Ethereum’s developers recently proposed a change to the network called EIP-1559 – a proposal that aims to combat rising network transaction fees. Expected to take effect in July this year, the change would send a portion of each transaction fee to the Ethereum network itself. The ether allocated in this way would then be burned, reducing the number of coins in circulation.
This change would also decrease the amount of rewards for the network’s miners, leading some to protest the change. Since then, an active group of participants has started to advocate for a demonstrative acquisition of the network, which could threaten the security of the network. The group, however, apparently does not intend to overthrow Ethereum, insisting that they just want to show the viability of such an attack. Buterin and other Ethereum developers responded by planning defensive efforts.
“The purpose of this document is to describe a mechanism by which a merger can happen quickly, with few modifications for ethpow or beacon customers,” said Buterin. This change would essentially make the network transition to Ethereum 2.0 faster than expected.
“Like clockwork, the Ethereum community quickly organized possible solutions to this possible 51% attack, with Vitalik leading the charge,” said a blog post from Status on March 12, pointing to the structure written by Buterin. “Vitalik describes how Ethereum can perform a ‘quick merger’ by moving quickly from proof of work to proof of betting with limited changes required for Ethereum customers,” said the post.
A miner known as “Bits Be Trippin” commented during a video on YouTube on March 9 that, “Part of the risk display here is not attacking the network, it is showing that force projection is possible.”
Ethereum 2.0 is a scaling effort that seeks to take the proof of work network, or PoW, to a betting proof, or PoS, mining consensus – an effort that has been going on for years.
Buterin’s recently proposed structure would accelerate the transition from the mining consensus of the network, choosing to work the twists and details of the system after the fact, the status post detailed. The merger could pave the way for smoother development in Ethereum 2.0, according to Buterin’s post and article.
The Status blog noted that the opposition group EIP-1559 has already technically gathered enough power to conduct its 51% attack, based on the group’s web page at the time of the blog post.
The Ethereum network was home to many significant developments in the areas of decentralized finance and non-fungible tokens in the past year. As the number of platforms and assets running on the Ethereum network has grown, so have the network’s transaction fees.
Ethereum started Eth2 in December 2020, with the launch of its beacon network.