Ethereum Developers Pencil In January for Eth 1.x ‘Berlin’ Hard Fork
Ethereum’s “Berlin” hard fork remains a few months away at best, according to the All Core Developers bi-weekly call held Friday. A soft target of January is now in the works, following the planned launch of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain in December.
Berlin is a hard fork of the current Eth 1.x proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain. The systemwide upgrade – which includes low-level changes for improving the original mainchain while Eth 2.0 is under construction – was originally planned for July, but was pushed back this summer due to burnout of client employees and a perceived need for higher client diversity.
Since then, the process for including Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) and which ones will end up in the hard fork has shifted.
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Berlin was scheduled to have three EIPs as of June:
EIP-2315: Simple Subroutines for the EVM
EIP-2929: Gas cost increases for state access opcodes
EIP-2537: BLS12–381 curve operations
However, EIP-2537 will no longer be included in Berlin. That EIP would make it easier for the Eth 2.0 blockchain and Eth 1.x blockchain to speak with each other by using a similar cryptographic setup.
Read more: Ethereum Developers Delay Berlin Hard Fork to Stem Client Centralization Concerns
The two other EIPs will be included in a short-run testnet dubbed “YOLO v3” set to release in the upcoming weeks.
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Other important EIPs such as EIP-1559, which restructures Ethereum’s transaction model, will not be included in Berlin.
Watch a recording of the call below:
