Everyone in the crypto community is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Ethereum 2.0, the new Ethereum network that will run on proof of stake (PoS). However, this major update is still in its testing phase, and this week proved once again that testing is definitely necessary. The test network had to deal with a fairly large problem.
Ethereum Beacon Chain Suffers From Problems
Ethereum is currently running on a proof of work (PoW) mechanism. This means that ethereum miners perform complex calculations and thus contribute to processing transactions and securing the network. However, this takes a lot of energy and is not easy to scale up in case the number of transactions increases.
The developers of Ethereum have therefore been working on a major update for a while. After this update, miners will no longer be needed and ETH owners will be able to stake their crypto. At the moment, this PoS network is already running in the form of the Beacon Chain. However, this blockchain had to deal with problems this week.
‘Reorg’ Causes An Interruption Of ETH Blockchain
The problem consisted of a so-called reorg. That is a situation on a blockchain network where two transaction blocks are proposed at once, pushing one of the blocks aside. But due to differences between the Ethereum clients, the network was unable to resolve the issue for 7 transaction blocks. Normally a reorg is resolved quickly.
This means that for 7 transaction blocks in a row, no transactions could be processed. Should this happen in a situation involving large amounts of money, such as the current Ethereum network, it could have disastrous consequences.
ETH 2.0 ‘merge’ launch further delayed?
According to the developers, the problem is not as critical as it seems. The mechanism that should solve such a situation had not yet been fully rolled out to all Ethereum clients. Ethereum developer Preston van Loon writes on Twitter: “This reorg is not an indication of a flawed fork choice, but a non-trivial segmentation of updated versus outdated client software.”
Whether this will ultimately cause the merge, that is the official switch to PoS, to be delayed is not clear. The merge is expected to take place in August.