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What to Expect From the Qtum Hard Fork 30 April
QTUM hard fork allows for faster block creation and the addition of a multi-threaded optimised staker (which reduces the usage of computer resources) is available for immediate use with the v0.20.2 update.
QTUM founder Patrick Dai announced on Twitter the release of Fast Lane v0.20.2. According to the tweet, it is estimated that the hard fork will take place on April 30.
Faster Block Creation
As detailed on QTUM blog and discussed in an interview, Jordan Earls (Co-Founder QTUM) stated that the hard fork “decreases our block time to 32 seconds, which means that on average every 32 seconds, a new block of transactions is appended to the blockchain. Instead of 128 seconds (about 2 minutes) as we had in the past.”
As seen by the increase of the network weight, the new staker is more efficient. If block are created more regularly, miners receive Qtum more regularly, resulting in faster validation of transactions and block creation.
The upgraded staker will benefit all stakers with reduced CPU utilization and multiple threads and will be especially beneficial for stakers with large (> 5,000) UTXO sets.
Qtum
Comparing the performance of v0.20.1 with the new staker in v0.20.2 on a Raspberry Pi 3B (4 core 1.2 GHz CPU with 1 GB RAM and swap file) on the testnet staking 10,000 UTXOs. As seen in the image below v0.20.1 runs Qtum-Qt with a steady 100% CPU utilization whereas v0.20.2 runs at only a few % CPU utilization. Showing that the update reduces computer resource usage for assisting in the Proof-of Stake consensus.
We believe proof of stake is the morally right thing to do instead of burning tons of electricity to throw it away on cryptographic hashes meeting some condition, and our algorithm is unique in that anyone can stake […].
Jordan Earls, Co-Founder QTUM
What about current native Qtum tokens?
QTUM is used both as a currency due to our UTXO compatibility and fuel to our smart contract ecosystem. Analogous to ETH in Ethereum, QTUM is used to fuel the smart contract that builds out our DeFi money legos, among other things.
Jordan Earls, Co-Founder QTUM
This is a hard fork to upgrade features on the blockchain, and no new coin will be created. The upgrade for the hard fork only applies to the Qtum Core wallets Qtum-Qt and qtumd, no other wallets.
Jackson Belove on Qtum blog
An Exciting Year for Qtum
Qtum is also looking towards the DeFi and DApp space in the future. The project is in a unique position where they can combine the security aspects of the Bitcoin Protocol and Ethereum smart contracts so that they can enable products like NFTs, exchanges, and DeFi functionality.
Author
Robert Drage
Robert is a freelance researcher, with a background in information science currently interested in blockchain technology and technical developments in the field.
