Exploring the Cosmos Network and the Recent Outage

On June 5, the Cosmos Hub blockchain network experienced an outage lasting around four hours due to a bug discovered during the implementation of the v17 upgrade.

The Cosmos team stated that the bug was a Liquid Staking Module (LSM) security vulnerability. While developers swiftly identified and resolved the bug, block production on the network did not resume until most validators had implemented the patch. It stated:

“The teams at Informalinc and HyphaDoesCosmos have issued a fix for the bug that was found. We’re currently at 55% of validators who have implemented the patch. We encourage any remaining validators who have not yet implemented the patch to do so.”

According to information on the firm’s official X handle, the network began producing blocks at around 12:30 A.M. GMT. The firm also mentioned that its developers would release a detailed post-mortem report.

Ethan Buchman, the co-founder of Cosmos, explained that downtime for the “Hub is rare, but it happens.” He added:

“Bugs will happen. Chains will go down. Chains will come back up. Important thing is to have dedicated devs and validators working to fix issues when they arise.”

The Cosmos Hub aims to create thousands of interconnected blockchains within the Cosmos Network. It operates on a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, enabling participants to stake their ATOM coins and earn rewards.

Interestingly, the network issues had little impact on the ATOM token, which remained stable at $8.65 as of press time, up 0.67%.

v17 upgrade

The v17 upgrade was one of the most anticipated updates within the Cosmos ecosystem recently. According to data from Mintscan, over 136 million ATOM tokens, equivalent to 99.8% of the total votes, supported it.

The upgrade introduces features from the “partial set security” proposal to the Cosmos ecosystem. Blockhunters, a web3 staking infrastructure provider, stated:

“This feature allows new consumer chains to customize validator participation and set various operational parameters, such as voting power caps and opt-in choices for validators.”

Moreover, Buchman also described the upgrade as “the biggest in at least a year,” adding that it brings “the long-awaited ICS2.0.”

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