Ethereum’s developers recently proposed a network change called EIP-1559 – a proposal to combat the network’s rising transaction fees. The move is expected to go into effect this July, sending a portion of any transaction fee to the Ethereum network itself. The aether assigned in this way would then be burned, reducing the number of coins in circulation.
This change would also reduce the number of rewards going to the network’s miners, which would lead some to protest the move. A vocal group of participants has since begun advocating a demonstrative network takeover that could compromise the security of the network. However, the group does not appear to intend to overthrow Ethereum and is insisting that it just wants to show the viability of such an attack. Buterin and other Ethereum developers have then planned defensive measures.
“The aim of this document is to describe a mechanism that allows a merge to happen quickly without changing the ethpow or beacon clients,” said Buterin. This move would move the network to Ethereum 2.0 essentially faster than expected.
“Like clockwork, the Ethereum community quickly organized possible solutions to this possible 51% attack, with Vitalik leading the indictment,” said a blog post by Status on March 12, referring to the framework written by Buterin. “Vitalik describes how Ethereum can do a ‘quick merge’ by quickly moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake with limited changes required for Ethereum customers,” the post said.
A miner named “Bits Be Trippin” commented on a YouTube video on March 9th: “Part of the risk indicator is not to attack the network, but rather to show that force projection is possible.”
Ethereum 2.0 is a scaling measure intended to bring the network from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake or PoS mining consensus – an endeavor that has been in the works for years.
The framework recently proposed by Buterin would accelerate the network’s transition to mining consensus and subsequently work out the kinks and details of the system, as described in detail in the status post. The merger could pave the way for a smoother development of Ethereum 2.0, according to the post and Buterin’s report.
The status blog found that, based on the group’s website, at the time of the blog post, opposition group EIP-1559 had enough technical power to carry out their 51% attack.
Ethereum’s network has been home to many significant developments in both decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens over the past year. However, as the number of platforms and assets running on the Ethereum network has increased, so have the network’s transaction fees.
Ethereum initiated Eth2 in December 2020 with the launch of its beacon chain.
