Ethereum Developers Fix Loophole in EIP-1559 Forthcoming Upgrade

Ethereum developers were quick to fix a loophole for a forthcoming upgrade in EIP-1559 that would have left the network vulnerable to fake large transactions.

Ethereum Developers Fix Loophole in EIP-1559

Ethereum core developer Martin Holst Swende has identified and fixed a loophole in EIP-1559, a major upgrade scheduled to go live in mid-July.

Had the loophole been left unfixed, this would have allowed for fake large transactions that could have overwhelmed the Ethereum network.

With the forthcoming EIP-1559 upgrade, placing no limit on the maximum amount a user could pay to speed up transactions, an attacker could potentially insert an absurdly high number to overwhelm the network, even if they didn’t have the funds to pay for the tip.

To close that loophole, the developers implemented a solution that involved four lines of codes that capped transactions at a limit of 2^256, a widely used cryptographic hash function that underpins the Bitcoin blockchain.

“We had a lot of back and forth on the call about which of these should be included in the consensus rules explicitly, as only the two first “< 2^256” ones are strictly necessary, but we decided to include all four for clarity and caution.“ Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko tweeted.

EIP-1559 Upgrade Going to Make Ethereum Transactions More Efficient

EIP-1559 is a forthcoming upgrade to make Ethereum transactions more efficient by using a hybrid system of base fees and tips to evenly incentivize miners in the events of high and low network congestion.

A base fee is an algorithmically determined price one pays for a transaction on Ethereum while tips are optional fees to speed up the transactions on the network.

Meanwhile, the network would burn a small amount of Ether (ETH) every time the currency is used to pay gas fees on a transaction that will eventually transform Ethereum into a deflationary crypto asset and make a rival to Bitcoin.

Many believe that the reduction in the supply of ETH will lead to higher token prices overall as the reduction in the supply of Ether will make the asset more scarce.