Before the 'Bomb' Hits: Why the Race Is on to Alter Ethereum's Economics

Originally added to ease a transition in which ethereum would change how participants on its blockchain come to agreement - migrating from bitcoin's pioneering proof-of-work algorithm to an alternative called proof-of-stake - the difficulty bomb is set to reactivate in early 2019.

With no proof-of-stake migration in sight, steps must now be taken to delay the bomb - as well as reconfigure how ether rewards are released so as to ensure incentives are aligned to properly secure the blockchain.

Still, several EIPs target the question separately - impacting either the bomb or the reward schedule - while others bind them together.

Currently set to activate in 2019, two proposals seek to remove the difficulty bomb completely: EIP 1240, which simply removes the bomb, and EIP 1276, which seeks to remove bomb and alter ethereum's reward structure, lowering the current issuance of 3 ETH per block to 2 ETH. Two proposals want to delay the bomb: EIP 1234 and EIP 1227, though each takes a different approach to raising and lowering the issuance total.

A further two proposals simply target the issuance rate: EIP 858 does not impact the difficulty bomb but reduces the reward to 1 ETH, and EIP 1276 wants to change the reward to 2 ETH. Paying for security.

"If you rewind way back two or three years ago when this difficulty bomb was first installed, the plan was we will be on Casper by now, by 2018. If that had happened then the bomb would never have been an issue," Rettig told CoinDesk.

To complicate matters further, there are developers on complete opposite sides of the difficulty bomb debate.

Several developers argue that the difficulty bomb should remain permanently - even though it was only originally planned to last until Casper took effect.

Augur developer Mical Zoltu's proposal suggests the complete opposite - the removal of the difficulty bomb altogether.

The contention surrounding the difficulty bomb and ETH issuance has also led a group of miners to also speak up about their concerns.