Ethereum overview: Constantinople is coming, what does it mean for ETH?

A significant update on Ethereum network known as Constantinople will take place on February 27. It is supposed to implement some critical changes that will result in more energy efficient and faster mining, as well as a reduced reward for miners.

Sometimes Constantinople is referred to as a hardfork; however, Ethereum developers and the creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin prefer to call it an update.

"IMO the Ethereum community should consider adopting @zcashco's terminology of calling things like Constantinople "network upgrades" and reserve "fork" for splits that leave 2+ viable chains. Too many people are asking me lately where they can dump their non-Constantinople coins…” he said in January.

The update was initially scheduled on October 2018, but the team had to delay the implementation at least twice (in October and in January 2019) due to revealed vulnerabilities in the code. Recently another bug surfaced, but the problem seems to be insignificant.

Another delay is likely to increase the downward pressure on ETH, while the successful updated might push the price towards $200.

The chances are that the reaction to the update will be short-lived. According to Leonid Matveev from Waves, at this stage, cryptocurrency prices are influenced by general market sentiments rather than by fundamental factors specific for separate projects.

Apart from that, experts believe that a network update is a natural process, which means it is less relevant for the price-setting process. However, the speculative nature of the cryptocurrency market and unknown outcomes of the event make investors nervous and increase price volatility.

ETH/USD is changing hands at $148.00, gaining over 3% in recent 24 hours. The first resistance comes at $150.00. Once it is cleared, the recent high of $151 will come into focus.