The 2Miners mining pool discovered a error causing “potential network instability” in the Ethash algorithm, which controls the mining of Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). In addition, it reported the problem to developers of both blockchains who have already implemented the corresponding solutions.
The mistake was that the Ethash code had values ”a bit out of place”, according to 2Miners’ own words in a statement. Is that the algorithm used 32-bit computational values instead of the required 64 bits.
As they explained, the problem could have caused some nodes, that is, the individual servers that maintain the network, to accept new data on the blockchain but other nodes not. The situation would be potentially drastic and could cause a division (or fork) of the chain like the one that happened last week on Ethereum.
The bug had already started to cause inconvenience in Ethereum Classic. When the blockchain made its last epoch change, which included a proposal (ECIP-1099) to reduce the hashing power of the network, the data was not validated by miners even though it was legitimate. According to the estimate of 2Miners researchers, in Ethereum, if this error had not been solved, it would have caused problems since January next year, with new implementations that will be incorporated into the network.
Fixed issue in Ethereum and Ethereum Classic
The developers working in the pool not only caught the bug, but also patched their software so that they could continue mining without being affected by it. Even when giving notice to the ETH and ETC teams they managed to solve the problem at its roots.
“Thank you for this,” said an Ethereum Classic developer before the solution went live. “We are running some sync tests and general checks, but overall this looks good and unless we find something unexpected we will have the merge very soon,” he added.
On the Ethereum side, the developers of this blockchain managed to implement a patch on November 11 and invited miners, through a post on the Foundation’s blog, to download a software update. “This problem is relevant only to miners; non-mining nodes will not be affected, ”says the publication.
“Great news. Our request has been successfully merged into the Ethereum code, ”2Miners officials announced through their Twitter account. «He was saved on January 1. ETH mining will not have this problem in its library, ”they added.
At the time of writing, 2Miners, located in Russia, Serves 4,270 Ethereum miners and 887 Ethereum Classic. It also has 17 other cryptocurrencies on its list.