ethereum ce age may be imminent if miners withdraw from network
The Ethereum block difficulty began to grow back in November 2016.
Since then, developers have been constantly forced to carry out hard forks to keep the network up until the transition to a proof-of-stake algorithm takes place.In the lead-up to the Istanbul upgrade, implemented on Dec. 8, the Ethereum team decided again to postpone the explosion of a so-called “difficulty bomb,” which some believe may lead to the onset of an Ice Age.
How can this happen and what would be the consequences if the Ethereum network froze?Difficulty bomb and Ice AgeWhen creating Ethereum (ETH), the developers initially assumed that it would work on a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
However, as this idea implementation demanded more time, the network was launched on the more familiar consensus model: proof-of-work.At the same time, the developers prudently introduced a difficulty bomb into Ethereum i.e., a mechanism that is supposed to gradually make the process of generating new blocks more complicated, which would gradually lead the network toward PoS.Related: Istanbul to Berlin: Ethereum Milestones on the Road to SerenityInitially, the bomb was supposed to explode after Ethereum would be ready to work on the new algorithm called Casper, and provoke the so called Ice Age a transitional stage during which mining new coins would become difficult and unprofitable.
Theoretically, this procedure should force miners to switch to a new chain, instead of maintaining the old one.
However, due to the delay in the development of the PoS mechanism, the transition to Ethereum 2.0 is constantly being adjourned.
At the same time, the difficulty bomb has been about to explode several times and the Ethereum team has been constantly delaying it by conducting hard forks, so as not to frighten miners supporting the stability of the network ahead of time.
What are the dangers of the Ice Age?
Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum, had previously predicted the fall of the network to take place in 2021, as it will become almost frozen due to a difficulty bomb.
However, while the events and landmarks in the Ethereum project are developing faster than expected, while the process of the PoS network transition fails to meet the deadline.
In April 2019, the ETH network difficulty began to grow again, with the current value of around 2,498 terahash per second (with one TH/s equal to 1 billion hashes per second).
What’s more, if the growth trend remains the same, the Ice Age can occur much faster than the appointed date.
This can lead to miner withdrawal, reduced scalability and even a network crash.Withdrawal of minersThe postponement of the Constantinople hard fork to January 2019 led to a drop in the number of ETH mined per day, as the ETH supply saw its value decrease by 35% in just two months.
Mining had become more difficult, and as a result, the daily issuance of the cryptocurrency fell from 20,000 ETH in January to 13,000 ETH in March. Now, the daily value comprises 11,872 ETH and continues to decline further.
Read the full topic at
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-ice-age-may-be-imminent-if-miners-withdraw-from-network
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