WHAT THE FORK?
Seems like we are warming up to the flavour of the next few weeks/months 'hardforks'. Thought only bitcoin does hardforks? Not entirely. Although labelled a 'hardfork' for Ethereum I think 'upgrade' is better terminology. This upgrade is called the 'Metropolis upgrade'and will involve the application of new code 'Byzantium'. This is a much awaited upgrade and was supposed to be released in September but was delayed for further testing. You will notice the price of Ethereum making sideways action since last month.
NOTE: There will be no new coin from this hardfork.
Some technicals from Coindesk for those that love a good chart:
FORK OFF?
Since last week we note that Ethereum has been ascending higher. Is it accumulation by smart investors for the upgrade? Only time will tell. This upgrade is looking to be applied at block number 4,370,000, or about October 17th 2017 based on block production forecasts. My thoughts are we can expect a rally or upwards move in price (this is my opinion and I can be wrong).
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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE HARDFORK?
- Potential for private transactions through incorporation of (zk-SNARKS) - think of this as anonymous transactions
- 'Difficulty bomb/ice age' the switch from Proof of Work (mining) to Proof of Stake (holding the coins and supporting the network) - this is great from an environmental perspective of reducing electricity use. Although it has been made slightly harder the switch has been said to be postponed to next year
- Protection against quantum computing hacks
- When lambo? An early investor bought a 'bitcoin lambo' this week. Be interesting to see if we can have the same happen for Ethereum one day.
RISKS
- Although testing has been conducted there could potentially be some functional issues/bugs when rolled out onto the 'Mainnet'
- People may decide to focus on the BTC hardfork and continue to dump alternate coins for BTC for this over glorified 'BTG (Bitcoin Gold)'
DISCLAIMER: Please note I am not a financial advisor and none of this should be taken as financial advice as they are my opinions and always do your own research as you should only be investing with money you can afford to lose. There are comments we are embarking on bubble territory and it might pop soon. I don't believe we are there yet.
Cryptoshaf
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BTC - 1M5anDbT4HAuA6XkJekbMfSTFR1ippEkch
ETH - 0xC1f258BeD748F03130edc6D3A07320C882eD8862
LTC -LWx8U7j5Y4vo8jq8CpqWKwWMXKrByaNW6s