The Cardano network is set to undergo yet another major upgrade. Intersect, a key member-based organization dedicated to the Cardano ecosystem, has revealed an official timeline for the highly-anticipated Chang hard fork.
Can the hard fork put wind in the ADA price’s sails?
Chang Scheduled To Launch On Aug. 27
Intersect announced on Tuesday that the Chang hard fork working group had met to review the progress against the set readiness thresholds, alongside considering community feedback and opinions.
“The group is excited to be able to formally propose the first set of dates for the Chang #1 hard fork on the production mainnet; the target for the mainnet hard fork is Tuesday 27th August, with a final go/no-go decision scheduled for early Friday 23rd August,” the announcement reads.
Intersect observed that up to 80% of network nodes, that is, stake pool operators (SPOs), have signaled readiness for the new Chang hard fork upgrade. These SPOs have demonstrated their readiness by installing the latest Cardano Node 9.1.0. validator software, an update that is a prerequisite for Chang. This marks a crucial milestone for the highly awaited upgrade.
“SPO-readiness was confirmed last week, the exchange liquidity metric is good and improving, and we have been receiving positive readiness updates from many leading DApps,” Intersect continued.
A thorough schedule of governance actions and signatures is required in preparation for Chang, which will begin four days before the hard fork. The working group stressed the significance of this stage, encouraging all stakeholders to finish their preparations. “The time to upgrade is now! If there is a specific reason or dependency that means your upgrade cannot be achieved, we need to know from you NOW,” Intersect posited.
The member-based organization indicated that the next potential window for Chang would be August 3rd, but current indications suggest August 27th is achievable, and that is what the upgrade’s technical teams are working towards.
Chang Hard Fork Promises Big Changes
The Chang hard fork is mainly focused on relieving Cardano’s development firm, IOG, of the responsibility of actively managing the blockchain. Instead, ADA holders will wholly run the blockchain, allowing them to contribute to the network’s overall growth.
Ultimately, the Chang hard fork upgrade will usher in a new era known as Voltaire, which promotes decentralized governance. As per governance forums, the first phase of Voltaire will entail implementing CIP 1694 — a proposal aimed at allowing ADA holders to vote on key topics and features that are advantageous to the Cardano ecosystem.
A second stage will enable more game-changing features, such as proxy participation and treasury withdrawals, letting users propose and fund projects within the ADA ecosystem.
A New Bullish Catalyst?
ADA is currently changing hands at $0.37, up 5% over the last 24 hours, according to data provided by CoinGecko. As reported by ZyCrypto earlier this week, Cardano fell out of the top 10 crypto coins by market value after Justin Sun’s Tron (TRX) leapfrogged it. Furthermore, ADA is down 88.5% from its $3.09 all-time high registered three years ago, in September 2021.
However, the token could experience a face-melting rally after the Chang hard fork goes live next week, as previous network upgrades, including Vasil and Alonzo, have led to bullish breakouts.
