Aion: Hard Fork
Leading up to the hard fork on November 19th-20th, 2019 the Unity — Aion Kernel will be upgraded by node operators. As soon as the upgrade is complete, Unity will be live and a new stake-based type of block production will be introduced into Aion. This marks another major milestone, Aion will be one of the first major networks to migrate from PoW and introduce a new consensus design on a live network. Coordinating this type of upgrade is only possible due to the amazing community of node operators around the world that run Aion’s infrastructure. Once the network is upgraded, Aion holders all over the world will be able to participate in the security of the network and be rewarded for their efforts. Holders can stake privately or through an ecosystem of world-class validators (to be announced shortly) that have come together to support the Aion community.
What is a hardfork?
The cryptocurrency mainnet operates according to certain rules. To improve network performance or correct errors, changes are periodically introduced into it. A hard fork represents changes that are not compatible with previous versions of software supporting the cryptocurrency network. In order to continue to mine the cryptocurrency, miners need to update the software.
In some cases, as a result of a hard fork, a completely new cryptocurrency may appear, as happened with Bitcoin Cash and EthereumPoW.