Ethereum Developers to Postpone Constantinople Hard Fork until January 2019

Developer Afri Schoeden argued during the meeting: "I keep getting the feeling that we're trying to rush this and I would second that we should breathe here and see what happens." The team agreed.

Constantinople is one element of Ethereum's four-phase development roadmap, designed to streamline the protocol and remove unnecessary technical components. The upgrade marks a step toward moving the network from Proof-of-Work consensus to Proof-of-Stake, a transition that will span multiple releases.

The delay reopens a question developers had settled. Martin Holste Swende, security lead at the Ethereum Foundation, argued for using the extra time to include ProgPow, an alternative proof-of-work algorithm intended to reduce gains miners make from proprietary ASIC chips. At an earlier meeting, the team had rejected adding ProgPow to Constantinople, planning to assess it for Istanbul, the next hard fork set for mid-2019. But if Constantinople doesn't launch until January or February, Swende contended, the team should reconsider.

Hudson Jameson, communications officer for the Ethereum Foundation, raised a different issue. He said the team faces substantial work ahead to get the network ready for mainnet deployment. Coordinating with miners during the transition will require attention.