On May 15th, 2022, Bitcoin Cash will get a technical upgrade that improves on the already impressive smart contract capabilities. The upgrade will make Bitcoin Cash capable of a wider set of financial services thanks to improved precision when working with numbers, will reduce developer costs and remove barriers to entry for new developers.
The upgrade will also provide an extended set of programming operations to make existing usecases cheaper and easier to implement and maintain, further reducing developer costs and making Bitcoin Cash an attractive blockchain for application developers.
All current node software teams, many service companies and a large set of independent developers in the space have taken part in the discussion and development process for these upgrades. The upgrade is well prepared and will not result in a network split.
- Sep 15, 2021: Features are activated and available on testnet.
- Nov 15, 2021: Agreement is reached on which features to include in the upgrade.
- Feb 15, 2022: Node software is expected to have released a version supporting the upgrade.
- May 15, 2022: Upgrade is activated on mainnet.
- Users of the payment network can continue to use the network as normal.
- Traders can expect increased attention leading up to and following the upgrade.
- Developers can build as normal, and may start incorporating the new features by testing them on testnet4.
- Node operators should stay up to date with their node software's recommendations.
- Miners must upgrade to compatible node software before the upgrade.
- Exchanges must upgrade their node software before the upgrade, but can otherwise operate as normal.
The following improvements are expected to be ready and deployed on May 15, 2022: