Hardforks Constantinople and St. Petersburg were successful – matters could not be otherwise. Problems in the network will arise after some time – if they arise. But the price of ETH has not risen.
Halfway to serenity
Hardfork Constantinople – this is the third stage in the development of the Ethereum network on its path to perfection. More precisely, this is stage number 3.5. The first half of the third stage was Byzantium in October 2017, on the eve of the rise of cryptomarket. It was after it that on the ETH network, numerous projects of the ERC20 standard grew like mushrooms in the fall. The blockchain imperfection did not prevent them.
So what Vitalik Buterin want to improve? In essence, he is trying to go along the razor’s edge. On the one hand, to improve network stability. On the other hand, to eliminate hardware mining. For this, the transition from Proof Of Work (due to mining) to Proof Of Stake (due to the storage of coins) will be made. Constantinople creates the conditions for the activation of the Casper protocol, with which Ethereum will first switch to the hybrid PoW / PoS algorithm. In addition, miners are discouraged. Their reward reduced from 3 to 2 ETH per block. But payers will appreciate the reduction in the cost of transactions (optimization of Gas). Constantinople also reduces the power consumption of the network and improves speed. Further, as we know, Serenity is waiting for us – the final hardfork. Roughly – in 8 months. With it, the ETH blockchain will reach perfection, according to Vitalik, and users will reach nirvana, obviously. Otherwise, why would you give such name?
But in the community there are doubts about this. What kind of stability and serenity can we talk about if mining decreases or disappears? This will lead to a fall in the network hashrate and vulnerability to attacks. Probably, the result of these doubts was the indefinite behavior of the ETH after the upgrade. It is possible that it will remain so for a long time.
