Ethereum accidentally "hard forks" after Infura outrage

The decentralized world computer was hit by the reality of having a single point of failure earlier today after an Ethereum client failed to update its software version.

Infura, an Ethereum service provider run and maintained by ConsenSys, suffered a service outage this morning causing other services and companies to be temporarily blocked from seeing the network's data.

At some point Ethereum developers introduced a change in the code that led today to a chain split starting from block 11234873.

The bug affected a version of the Ethereum blockchain, Geth, and as per Ethereum Foundation team lead Péter Szilágyi, had been lying dormant for two years.

The service outrage caused a temporary hard fork in the Ethereum network - meaning it split into two and had parallel blockchains running with different data.

"In my opinion, today's consensus failure in #EthereumUnicorn face shouldn't be underestimated and should be considered as the most serious issue Ethereum has faced since the DAO debacle 4 years ago. An investigation is in order."

Businesses running Ethereum nodes took steps to minimize any long-lasting impact shortly after the chain split was discovered.

The vulnerability served as a field day for Ethereum critics, who have arguably rightly called the network a centralized blockchain with massive security and technological concerns.

"Ethereum didn't go down, only Infura did!" pic.

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