According to Cardano’s developer, errors in the testnet of the Vasil hard fork may cause catastrophic damage to the entire blockchain network. However, Cardano’s founder actively denies such a possibility.
Adam Dean, the Cardano ecosystem developer, says the Vasil testnet is “catastrophically broken” due to a bug in the v1.35.2 client. The testnet’s failures delay network updates and harm the entire ecosystem. The developer revealed this on Twitter.
Dean says a bug in Cardano Node v1.35.2 creates incompatible forks. It has not been fixed, and the network has only released new client software, Cardano Node v1.35.3. Dean claims that v1.35.3 is “incompatible and incapable of syncing” with the original testnet because most operators upgraded to v1.35.2 to simulate the Vasil hard fork.
The community reacted violently to the developer’s statement, accusing Cardano’s parent company IOHK of a rush that may be related to Cardano’s desire to compete with Ethereum. As a reminder, the network’s developers have shown the highest intensity of work on the code compared to teams at other crypto projects.
However, Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson claims that the bug in v1.35.2 has been fixed and will not harm the blockchain ecosystem in any way. According to Hoskinson, v1.35.3 was not created in a hurry but “has been tested for months.” Cardano’s creator also said that despite delays and negative feedback in the community, the network would continue to update, and the release of the Vasil hard fork will be ready in the next few weeks.
Also, a member of the SPO (stake pool operation) Cardano community confirmed that Node v1.35.2 “did not break the testnet” and that everyone spreading such information is a liar and provocateur.
Cardano PoolTool reports that as of 14:30 (GMT+3) on August 22, 2022, only 30% of SPOs have updated to Node v1.35.3. The required threshold for network updates is at least 75%. A low update rate can also signal network bugs and community distrust.
The price of the network’s native token has also reacted to the testnet failures. According to CoinGecko, ADA has fallen 21% in the last seven days and is trading at $0.45 on August 22, although it was at $0.53 on August 19. At the beginning of this year, Cardano’s developers announced a new stage of blockchain network development — Basho, with optimizing performance and increasing scalability as its main objectives.
