Learn about the HF that was activated on the Ethereum blockchain this morning.

Let's break this down into simple and easy to digest points. Even though the changes made today ARE significant and will have a long lasting positive impact, lets keep it simple.

Today's HF [called Byzantium] is the first part of a larger upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain known as Metropolis. Byzantium aims to add/improve the following among others not discussed here;

• New functionality added to allow the handling and exchanging of data of unknown size. Previously smart contracts did not have as much flexibility, with data exchanges of this nature incurring high transaction fees.

• New functionality added to allow the stop of a contract execution and revert it to its original state. Previous methods often resulted in the user incurring extremely high fees for cancellation of a function, sometimes at no fault of the user. Fees for a cancelled traction can range from a few cents to thousands of dollars in some cases when extremely large transactions are cancelled.

• Improved network performance by reducing the number of “state root” calculations. This is a calculation that confirms each new entry and updates the state of the network. By reducing the computing power needed by the network, the hope is that we have opened the door to faster transaction processing time going forward.

• Improved privacy by introducing zksnark protocols, known as Zero Knowledge Proof. This helps conceal transaction details including identity and contract changes. By limiting public access to this knowledge it makes hacking the network significantly more difficult.

• The beginning of a shift from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake by increasing mining difficulty. The shift in mining rewards from 5 ETH down to 3 ETH per verified block is known as Ice Age.

That's it for now...

Next up we will see the Constantinople and Serenity hard forks as set forth in Ethereums 2017 Road Map which you can check out here; Ethereum 2017 Road Map

Plus a video by one of my favourite YouTubers Ivan on Tech >>

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