Ethereum’s “difficulty bomb” will change the currency forever—when it finally drops
After finding bugs in the code they were testing, Ethereum’s core developers have decided to postpone the network’s scheduled hard fork, which was supposed to happen next month, until 2019. The delay of the software upgrade, called Constantinople, will give the group more time to stew over a controversial proposed change to the network’s monetary system.
The contentious proposal is related to something called the “difficulty bomb,” a piece of Ethereum’s code that steadily increases the difficulty of mining new blocks. The bomb was originally conceived as part of a larger plan to transition the Ethereum network from the energy-intensive process it uses to agree on its ledger, called proof of work, to a more energy-efficient one called proof of stake. It’s supposed to deter miners from continuing to mine the old chain once the network switches.
But developing a proof-of-stake system is taking longer than expected, so the difficulty bomb must be delayed. And since that will make mining easier, Ethereum’s core developers have decided they must reduce the reward to counterbalance this effect. How to do this is a matter of some dispute. Unlike Bitcoin, which has a capped supply, Ethereum’s currency is uncapped and has no formal monetary policy. There are a range of opinions in the community about how best to adjust the issuance rate to account for delaying the bomb. Ultimately, the core developers had landed on changing the block reward from three ether to two, but now the upgrade is delayed until at least January. Decentralized decision-making is hard.
Keep up with the fast-moving and sometimes baffling world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains with our twice-weekly newsletter Chain Letter. Subscribe here. It’s free!
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.
This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language
A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.