Ethereum Failed to Finalize Blocks for over One Hour

Ethereum suffered a technical issue for the second time within 24 hours, causing finality to pause for more than an hour. Developers haven't determined the source of the hold-ups, but they are urging for calm amidst the concern and uncertainty.

This major security concern has raised questions about Ethereum's stability and could impact the credibility of the network in the eyes of developers. Toghrul Maharramov, a developer at Ethereum infrastructure startup Scroll, stated that "I wouldn't say I am concerned but it's definitely not ideal,", "To be able to say whether or not the situation is the fault of the protocol design or an outcome of a bug, we need to first understand what actually happened."

The Ethereum Foundation stated that when blocks are not being finalized, it is possible that pending transactions might be re-ordered or dropped from the network.

Despite concerns, a self-proclaimed “Ethereum Beacon Chain community health consultant” clarified on Twitter that transactions do not halt as a result of finality issues. Validators have been advised to increase their hardware specs and switch to a minority client if possible.