As of press time, Ethereum has passed cake #9068000, putting it within 1000 blocks of the scheduled Istanbul hard fork, which should have identify at around 23:30 UTC.

The much-anticipated shift to Istanbul will exist the Ethereum network'due south first difficult fork since February's Constantinople. Both are stages of a broader stage of ongoing evolution that began in 2022 chosen Metropolis.

What is changing?

Cointelegraph has covered Ethereum'southward ongoing developments extensively, as have the developers. Broadly speaking, Istanbul should be streamlining the network in accordance with Metropolis'southward overall goals of scaling the network.

Specifically, Istanbul will expand interoperability with privacy token Zcash. The upgrade volition also make zk-SNARKs (Nil-Cognition Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Noesis) cheaper. zk-SNARKs permit users to demonstrate knowledge without exposing that knowledge — a technology disquisitional to Ethereum's recent privacy enhancements.

How to prepare?

Per a Nov. 20 web log post from the Ethereum Foundation, if you hold Ether (ETH) or utilise the network, you probably don't need to do anything unless you receive instructions otherwise from your exchange or wallet service.

If you are a miner or node operator, however, you will need to update your client to ensure that you are not suddenly stuck running obsolete once the difficult fork takes issue.

Future forks?

Ethereum's future beyond Istanbul remains unsettled. Fears of an impending Water ice Age in which block hashing slows down as the network shifts from proof-of-work (Pow) to proof-of-stake (PoS) verification have led to proposals for another Muir Glacier fork to soften the impact of the transition.

Otherwise, the next planned upgrade to the Ethereum network is called Berlin and is tentatively slated for Q2, though details as to what changes Berlin is going to implement remain limited and largely speculative.