EIP for phase 0 submited, but Cardano CEO cites issue

September 18, 2020 John Ethereum 0

Source: pedrosek (2)

  • The EIP for Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 has been submitted by Danny Ryan and Vitalik Buterin.
  • Ethereum 2.0 could have a security vulnerability in its protocol, according to a study conducted by Stanford University and cited by the inventor of Cardano.

After the submission of EIP-2982, entitled “Serenity phase 0“, the launch of Ethereum 2.0 is finally on the horizon. Phase 0 will mark the beginning of the transition of the Ethereum from its current Proof of Work to a Proof-of-Stake with the deployment of the Beacon Chain. In the crypto community, the proposal introduced by project coordinator Danny Ryan has been welcomed.

Users expect Ethereum 2.0 to solve the serious problem of congestion and high transaction fees that the network has experienced in recent months. According to the proposal introduced by Ryan, Ethereum 2.0 will allow the platform to meet “the original vision of the Ethereum” to support a globally scalable, efficient, and general-purpose platform while “maintaining a highly secure and decentralized crypto-economy”.

With the EIP-2982, the previously announced launch date of November seems to become more realistic. However, the proposal is, for now, in draft status. Nevertheless, one of the people in charge of conducting the multi-client testnets for Eth2, Afri Schoedon, has expressed his optimism about the deployment of the Beacon Chain by November:

The Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain will launch in November unless we find severe bugs in clients or protocol(…). We are well on track for a late 2020 launch.

Since Ryan’s announcement of the proposal’s introduction, ETH’s pricing has seen a positive impact on its performance. At the time of publication, ETH is trading at $386 with gains of 3.84% and 5.50% in the daily and weekly chart respectively breaking the $370 resistance level.

Cardano’s inventor refers to possible security flaw in Ethereum 2.0

However, the launch of phase 0 has not only received criticism for its delay but also for possible security breaches. The inventor of Cardano and one of the 8 co-creators of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, has pointed out a potential security flaw of Ethereum 2.0. Hoskinson cited research conducted by Stanford University researchers that raises an issue in the protocol.

Referencing the research paper titled “Ebb-and-Flow Protocols: A Resolution of the Availability-Finality Dilemma”. Hoskinson requested Buterin’s response to the findings. The researchers simulated an attack on the Gasper protocol and discovered “an attack in the standard synchronous network model, highlighting a general difficulty with existing finality-gadget-based designs.” Hoskinson commented on this as follows:

In [20], Gasper’s finalized ledger is shown to be safe. However, it is claimed to be live only under a non-standard probabilistic network delay model…we analyzed Gasper under a standard security model, and found it to be insecure. In particular, we discovered a liveness attack on Gasper in the standard synchronous model where messages can be delayed arbitrarily by the adversary up to a known network delay bound.

Hoskinson said he expects a response from Vitalik Buterin. As of publication, Buterin has made no comment. However, in an interview for the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast, Buterin said a few weeks ago that Ethereum 2.0 presents difficulties that the core team did not anticipate. Therefore, the update has been delayed for almost two years. If the study will influence the launch remains to be seen.