ETH Core Devs Delay the Implementation of the Difficulty Bomb for Two Months

On June 10, during the Ethereum core devs meeting, the implementation of the difficulty bomb was delayed for two months in order to “be sure that we sanity check all the numbers before selecting an exact delay and deployment time”. The upgrade is expected to fire up at the end of June.

The difficulty bomb refers to the increasing difficulty of mining on Ethereum with a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus. It’s a part of the gradual shift to ETH 2.0 that uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Thus, the ultimate aim of the difficulty bomb is to discourage miners from generating blocks under the PoW mechanism.

Did you know?

Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?

Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!

How to Create an NFT: Easiest Way (Animated Explainer)

SUBSCRIBE

ON YOUTUBE

Moreover, after delaying the difficulty bomb five times before, the proposal dubbed EIP-5133 was moved once more to August. According to various sources, the shift from PoW to PoS is expected to cut the ETH network’s energy needs significantly - by up to 99.99%.

In addition, Ben Edgington, Ethereum's core developer, founder, and product lead of the Teku Eth2 client, has added:

“So, we will push back the Ethereum difficulty bomb. We say it won't delay the Merge. I sincerely hope not.” 

Earlier in June, ETH’s Ropsten testnet successfully ran through “The Merge” and shifted from Proof-of-Stake (PoS) which will provide the platform with even more opportunities to grow.

In other news, back in May, OpenEthereum, one of Ethereum’s most dedicated clients, decided to terminate software support due to the upcoming “Merge.” The company also implied that the support has reached a standstill and the “usefulness has run its course.” 

On top of that, various statistics still display that Ethereum’s network is growing even though the crypto market is still in turmoil. For instance, the daily operations have remained over one million as 198 million wallets are currently stored on Ethereum (ETH), displaying an almost 15-time increase since 2017.

At the time of writing, ETH price is down by 8.76% in the past 24 hours trading at $1,332 with a 24-hour trading volume of $28,919,640.

Aaron S., Editor-In-Chief

Having completed a Master’s degree in Economics, Politics, and Cultures of the East Asia region, Aaron has written scientific papers analyzing the differences between Western and Collective forms of capitalism in the post-World War II era.
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.

Full Bio

All Expert Contributors & Analysts