The Altair hard fork, the first update to Ethereum’s beacon chain (ETH) mainnet, will go into effect on Oct. 27.
The update is considered a “stack prep” for the upcoming Merge, when Ethereum’s current mainnet, which is protected by a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, will “merge” with the beacon chain proof-of- stake (PoS).
According to the Ethereum Foundation, this update brings lightweight client support to the main consensus, cleans up beacon state incentive accounting, fixes some issues with validator incentives, and increases punitive parameters.
The Altair update may be the only update to the beacon chain, which was activated in December last year, before Ethereum switched to the PoS consensus mechanism.
The beacon chain introduced staking to the Ethereum ecosystem. As of now, however, users who engage in ETH staking cannot withdraw their coins until the full transition from PoW to PoS.
Tim Beiko, a lead developer at Ethereum, says the update would make it easier for people to interact with the network, charge the penalty to inactive stakers, and ensure that the network can be updated on the beacon chain smoothly.
According to NodeWatch’s data, at the time of writing, 86 percent of Ethereum nodes are Altair-ready.
The Altair update comes less than three months after the activation of the highly anticipated London hard fork.
As of 13:19 UTC, ETH is trading at $4.119 and is up nearly 2% in one day and 7% in one week.
