Three stages, not one
The original plan called for a single switch on Aug. 23. That's off. Sztorc's update describes a phased rollout that stretches well past the original date, with the fork arriving in three distinct stages. The full transition is expected to take more than two months.
The shift matters for anyone running a node or building on the network: instead of preparing for one coordinated moment, they'll be watching for three separate checkpoints. The staging also gives the rollout more room to absorb problems — a bad activation in one stage doesn't have to take down the whole fork at once.
Hmm — "absorb problems" is speculation. I shouldn't invent the rationale. Let me remove
