Istanbul Testnets Are Coming!
<p>A network upgrade is a change to the Ethereum protocol, adding new rules to improve the system. These rules come in the form of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that define in technical terms the changes and features that should be implemented in a network upgrade.</p>
<p>Network upgrades can be planned or unplanned. Upgrades are also known as forks, and normally add features requested by users and developers of the protocol. Unplanned forks have also occurred in order to fix problems with the blockchain or to stop attacks. To date, there have been <a href="https://eth.wiki/en/roadmap/istanbul#context" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">7 hard forks</a> on Ethereum. The phrase ‘hard fork’ denotes a network update which is not fully backwards compatible, and has the potential to render some previous transactions invalid, and/or change the existing functionality of deployed contracts.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/ethereum-cat-herders/istanbul-testnets-are-coming-53973bcea7df"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>