T-Minus 1,000 Blocks Until Ethereum's Istanbul Hard Fork

As of press time, Ethereum has passed block #9068000, putting it within 1000 blocks of the scheduled Istanbul hard fork, which should take place at around 23:30 UTC. The much-anticipated shift to Istanbul will be the Ethereum network's first hard fork since February's Constantinople.

Cointelegraph has covered Ethereum's ongoing developments extensively, as have the developers.

Broadly speaking, Istanbul should be streamlining the network in accordance with Metropolis's overall goals of scaling the network.

Specifically, Istanbul will expand interoperability with privacy token Zcash.

Zk-SNARKs allow users to demonstrate knowledge without exposing that knowledge - a technology critical to Ethereum's recent privacy enhancements.

Per a Nov. 20 blog post from the Ethereum Foundation, if you hold Ether or use the network, you probably don't need to do anything unless you receive instructions otherwise from your exchange or wallet service.

If you are a miner or node operator you will need to update your client to ensure that you are not suddenly stuck running obsolete once the hard fork takes effect.

Ethereum's future beyond Istanbul remains unsettled.

Fears of an impending Ice Age in which block hashing slows down as the network shifts from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake verification have led to proposals for another Muir Glacier fork to soften the impact of the transition.

Otherwise, the next planned upgrade to the Ethereum network is called Berlin and is tentatively slated for Q2, though details as to what changes Berlin is going to implement remain limited and largely speculative.