Blockchain
The Horizen network is expected to undergo a node upgrade on June 7, developers confirmed on GitHub earlier this week.
According to Messari data, the hard fork is scheduled on Horizen mainnet in block 1,363,115, estimated to occur on June 7, 2023 at approximately 13:00 UTC. Node operators have been asked to update to Zen v4.0.0 before May 31, 2023.
The upgrade would bring improvements to Horizen’s version 2 sidechain and fix minor bugs found in the current node version.
Sidechains refer to independent networks that operate on top of a main blockchain, such as Horizen in this case. These are similar to layer 2 networks, but differ in one important aspect: side chains have their own security mechanism, unlike layer 2 networks that rely on the security of their parent network.
Different sidechains can be customized to serve specific purposes, such as a governance-focused sidechain or a decentralized finance (DeFi)-focused sidechain. This ensures that an exploit in one sidechain does not affect the others.
According to Coingecko, Horizen’s ZEN tokens are up 8% over the past week.