Ethereum Istanbul Upgrade Announcement | Ethereum Foundation Blog

The Ethereum community might be present process a scheduled improve at block quantity 9,069,000, which is predicted to happen on Saturday, December 7, 2019. The precise date is topic to vary resulting from variable block occasions and timezones.

Please improve your node earlier than Sunday, December 1, 2019 to account for the variable block occasions

Ethernodes.org has kindly offered Istanbul node statistics and a countdown timer positioned at https://ethernodes.org/istanbul. etherscan.io has offered a countdown timer positioned at https://etherscan.io/block/countdown/9069000. You possibly can monitor the community improve in actual time at http://forkmon.ethdevops.io/.

What’s Istanbul?

Istanbul is the identify given to this community improve. Earlier community upgrades have been given different names comparable to Costantinople, Spurious Dragon, and Byzantium.

As an Ethereum consumer or ether holder is there something I have to do?

Should you use an alternate (comparable to Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance), an online pockets service (comparable to Metamask, MyCrypto, or MyEtherWallet), a cell pockets service (comparable to Coinbase Pockets, Standing.im, or Belief Pockets), or a {hardware} pockets (comparable to Ledger, Trezor, or KeepKey) you don’t want to do something until you’re knowledgeable to take further steps by your alternate or pockets service.

As a node operator or miner, what do I have to do?

Obtain the most recent model of your Ethereum shopper:

NOTE: Concord (ethereumJ) is now a deprecated shopper and won’t be supporting Istanbul. Besu is a mainnet appropriate Ethereum shopper written in Java.

What occurs if I’m a miner or node operator and I don’t take part within the improve?

In case you are utilizing an Ethereum shopper that isn’t up to date to the most recent model (listed above), your shopper will sync to the pre-fork blockchain as soon as the improve happens. You’ll be caught on an incompatible chain following the previous guidelines and you’ll be unable to ship ether or function on the post-upgrade Ethereum community.

What’s a community improve in Ethereum-land?

A community improve is a change to the underlying Ethereum protocol, creating new guidelines to enhance the system. The decentralized nature of blockchain programs makes a community improve harder. Community upgrades in a blockchain require cooperation and communication with the group, in addition to with the builders of the assorted Ethereum shoppers to ensure that the transition to go easily.

What occurs throughout a community improve?

After the group involves an settlement regarding which modifications needs to be included within the improve, modifications to the protocol are written into the assorted Ethereum shoppers, comparable to geth, Parity, and Nethermind. The protocol modifications are activated at a particular block quantity. Any nodes that haven’t been upgraded to the brand new ruleset might be deserted on the previous chain the place the earlier guidelines live on.

What modifications are going into Istanbul?

Modifications which might be carried out in Istanbul are outlined utilizing EIPs. Ethereum Enchancment Proposals (EIPs) describe requirements for the Ethereum platform, together with core protocol specs, shopper APIs, and contract requirements. Please see the EIP which catalogs particular modifications going into Istanbul at EIP-1679. Please additionally see this article from the Ethereum Cat Herders which summarizes all of the modifications and explains our intensive testing course of.

Thank You!

A giant due to the Ethereum group and to all Ethereum builders throughout all shoppers and platforms who got here collectively to offer enter, ideas, and contribution.

DISCLAIMER: That is an emergent and evolving extremely technical house. Should you select to implement the suggestions on this submit and proceed to take part, you need to be sure you perceive the way it impacts you. It’s best to perceive that there are dangers concerned together with however not restricted to dangers like sudden bugs. By selecting to implement these suggestions, you alone assume the dangers of the implications. This submit and suggestions will not be a sale of any form and don’t create any warranties of any form together with however not restricted to any referring to the Ethereum community or the Ethereum shoppers referred to herein.