Ethereum's hard fork is set to arrive once the total mined blocks reach block number 7,280,000. The estimated time of arrival is around February 27th 2019.

The hard fork has been named Constantinople and is currently one of the most talked about topics right now. If you haven't been keeping up with the news, read on as we gathered all the important bits you need to know.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is currently the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, second only to bitcoin. It is a decentralised platform designed to allow anyone to create and issue their own tokenised cryptocurrency project.

The technology runs on smart contracts – exchanges of assets that eliminate the middleman – on a blockchain they designed themselves. These tradable tokens could represent an asset in the world and can also be exchanged and used as a form of currency.

The Ethereum project paved the way for many alternative cryptocurrencies (coins that are not bitcoin) that are created on its chain.

Ethereum has been steadily growing despite their impending hard fork. In fact, the cryptocurrency currently records a trading volume of over $5 billion and has surged by over 20% between 14th and 19th February 2019.

What is a hard fork?

For those of you unfamiliar with the term hard fork, Investopedia would define it as:

"A permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain, and nodes running previous versions will no longer be accepted by the newest version".

This process ends up creating a fork in the blockchain where the old protocol follows along the same path and the new upgraded protocol takes a new path. Usually, the people still using the older version will eventually upgrade to the new path when they realise that the old blockchain is outdated.

CoinDesk further explains this by saying that:

"If older versions continue running, they will end up with a different protocol and with different data than the newer version. This can lead to significant confusion and possible error".*

What does this mean for Ethereum?

This can sometimes end up in disagreement and potentially a new coin being created, like the bitcoin cash hard fork.* This will not be the case here.

This Ethereum fork is a non-contentious decision which is simply an upgrade to its main-net. The main net is the block-chain responsible for the functionality involving the transfer of data between senders and receivers*.

The Constantinople update is actually part 2 of their metropolis update (split into Byzantium and Constantinople).*

A quick analysis of the hard fork

Ethereum's fork is exciting and new but there are many differing views on the topic. Let's take a quick look at the good sides and the bad about this update:

Pros:

This decision is only set to improve the currency and there will likely be no disagreements which are good for the future of the coin.
There are a number of large exchanges that support the upgrade including Binance, Bittrex and Huobi.*
The price of Ethereum has been steadily rising despite the incoming changes which suggest the spread of hard fork news is actually attracting more people to the coin.

Cons:

Ethereum's upgrade might create problems like the last version. Previously, a vulnerability was spotted 48 hours* before its launch causing a delay. It created a potential loophole that would give hackers a free pass to steal user funds. They could use a ‘re-entry attack', allowing them to repeat the same function multiple times without the user being alerted to the changes. Essentially enabling them to withdraw funds forever. Yikes!*
Block rewards will be lowered to 2 ETH. This will negatively affect miners as they have already been struggling with the price decline and will now have to deal with an additional lowering of the reward.*

The more you know

We hope that you are now more clued up about the Constantinople hard fork. As always, if you found this article interesting, share it with a friend and comment your thoughts down below. Happy trading!

Sources:

Constantinople: All you need to know about Ethereum’s Hard Fork