Developers find bugs in 2 Ethereum clients’ mainnet merge updates

Two Ethereum clients, Nethermind and Go Ethereum, have discovered bugs in their mainnet merge updates.

Ethereum developer Péter Szilágyi first noticed the bugs and announced via Twitter that Geth 1.10.22 — Promavess — contains a regression.

Aaand our latest release is borked. 😕 Geth 1.10.22 contains a regression that causes the trie/state to go bad. Most probably it’s one of the PRs we’ve merged towards the new storage model / online pruner. Trying to find and fix the issue.

— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) August 23, 2022

He added that it is likely one of the PRs (pull request) “merged towards the new storage model / online pruner.”

The issue has yet to be resolved as of press time, but developers are actively working on a fix.

A later update confirmed that the issue might lead anyone running the release to lose their data and their database corrupted. But the “data loss happens only on shutdown.”

FWIW, definitely found and fixed a bug. Lets see if this was *the* bug, or if we’re opening a can of worms here. https://t.co/5xBCPMoxAQ

— Péter Szilágyi (karalabe.eth) (@peter_szilagyi) August 23, 2022

Nethermind reveals bug

Nethermind core developer DanielC also confirmed that a similar bug was discovered in the client’s mainnet merge update v1.14.0. But in their case, they have been able to fix it.

Recently we’ve had similar regressions in @nethermindeth so we’ve decided to switch to a strict stabilization phase before #TheMerge. We merge only fixes to the master branch currently. https://t.co/erzgN1Z0wV

— DanielC (@_D4nie1_) August 23, 2022

However, the bugs are unlikely to stop the Merge or delay it from happening on September 15 because there are several other execution clients on Ethereum. However, it would require validators to use Geth to switch to other clients.

https://t.co/kdI8k9Nvrg

— Micah Zoltu (@MicahZoltu) August 23, 2022

So far, many of these execution clients, such as Teku, Lighthouse, Besu, Erigon, and Prysm, have released new updates in preparation for the Merge.

Sepolia testnet gets update

Sepolia completed the first Ethereum testnet post-merge update on August 22.

The update was initially slated for August 17 but shifted to August 22 to allow offline validators to connect to the network.

The Sepolia testnet successfully merged with the beacon chain on July 6  — making it one of the first testnets to transition to proof-of-stake.

According to the Ethereum community, every upgrade is important to ensure that the PoS migration runs smoothly.

Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation cleared misconceptions surrounding the blockchain’s transition to a PoS network. According to its update, gas fees will not become cheaper, nor will its transaction speed become “noticeably faster.”