According to an internal document published on Nov. 23, Ethereum developers are quietly discussing an upgrade that has the potential to boost the capabilities of the tech more aggressively in the short-term.
The document published on Github details four meetings that took place at the end of October at the Devcon4 conference. The minutes refer to the upgrade “ethereum 1x,” that could be possibly updated in June 2019.
The Could See The Ethereum Virtual Machine Replaced
The document was published by Greg Colvin, an engineer of the ethereum virtual machine. Even though they were previously undisclosed, one attendee who wished to stay anonymous has verified the minutes. Adding that the developers believe that it’s too early stage to discuss the proposals publicly.
However, it appears not all developers were notified of the potential upgrade. One individual is Afri Schoedon, the release manager for the parity Ethereum client. In a statement posted on Github, he claims he was unaware of the document or any plans of an impending upgrade.
Ethereum like all public blockchain networks requires a distributed consensus among the users of the software before any changes to its rules. However developers usually suggest code changes.
In one of the meetings, the attendees included Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum, Joseph Lubin the founder of Consensys Systems and other notable community organizers and developers such as Hudson Jameson, Peter Szilagyi, and Lane Rettig.
According to the notes, it seems ethereum developers may be under pressure to boost their public roadmap in ways that will add improvements on the network at an accelerated timeline. Several changes were discussed in the meetings.
The developers hope to include them in a system-wide upgrade or hard fork that could be implemented by June of next year.
The potential upgrades include replacing the ethereum virtual machine (EVM) which is responsible for processing the smart contract code.
The update will introduce “rent” or storage fees for smart contracts that will seek to stem the growth of the ethereum blockchain which has to be downloaded by all participating nodes.
The ethereum blockchain currently stands at around one terabyte on a full archive node)
Basil has three years of freelance experience writing on disruptive technologies. He focuses on breaking news and education pieces; helping to spread the gospel of Blockchain. He hopes to have his own blockchain company one day; helping the world through its innovative ledger technology.
