Ethereum's Byzantium Hard Fork Is Running Smoothly, Developers Say

While it's still perhaps too early to deem ethereum's Byzantium upgrade a success, developers indicate the software update, is running smoothly so far.

An official release manager for Byzantium, Hudson Johnston, noted that the new software is now stable, and steadily rolling out across the distributed network, a fact he said can be attributed to "the hard work (of) developers, users and miners across the ethereum ecosystem."

But while the impact on ethereum's infrastructure will be substantial, it looks like the network is undergoing an adjustment period. Currently, some blocks are being mined in as little as 1 second, though others are dragging out to nearly a minute – substantially longer than the long-time average of 25 seconds per block.

Further, blocks are filling with relatively high numbers of transactions. That's good news for scalability, as ethereum can, in theory, continue to grow without slowing down the network.

According to the ethereum forktracker, mining on the old blockchain with the older ruleset has ceased. This is also positive news for ethereum, as it means a relatively low chance that a competing currency will be introduced, as happened last summer when a split produced the rival asset, ethereum classic.

That said, according to ethereum developer Afri Schoedon, there's still a chance that someone is mining the old blockchain, but probably at very high cost.

In the days prior to the fork, developers and node operators (such as mining pools) were given some last-minute toil, as faults found in Byzantium software led to continuous re-releases. The issues saw ethereum developers working around the clock to get the corrected software out on time, and node operators working over the weekend to install the updated software.

At press time, a high proportion of nodes are yet to install the Byzantium update, though the figures are slowly changing and an ongoing trickle of nodes is arriving to the hard fork fashionably late.

Although the price per dollar of ether dropped somewhat in the run-up to the fork, prices peaked close to the monthly high of $350 immediately after, according CoinMarketCap. At press time, ether prices have dropped back to $337 – the same level seen immediately prior to the fork.

Source: Coindesk

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Hours to Go: How to Watch Ethereum's Fork as It Happens

With $30 billion on the line, all eyes are likely to be on ethereum tomorrow as it seeks to navigate one of its biggest-ever updates.

Will all software users upgrade to the updated blockchain? Or will a new, competing token be created? That's exactly what the market is watching and waiting to see when etheruem hits block 4,370,000, scheduled to occur tomorrow at around 6:00 UTC at press time.

The first part of a larger, multi-part upgrade, the so-called "Byzantium" code will make the blockchain lighter and faster, paving the way for better decentralized applications (dapps), while also enhancing network privacy.

New features aside, however, ethereum developers are mostly optimistic about the upgrade. Although developers on the most popular clients have had to iron out a pair of bugs in the days leading up to change, there's confidence that the upgrade will be smooth.

New and seasoned investors won't likely want to take others' word for it, however. So, if you're eager to see for yourself, here's how to monitor the update in real time:

Fork countdown

Adding uncertainty to hard forks is their reliance on block numbers as a way to signal upgrades. Simply put, rather than have everyone change their software at a specific time, users rely on the numbered blocks in the blockchain itself as a means of coordinating.

Because of this, no one knows exactly when the hard fork will take place. Yet, that doesn't mean there's no way to keep an eye out.

To track when this block number will be hit, Singapore-based smart contract company CodeTract has released a fork countdown, showing how many blocks remain and roughly, how much time is left until the fork occurs.

By current projections, the hard fork looks like it will execute on early Monday.

Mining hashrate

Once the fork happens, users will want to track how much of the ethereum ecosystem moves over, and how quickly they do so.

This is a key metric to track. As long as miners are mining on the old version of ethereum, it will remain operational (and valuable). If that persists for long enough, it could lead to a split (although ethereum developers think this is unlikely due to specifics in the code).

Developers aren't going in blind either – already, the Byzantium code has undergone testing to give an idea of how the fork would play out. For example, earlier this week, all minerson a test version of the network made the migration, a small (but encouraging) sign of what to expect.

The best way to watch this is on the Ethereum Foundation's website, which will show what percentage of ethereum miners that have moved over to the new blockchain when the fork happens.

Nodes

But, miners are not the only stakeholders in ethereum who need to upgrade; developers, users and companies running nodes, which store a full copy of the ledger, also need to download new software or risk falling behind.

