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Crypto Terms:  Letter B
Jun 19, 2023 |
updated Apr 02, 2024

What is Byzantium Fork?

Byzantium Fork Meaning:
Byzantium Fork - is a blockchain update that improves security, privacy, and scalability.
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Let's find out Byzantium Fork meaning, definition in crypto, what is Byzantium Fork, and all other detailed facts.

The Byzantium fork is an upgrade to Ethereum’s blockchain, was executed in October 2017, at block 4,370,000.

To be exact, Byzantium hard fork is a very important addition to Ethereum’s blockchain. It was developed to allow speedier transactions and increased security on its blockchain the same time making smart contracts acceptable for business operations.

In fact, Ethereum has nine EIPs-Ethereum Improvement Protocols.

In blockchain development, "forks" are the substantial changes to the software protocol. Because hard forks do not work with earlier software versions, node operators must be up to date with the most recent version. Also, soft forks are backward-compatible, so the network stays intact when the majority of nodes switch to the new software.

The Byzantium fork is trying to help smart contracts and increase the usage of Ethereum. At the same time the hard fork was released, the price of the cryptocurrency increased significantly. After that, the number of transactions on ETH outmatched those of BTC.

Transactions in the Merkle tree were referenced as a root parameter. But the Byzantium hard fork upgraded this feature by implementing the transaction status communication protocol in consecutive blocks.

It enabled Ethereum's network to address the lack of parallel computing in order to speed up chain construction. Additionally, it enabled the construction of continuous transaction sequences, which implies that blocks in the Byzantium hard fork can process multiple transactions while just notifying success or failure.

Keeping that in mind, this particular addition makes it possible for Ethereum to complete transactions in a faster manner.

The Byzantium update includes Ethereum-native programming to reduce power consumption during the implementation of zk-SNARKS. To put it another way, it's zero-knowledge cryptography. The data cannot be viewed, but it can be confirmed by several parties.

The use of this privacy standard in Bitcoin exchanges is increasing by the day.

With the Byzantium reward, block rewards have been lowered from five ether per block to three ether per block. This move is in line with Ethereum's long-term objective of replacing block rewards with a Proof-of-stake protocol.

Ethereum switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, and this protocol has been adopted by Cardano, Dash, and a number of other cryptocurrencies. Furthermore, it might help to accelerate Ethereum blockchain transactions.

The eight upgrades in the Byzantium fork:

  • Revert opcodes.
  • A status field for transaction receipts.
  • A new mathematical model.
  • Support for specific signature verifications.
  • Support for variable values.
  • STATICCALL opcode.
  • Changes in the formula behind the difficulty adjustment to account for ommer blocks.
  • Delayed the difficulty bomb encouraging miners to switch to Proof-of-Stake.

The new contracts will make sure that computation-intensive processes are done directly on the CPY instead of using the Ethereum client.