Ethereum Network Congestion Forces Exchanges to Halt Withdrawals
18 Gennaio 2018 - 11:55AM
ADVFN Crypto NewsWire
Ethereum Network Congestion Forces Exchanges to Halt
Withdrawals
Scaling problems that have been sporadically affecting
the Ethereum network have resurfaced. While bulls and bears were
battling it out in the markets, the Ethereum blockchain was
fighting to restore some semblance of normal service. The
congestion forced a number of exchanges to halt withdrawals, with
one going so far as to advise customers to use a different
cryptocurrency.
Ethereum Enters the Slow
Lane
Over the last couple of months, the Ethereum network has
reported record activity, peaking at over one million transactions
a day. This growth has come at a price in the form of slow or
backlogged transactions, causing fees to reach record highs and ICO
participants to miss out on token sales after failing to push their
ether through in time. On Wednesday January 17, two exchanges
reported ethereum withdrawal issues that were affecting users.
First up was Bitstamp, which noted that there were ETH withdrawal
delays, before updating the situation four hours later to say the
matter had been resolved. Users of Kucoin exchange have been more
significantly affected on account of ethereum withdrawal
delays that have dragged on for days. The exchange posted the following notice on
Wednesday, including a novel suggestion: that users withdraw in neo
instead of ether. This suggestion is unlikely to have been of much
help to users who needed their ETH to interact with the ethereum
ecosystem.
More Gas, More Money,
More Problems
Following the notice, Kucoin followed up with a blog post
containing a form to be filled in by users who were still waiting
for their ethereum withdrawals to be processed. A week prior, the
exchange had explained that ETH withdrawals were subject to delays
as they were being released at four-hour intervals. Not everyone
has been convinced by Kucoin’s decision to lay the blame on the
Ethereum network though, with some users pointing out that the
exchange’s ETH withdrawal fees are five times higher than on other
sites, which seem to be processing transactions just fine.
What is beyond dispute is that numerous exchanges have
encountered similar problems of late, with Bittrex reporting only a
week ago: “Due to incredibly high gas prices, we’re preventing new
ETH and asset deposit addresses from being created. Existing
deposit addresses will work as normal.”
Eth Gas Station currently reports fast transactions
as requiring 51 gwei, or around $0.93 to process. The web is
awash with crypto projects promising that their new blockchain can
handle a gazillion transactions a second. The reality, however, is
that if these networks were ever to be stress tested in the wild
like Ethereum or Bitcoin, they would face the exact same same
problems. Scaling blockchains while preserving decentralization is
even harder than it sounds.
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