A-Comprehensive-Guide-on-Ethereum's-Muir-Glacier
                     Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 1
A Comprehensive  Guide on Ethereum’s Muir 
Glacier
Ethereum welcomed the new year 2020 in the best possible way- with a network 
upgrade. The Muir Glacier hard fork network upgrade was activated on 2 January 
2020 at block number 9,200,200 with a single Ethereum Improvement Proposal 
(EIP). Muir Glacier is a routine network update. Let us get to know more about this 
in this article.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 2
What Is Muir Glacier?
It refers to a proposal for delaying the network feature of the Ethereum blockchain 
named ‘Ice Age.’ The process of mining Ethereum blocks will be more time-
consuming if they are mined using the proof-of-work consensus unless the Ice 
Age is pushed back through a hard fork. The feature was primarily developed in 
the protocol to motivate developers to upgrade the network actively. 
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 3
So, the Ice Age began taking effect much earlier than expected. This created the 
need for developing another fork close to the previous fork. Muir Glacier is a 
routine network update. All the services will remain operational at the time of the 
fork. EIP 2384, the proposal using which the Muir Glacier upgrade was activated, 
delays the difficulty bomb for 611 days (4,000,000) blocks.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 4
Though subsequent changes and network upgrades to the difficult bomb have 
been accompanied by a change of issuance of Ether, no reduction occurred in the 
Muir Glacier Upgrade. Hence, the issuance remains at 2 ETH per block.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 5
What Is The Ice Age ?
Ice Age or Ethereum difficulty bomb is an algorithm that has been designed to 
increase the difficulty of mining Ethereum blocks over time.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 6
History Of The Difficulty Bomb?
So, what is the reason for the existence of the difficulty bomb?
The concept of the difficulty bomb originates from the initial design of Ethereum. 
Ethereum has most often operated under the ethos of ‘continuous innovation.’ 
This implies that frequent upgrades need to be done to the Ethereum blockchain. 
Network upgrades are a costly affair for the network as, in that case, each node on 
the network must be upgraded to the latest version of the protocol.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 7
 If the nodes fail to undergo an upgrade, it will result in them being forked off the 
network. The coordination costs associated with upgrades have also implied that 
blockchain projects avoided them.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 8
This is where the difficulty bomb comes into the picture. The difficulty bomb was 
encoded in to force regular hard forks as a method of normalizing the idea of 
upgrading the network. This provided numerous opportunities to make other 
protocol upgrades. The difficulty bomb has been reset with respect to making 
other protocol changes.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 9
Participating In Future Ethereum Discussions
With respect to protocol changes, there were discussions regarding the Ethereum 
developer call and various forums such as Ethereum Magicians. Anyone can listen 
to or participate in Ethereum calls and Ethereum Magicians as it is open to all. 
These are open-source communities that allow anyone to be a part of their 
development and discussions.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 10
Can A Difficulty Bomb Be Removed?
Yes, it is possible for a difficulty bomb to be removed, but it would need another 
network upgrade. Though several people have argued informally in the past about 
removing the bomb, there has not been a proper proposal to do so. The Meta-EIP 
that is associated with the Muir Glacier upgrade talks about some of the rationales 
for the bomb and potential future improvements.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 11
The Ethereum community recently discussed the idea of removing the bomb once 
Eth 2.0 is live and finalizing blocks on the 1.x chain with the help of the finality 
gadget. The primary purpose of the finality gadget is to leverage a property termed 
‘finality’ of the Casper proof-of-stake consensus protocol for deployment in 
Ethereum 2.0.
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 12
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you gain a fair idea of Ethereum’s Muir Glacier. For more 
information about Ethereum certifications and to enroll in online Ethereum 
certifications and become an Ethereum expert, check out Blockchain Council.
 
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 13
Blockchain Council Certifications
You can check out our certifications, and kick start your career in the Blockchain 
space today.
● Certified Blockchain Expert
● Certified Blockchain Developer
● Certified Smart Contract Developer
● Certified Solidity Developer
● Certified Ethereum Developer
Copyright © Blockchain Council  www.blockchain-council.org 14
THANK YOU!
Any questions?
You can mail us at
[email protected]
Copyright © Blockchain Council   www.blockchain-council.org 15