Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has confirmed a delay in the upcoming upgrade through a post on X. Although the Chang update is ready, the decision to postpone was made to give Binance and other platforms additional time to prepare for the hardfork.
What is the Chang Hardfork?
The Chang hardfork marks the beginning of Cardano’s Voltaire era, which will introduce decentralized governance mechanisms and on-chain voting to the network.
What’s Next?
A recent update on the ecosystem’s readiness for Cardano’s Chang hardfork pointed to a potential mainnet launch on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. However, the team has also set August 23 as the final date to decide whether to proceed or delay further.
This decision is crucial because, although Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) have upgraded 80% of their systems to version 9.1.0, exchanges and decentralized applications are lagging. Exchange liquidity, a significant factor, remains a concern. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, is among the key platforms yet to fully update.
Cardano must wait for these exchanges to transition to version 9.1.0 of the blockchain network’s software. Despite the delay, Hoskinson reassures the community that “nothing” will prevent the Chang hardfork from occurring.
According to data on the Chang upgrade readiness page, 83% of SPOs have already upgraded to 9.1.0, while exchange liquidity currently stands at 46%. The target threshold is 85%.
Cardano estimates that reaching this target would allow the next hardfork to take place on September 1, 2024.
