Bitbox, the cryptocurrency exchange of the popular messaging platform , has announced support for the upcoming Constantinople hard fork of Ethereum.
The fork is set to occur at the decided block height 7,080,000 which is expected to be achieved between the 10th to 16th of January. Bitbox will handle all the technical issues associated with the hard fork.
We are on track! Constantinople will most likely activate on Wednesday, Jan 16th, probably around 7am UTC. Current average block time is 14.48 seconds. 104407 blocks to go (6975593/7080000).
— Afri 🌩️ Jan 16 (@5chdn)
Constantinople is one of the much anticipated hard forks of Ethereum. This major upgrade of the network was finalized by Ethereum developers during a bi-weekly meeting held on December 7, 2018. This fork will implement five different Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) which will permanently alter the blockchain with a host of new backwards-incompatible upgrades.
This will force all Ethereum nodes to upgrade to the new software or run a completely separate blockchain based on the older version – a similar plan which resulted in the creation of Ethereum Classic after the DAO hack.
Keeping the possibility of chain split in mind, Bitbox assured that its users will be eligible for any airdrops during the hard fork period.
However, this upcoming hard fork will not change any services provided to end-users, as it’s mostly a “maintenance and optimization upgrade”, according to Ethereum developers. The fork will change the blockchain’s economic policy and fee structure, paving a simpler way towards its goal to be a .
Impact on ETH Trading
The approaching hard fork has made a huge impact on the coin’s trading volume in the last couple of weeks. Ethereum gained around 80 percent of its value since early December and the trend is going bullish – currently, ETH is trading at $153.5, as per Coinmarketcap.com. It has even toppled Ripple to regain its position to be the with a market worth of almost $16 billion.
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