For some time now Ethereum has been the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation and provides a platfrom for other users to create their own project through which they can issue their own token. However Ethereum has had some scaling debates and given the increasing number of ETH20 tokens being issued as well as the ever increasing amount of users on the network as a whole. There are some particularly interesting updates due to launch on the Ethereum blockchian over the course of the coming months.
Ethereum is set for a major upgrade in Metropolis, but what is it and when is it due to take place?
First announced a while back, Metropolis is the long awaited hard fork in the Ethereum blockchain. It has received a lot of hype but due to the enormous scale of the update the Ethereum development team are taking their time to ensure a seamless process. Metropolis will look to make Ethereum quicker, lighter and more secure, and will work alongside the other upgrades mentioned above.
The actual Metropolis upgrade has developed since the initial plans and has now been split into two steps, Byzantium and Constantinople.
Byzantium is officially due to start at the end of September and will consist of a total of nine Ethereum improvement protocols (EIPs). Each of which will look to solve a particular issue with the code within the Ethereum protocol looking to improve the network substantially once all of the upgrades are successful.
Constantinople is slightly more complicated and looks to optimise the Ethereum network further. Although there is no official relates date yet for Constantinople is appears the main stumbling block is due to issues with EIP 86
Below is a brief summary of three major changes to the Ethereum blockchain: [The below points are a summary of a Steemit article by blockchain4all - read the full article here]
The first major change will be something known as Zk-Snarks, which will allow customisable privacy settings. Currently this is a feature found in only a handful of cryptocurrencies like Zcash and Monero, however once the Zk-Snarks update is implemented users will be able to decide on public or private transactions and will offer the same standard of anonymity on top of the Ethereum platform.
The second major update is known as the Raiden network. One of the biggest talking points with any cryptocurrency is the number of transactions per second it can handle. Currently Ethereum can manage just 15 per second, but once the Raiden upgrade is implemented Ethereum will see this minimal figure increase to over a million transactions per second.
The third update to the Ethereum network will be Ice Age which is used to slow down the creation of new Ethereum coins. Currently there is approximately 94.5 million ETH in circulation, with 5 new coins being created every 15 seconds, through Ice Age, the creation rate should gradually slow down as the difficulty level for miners will be increased.
On top of the above updates Ethereum also plans to change from proof of work to proof of stake, however it is said that this will be done in the next major update following on form Metropolis which will be know as 'Casper'.
Overall it looks like it will be a busy but exciting period for Ethereum and one that is sure to see substantial growth for Ethereum once everything is successfully implemented. Keep an eye on the site for more updates.