On paper, it makes a lot of feel for the Ethereum developers to address the difficulty bomb soon. As the evolution for turning ETH into a PoS ecosystem is withal underway, a temporary solution may endure to a greater extent than than warranted. This is why at that topographic point is a novel Ethereum Improvement Proposal -or EIP- to address this province of affairs earlier it tin laissez passer notice give-up the ghost an insurmountable problem. This does non hateful the switch to proof-of-stake volition non happen.
The Ethereum developers stimulate got been working on the Metropolis hard fork for roughly fourth dimension now. One of the primary selling points of this hard fork is how it volition transition Ethereum from a proof-of-work ecosystem -similar to Bitcoin- into a proof-of-stake ecosystem, similar many altcoins today. That is a lot easier said than done together with it requires a pregnant rewriting of the code. This novel PoS surround has to endure properly tested earlier it is introduced on the alive network.
Development of the proof-of-stake surround is roughly 80% done, but it may non endure create inwards fourth dimension earlier the difficulty bomb becomes. That final result seems highly unlikely, but it never hurts to stimulate got a contingency excogitation inwards place. This is why Vitalik Buterin together with Afri Schoedon stimulate got come upwardly up amongst an option solution which pushes the difficulty bomb dorsum past times an additional eighteen months. This extension volition permit miners to hold mining Ethereum, fifty-fifty though they volition stimulate got an increasing difficulty together with lower block vantage to stimulate got into account.
With the average block fourth dimension on the Ethereum network currently increasing due to the difficulty bomb, a countermeasure has to endure implemented. The EIP inwards interrogation would force dorsum the difficulty bomb adjustment past times roughly other three 1000000 blocks, although that give away may endure changed after on. This effectively confirms the switch to proof-of-stake volition endure delayed together with proof-of-work needs to stay viable for Ethereum miners. This EIP volition force the block times dorsum to xxx seconds close the halt of 2018,
Even though this proposal has been submitted close a calendar month ago, EIP 649 is withal inwards the draft phase for now. It has non received whatever negative comments or remarks, indicating the bulk of developers together with Ethereum community members experience this is a expert idea. It is improve to delay the switch to proof-of-stake together with hold working on the code amongst a larger cushion inwards place. Miners volition non complain either, since lots of people late invested inwards graphics cards to mine Ethereum. It volition endure interesting to encounter of the EIP 649 volition eventually endure merged into the Ethereum protocol or not
