The launch of Augur v2 draws closer every single day. A lot of things will be changed because of this major protocol upgrade. Especially the manual token swap is something worth keeping an eye on.
What is Actually new?
Going from the current version to Augur v2 will introduce some interesting changes. The first order of business is reinstating the concept of “use it or lose it”. In reality, this means that token holders will need to participate in a network wide market fork, should one occur at any given moment.
Failing to partake in this fork – or its 60-day period – will ensure that the untapped REP or REPv2 tokens will become useless. They are no longer eligible to be used in any version of Augur currently, or in the future. It is a good way to incentivize token holders to become more active, but it will undoubtedly catch a lot of people by surprise as well.
It is worth noting that no network wide fork has occurred to date. Doing so would be extremely costly, as it currently costs over $9 million to pull it off. Given the costs, and the fact that a major upgrade will occur soon, there is no real incentive to force a fork on Augur in its current state.
Manual Token Migration for Users
Under most circumstances, a network fork would ensure that user tokens can be converted either automatically, or through a tool of sorts. For Augur, that situation will be a bit different. Augur v2 is an entirely new universe, requiring a manual migration of Augur v1 REP tokens.
While there is no immediate urgency to migrate tokens, it is something to consider regardless. If there ever were to be a forking process for Augur v2, inactivity is not an option for any REP holder.
Once the new version of the protocol goes live, there is an option to migrate tokens through the native client. More details are expected to become public in the days leading up to the upgrade itself.
What About Exchanges and Services?
Token swaps and major protocol upgrades are often challenging for exchanges and service providers. Switching to Augur v2 will not be much different in this regard. There is a plan in place to ensure that this transition happens as smoothly as possible.
Most of the exchanges offering REP trading pairs are intent on handling the token migration on behalf of their users. How long this process will take exactly, is a different matter altogether. In most cases, this process should not take too long. Existing REP trading markets will be upgraded to REPv2 respectively.
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