Ethereum (ETH) Developer: “No Constantinople” Hard Fork in 2018

The much-awaited Constantinople hard fork face yet another setback last week after an alleged “consensus” issue caused developers to term the testnet “not usable,” as per a tweet from Ethereum infrastructure firm Infura on Oct.13.

Constantinople Delayed

As stated by several Ethereum developers, the Constantinople became active on the Ropsten testnet at block no. 4,230,00. However, testing results caused consensus issues on Ropsten, which led developer Afri Schoedon to note that while developers are actively investigating the issue, there would be “no Constantinople” in 2018.

no constantinople in 2018, we have to investigate

— 𝙰𝚏𝚛𝚒 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚗 (@5chdn) October 13, 2018

Infura further advised developers and Ethereum enthusiasts to utilize testnets other than Ropsten while the issue is being investigated.

Schoedon followed up his initial message with another note on Oct. 14, during the Ethereum core developers’ call. All developers unanimously agreed that further “major issues” on Ropsten would cause the Constantinople hard fork to be indefinitely delayed. The next call is slated for Oct. 19, and the community was asked to keep track of developments until then.

To add to this, we just agreed on the last all-core-dev call on Friday that we will not be able to activate Constantinople this year if there are any major issues on Ropsten.

Everyone, stay tuned for the Ropsten Constantinople call on next Friday.

— 𝙰𝚏𝚛𝚒 𝚂𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚎𝚍𝚘𝚗 (@5chdn) October 14, 2018

For the uninitiated, the Constantinople hard fork is a system-wide Ethereum update to improve the network’s efficiency, apart from drastically enhancing the user experience for both developers and end-users. One of the most significant changes is the reduction of blockchain reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH every 14 seconds, which helps to keep the protocol’s inflation rate in control. Currently, the inflation rate is 7.4 percent per annum.

Eric Conner, one of the most prominent Ethereum proponents, stated earlier in a blog post that the 33 percent in block rewards will “drastically improve” inflation rate. However, the broader cryptocurrency community has pointed out the move can lead to a Bitcoin halving-like event; which saw the pioneer cryptocurrency’s prices dump in the days leading to the halving, and “moon” following the development.

With EIP-1234 in place, here are updated Ethereum issuance numbers in 2019.

In summary, a lot of unnecessary selling pressure is now out of the market and inflation is around 4.7%. pic.twitter.com/DbHFUWZhza

— Eric Conner (@econoar) August 31, 2018

Meanwhile, the Ropsten testnet arrived ahead of schedule in late-2016, which at the time, was received by the community as a positive sign of the upcoming Constantinople testnet. However, coming closer to the latter’s block launch threw up several inconsistencies, followed by waning sentiment for the update.