Ethereum’s most popular software client, Geth, has issued a hotfix to a high-severity security issue in its code. 

The release, titled Hades Gamma (v1.10.8), was posted to the Go Ethereum GitHub at 07:08 UTC Tuesday. Details of the attack vectors and their fixes weren’t disclosed “to give node operators and dependent downstream projects time to update their nodes and software,” according to a posting on the release page.

Ethernodes.org reports that nearly 75% of nodes on Ethereum run Geth. All these users are encouraged to upgrade immediately to the latest version of Geth, v.1.10.8. 

Guido Vranken, a software developer who specializes in finding code vulnerabilities in open-source software, announced he discovered the bug on Aug. 18. 

As stated in an early GitHub security advisory post, the vulnerability in Geth could cause a node to no longer be able to process blocks on Ethereum.

The last time a fix for a bug in Geth code was released, it caused a temporary chain split on Ethereum. Due to a deliberate lack of communication from Geth developers about the bug, several computers, also called “nodes,” did not upgrade their Geth client to the fixed implementation, which resulted in a blockchain consensus failure in November 2020. 

The Geth developer team said in a post-mortem blog post at the time that not speaking publicly about the security vulnerability was aimed at delaying any potential attacks on node operators who needed more time to upgrade to the latest version.

This time around, Geth developers emphasized in advance the urgent need for all users of their software to upgrade to the latest version, but the initial announcement on Aug. 18 did not explicitly describe the nature of the vulnerability.

“Last time we did a hotfix, people were angry that we didn’t announce it. This time we decided to try it differently. Let’s see which works better,” tweeted Geth developer Péter Szilágyi about Tuesday’s code release. 

Major Ethereum-based wallets and services such as Infura have publicly announced on Twitter their support for this new Geth release.

A post published on Monday, the Ethereum Foundation has alerted developers and miners that the “Muir Glacier” upgrade is set to occur at 9.2 million blocks, which is currently on pace for New Year’s Day. The upgrade follows less than a month after Ethereum’s highly anticipated “Istanbul,” update, and marks a series of upgrades for the network as it transitions to Ethereum 2.0.

The official post states, 

The Ethereum network will be undergoing a scheduled upgrade at block number 9,200,000, which is predicted to occur on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. The exact date is subject to change due to variable block times and timezones.

According to a previous post detailing the upgrade, Muir Glacier will serve to delay the planned increase in Ethereum’s mining difficulty by an estimated 611 days. 

Ethereum Cat Herders provided an explanation for the delay,

Once the difficulty increase of the difficulty bomb is too great for the block time retargeting mechanism, it results in an increase in block times for the network. This results in a degradation in the usability of Ethereum due to waiting for confirmation for transactions and Dapps as everything takes longer throughout the network.

Node operators and miners will be required to download the updated client software in order to be in compliance with the network, which some users are bemoaning given the New Year’s Day holiday launch.

According, to the CoinFloor Blog Post on 17, Dec 2019 it has announced that it will no longer support Ethereum in 2020. Coinfloor will also be delisting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on January 3, 2020. The exchange plans to retain the only Bitcoin on its platform.

Post Words…”We are excited to announce that Coinfloor will focus on providing Bitcoin only services from the 3rd of January 2020, on the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s launch The decision will allow Coinfloor to provide a richer set of services for the world’s leading cryptocurrency while maintaining focus on simplicity. Over the short-term, the business’s aim is to strengthen its position as the UK’s number one Bitcoin exchange “Continue on Post…

CEO of Coinfloor said: “No other cryptocurrency currently comes close to Bitcoin’s track record, industry support, or brand recognition, so focusing on Bitcoin made perfect sense. Bitcoin is the dominant decentralized, value-driven, and inflation-proof cryptocurrency, which gives it the potential to become the best form of money the world has ever seen”

On 3rd of January 2020, CoinFloor Users Will Not Able to Buy/Sell, BCH and ETH. However, Ethereum custody and withdrawals will continue Supported until 3rd Jan. But will incur an increased administrative fee.

Bitcoin is way ahead of everyone else

The blogpost also disclosed that Ethereum technology has yet to be proven. Thus, it has to find solutions to several pending issues on its network. Including its proposed transition from Ethereum 1.0 to Ethereum 2.0.

