Cardano’s Chang Hard Fork To Launch Tomorrow — Here’s What You Should Expect

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The Chang hard fork, Cardano’s long-awaited upgrade, is set to go live by the end of this week, following confirmation from Intersect, a member-based organization of the Cardano ecosystem.

The update is part of Cardano’s roadmap to empower its community and improve the network’s democratic governance structure. With the major milestone just hours away, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about the Chang hard fork, what it will do, and what investors should expect from ADA’s price action.

Hard fork Chang — “The age of Voltaire is soon upon us”

Since its launch in 2017, Cardano has gone through four distinct eras, including Byron, Shelley, Goguen, and Basho, each focusing on specific functionalities and improvements to the blockchain platform.

After the Basho era, Cardano is moving into the Voltaire era, which it describes as “the final pieces needed for the Cardano network to become a self-sustaining system.”

For the age of Voltaire, Cardano aims to become a fully decentralized blockchain where ADA holders can directly participate in the decision-making process and contribute to the development of the network.

The upcoming Chang fork is the first step in the transition to the Voltaire era. Technically, it is an update to the blockchain that introduces radical changes to its protocol. For the hard fork to take effect, all nodes or computers running the blockchain must upgrade to the new software.

What will the Chang hard fork do for the network?

As part of its goal of achieving community-run governance, Chang Cardano’s hard fork is expected to introduce a number of advanced governance features. In addition, the upgrade will also aim to improve the scalability and security of Cardano.

The Chang hard fork is divided into two parts: the first focuses on establishing the necessary governance frameworks, and the second will enhance these frameworks with more advanced features.

Part 1: A transition to community governance

The initial update will initiate the technical bootstrapping process, which has been in the works for several weeks. It involves a working group that reviews the progress and ensures that the ecosystem is ready for the fork.

In this phase, the hard fork will introduce the Cardano Interim Constitution, a temporary governance structure to guide Cardano’s transition to full community control, and the Interim Constitutional Committee (ICC), a temporary governance body that will oversee initial governance actions and will uphold the principles of the provisional constitution.

The ICC will have the power to veto proposals by chain vote. The first phase aims to lay the groundwork for the transition to decentralized governance, where ADA holders will begin to have a say in decision-making processes.

Part 2: Full Decentralization

Expected to roll out about three months after the first phase, probably in Q4 2024, the second phase will enable advanced governance features. The goal is to enable full decentralized governance.

In this phase, the upgrade will introduce a new governance body called Delegated Representatives (DReps), which will facilitate decentralized decision-making and represent the interests of ADA holders.

This phase will also involve the implementation of on-chain voting mechanisms, allowing ADA holders to directly propose and vote on governance actions. Cardano aims to make the full transition to a community-based decision-making model in this phase.

In addition to decentralized governance, the Chang Hard Fork also aims to improve Cardano’s scalability, increasing transaction throughput from around 250 transactions per second (TPS) to over 1,000 TPS. It will implement advanced security protocols to protect against common threats.

When exactly will the hard Chang fork happen?

In June, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said that Cardano will soon enter the Voltaire era after the release of Node 9.0. A month after Hoskinson’s statement, Cardano released Node 9.0, paving the way for the Chang hard fork.

The Chang hard fork was initially delayed due to concerns about exchange liquidity, but has now been rescheduled with most of the ecosystem ready.

Intersect has confirmed that the Chang fork is scheduled for September 1, 2024 at 21:45 UTC. The decision to implement the hard fork was made by a unanimous vote by key stakeholders, including Intersect, Emurgo, the Cardano Foundation, and Input Output (IOHK).

The hard fork working group also confirmed that sufficient readiness has been achieved in various sectors of the Cardano ecosystem:

• Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) demonstrated high readiness, with over 90% of exchanges being prepared.
• Decentralized applications (DApps) have shown strong adoption with over 50% of the total value locked.
• No serious problems were reported.

If all goes according to plan, the Chang hard fork will launch later this week.

Binance said in an August 30 announcement that it will support Cardano’s Chang hard fork. The exchange will temporarily stop ADA token deposits and withdrawals during the update process.

Another major exchange, Bitget, is also in the process of updating its systems to support the update.

Will the hard fork affect ADA supports?

The Chang hard fork is not expected to directly affect ADA holders. If you only hold ADA in a wallet, you don’t need to take any special action before or after the hard fork. Your ADA balance and transaction history will remain intact.

For ADA holders who stake their tokens, the hard fork may have some indirect effects:

• Stake Rewards: Improvements to network scalability and performance could lead to higher staking rewards over time.
• Decentralization: By enabling community governance, the hard fork aims to further decentralize the network. This can enhance the security of staked ADA by reducing the risks associated with staking in a single pool.

What should we expect from ADA’s price action?

According to data from TradingView, ADA rose more than 140% less than two months before Alonzo hard fork release in September 2021. However, the crypto-asset suffered a major setback following the upgrade, likely due to the general market downturn.

The Vasil hard fork, which went live on the mainnet in September 2022, had little impact on the ADA price due to prevailing bear market conditions. The upgrade did not lead to a significant price appreciation, the data show.

With a focus on redefining Cardano’s governance, the upcoming Chang hard fork is expected to attract more developers, users and investors to the ecosystem, potentially increasing the value of ADA.

However, historical data suggests that the hard fork alone does not guarantee a price increase. The price of ADA will ultimately depend on various market factors and the general adoption and use of the Cardano network.

ADA is currently trading near $0.35, having seen a slight increase over the past 24 hours.

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