On May 12, the second largest blockchain by market capitalization, Ethereum, suffered technical challenges that disrupted the operation network on the finalizing blocks for over an hour. The Ethereum finality issues created embroiled debates among consumers.
A scrutiny of the market critics revealed that most users were concerned about the security of the Ethereum network. A report from Ethereum Foundation stated that suspension of the block’s finalization feature created multiple pending transactions which cannot be reordered or retraced back to the network.
The analyst argued that finality challenges only take 15 minutes and might require burning 33% of total staked ETH.
Ethereum Network Finality Issues
It was reported that on May 11 at noon, the Ethereum network experienced a similar challenge where the blocks failed to validate for more than 25 minutes. Following the two finality challenges, the Ethereum community have attempted to examine the cause of the problem.
A tweet from the popular venture capitalist Adam Cochran lamented over the Ethereum block finality, which made the user inactive for over an hour. Cochran believed that the technical hitch was a minor problem affecting one client but not the larger protocol.
Commenting on Cochran’s concern, the Ethereum core creator Eric Conner argued that the finality issues created bugs in some clients’ accounts. He stated that the technical challenges had minimum impact on the Ethereum network.
Over the past, the Ethereum network has attracted many clientele due to its stability and reliability. However, the two incidences of finality challenges have sparked debates on Ethereum network credibility and stability.
Ethereum Resumes Block Finalization
A report from Ethereum developer Toghrul Maharramov urged the company to investigate what happened to the network to develop a clear understanding of finality concerns. On the contrary, another Ethereum developer, Superphiz, shared a warning message.
He argued that the finality concern has minimal impact on halting transactions. Superphiz explained that finality issues have minimum effect on the on-chain activity since most services are conducted atop Ethereum.
He added that the atop Ethereum facilitates a multi-billion-dollar network of financial tools. As such most of the economic infrastructure and applications on the Ethereum network can change operations due to finality issues.
According to Superphiz, a third wave of the finality challenge might occur if the network’s validators fail to increase the hardware specifications. He urged the Ethereum developers to deploy patches where necessary and turn on the minority client mode.
An announcement from crypto exchange DyDx revealed that the finality challenges forced the company to suspend deposits.
As of this writing, the Ethereum network is operating to its complete capacity, and blocks are finalizing perfectly. According to CoinMarketCap data, Ethereum is exchanging hands at $1,822.68, up by 0.97% in a day. The Ethereum trading volume jumped by 30.65% to reach $5,869,805,904 in the last 24 hours.
