Electroneum launches fork, reducing ETN block rewards by a massive 75%

In a move to reduce the block reward token inflation from 4% to 1%, Electroneum has launched a new fork updating their blockchain version from V8 to V9, substantially reducing block reward emissions of ETN by 75% for the second time.

The double halving is set to take place 22 July at the block height of 862866, explained the head of the award-winning crypto’s blockchain development, Chris Harrison.

“In this fork, we’ll be updating our blockchain version from V8 to V9,” he reiterated. “The frequency of discovery of blocks, however, will remain at two minutes.”

A pledge to control inflation

Electroneum CEO Richard Ells said, “our pledge is to maintain ETN’s overall token inflationary rate at under 2%, which is similar to Bitcoin’s but much lower than most other cryptocurrencies.

“We will continue to release ETN rewards for promotional purposes at a similar rate to that of the emission of ETN block rewards to contain our overall token inflation below 2%,” he reiterated.

Electroneum blockchain developer Andre Patta also spoke of the update saying the “ETN 75% reward reduction means miners now receive about 400ETN for each block validated. Before the double halving, they received just over 1450ETN for each block of transactions.”

Electroneum has also introduced a halving schedule, Mr. Patta explained. “Block rewards are scheduled for halving every four years from now on, up to a limit of 50ETN per block.

“That also means that ideally, we won’t be changing the emission rate algorithm anymore in the future, and what is set in this fork should be carved in stone in regards to emission rate,” he said.

The last 75% reduction in block rewards occurred in July 2019, with the implementation of the Moderated Blockchain, powered by Electroneum’s unique Proof of Responsibility (PoR) protocol.

Halving Schedule:

• 2024 at the height of block 1914066: reduction from 400ETN per block to 200ETN
• 2028 at the height of block 2965266: reduction from 200ETN per block to 100ETN
• 2032 at the height of block 4016466: reduction from 100ETN per block to 50ETN

“After the 2032 halving, no more block reward reductions are planned until the maximum supply of 21 billion ETN is reached,” he said. “Once we reach this point, the block reward gets reduced from 50ETN to 25ETN per block. That is known as ‘tail emission’ in the crypto space.”

What the future holds

Chris Harrison said that moving forward and in response to demands from the Electroneum community, the blockchain team will now focus on “revamping the enterprise custodial wallet system by leveraging the sub-address wallet scheme. That will allow for extremely fast wallet synchronisation speeds and faster transaction queuing.

“We are also looking at waiving fees for transactions between wallets within the custodial system, which will make the app UX far smoother,” he said. “This move will help entice both corporates and lone users looking for a cheap and straightforward payment system.”

The blockchain expert also said that in the coming months, “we will implement a wider and more sophisticated system of blockchain permissions aimed at affording new freedoms to entities central to the Electroneum project that will enable them to be more productive inside the ecosystem.”

Mr. Harrison said Electroneum is currently “looking to expand the set of blockchain validators to include a more diverse range of entities, such as universities.”

Originally published at https://news.electroneum.com on July 16, 2020.