The Ethereum Foundation has announced the next big update for the blockchain of the second largest cryptocurrency. The update should bring more security and lower fees.

After months of planning, the Ethereum Foundation has announced the next big update. It should be called “Berlin” and be implemented with block number 12.244.000 in the mainnet of the Ethereum blockchain – this block is expected to be reached on April 14, 2021. “Berlin” follows the updates “Istanbul” and “Muir Glacier”, which took place at the end of 2019.

Ethereum update “Berlin”: Node operators should upgrade

Node operators, according to the Ethereum Foundation in a corresponding blog post, should prepare accordingly and set up their node “as soon as possible ”to a version compatible with the“ Berlin ”update for the testnets and from April 7th for the mainnet. The upgrade has been live on the “Ropsten” test network since Wednesday. “Goerli” and “Rinkeby” will follow on March 17 and 24, respectively. The Ethereum Foundation has provided the corresponding download link here.

In total, the “Berlin” update is intended to provide four suggestions for improving the Ethereum network implemented. These are primarily used to protect the network and, in certain cases, could also lead to lower transaction costs, as can be read in a medium article. The actual goal is not to lower the often lamented, sometimes high, transaction costs. The focus is on the EIP 1559 improvement proposal, which has been discussed for a long time and which was only recently decided against the majority opinion of the community. However, this is not found in the current upgrade.

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” London “-Update for cost reduction only in July

The innovation should ultimately make the Ethereum network cheaper and faster by restructuring the transaction fees. In the future, instead of the newly determined gas fees, there will be an algorithmically determined base fee, i.e. a base fee that does not have to be auctioned for each transaction. EIP 1559 should come in the “London” update following “Berlin”, which is expected for July.

It applies to Ethereum investors and interested parties to keep an eye on the two update dates. Because price fluctuations are to be expected during this period. In theory, at least at Block-Builders.de, the “Berlin” update could also provoke a hard fork if Ethereum miners and node operators did not pull together. The ETH rate is currently fluctuating around the $ 1,800 mark. The previous all-time high was reached on February 20th: $ 2,036.29 according to Coinmarketcap.

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