Byzantium Fork

November 21, 2023 - Around 2 mins mins to read

Understanding the Byzantium Fork

The Byzantium Fork is a significant upgrade to the blockchain of Ethereum, serving as the fifth upgrade. Its main objective is to improve the confidentiality, stability, and resilience of Ethereum, aligning with the nine Ethereum Improvement Protocols (EIPs).

In the field of blockchain development, fundamental modifications to the software protocol are referred to as “forks.” Soft forks are compatible with older software versions, as long as the majority of nodes update to the new software. On the contrary, hard forks are incompatible with older software versions, resulting in the division of the blockchain into two distinct pathways if any node operator fails to update.

The Byzantium Fork holds great importance in the Ethereum ecosystem. It was implemented in October 2017 as part of Metropolis, the third upgrade of Ethereum’s network, as outlined in the official Ethereum roadmap.

Prior to the Byzantium Fork, transactions in the Merkle tree were referenced as a root parameter. However, this upgrade introduced the transaction status communication protocol in consecutive blocks, enabling Ethereum’s network to overcome the unavailability of parallel processing and execute transactions more quickly. Additionally, the Byzantium Fork allows for the execution of multiple transactions in blocks, reporting their success or failure.

The Byzantium development includes four native Ethereum contracts designed to reduce power consumption for implementing zk-snarks, a privacy standard for future cryptocurrency transactions. These contracts ensure that computation-intensive activities are executed directly on the CPU, resulting in reduced power consumption.

With the Byzantium Fork, block rewards on Ethereum are reduced from five ether per block to three ether per block. This reduction aligns with Ethereum’s long-term goal of transitioning to a Proof of Stake mechanism and eliminating block rewards.

Ethereum currently utilizes the Ethash mechanism, a modification of Bitcoin’s Proof of Work algorithm. However, a shift to Proof of Stake, which is employed by various cryptocurrencies like Dash and Cardano, may help accelerate transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.

The Byzantium Fork aims to facilitate the widespread adoption of Ethereum and smart contracts. Since its implementation, the total number of transactions on Ethereum has surpassed that of Bitcoin, indicating a promising future for smart contracts.