The ethereum core developers annual YouTube conference has taken place. The main topics for discussion were client implementation progress and enterprise integration patterns (EIPs) tests for the soon to be released Constantinople hard fork.
The first subjects to be discussed were the updates of the no-proof blockchain tests together with the advances made on prominent ETH users. An instability in a recent miner rewrite was discovered, however, the upcoming update should resolve it.
Regarding the Constantinople hard fork, not much has altered over the last fortnight. A few bug fixes and a few small changes for the testnet. It was said EIP-1211, an interface for ownership of a non-fungible asset or multi-class item, will not make the hard fork.
A consensus was reached by the devs that it is better to keep to the schedule and deliver hew hard forks on time, instead of hurriedly implementing ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs), or postponing completed ones whilst waiting for other to be finished.
The matter of whether it’s better to have “many changes in one fork, or it’s better to have less changes in many hard forks,” was also raised, since getting all the possible available EIPs ready for the upcoming hard fork is impossible.
Eight months was decided to be the most reasonable interval to release new hard forks after the Constantinople hard fork, as six months per new release would be putting too much strain on the developers.
The possibility of creating a “difficulty bomb” was discussed and how it would effect block rewards, mainly their reduction and maintenance. Three consequent EIPs were considered, two that would decrease the rewards per block to 1 and 2 ETH, and one that would keep the reward level to 3 ETH per block. Other aspects such as the proof-of-work (Pow) structure might also be affected by this. To establish a preferred scenario, the developers await the response of the ethereum community, as they couldn’t reach an agreeable decision. Because of this, another conference was announced to be held on August 31.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
- In anticipation of the upcoming Constantinople hard fork, we have gotten an inside look at the discussions at the developer's table.
- It's good to know that the Ethereum developers are concerned with trying to improve the ethereum experience and that they are concerned with the opinion of their community.