EIPs/EIPS/eip-233.md

## Preamble

    EIP: 233
    Title: Formal process of hard forks
    Author: Alex Beregszaszi
    Type: Meta
    Status: Draft
    Created: 2017-03-23

## Abstract

To describe the formal process of preparing and activating hard forks.

## Motivation

Today discussions about hard forks happen at various forums and sometimes in ad-hoc ways.

## Specification

A Meta EIP should be created as a draft as a pull request as soon as a hard fork is planned. This EIP should contain:
- the desired codename of the hard fork,
- list of all the EIPs included in the hard fork and
- activation block number once decided and
- the **Requires** header should point to the previous hard fork meta EIP.

The draft pull request shall be updated with summaries of the decisions around the hard fork. It should move in to the `Accepted` state once the changes are frozen (i.e. all referenced EIPs are in the `Accepted` state) and in to the `Final` state once the hard fork has been activated.

The Yellow Paper must be kept updated with the hard fork changes. It could either refer to the fork codename or the EIP number of the fork. The hard fork cannot be activated before the Yellow Paper is updated.

## Rationale

A meta EIP for coordinating the hard fork should help in visibility and traceability of the scope of changes as well as provide a simple name and/or number for referring to the proposed fork.

## Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).