Ethereum Experiences Second Finalization Delay in 24 Hours
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, experienced a second finalization delay on May 12, leaving developers scrambling to find a solution.
Terence.eth, a well-known blockchain developer, broke the news on Twitter, stating that the mainnet was not finalizing again and that Prysm, a client used to process transactions, was releasing a patch to address the issue.
Mainnet is not finalizing again. Prysm is releasing a patch today. Will keep you updated!
— terence.eth (@terencechain) May 12, 2023
Although later comments from Terence.eth suggested that the transactions had been finalized and that other clients were also releasing patches, he cautioned that Ethereum was “not out of the woods,” indicating that the problem had not been fully resolved.
This marks the second finality delay in just 24 hours for Ethereum, which also failed to finalize transactions for 25 minutes on May 11 for reasons that were unclear at the time. The cause of the issue has now been partially identified, with Terence.eth revealing that Ethereum nodes operating the Prysm client received problematic attestations, leading to heightened CPU and memory usage and ultimately causing a “death spiral.” He noted that most clients, except for the Lighthouse client, are prone to similar issues.
Superphiz, another developer who commented on the delay on May 11, has predicted that a third incident could occur and has urged node operators to upgrade their hardware and switch to a minority client.
While neither incident caused a total outage of Ethereum, the blockchain continued to partially process transactions that were later finalized properly.
These delays highlight the ongoing challenges facing the Ethereum network as it seeks to scale and process transactions quickly and efficiently. With increased adoption and usage of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on the Ethereum network, ensuring that the network can handle increased traffic and transaction volume is crucial.
Developers and node operators will continue to work on addressing the underlying issues that have caused these finality delays, and Ethereum users will be closely monitoring the situation to see if further incidents occur. As the cryptocurrency industry continues to evolve and mature, ensuring the stability and reliability of blockchain networks like Ethereum will be critical to their long-term success.
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