Beacon Blockchain Finality Issues Resolved by Ethereum Core Developers

Two Beacon Chain finality issues prompted Ethereum core developers to release upgrades for Prysm Labs and Teku clients within 24 hours. The consensus layer of the Ethereum network is operated by the Beacon Chain. Difficulties validating transactions were reported by Ethereum developers on 11 May regarding the Beacon Chain. Although proposing new blocks was feasible, their finalization was hindered by an unspecified problem. The power outage endured for around 25 minutes. Block finalization was hindered for more than an hour due to a similar issue on May 12.

An Ethereum consultant shared on Twitter that the Ethereum Foundation stated that achieving finality was not possible after 3 and 8 epochs. It seems that the problem was due to a heavy workload on certain Consensus Layers clients, which was caused by an unusual situation. Although the network failed to finish, both live and end users managed to continue their operations on the network because of the variety of clients, “since not all client implementations were impacted by this unusual situation.”

The diversity of clients for network validators refers to the variety of software clients that are available. A network becomes more secure and resilient with a wider range of clients. Both Teky and Prysm have launched updates that include optimizations aimed at preventing beacon nodes from using too many resources.

On March 15, a comparable event happened which caused a delay in the deployment of Ethereum’s “Shapella” upgrade on the Goerli testnet variant that was supposed to take place on March 12. The merging of Ethereum’s proof-of-work chain with the Beacon Chain on September 15, 2022, marked the beginning of the network’s transition to the more efficient and less energy-intensive proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

Ethereum’s activity and staking reward rates have been boosted by the recent trading frenzy surrounding Memecoin. On-chain data shows that Validators earned 24,997 Ether or $46 million during the first week of May. This marks a 40% increase from the previous week’s earnings of 18,339 ETH or $33 million.