us. Thank you for your attention, good luck!
