Miners for Ethereum Classic (ETC) will soon have to shift gears. The network will be undergoing a hard fork in two weeks called Phoenix.
The hard fork will add support for Ethereum’s Istanbul update, completed in late 2019. Various opcodes will be added to Ethereum Classic to ensure full capability with Ethereum. The main reason for the hard fork is interoperability for all participating chains, especially between ETH and ETC.
In short, Phoenix is essentially like Ethereum’s Istanbul fork upgrade but for Ethereum Classic. The Istanbul hard fork in late 2019 originally experienced some technical difficulties, with a few critics claiming it broke smart contracts. Although stable now, Ethereum Classic’s own Phoenix upgrade may see some of these same problems reappear.
According to the core Ethereum Classic team, the hard fork will be supported by a wide variety of exchanges, wallets, and infrastructure providers.
The hard fork is currently expected in June 2020 at block 10,5000,839. All ETC nodes are expected to upgrade to a compatible client for the hard fork.