Ethereum Constantinople Hard Fork — What you need to know and do about it!

In a previous video, I talked about the upcoming Constantinople hard fork for the Ethereum network. We looked at the fixes that the hard fork would be bringing and whether they would be enough to save Ethereum from what looked like a price collapse. Clearly, it was as the price has rallied very strongly since the beginning of January.

With the hard fork approaching us on the 16th of January I thought it would be important to answer a few more questions about Constantinople. Will this cause a split in the Ethereum community? Could a new coin be created? What do I need to do with my Ethereum during the upgrade? Should I be sending my Ether to anyone for the upgrade? If you haven’t heard about Ethereum Nowa should you watch this video? I would highly recommend it but to find out let’s take a look.

So Constantinople is the planned upgrade to the Ethereum network and as I explained in the video linked above it was planned to implement five Ethereum Improvement Proposals. These proposals will improve processing efficiency on the blockchain, a better scaling solution based on “off-chain” transactions. Optimization of large-scale code executions and most importantly a reduction in the mining rewards from 3 Ether to 2 Ether per block and a 12-month delay of the Difficulty bomb.

When Constantinople was announced it caused some concerns, the last time that Ethereum went through a hard fork was in 2016 which created the split in the blockchain resulting in the creation of Ethereum Classic. We know that Ethereum classic has just experienced a 51% attack resulting in massive problems for Ethereum classic and its holders.

The great news so far is that the hard fork appears to be non-contentious. None of the key players in the development community or even in the mining community have voiced any strong objections to the fork or intentions of creating a split. This means there shouldn’t be a new coin as a result.

So if the split is unlikely what do you need to do with your Ethereum in preparation for the fork? Well, that’s easy please send all of your Ethereum to the following address and you’ll have your upgraded Ethereum sent back to you after the fork. NO!! Don’t do that.

Unfortunately, there have already been some scamsters tweeting out that the upgrade requires a token/coin swap. Ethereum Nowa is the most prominent one on Twitter at the moment.

They are claiming the hard fork will result in a split and that their token ETN will be the result of the split. Fortunately, it seems that most people are aware its a scam as of the time making this video Ethereum Nowa has only taken $810 according to their Ethereum address on the site.

The truth is if you have your ether in a wallet then there’s nothing you need to do. Binance, OKEx and Huobi have all confirmed they will also support the Constantinople upgrade. This means your coins will be okay on those exchanges but if you’re with someone else it might be best to get them in your wallet or to check with the exchange. In all honesty though for security, in general, you shouldn’t be leaving any coins on an exchange if you’re not trading them.

As long as there isn’t a last minute coup or break among the Ethereum community then the upgrade should be a smooth process. I wouldn’t be surprised if the price drops immediately after the fork. Some investors may get nervous about whether the fork will work properly and might sell in fear. If all goes well I think that Ethereum will bounce back strong this year. The real test will be later this year when the switch to proof of stake is due to occur. This is when a split in the chain is more of a possibility as it will be the move to ProgPow that will disenfranchise the Ethereum mining community.

I would recommend that Ethereum holders move their tokens over to their wallets for the fork and whatever you do don’t go sending your ether to addresses on twitter or websites.

Do you think this will save Ethereum? Or is it just buying them time? Is a real split in the chain inevitable? What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. We really like to hear your thoughts on the stories we run so please get involved.

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Disclaimer: Cryptopig content is written by a team of blockchain passionate people. We are not registered as investment advisors. Don’t take the information in this post as investment advice and make sure you do your own research before investing. Cryptocurrencies are a very risky investment, never invest more money than you can afford to lose.