Ethereum (ETH) users have welcomed a new upgrade related to the go-Ethereum (Geth) software.
The upgrade is a security release that fixes vulnerabilities in the protocol. In an update shared by Marius Van Der Wijden, a developer for Ethereum, the upgrade solves several challenges that were noticed by the team.
Upgrade’s Key Fixes and Layer-2 Collaboration
According to Wijden, the release of Schwarzschild, v1.14.13, fixes a bug introduced in v1.14.0. This bug has affected all other later versions before now.
The Ethereum developer advised users running Geth v1.14.0 or later versions to update theirs to avoid potential issues.
However, he highlighted that the upgrade did not affect older versions, such as v1.13.x.
Notably, besides Ethereum mainnet nodes, all Layer-2 networks that rely on Geth have been impacted by the issue.
Hence, to ensure speedy resolution of the challenge, the development team has collaborated with different L2 projects to roll out fixes.
A prime example is the partnership with Polygon. Interestingly, the vulnerability was first reported by a security researcher and forwarded by Polygon’s security team to Ethereum.
This suggests that the issue was significant enough, possibly affecting consensus or security on Ethereum mainnet nodes and Layer-2 projects.
Pectra Upgrade and Future Enhancements
Meanwhile, the Ethereum ecosystem looks to mid-March, when the Pectra upgrade will go live.
Notable fixes that Pectra hopes to address include network speed, efficiency, and scalability.
The scalability challenge will be fixed by adding new features that are part of the critical changes to the blockchain.
Experts highlighted that Pectra’s goal is to address backend interactions, particularly the handling of user transactions.
Currently, Ethereum users pass through several layers of transaction processes, such as getting approval for tokens and swapping them in two separate transactions.
However, once the Pectra upgrade goes live, this will become one seamless transaction. This will make transaction processing faster and easier for users.
Furthermore, validators on Ethereum can only earn 32 ETH as a reward. The Pectra release will change this limit and scale it to 2,048 ETH.
The goal is to eliminate the creation of sub-validators and prevent network overload.
Market Reaction and ETH Price Outlook
These developments could impact Ethereum’s price action in the broader cryptocurrency market.
As of this writing, ETH’s price changed hands at $3,265.64, a 4.70% increase in the last 24 hours. This represents a significant gain from its low of $3,086 it traded for recently.
Analysts say the price increase could have resulted from an uptick in trading volume by 38.60% to $26.43 billion.
They maintain that although ETH has found it difficult to stabilize above the $3,400 resistance since January 8, the recent rebound is a positive signal.
This optimism relies on the price action of Ethereum, which has been consolidating despite failing to breach key resistance levels.
Financial experts expect ETH to build strong liquidity in this phase, which could ultimately lead to a powerful bullish move.
Top analyst, Javon Marks, speculated that when Ethereum’s surge happens, the price could hit between $4,811 and $4,867.
He argues that if the altcoin can climb to that level, it would position it to attempt $8,000 in the next few months.
