Binance to support Ethereum Muir Glacier upgrade
- While ETH trading will remain unaffected during the upgrade, ETH withdrawals and deposits will be suspended.
- The Muir Glacier upgrade is expected to be activated on the mainnet on Jan 1, 2020, at block 9,200,000.
Binance will soon be suspending Ether (ETH) deposits and withdrawals to support the Ethereum Muir Glacier upgrade. According to Binance’s blog post, the withdrawals and deposits will be suspended on the platform before the Ethereum network block height of 9,200,000 selected to execute the upgrade.
The deposits and withdrawals will be reopened after Binance decides the upgraded network to be stable. Meanwhile, ETH trading will remain unaffected during the upgrade. The exchange stated that it will not be making a separate announcement about the resumption of withdrawals and deposits. Binance advised its users to make deposits in full before the upgrade:
Please leave sufficient time for deposits to be processed in full prior to the above ETH network block height. We will handle all technical requirements involved for all users holding ETH in their Binance accounts.
The Muir Glacier upgrade is expected to be activated on the mainnet on Jan 1, 2020 at block 9,200,000, as per Ethereum developer James Hancock. According to a blog post by Ethereum Cat Herders, Muir Glacier has only one improvement proposal, EIP 2384. Ethereum Cat Herders is a community dedicated to the network’s development. EIP 2384 is designed to delay the “difficulty bomb” (also known as Ethereum’s Ice Age) for another 611 days or 4,000,000 blocks.
The so-called “difficulty bomb” is supposed to slowly make the process of generating new blocks more complicated and would gradually lead the network to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. Muir Glacier upgrade is necessary following the December 7 Instanbul upgrade because of problems predicting the timing of the difficulty bomb, according to the Ethereum Cat Herders.
The blog post said:
The timing of when the difficulty bomb begins to kick-in is difficult to estimate. While planning Istanbul, it was first estimated that the bomb would not be noticeable until mid-2020. This implied that it could safely be delayed in the follow-up upgrade to Istanbul. However, those estimates were wrong.
According to the Ethereum Cat Herders, The Muir Glacier upgrade will only be activated on the Ropsten testnet network. Miners and node operators who have missed the Istanbul upgrade and aren’t a part of the Ethereum network are asked to upgrade their client to Muir Glacier soon. As per an announcement by the Ethereum Foundation, nodes should have been upgraded before December 30, 2019.
Author
Rajarshi Mitra
Independent Analyst
Rajarshi entered the blockchain space in 2016. He is a blockchain researcher who has worked for Blockgeeks and has done research work for several ICOs. He gets regularly invited to give talks on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
