Ethereum’s developers have created Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 2387, which is set to scheduled a hard fork for January 6 to delay its so-called “difficulty bomb” for another 4m million blocks, or over 600 days.
According to CoinDesk, the hard for scheduled for block number 9,069,000 will bridge Ethereum’s current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm chain with the Beacon Chain, the first phase of the upcoming Ethereum 2.0, which will work with a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm.
On a developer call last week, developers reportedly expressed concern over other projects trying to pick off from ETH’s ecosystem, and showed they want to maintain its health for ETH 2.0. As such, they reached a rough consensus on approving EIP 2387.
The hard fork, according to Ethereum developer James Hancock, would push the “difficulty bomb” as “far as is reasonable” to give developers time to look into the bomb itself and decide whether it needs changes so it becomes more predictable. He wrote:
This fork would give us time to address the community to understand their priorities better as far as the intentions of the Ice Age, and give time for proposals for better mechanisms to achieve those goals.
Some have argued the bomb should be removed entirely, as it has been delayed a few times now. Others, however, argue it forces Ethereum clients to keep updating their software to not face increasing costs.
The Ethereum “difficulty bomb” is set to gradually increase the hashing difficulty on the cryptocurrency’s blockchain in a bid to force the network to move towards PoS. It’s often referred to as the Ethereum Ice Age as well.
If the developers do approve the EIP 2387, it will e the third time since 2015 the “difficulty bomb” has been extended. Last year in the Byzantium hard fork it was extended by 3 million blocks, and earlier this year in the Constantinople hard fork it was extended by another 2 million blocks.
Featured image via Pixabay.
