5 EIPs You Need to Know about Ethereum Constantinople, St. Petersburg

Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency in the world. Unlike Bitcoin, it’s not just a coin. It’s a platform used to build decentralized apps (and do many other things).



To that end, Ethereum’s rollout is divided into 4 stages: Frontier, Homestead, Metropolis, and Serenity. We are currently in the Homestead stage – but soon, the first part of the Metropolis code update will go live. That update is called Constantinople.



Technically speaking, Constantinopole is going to be a hard fork. On this page, we’ll explain what that means, how this update is going to change Ethereum, and why you should care.



What’s a blockchain fork?

A blockchain fork is an event that divides a blockchain into two new ledgers with different data about past transactions. It is, as the name suggests, a fork in the road of sorts.



There are two types of forks. Some forks are soft, meaning they are backward-compatible thanks to following the old consensus rules.



That might sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo, but it basically means that the general rules governing how a blockchain works don’t change. After a soft fork happens, old blockchain entries still make sense because the rules haven’t changed drastically.



Things are different with a hard fork. These change the rules so much that old entries might no longer make sense. This also means that miners, wallet owners, and everyone else need to update the code they use to make sure they retain access to the blockchain.



Ethereum’s Constantinople is a hard fork. It’s scheduled to happen on February 27 2019, at which point the following changes will happen.



How’s Constantinople going to change Ethereum?

The Constantinopole hard fork is going to update Ethereum’s blockchain with 5 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). These are:



EIP 145 introduces a feature known as bitwise shifting, wherein code can be processed at a fraction of its current cost. This update will make apps like CryptoKitties fast and inexpensive.

EIP 1052 improves large-scaled code execution by letting the blockchain check contracts’ hash, or ID code, rather than the entire contract. This saves developers a tremendous amount of processing power (and money). EIP 1283 cuts off superfluous gas usage, meaning smart contracts require far less money and clog up the network less. EIP 1014 is a bit of a special update. It was created by Vitalik Buterin: the mastermind behind Ethereum. Its goal is to let Ethereum communicate with off-chain addresses, greatly improving the scalability and interoperability of the system. Last but not least is EIP 1234, whose purpose is to reduce the block reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH for 12 months. It also removes Ethereum’s difficulty bomb feature which constantly increases the difficulty of mining new blocks.

Why do these changes matter?

Although Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency by total market capitalization, its primary use is running decentralized apps.



To this end, it matters that Ethereum can process transactions quickly, easily, and without overtaxing the miners working the network. And that’s exactly what all of these EIPs are all about: optimizing the blockchain and improving its efficiency.



A prior Ethereum fork – Byzantium – boosted the cryptocurrency’s value significantly. This suggests now may be a good time to start buying. If you want an easy way to do so with cash, card, or any other payment method, consider CoinCola.com: the world’s cheapest OTC marketplace for crypto.



