What does the difficulty of Ethereum mean? Why introduce the difficulty bomb? Ethereum uses workload to prove consensus mechanism, which is an algorithm that uses a lot of energy and computing power. This mechanism encourages mining, thus encouraging a centralized mine centered on incentives. However, this centralization violates the original decentralization principle behind cryptocurrency.

What does the difficulty of Ethereum mean?

Ethereum difficulty means that it takes longer and longer to verify transactions under the PoW consensus mechanism. The transition to proof of equity in September 2022 cancels PoW as the consensus mechanism of Ethereum blockchain, so the difficulty is no longer a problem.

The "difficulty bomb" of Ethereum refers to the deliberate and sudden increase in mining difficulty on the blockchain. Its release coincides with the transition from blockchain to proof of equity. The purpose behind the difficulty bomb is to multiply the time required for mining new blocks on the Ethereum blockchain, so as to: 1. Encourage cryptocurrency miners to get rid of energy intensive workload to prove mining by removing incentives.

2. Canceled the ability of centralized currency creation and ownership.

3. Discouraged blockchain branching.

4. Force node upgrade.

Understand the difficulty bomb

In cryptocurrency, the term "difficulty" describes the computational difficulty required to mine blocks in the blockchain for a specific cryptocurrency. Mining cryptocurrencies is often confused with creating coins; However, mining is a verification process involving 64 character hash of encrypted transaction information. When the miners' machines solve the hash problem, they will receive a token as a reward.

The original Ethereum blockchain has an inherent feature, which will increase the difficulty of mining over time - the more blocks dug up, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be to dig out the next block.

The developers of Ethereum created a difficulty bomb to double the difficulty of solving hashes, and finally made it too expensive in time and energy to pay the price.

The developers of Ethereum have been planning to turn to equity certification. It is estimated that the energy consumed by Ethereum is 99.95% less than the workload certification.

The difficulty bomb of Ethereum is a deterrent to miners, who may want to fork the original blockchain to continue mining using the PoW mechanism. The main reason why miners do not want to turn to PoS is that the expensive mining machines and mines they create will become outdated, at least in terms of making profits.

Difficult Bomb Challenge

Moving to PoS is a huge challenge for developers - they have to constantly postpone the release date of the difficulty bomb because The Merge is constantly rescheduled. Releasing the bomb before upgrading to PoS will be counterproductive - the difficulty bomb will significantly slow down the transaction speed and seriously block the network.

There are six upgrades. In other repairs, difficulty bombs are delayed:

2017: Byzantine Update

2019: Constantinople Update

2020: Mul Glacier renewal (only for difficult bombs)

2021: London Update

2021: Arrow Glacier update (difficult bombs only)

2022: Gray Glacier (only for difficult bombs)

Why introduce the difficulty bomb?

The difficulty bomb of Ethereum is a deterrent for miners. Even after the blockchain transitions to PoS, they may choose to continue to use PoW. The main reason for them to do so may be that the balance of power and profit has been transferred from miners to investors and users of the blockchain. If all miners have not turned to proof of rights and interests, the Ethereum blockchain is in danger of branching. A similar situation occurred in 2017, when Bitcoin miners strongly supported Bitcoin cash, forcing its blockchain to bifurcate. (See also: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash: What's the difference?) However, the founder of Ethereum foresaw this possibility and programmed its blockchain to increase the difficulty level of its mining algorithm.

In general, Ethereum's "difficulty bomb" refers to the sudden increase in mining difficulty to prevent miners from choosing to continue to use the workload certification mechanism after the transition to equity certification. Difficulty refers to the time and computing power required to verify cryptocurrency transactions in the blockchain under the workload proof mechanism. The difficulty bomb of Ethereum will be deployed in block 15530314 on September 14, 2022, the day before the "merger" goes online. Mining has almost disappeared, probably because the reward system for workload certification has been canceled, and ETH can no longer be mined.