This hardfork is scheduled for 2017-07-26T15:00:00 UTC (11:00:00 EDT).This hardfork introduces a number of changes that effect how root comment payouts work. They should not impact how normal users use Steem.

Issue #176

Each root level comment has a reward weight which impacts the end payout of the post. We are targeting 4 posts in 24 hours. Your first 4 posts in 24 hours will not be penalized. After that, they weight is decreased from 100% based on your average posting frequency. Having a frequency just barely higher than 1 every 6 hours will have very little impact, while spamming will be penalized heavily. This change is aimed to increase the quality of content at the cost of quantity.

Issue #177

Each discussion goes through a two stage payout. The first one is nearly identical to what currently happens on a new discussion except that we are weighting payout times by 12 hours instead of 24. This should cycle through currently trending content quicker. There is a second voting period set to 30 days after the first payout. This should help posts that don't have immediate viral success accumulate votes and have more consistent payouts in the long run. After the second payout a discussion becomes "frozen". The discussion is no longer editable and new replies are disabled. Users can still vote on comments in these discussions as a "nod" to the author without costing their posting power or awarding reward shares.

Issue #178

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding liquidity rewards. We are refraining from making a judgment at this point but want to spend more time reviewing their impact. We do believe that in their current form the liquidity rewards are simply too much for the value thy provide. As such, we are temporarily disabling liquidity rewards until we can design a better solution. In the meantime, a transaction fee free market should be incentive enough for users to continue to use the Steem internal market.

Issue #179

The average block size calculation is too high. We are reducing the minimum block size limit from 128k to 64k and changing the average block size threshold from max_block_size / 2 to max_block_size / 4. The net result is that the average block size threshold can be 4 times smaller. If witnesses chose to vote this way, it will make triggering transaction bandwidth limits easier, which is currently not applying except in the most extreme circumstances.

Issue #184

Fixed a bug in the cli wallet that incorrectly allowed the wallet to attempt to broadcast an update account operation from a locked wallet. The broadcast would fail but created a poor user experience.

Issue #186

Added recovery operations to account history so they can be tracked more easily.

The Change

As of next Tuesday, a major change to payout scheduling will go into effect. The payout schedule refers to the payout that currently occurs 24 hours after the post is submitted. In this timeframe that your post has the ability to accumulate votes before it is frozen.Below is the actual release notes for the payout schedule change:

What does this mean for me?

Trending content will cycle quicker

The first major change to the payout schedule will be to the initial payout timing. This will be moved down from 24 hours to 12. This will hopefully increase the change of content hitting the trending page.

A second payout will be added 30 days after the first payout

This awesome addition will allow users who's posts were not initially noticed but became much more notable after the initial 12 hours to still obtain a payout. This may help many of the users who post in off-peak hours to still obtain the rewards for their hard work.

Voting after these two payouts will be enabled as a way to give a "nod" to the author

We've all been there. You search and find a great post that was exactly what you were looking for. Unfortunately you cant give the author the thanks they deserve. Well now all users will be able to still vote on comments for the post even after the post has been "Frozen" after the second payout. The best part is that no voting power is lost as part of the comment voting

Thanks for all the hard work guys and here's to another great release!