Ethereum Chain Splits Due to Bug: Devs Urging Users to Avoid any ETH Transactions

A bug afflicting a prior version of Geth has just caused the Ethereum mainnet to split. Nodes running the old client are being barred from the main network. This could threaten the possibility of double-spending and lost funds for those using the network.

• Go Ethereum just tweeted that a bug afflicting the old version of Geth has caused the Ethereum mainnet to fork. He urges all nodes to immediately update to the current version, 1.10.8, which was announced just days ago.

  A chain split has occurred on the Ethereum mainnet. The issue was resolved in the v1.10.8 release announced previously. Please update your nodes, if you haven’t already!

  — Go Ethereum (@go_ethereum) August 27, 2021

• Though most miners are mining on the current version and there is no threat of a hard fork, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko suggests that the Flexpool, BTC.com, and Binance pools have been mining on the old, unsecured version.
• Ethereum isn’t the only one: other chains may also be affected and open to exploitation by the bug, including Binance Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, and DAI.
• Rumors are circulating on Twitter that the BSC has already been impacted as well.
• The fork has reportedly caused 54% of nodes to split from the Ethereum main net.
• At the time of writing, ETH gas fees are way above the average.
• Developers are urging users of Ethereum to avoid doing any transactions on the Ethereum network for a while until things are resolved. It may also be wise to avoid any major transactions on related chains as well.