Ethereum Classic Successfully Executes 'Atlantis' Hard Fork

Ethereum classic

has successfully enacted a system-wide software upgrade as part of a bid to increase its interoperability with ethereum, the blockchain that split off from its codebase in 2016

Dubbed "Atlantis," the hard fork requires all software users to upgrade their clients in order to stay within the rules of the network. According to a release by ethereum classic startup Ethereum Classic Labs, 10 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) were included in Atlantis to improve stability and performance and add opcodes, precompiled contracts, zk-SNARKs and enhanced security.

"And we are on Atlantis. Congratulations, everyone," said hard fork coordinator Afri Schoedon during a public call, while ETC Cooperative director of developer relations Yaz Khoury said on Twitter that this fork saw "one of the longest debates to reach consensus along with a lot of the immutability politics." He added:

"Learned a lot about the beauty of decentralization and a distributed community."

Previously slated for this summer, Atlantis was postponed over disagreements, particularly over EIP 170.

No single actor coordinated the hard fork. Rather, ETC Labs worked with Chainsafe System and ETC Cooperative, among other community members, on the hard fork.

As of earlier this week, some 60 percent of nodes and over 75 percent of hashing power had confirmed the upgrade. Major exchanges Coinbase, Poloniex, Binance, Bittrex, Kraken, Shapeshift and OKEx confirmed with ETC Labs that they have updated their software to support Atlantis.

Speaking with CoinDesk, ETC Lab’s CEO Terry Culver said Atlantis signals a desire to work with ethereum. Many of Atlantis’ EIPs have been on ethereum for years and should allow for more crossover between the platforms, especially for dapps.

“The hard fork clearly shows we are committed to compatibly and working with ethereum,” Culver said. “What we would like to do is find ways to make the two chains support one another.”

Ethereum is 2016 hard fork of ethereum classic following The DAO, a hacked funding mechanism causing a rift in the cryptocurrencies community. The projects remain separate, Culver told CoinDesk, but they still share many of the same goals.

While the hard fork was postponed, the process wasn't contentious, Culver said, adding:

"We believe in the strength of the public blockchain. It's really built on the strength for the community."

In the hours leading up to the hard fork, Digital Currency Group founder and CEO Barry Silbert dropped into a public Discord group for the ethereum classic community, joking that he was "looking forward to getting [his] Ethereum Classic Atlantis coins."

After the hard fork, he added, "Nice work everybody."

Ethereum classic image via Shutterstock