Déjà vu all over again: Ethereum developers may postpone the network’s Difficulty Bomb

A new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is looking to delay Ethereum’s inherent difficulty bomb (aka “Ice Age”) yet again. EIP-2387 would activate another hard fork, affectionately named Muir Glacier, around Jan. 6 next year, which would push back significant increases in mining difficulty by 4,000,000 blocks (approximately 611 days). If accepted, it would mark the third time Ethereum developers opted to extend the full implementation of the difficulty bomb: the Byzantium hard fork in 2018 and the Constantinople hard fork earlier this year also punted the Ice Age.

At a high level, the difficulty bomb is “a piece of code embedded” into the Ethereum network that gradually increases the hashing difficulty for Proof-of-Work (PoW) miners. Early developers included this feature to encourage (see: force) network stakeholders to participate in Ethereum’s planned switch to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Why it matters:

• If accepted, the delay suggests the Serenity upgrade and switch to PoS is not imminent. Ethereum core developers have already delayed the launch of Serenity to 2021 (no specific date attached). And the 4 million block postponement of the Ice Age suggests this milestone won’t be greenlit until later that year.
• Despite some disdain from current network stakeholders, the Ice Age may serve an important purpose when the time comes. Ethereum participants will need a financial incentive to transition from dedicating mining resources to locking stake unto the network, and the difficulty bomb helps provide that push. But the recent rise of staking services, facilitated by the launch of staking returns through exchange holdings, suggests crypto users are eager to contribute to PoS networks. The high demand for staking and an increase in available staking resources may eliminate the need for an Ethereum Ice Age. A counterargument is the difficulty bomb would force Ethereum node operators to keep their clients up to date or face increasing operational costs.