Upgrade Ethereum Network 'Muir Glacier' on January 1, 2020

Ethereum to See Another Network Upgrade 'Muir Glacier' on January 1

Just after the recent Ethereum Istanbul Hard Fork, which happened at block number 9,069,000; a report today confirmed another upcoming block upgrade for the network. 

The Ethereum Foundation announced in a blog post that the network would undergo a scheduled block upgrade on Wednesday, January 1, 2020. This upcoming network upgrade is known as Muir Glacier.

The new upgrade is said to activate on the Ethereum Mainnet at block number 9,200,000 by the above-mentioned date. Meanwhile, this date, according to the report, is subject to change because of variable block times and timezones.

For Ethereum user or ether holder on exchanges, mobile or web wallet service like Coinbase, Binance, Metamask, MyEtherWallet, Ledger, etc. The report noted that they need not worry about the upcoming upgrade unless they are urged to take any action by any of these entities.

The Muir Glacier Upgrade Explained

Muir Glacier, unlike Istanbul, features only one Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP), which is EIP 2384. Istanbul, on the other hand, came with about 11 EIPs; however, six of this figure was later implemented.

While giving details on the development, the Foundation explained; Muir Glacier's EIP is meant to bring delay in difficulty bomb for another 4,000,000 blocks or approximately 611 days.

According to the report, the Core Devs, when planning for Istanbul, estimated that the bomb wouldn't be noticeable until mid-2020. However, it happened that their estimation turned out to be false.

The difficulty bomb was noticed again on October 5, at block number 8,600,000; resulting in an increase on average block time. Now, it is around 14.3 seconds since block number 8,900,000.

Notably, the development led to the need for another upgrade to bring delay in the difficult bomb.

According to the Ethereum Foundation, this same approach was initiated on Ethereum in the past, adding that:

"There was a discussion about changing or removing the difficulty bomb, but due to the short time frame a decision needed to be made to preserve short block times, the Core Devs decided to move forward with this simple change as we have done before and commit to addressing the Ice Age in a more permanent way in the future."

Does Ethereum’s Muir Glacier Upgrade Affect ETH Holders?

Ether holders that make use of exchanges, web wallet service, mobile wallet service such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, MyEtherWallet, Metamask, Ledger, Trezor and more, need not worry about the development unless they are informed about taking additional steps.

However, anyone running an Ethereum node would need to upgrade to the latest version before Wednesday, December 30.