Ethereum's Next Blockchain Upgrade Faces Delay After Testing Failure

Repercussions are being felt in the ethereum development ecosystem after an initial test of the platform's forthcoming software upgrade, Constantinople, failed to deliver expected results.

Namely, a bug was discovered by security lead for the Ethereum Foundation Martin Holst Swende, one which caused two different iterations of the same software upgrade to run on testnet.

Though a patch to fix the identified bug has since been issued, independent ethereum developer Lane Rettig explained to CoinDesk Monday that investigations into the events of Constantinople testnet release are ongoing.

While a fixed date for implementation of Constantinople has yet to be set, Griff Green, ethereum community lead and founder of blockchain-based nonprofit Giveth, set mainnet activation for sometime in 2019.

To recap the events of Saturday, rollout of Constantinople was planned to proceed on ethereum's main test network at block number 4,230,000 miners failed to upgrade their software in accordance with the timed launch.

Following an open call from ethereum developers on social media to move the test forward, the network underwent a second chain split as a result of discrepancies in Constantinople code between two major ethereum clients, Geth and Parity.

Part of the Constantinople upgrade features new code under ethereum improvement proposal 1283 that will change the way smart contracts are stored on ethereum and reduce the cost to smart contract developers of updating stored contracts.

Upon discovering the discrepancies in Constantinople code, ethereum core developers agreed to patch Parity's code to align with code supported by Geth and attempt another re-sync to the correct Ropsten chain.

Ethereum core developer, Alexey Akhunov, also wrote in the same channel that while "Smooth processes are good for efficiency...they can [instill] a false sense of security," adding that, "Breakages...make people more alert."

Moving forward, the plan for all ethereum developers as explained by release manager for Parity, Afri Schoedon, is to implement bug fixes for relevant clients and "Bring them all together on the Geth Ropsten chain again."