The Horizen network is expected to undergo a node upgrade on June 7, developers confirmed earlier this week on GitHub. Per Messari data, the hard fork has been scheduled on Horizen mainnet at block 1,363,115, estimated to arrive on Jun. 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 enhancements to Horizen’s sidechain version 2 and fix minor bugs encountered in the current node version. Sidechains refer to independent networks that operate atop a main blockchain, such as Horizen in this case. These are similar to layer 2 networks, but different in one key aspect. Sidechains have their own security mechanism, unlike layer 2 networks which rely on the security of their mother network.
Different sidechains can be customized to serve specific purposes, such as having a governance-focused sidechain or a decentralized finance (DeFi)-focused sidechain. This ensures an exploit in one sidechain doesn’t impact the other.