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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced plans to diversify its ethereum execution client infrastructure.
Coinbase's decision comes in response to Geth's (go-ethereum) growing dominance in the ecosystem, which has been a point of contention among industry experts and stakeholders. The company announced the initiative on January 23. mail. According to the thread posted by Coinbase Cloud, since its inception, Geth was the only ethereum (eth) execution client that met the company's technical needs for staking on ethereum.
Although we have evaluated execution clients since 2020, none have met Coinbase Cloud requirements to date. Many other network operators have come to the same conclusion, which is part of the reason why 84% of ethereum validators run Geth. However, the tide is turning.
Coinbase Cloud | Source: X
Geth plays a crucial role in the ethereum network, handling transactions and the deployment and execution of smart contracts. Geth's dominance has raised concerns about centralization and the risks associated with a single client.
Coinbase is now proactively conducting a technical evaluation of alternative ethereum execution clients and is committed to integrating another client into its infrastructure. The exchange plans to provide a full update on this process by the end of February 2024.
The situation underscores a broader problem within the ethereum network, as highlighted by ethereum.org. He ethereum.org/developers/docs/nodes-and-clients/client-diversity” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>website notes that approximately 85% of all nodes operate using Geth, raising the specter of systemic risks should a major error occur that affects transaction processing or allows payloads to execute.
This concern gained further traction following a critical bug discovered in several versions of the Nethermind runtime client on January 22, which reportedly caused block processing failures on ethereum.