Ethereum Classic May Delay Upcoming Hard Fork 'Atlantis'

Ethereum classic's open-source developer team failed to reach a consensus Thursday on whether to move forward with a forthcoming system-wide code upgrade as outlined, effectively sending the planned batch of upgrades back to a drafting stage.

Developers have been deliberating on a set of 10 proposals to be integrated into the protocol since February, an upgrade colloquially called "Atlantis." A continuation of the original ethereum blockchain, ethereum classic effectively broke away from the project in 2016, subsequently rising to a near $1 billion valuation, according to CoinMarketCap.

Still, while ethereum classic has strived to carve out a unique value proposition, its community has also been making greater efforts to introduce changes to the network that would make interoperability between the two blockchains easier.

Atlantis is the first of two protocol upgrades or hard forks aimed at incorporating the EIPs that have already been activated on ethereum in recent years.

"These upgrades would bring ETC up to date with ETH's latest protocol, making migration of dapps between the networks much easier," wrote Bob Summerwill, the executive director of Ethereum Classic Cooperative in an email newsletter back in May. Today, it was expected that the community would come to a final decision about the contents of the upgrade and its planned activation for mid-September.

Some developers expressed hesitation about including one particular proposal - EIP 170 - into the Atlantis upgrade.

Like Lusardi, ethereum classic community member "MikO" argues this change doesn't have to be a hard fork.

"I don't like the idea of having to change a hard limit in the future if we desire more complex contracts," wrote MikO on the ethereum classic Discord channel.

At the same time, both Lusardi and MikO emphasize their disagreements with EIP 170 should not delay or in any way obstruct the progression of the Atlantis upgrade.

"Let's just acknowledge there's discussion around EIP 170 and take this time, another one or two weeks [to discuss] what's the problem with a maximum code size limits and how to move on," concluded ethereum classic developer soc1c.