(BlockBar) The plans to test a proposed upgrade for the blockchain network have been sped up by the ethereum classic developers. The move to ramp up the timeline came when a developer expressed a desire to see the system-wide upgrade, dubbed “Atlantis” which would occur sometime later this summer. It was agreed that the testnet activation of Atlantis could be brought up to two weeks from Thursday, or June 19, rather than committing to a mainnet activation date more than two months in advance of the original proposed timeline.
To be noted, the Atlantis upgrade introduces changes to the ethereum classic network. These were formally introduced on the original ethereum network back in 2017. The goal is to enhance interoperability between the two blockchains in such a way that migration of decentralized applications (dapps) from one blockchain to the other is easier. Some ecosystem participants hope to see Atlantis implemented on the main network as early as August, with a moderately sped-up timeline for testnet activation.
Ethereum classic came into form about following a fork of the ethereum network when the now-infamous collapse of The DAO which was a smart contract-based funding vehicle that failed following a debilitating code exploit. Hence, it arose amid disagreements over plans, which was to hard fork the network to effectively undo the damage caused by The DAO’s failure. This is to be noted that even the last week developers were in disagreement last week over certain components of Atlantis.
Even after facing so much of difficulty, no resolution to this disagreement has been made yet by the developers. However, during one more meeting, they did agree that another call would be coordinated for June 13, where further discussion would be held about the contents and schedule for the upgrade. Concerns had also been raised over the efficacy of making a fixed cap to the size of smart contract code on the blockchain a backwards-incompatible change – warranting a hard fork – as opposed to a backwards-compatible change which would not require a mandatory upgrade. One of the developers has been quoted “For now agreed to fork the testnets with everything included in [Atlantis] as it is, and reserve the option to modify mainnet spec and date in a subsequent call.”
