Altcoin News: Istanbul Hard Fork Early Activation Caused Ethereum Test Network Split

October 1, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

The Ethereum test network split into two chains after activating the Istanbul update.

“It appears there are two different chains mining the Ropsten test network. There are miners mining on the old [Ropsten] chain and miners mining the new one,” explained Ethereum Foundation community manager Hudson Jameson, adding in a tweet: “This is what testnets are for! Be aware that Ropsten will be unstable until this all plays out.”

Earlier it was expected that the update of the test network will be launched on October 2 at block 6 485 846, but in fact, it took place yesterday, September 30.

According to Jameson, most of the miners on the Ropsten network did not install the latest software, as they, along with the developers, were taken by surprise by the postponement. As a result, the updated network began to exist regardless of the old one.

Last October, a similar situation occurred when the activation of the Constantinople fork caused a split of Ropsten for several hours.

“The complicated part about proof-of-work test network is getting coordination between miners,” Jameson said to CoinDesk journalist. “Right now, we’re trying to run some miners to get Ropsten on the correct Istanbul chain.”

He also noted that it was the delay of miners that caused the appearance of two separate chains, and not bugs in the Istanbul code.

Whether this event will affect the timing of the launch of a hard fork in the main network is not known. Ethereum developers will discuss their next steps during a conference call on Friday, October 4.

Author: Marko Vidrih