Ether Nodes tracks how many node operators are running clients compatible with Byzantium.

Geth, the most popular ethereum client, released fork-ready software in version 1.7.2. And Parity, the second most popular client, released 1.7.6, which is compatible and fixes some consensus bugs.

Right now, 60 percent of Geth nodes and 27 percent of Parity nodes have upgraded to a hard fork-compatible version. With under a day left before the fork, most node operators still need to upgrade.

Price

Of course, there may be more immediate reasons you're worried about a split.

If money's on the mind, you can always be sure to monitor the price of ether. For that, you can turn to our ethereum price page, which will update in real time as the fork happens.

Source: Coindesk

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Ethereum Developers Find Geth Bug as Hard Fork Nears

The discovery of a denial-of-service (DoS) attack vulnerability led the developers of ethereum's Geth software to release a new version just days before the Byzantium hard fork.

On finding the bug, the team behind ethereum's most popular client published a newsoftware release, yet data from blockchain analytics site Ether Nodes shows a relatively low rate – only 1.9 percent of Geth nodes – of adoption at press time.

With Geth comprising about 75 percent of all ethereum nodes, the vulnerability could leave nodes running the previous Byzantium-compatible release more susceptible to DoS attacks after the hard fork.

Explained by ethereum developer Casey Detrio on Reddit, the vulnerability stems from an oversight in one of the new Byzantium features. The risk is that this bug could be exploited by an attacker who wants to take ethereum nodes offline – a form of attack that the ethereum community has dealt with in the past.

Bug fixes have been coming from other ethereum node software groups ahead of next week's planned fork as well.

Yesterday, the team behind Parity, ethereum's second largest software client, issued a new release of its software (the fourth iteration) that corrected a "consensus bug" – an error which could have caused the network to partition during the hard fork. Currently, less than 20 percent of Parity nodes have updated to the new release, according to Ether Nodes.

Hard forks are hard

The issues unearthed by the tests have been of an unexpected severity, leading some ethereum developers to question their approach to the hard fork release process.

Internal discussions are also underway about the possibility of postponing Byzantium, but this approach also poses risks. This strategy would require all nodes to update their software so that the software change is triggered at a later time – a complicated prospect with such little time before the fork.

Indeed, the Parity team tweeted out that, in their view, the fork should be delayed given the recently discovered issues.

Detrio explained that "updating is not necessarily a quick and easy process for users with extensive infrastructure," such as exchanges or mining pools, and requires ample time to be done correctly.

He added:

"The second concern is that there may be more undiscovered consensus bugs that could be found after the activation block, which would then result in needing to perform emergency client updates."

Source : CoinDesk

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A Byzantium Blockchain Fork For Ethereum On Road

Ethereum's core developers assembled yesterday for a final scheduled meeting before the blockchain network, the world's second-largest by total value, undergoes its next upgrade, expected on October 16.

Held via Google Hangouts at 14:00 UTC, the discussion centered on ensuring all ethereum clients upgrade their software in unison so as to avoid any unintended splits. For the fork to occur across all nodes uniformly, clients need to include the necessary changes that accompany the upgrade – called Byzantium – as well as the trigger at block number 4,370,000 that will mark the official shift to the new code.

Once complete, the hard fork will introduce improvements to ethereum, such as making the network faster with fewer data constraints. Additionally, Byzantium – which constitutes the first of two releases in the wider Metropolis upgrade – will ramify security measures and implement new variables that might pave the way for enhanced privacy on the network.

But while past upgrades have proven more complicated, according to today's discussion, developers expect clients that have yet to release an update expect to do so by next week. Already, the network's most popular client, Go Ethereum (Geth) has published its release.

Further, though the deadline might seem to mark a challenge for client developers, the core development team believes the later release will favor the upgrade by keeping it top of mind.

The meeting did reveal some hiccups, however. For example, there was the realization that some client developers had forgotten to test their software against the lower mining difficulty level that will be introduced in Byzantium.

Still, while no meetings are scheduled between now and the fork, developers left the door open to other conversations – if only in the event of an emergency.

Meeting chairman Hudson Jameson concluded:

"We'll talk at the hard fork if something goes wrong, otherwise, we'll talk on the 20th."

Source: Coindesk

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