Cardano Releases Node 9.0, the Final Development Step Before the Chang Hard Fork

The Cardano development team released “Node 9.0,” the newest version of the Cardano validator node software, on July 8. According to a YouTube video released by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on July 7, the new software is the final development step needed to allow the upcoming Chang hard fork to occur.

The Cardano development team released “Node 9.0,” the newest version of the Cardano validator node software, on July 8. The new software is the final development step needed to allow the upcoming Chang hard fork to occur, according to a YouTube video released by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on July 7.

The software was released at approximately 7 pm UTC. It “is the first node that can support crossing the 9.0 hard fork (Chang) boundary on mainnet and long-running testnets, such as PreProd,” according to its notes.

Hoskinson announced in a YouTube video the previous day that the software's release was imminent, stating that it would be available “next week.” He also said that “probably Monday or Tuesday, the signal for mass upgrades will come.” 70% of nodes will need to vote to upgrade to the new software in order for a hard fork to occur, according to Hoskinson.

The Chang hard fork is the first step in giving Cardano fully decentralized governance, according to the development team. It begins the “Age of Voltaire” on Cardano's roadmap, a period that will see massive changes to the network's political system.

These changes are outlined by the developers in Cardano Improvement Proposal 1694 (CIP 1694). According to the proposal, Chang will ultimately allow for the introduction of Delegate Representatives (DReps), who will be elected by ADA tokenholders.

These representatives will draft a Cardano Constitution, which will become the supreme governing law of the network. After a Constitution is drafted and approved, DReps will continue to propose changes to the network in accordance with this constitution.

The Node 9.0 notes state that it will not yet “enable DRep voting and all governance actions,” as the full voting protocol will only be provided in version 10.0. However, it “supports entering the bootstrap phase of CIP-1694 in production environments.”

Block explorer Cardanoscan shows that exchanges and stake pools had not yet prepared for the hard fork at the time of publication.

Hoskinson stated in the YouTube video that he expects the hard fork to begin on “Monday or Tuesday,” indicating that the process will start on July 8-9.

Hoskinson had previously stated that he expected the fork to occur in June, but that deadline passed about a week ago. After an attacker attempted to crash the network with a distributed denial-of-service attack, Cardano performed another node upgrade on June 26.