The Ethereum (ETH) network faced a technical issue that temporarily meant that the termination of transactions could not be carried out. The issue, which went largely unnoticed but caught the attention of some, caused panic.
The Problem Caused Confusion
The Ethereum network faced an interesting issue where transactions were temporarily unable to terminate. Ethereum developers announced that the situation is being investigated, but the network soon returned to normal. For now, network data and statements from the developers indicate that transaction termination has resumed smoothly, indicating that transactions have been irrevocably committed to the Blockchain.
“Termination has been restored,” Prysmatic Labs co-founder Preston van Loon tweeted, adding, “We don’t know the root cause of the issue yet, but something happened that caused several client applications to work really hard to keep up with Blockchain.”
Data sources on Ethereum network activity reveal that the problem is on the validators side. Validators, as they are known, verify transactions as the network processes them. Data from data provider Beaconcha.in shows that Ethereum saw a sharp drop in the number of confirmations received between 200,552 and 200,554. The first problematic period occurred on May 11 at approximately 21:13. According to network data, the problem was resolved within half an hour. However, EthereumPools.info tweeted that “almost every pool/operator we monitored for several periods was offline.”
Following the incident, community members pointed to client diversity – the variety of software clients available to validators – as a reason why the issue was not more widespread or long-lasting.
“Without Casper, The Network Would Stop Like Solana”
Ethereum supporter TobbyKitty, who is closely followed by the cryptocurrency community in Turkey, was one of the first to announce the problem. TobbyKitty tweeted on May 11 at 23.58, “About 45 minutes ago, the Ethereum Blockchain broke up a little, but no one noticed. Blocks continued to exit but there was no termination. The problem is fixed now. If another consensus had been used instead of Casper, the network would have looked like Solana.”
