Ethereum’s developers announce another delay of the “difficulty bomb,” a section of the consensus algorithm that eventually makes it impossible to mine Ethereum.
This announcement comes as another piece of bad news for Ethereum enthusiasts hoping for the completion of the Ethereum 2.0 merger in August. While ConsenSys researcher Mikhail Kalinin officially kicked off work on the Ethereum upgrade in July last year, various developers have since informed the wider community about the progression algorithm migration. power-intensive proof-of-work solution from Ethereum to a PoS algorithm.
While no official launch date has been announced, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously said that the upgrade could be available by August, barring any significant issues.
Difficulty Bomb Delays
The latest developer update arrived on Friday, outlining potential delays in rolling out the “difficulty bomb,” a piece of code that, when activated, gradually boots blockchain miners by increasing the difficulty of the game. mining, until it became impossible to mine Ethereum.
Developers have already deployed the difficulty bomb and have delayed it previously.
Issues on Friday prompted developers to push back the Ethereum 2.0 release date after testing the merger for bugs on the Ropsten testnet, one of the oldest testnets for Ethereum. Fourteen percent of network validators, including those responsible for securing the network, were taken offline when the new code was deployed, according to a developer, Danny Ryan.
Regardless, Ryan said that he’d be “jumping for joy” if the code was deployed on the main Ethereum blockchain in its current state. He summarized the Ropsten test as a situation where 9% of validators have a configuration problem, and two minor bugs affect some stakers (those who lock up coins for a chance to validate transactions and secure a proof-of-stake network).
However, other developers are more cautious, advocating a delay until all issues are resolved.
“Delaying it gives you time,” said Thomas Jay Rush on the call, facilitated by the lead developer, Tim Beiko.
“It looks bad for the community, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Beiko feels restarting the difficulty bomb could give the developers some breathing room and prevent burnout.
“If we delay that, I think it should be a realistic timeframe to maintain a sense of urgency. But too much pressure pushes teams into burnout; that’s also a situation we don’t want to be in.
Another developer Alexey Sharp said they are already working flat out and don’t need the” sense of urgency.”
Beiko’s Confident Exit Will Happen This Year
Beiko admitted that they are not yet at the mainnet code, i.e. the code is not ready to merge with the current Ethereum blockchain.
Buterin did say that the merge could be delayed should developers require additional time, estimating a September or October release. Beiko told Bloomberg it is unlikely that the merge should not happen sometime this year, citing a 90-99% chance.
The difficulty bomb delay is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a post-deployment failure would be catastrophic for the network.
On the other hand, the longer developers take, the more time for other proof-of-stake blockchains to encroach on Ethereum’s market share.
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market share fell 6.4% yesterday, down 66% from its all-time high in November last year.
