Major network upgrades so far, all you need to know

Top network upgrades and how they affect crypto prices

Continuous innovation and upgrades of blockchain networks have become mandatory if a crypto project wants to witness massive success from rising prices. Mainnet includes the main network where the actual transactions occur on distributed ledgers. Statistically speaking, an upgrade on the Bitcoin mainnet helped push the crypto price from a $7000 mark to reach the high of $9,500 in just a few weeks after plummeting from $10,600. 

Mainnet in crypto is the outcome or product of different blockchain projects allowing users to send and receive virtual currencies. These networks require changes whenever developer teams need revisions or updates. Any network upgrade ideally increases or decreases the value of the cryptos on top cryptocurrency exchanges based on demand and supply, which makes the crypto prices volatile. 

The major network upgrades so far:

Litecoin MWEB upgrade

The most anticipated upgrade on the Litecoin network, MWEB, has finally been activated on the mainnet. Mimblewimble Extension Blocks or MWEB were introduced as an LTC improvement proposal, a fungibility-enhancing technology that improves confidentiality between senders and receivers in every transaction. MWEB essentially works as a literal extension of the LTC main chain, through which users can send tokens to the block and back to the main chain.

ETH Merge 

Ethereum Mainnet has upgraded from its original mechanism to a different proof-of-stake, known as The Merge. The Merge signifies the merging of the original ETH with a different proof of stake blockchain, the Beacon Chain. This has reduced energy consumption on the Ethereum Mainnet by almost 99.95%. The Merge has eliminated the need for energy-consuming mining and has allowed the network to be secure using stake Ethereum tokens.

Cardano Vasil Upgrade

Cardano’s Vasil upgrade has prioritized security over the network’s speed. The upgrade of the rather technical changes of the Vasil hard fork has improved the ledgers’ programmability and potential. Cardano, also known as the Ethereum Killer, has often been criticized for falling behind other smart contract blockchain networks. However, recent achievements have been considered ‘brilliant but unstructured”. When it comes to functional programming, the Cardano network is grounded, using immutable data to instruct the program how to operate instead of achieving results via objects that modify the program’s state.

BNB Smart Chain Mainnet Gibbs Upgrade

The BNB Beacon Chain Mainnet upgrade has witnessed decentralized exchange (DEX) features removed from the network, allowing additional computing power on the BNB Beacon Chain mainnet to boost security, governance, and computing focuses for the future. The Hardfork in the BNB Beacon Chain network will require 2/3rd of its validators to validate upgrades and blocks. If the current nodes are not upgraded, the validators will not be allowed to execute future blocks.

BNB Beacon Chain Mainnet Godel Upgrade

The BNB Beacon Chain Mainnet upgrade has witnessed decentralized exchange (DEX) features removed from the network, allowing additional computing power on the BNB Beacon Chain mainnet to boost security, governance, and computing focuses for the future. The Hardfork in the BNB Beacon Chain network will require 2/3rd of its validators to validate upgrades and blocks. If the current nodes are not upgraded, the validators will not be allowed to execute future blocks.

Cronos Mainnet Network Upgrade beta v0.7.0 “Huygens”

Cronos Mainnet Network has upgraded from 0.6.X to beta v0.7.0 “Huygens.” The upgrade has introduced an EIP-1559 implementation, several JSON-RPC bug fixes, and major performance developments. It has refactored EVM’s StateDB to support the performance of contract execution and allow ETH transactions.

Monero Network Upgrade 

The most non-contentious upgrade of one of the most well-known privacy protocols, Monero, was successfully launched to enhance the network with brand-new features to preserve privacy. The Monero network upgrade includes the following features– 

• An increase in the number of signers for ring signatures from 11 to 16 for each transaction
• The previous Bulletproofs algorithm upgraded to Bulletproofs+ reduces size and increases speed for every transaction.
• Change in the fee structure to improve network security and reduce fee volatility. 
• Improvement of Multisignature functionality

Banff, the AvalancheGo upgrade 

Banff has successfully activated on the Avalanche mainnet and has unlocked new abilities for the Subnet developers to activate up-time-focused rewards and Proof-of-Stake validation using their native token on the Subnet. A Subnet that chooses to allow the new features introduced by Banff must go through a transformation into a new Subnet, known as an Elastic Submit.

While allowing Elastic Validation, the developers permanently lock all subnets from future modifications, specify an ANT (Avalanche Native Token) that validators can use to stake tokens that will be used to distribute as staking rewards, and provide parameters that monitor how the staking mechanics of the Subnet will work. 

Tezos – Kathmandu protocol upgrade

Tezos recently made its 10th upgrade live in Jakarta. With that nearing activation, its developer teams have also started working on the 11th upgrade, Kathmandu. The Kathmandu upgrade is focused on the validation Pipelining project that aims to reduce the number of execution times across the Tezos Layer 1 network. The Kathmandu protocol will also focus on the entangling application and validation for managerial operations inside the Tezos network.

Hedera upgrade

Hedera Hashgraph recently upgraded to Hedera Smart Contracts 2.0, which has marked the organization’s codebase open source and allowed all users and developers to modify or use the underlying codes and significantly contribute to the network. Hedera Smart Contract Service runs Solidity and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible smart contracts with the versatile tokenization infrastructure of Hedera. This has heightened user flexibility, allowing them to access smart contract usability and incorporate capabilities of hashgraph tokenization into their programming.

Kava Network upgrade 

Kava Network recently launched its mainnet upgrade, Kawa 11, which has added new features, including the state-of-the-art Kawa Network’s liquid staking, known as Kawa Liquid, the first-ever fully convertible Kawa liquid staking protocol. It also enables interaction with Kawa App and allows transactions on Cosmos SDK directly via MetaMask. This has greatly simplified previous processes.

Conclusion 

To conclude, major network upgrades are a must for every crypto project. They have a great impact on how cryptocurrencies perform in the market. Will crypto plummet, soar, or tease investors along an uncertain path in 2023? Will BTC continue to be volatile? Will major network upgrades play a more important role in affecting crypto prices? 

There are several predictions made by analysts who chart the future of crypto. According to Analytics Insight, several market analysts have predicted that BTC may hit $100,000 by the end of 2023, while others claim that it can climb up to the mark in the first quarter of 2023. All in all, crypto predictions are uncertain, but they greatly depend on blockchain network upgrades.