The Liquid Network activated the ELIP-203 coordinated hard fork on June 1st, advancing a major upgrade aimed at expanding tokenization capabilities and improving infrastructure for large-scale real-world asset issuance on the Bitcoin sidechain.

Ahead of activation, ecosystem participants including wallet providers and node operators upgraded their infrastructure to support the change. 

AQUA Wallet stated prior to the fork that users would not experience service interruptions, while Liquid developers encouraged independent node runners to update their Elements software before activation.

No major disruptions or outages were publicly reported following the hard fork.

ELIP-203 removes the previous 21 million issuance cap for non-LBTC assets on Liquid, a change Blockstream said is intended to improve the issuance of fiat-denominated assets, tokenized securities, and other large-scale financial products.

Blockstream described the upgrade as the first step in Liquid’s broader development roadmap. 

Planned improvements include Bitcoin Core parity, 0-confirmation transaction enhancements, oracle and decentralized exchange infrastructure, BitVM-style bridge research, and a quantum-resistant testnet targeted for later this year.

The activation is viewed as a significant milestone for Liquid’s expanding real-world asset ecosystem. 

Blockstream previously disclosed that the network already supports billions of dollars in tokenized assets, including over $5 billion in tokenized real-world assets, more than $250 million issued through Bitfinex Securities, and over $1.5 billion in tokenized asset volume via STOKR.

The latest Elements software releases accompanying the upgrade included support for unlimited non-LBTC asset issuance, interface updates for larger asset amounts, and additional infrastructure and documentation improvements tied to the new functionality.

Prior to activation, Blockstream told node operators to update to at least Elements v23.3.1 “ahead of the scheduled activation of ELIP 203” and noted the release would also provide “the best experience when building with Simplicity smart contracts.”