Cardano commences long-awaited Vasil hard fork
IO announced that the changes to the Cardano testnet will take effect on July 3, while the mainnet will go through the Vasil hard fork four weeks after that.
Input-Output (IO), the company behind the Cardano blockchain, announced today it has submitted the long-awaited update proposal to hard fork the Cardano testnet.
Changes from the Vasil hard fork are set to take effect on July 3.
Vasil is finally coming to Cardano
Set to bring speed and scaling improvements to the Cardano network, the Vasil hard fork has been one of the most awaited events in the Cardano community. The Vasil hard fork will incorporate new technologies into Cardano, allowing for more efficient block propagation and improving data storage and access.
IO said that this was Cardano’s “biggest and best” upgrade to date, adding that it will also bring much-improved script performance, efficiency, and drastically lower costs.
“It is also the most complex program of work weโve undertaken. And the whole community is involved.”
As of June 28, over 75% of testnet blocks were being created by the newly deployed Vasil node, which IO deemed enough to safely proceed with the upgrade. All of the changes Vasil brings will take effect after the start of epoch 215 at 20:20 UTC on July 3.
Once the Vasil hard fork is implemented to the Cardano testnet, staking pool operators (SPOs), developers, and exchanges will have around four weeks to test and upgrade before the Cardano mainnet is hard forked.
“Once everyone is comfortable and ready, we’ll go through the same process to upgrade the mainnet to Vasil,” IO said in a tweet.
The news comes less than a week after IO announced that it had delayed the Vasil hard fork due to outstanding bug issues. At the time, none of the bugs were classified as “severe,” but the company decided to allow more time for testing, scheduling the mainnet release date to the last week of July.