Ethereum consensus clients Prysm and Teku recently released updates to fix the Beacon Chain finality issues, with the Ethereum network experiencing finality issues twice within 24 hours. Although these issues did not impact end users and transactions, they raised concerns for stakers and developers. The concept of “finality” in the Ethereum blockchain refers to the guarantee that a block cannot be modified or removed without burning at least 33% of the total staked ETH.
The Prysm Ethereum Client announced the v4.0.3-hotfix on May 13, which aims to prevent the Beacon Chain node from high resource usage during turbulent market conditions. Ethereum node operators are advised to upgrade their nodes if they are experiencing heavy resource usage. The hotfix addresses the stress on nodes’ CPUs and memory usage caused by increased validator sizes and untimely old attestations.
Similarly, Ethereum client Teku released the v23.5.0 update on May 13 to filter old attestations causing issues on the Ethereum mainnet. Several additions and improvements have been included in this bug fix to prevent further problems. While Ethereum client Nimbus claims no critical upgrade is required for its users, it will continue to monitor and release fixes if necessary.
Interestingly, Ethereum clients Lighthouse and Lodestar did not face high loads due to a different design approach. As other consensus layer clients experienced high resource usage, Lighthouse and Lodestar maintained the network live during the incident, finalizing 40-50% of the blocks until the other clients recovered. This showcases the critical importance of Ethereum’s client diversity, which prevents a major network outage and increases its resilience against partial failures.
Despite these temporary finality issues, the ETH price continues to hover over $1800, witnessing a 3% increase in the last 24 hours. The 24-hour low and high recorded values of $1747 and $1816, respectively. Ultimately, the recent events underline the importance of conducting thorough market research before investing in cryptocurrencies, as they are always subject to varying market conditions. The responsibility of understanding potential personal financial risks falls on each individual investor.
Source: Coingape
