Blockchain platform COTI will undergo a mainnet upgrade on Monday at 12:00 PM UTC through its first ever hard fork called “Hydrogen.” The update, according to the development team. Could improve its technical foundation, security, and performance for enterprise use. According to the COTI Foundation’s insight on Medium, the process is automatic and requires no action from users or node operators for the transition of wallets, tokens, and network participants. The network developers reiterated the network’s architecture is being refined to meet more needs of developers, enterprise partners, and end users. COTI upgrade to accommodate more features The COTI network is a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph)-based blockchain optimized for payments and enterprise solutions. Much different from traditional blockchains like Ethereum Layer 1, it allows transactions to link directly to one another through parallel processing and high throughput. The network’s consensus mechanism, known as Proof of Trust, powers a decentralized ledger called Trustchain, which is capable of processing more than 100,000 transactions per second, according to stats from crypto exchange Coinbase. The Hydrogen hard fork comes with several protocol-level improvements meant to boost COTI’s stability, cryptographic security, and long-term maintainability. COTI stated that the changes are on the backdrop of the comprehensive audit completed earlier in 2025, which identified several areas for optimization in the network’s Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and gcEVM components. As reported by the Foundation, MPC framework’s new file-handling mechanisms have been implemented to improve safety, alongside secure cryptographic randomness and memory hygiene. After the hard fork, users will be able to wipe sensitive data from memory during cleanup for their privacy, and in-turn reduce security risks. Connection handling under high-concurrency conditions has also been upgraded, improving stability when the network experiences heavy usage. “Enhancements to connection handling under high-concurrency conditions also make the network more robust in real-world usage scenarios,” the foundation wrote . Refinements made to the gcEVM protocol Hydrogen is also making changes on the gcEVM protocol layer side, which will see protocol validation tightened, while error handling during opcode execution and streamlined block processing is improved. The company said the refinements will make COTI a more consistent and secure execution standard for all network participants. “This is a foundational shift that increases trust and reliability across the ecosystem,” COTI stated in its announcement. All node operators have already upgraded to the latest software release ahead of time. COTI confirmed there will be no expected disruption to network operations, and user assets will be secure throughout the transition. COTI reward loyalty ecosystem expanded The upgrade comes just three weeks after the launch of COTI Earn, the company’s new loyalty platform that rewards community participation. The platform debuted as Season 001: Genesis, featuring a pool of 12.5 million COTI tokens distributed as on-chain rewards, Cryptopolitan reported . COTI Earn rewards engagement through a points-based system, where user interaction such as holding assets, trading and referrals, generates Token Points (TPs). The platform coined TPs “a new type of on-chain token” that is minted daily and automatically dropped to user wallets. “COTI Earn is designed to recognize real users and real contributions to the ecosystem. As on-chain activity increases, loyalty platforms must evolve to be transparent, fair, and rewarding by design. Platforms running on vanity metrics simply won’t stand the test of time,” explained Shahaf Bar-Geffen, CEO of COTI. According to the company, all TP rewards are liquid because they exist directly on-chain. Users can generate revenue and earn daily rewards by holding specific supported assets like wETH, wBTC, USDC-e, COTI, or gCOTI in the COTI Treasury. Interested participants are required to connect their wallets to earn.coti.io to begin accumulating rewards. COTI’s token price climbed 6.94% in the past 24 hours, seemingly reacting to the mainnet upgrade news and outpacing the cryptocurrency market’s 4.15% gain. The token is trading at $0.03529 at the time of this publication, which has lifted its 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) from 33.31 to 36.25 to exit oversold conditions. Get seen where it counts. Advertise in Cryptopolitan Research and reach crypto’s sharpest investors and builders.