At the same, according to the exchange, bitcoin is already bringing solutions to real-life issues,. Nwosu stated that: “People are looking at improving Bitcoin, […]but Bitcoin is already a good solution to the problem. Everything else is cream on top of the coffee. It is already solving the problem today.”

The exchange however disclosed that it might relist Ethereum. 

To add, Coinfloor is the first crypto exchange to become crypto monogamous. It claims that this is because it realized that Bitcoin is “way ahead of everyone else.” Nwosu also added that he hopes more exchanges will follow its decision in the near future.

In a recent interview, Tom Jessop, the president of Fidelity Digital Assets spoke about Fidelity’s plans.

During it, the host asked him about the company’s attempt to provide custody for other digital currency like Ethereum.

Jessop answered that the firm carried out a lot of work on it. He also said that if client demand exists, then Fidelity Digital Assets could support Ethereum in 2020.

Obstacles to institutional crypto adoption

The digital asset launched earlier this year, Fidelity Digital Assets (FDAS) offers cryptocurrency custody. As well as trading tools for institutional investors and traders. However, the firm only supports Bitcoin which some analysts say keeps FDAS from challenging crypto-native firms like Coinbase and BitGo.

At the same time, Jessop cited obstacles to institutional crypto adoption. He mentioned factors like price volatility, lack of regulatory clarity.

Also, Jessop said that the lack of a track-record serves as one of the biggest obstacles to institutional adoption of a given cryptocurrency. He noted that Bitcoin holds the longest track record. Thus, the cryptocurrency gets a stronger appetite from institutional investors to allocate capital to the crypto, as compared to cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. Hence, the reason Fidelity isn’t supporting it at the moment, he added.

Quoting Jessop: “How do I know that if I buy this thing, it’s gonna be around tomorrow?. Like what indication of durability or longevity exists based on the fact that the history of this asset is 10 years old?”

“I think many of these things solve themselves with time,” he added.

Custody should be a base requirement

In the interview, Jessop also spoke about how custody should be a base requirement on the hierarchy of needs. He referred to custody as a service that needs to be delivered to people to create a sense of safety and soundness. He believes other factors like trading builds on custody.

Quoting him: “We’re an organization that’s been around for decades. We’re also not necessarily thinking about the next 18 to 24 months, we’re thinking about three-plus years in terms of the evolution of the space, and what the potentials for financial services at large.”

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently appeared in an interview, and naturally, his blockchain project was the most discussed topic. Besides the upcoming updates from the company, Buterin also spoke about ETH’s price. Furthermore, he acknowledged when he and his team managed to sell a notable amount of coins:

“I did get the Ethereum Foundation to sell 70,000 ETH like basically at the top, and that’s doubled our runway now, so it was one good decision that had a lot of impact.”

To put things into perspective, “basically at the top” would mean somewhere around $1,400 as this has been Ethereum’s all-time high, and the sale of 70,000 coins would result in $98 million.

Furthermore, back at the end of 2017, Buterin had reportedly transferred 30,000 ETH to the popular cryptocurrency exchange, Bitstamp. Many people from the community speculated at the time that he is selling coins during the parabolic price increase, as he might be expecting a serious drop. Supporting their claim was a tweet from Ethereum’s co-founder, implying that the cryptocurrency market has not yet earned the total capitalization during that time of $500 billion.

Knowing today the crash that followed the entire crypto market, it’s safe to argue that the decision to sell then made financial sense. Ever since Ethereum reached its ATH of $1,400, it has been mainly on the downtrend, and it’s currently trading at around $145. However, as Cryptopotato reported, even at this level, ETH is providing an ROI of over 5,000% since its inception.

The EF Stops Funding Internal Teams

Just recently, a developer who has been with the company for over three years posted about the EF’s potential plans. According to her, the foundation will stop funding most internal teams in the next year. She adds that as of December 1st, the funding for the particular project she has been working on has stopped entirely.

The news has not been confirmed or denied by officials from the Ethereum Foundation yet. However, the Tezos Foundation CSO, Ryan Lackey, said that if any previously funded by EF teams want to continue working, TF might be interested in providing the funding.