Ethereum’s long-awaited London hard fork — which earlier was expected to go live this month — is now going to launch on August 4 between 13:00 UTC and 17:00 UTC with block 12,965,000, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko said in a recent blog post.
Fast facts
- Following the successful release of its three testnets, Ropsten, Goerli and Rinkeby, London is one more upgrade on the road to full implementation of Ethereum 2.0, which will transition the popular blockchain network from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.
- The London fork will implement five much anticipated Ethereum Improvement Proposals. EIP 1559 will makes fees less inflationary and more predictable, which is controversial as it will decrease miner revenue. EIP 3554 will delay the difficulty adjustment until December in preparation for the network’s shift to proof-of-stake.
- This big upgrade comes amid news that Ethereum’s total network hashrate has declined 19% in the past month, according to analytics site Etherscan.io. After reaching a high of 643.81 TH/s in May, the hashrate saw a steep decline, falling to 477.535 on June 26. It has since leveled off, however, and was 513.556 TH/s at publishing time.
- Mirroring a similar decline in BTC’s hashrate, this trend would suggest the recent crackdown on crypto mining in China is affecting the number of miners participating in the Ethereum network. A network’s hashrate refers to the level of computational power required to secure it. The lower the hashrate, the greater the likely amount of Ether mined per unit of computing power.