Ethereum, the world-renowned blockchain platform, experienced intermittent bouts of instability last week. The technology faced episodes where block finalizations were halted, stirring up questions about security risks and its impact on applications. Let's dive deep into this tech puzzle in this edition of The Protocol, your weekly guide to the intricate world of crypto.
The Ethereum blockchain runs on a system where blocks, containing data or transactions, need to be finalized. However, last week, this critical process hit a snag, twice. The cause behind these interruptions remains a subject of ongoing investigation. Prysm, a crucial player providing client software for Ethereum, recently rolled out a new version packed with "critical fixes," hinting at potential solutions.
In the ideal scenario, block finalization glitches don't impact the end-user experience or lead to downtime. However, they can give rise to security challenges like reorgs, where multiple versions of a blockchain exist simultaneously due to a bug or an attack. This can muddle the transaction verification process.
As a result of these glitches, users experienced disruptions. Prominent crypto exchange DYdX had to put a temporary hold on deposits, while Polygon’s zkEVM also reported deposit delays.
To understand the importance of finalization, let's look at how it works. In Ethereum's proof-of-stake blockchain, validators propose a block containing transactions. Other validators then approve the block to be permanently added to the blockchain, a process that takes about 15 minutes. Once a block is approved by two-thirds of the validators, it is considered finalized. This finality assures that the transactions within a block are immutable.
When finality is compromised, Ethereum enters an "inactivity leak" emergency state. Validators receive penalties for failing to achieve finalization, pushing the blockchain to resume finalization. The recent incidents triggered Ethereum's first-ever inactivity leak.
The Ethereum community recognizes the need to shorten the time between a block's proposal and finalization, acknowledging the security risk in the current timeframe. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been addressing this issue for years, emphasizing its criticality.
When the first finalization halt happened on May 11, developers sprung into action. After 25 minutes, the issue seemed resolved and finalization resumed. However, another interruption occurred 24 hours later, causing outages for some infrastructure providers.
While finalization halts have happened before due to software bugs, Ethereum's multiple clients ensure the blockchain continues to operate.
Despite the disruptions, Tim Beiko, protocol support lead at the Ethereum Foundation, reassured CoinDesk that Ethereum's security was not compromised. Developers are working to identify the cause, and a post-mortem report is expected soon.
The incidents did affect applications running on Ethereum, causing delays and temporary pauses. However, Ethereum developers underscored that the network did not shut down, and these glitches served as valuable learning opportunities to enhance Ethereum's resilience.
