The bug bounty pay-outs for Ethereum can now go as high as $1 million (roughly Rs. 8 crore), developers of the blockchain have said in a recent update. This development comes at a time when Ethereum’s transition into the eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mining model is just few weeks away. Ethereum developers are trying to encourage programmers and white hat testers to keep a look-out for any bugs on the blockchain that may weaken its operations.
Identifying critical bugs on Ethereum could earn the testers the big bounty prize money of $1 million (roughly Rs. 8 crore). Testers who alert about smaller bugs will also be rewarded with increased bounties under this initiative.
“All Merge-related bounties for vulnerabilities have received a 4x multiplier between now and the 8th of September. Earn up to $250,000 (roughly Rs. 2 crore) and a place on the leaderboard by finding protocol, client and Solidity bugs affecting the Ethereum network,” Ethereum developers said in an update.
The Merge is tentatively slated for release around mid-September.
Before the Merge is ready for release, the current Ethereum network “must first be activated on the Beacon Chain with the Bellatrix upgrade,” which is expected to happen on 6 September.
• The Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain – 11:34:47am UTC on Sept 6, 2022
• The TTD value triggering The Merge is 58750000000000000000000, expected between 10-20 Sep 2022
• The Kiln testnet is sunsetting. Operators shut down on 06 Sep 2022:point_down:
— Joseph Schweitzer | :panda_face: (@JBSchweitzer) August 24, 2022
Mining will no longer be possible following the transition, while stakers and node operators will both need to run an execution layer client, with the latter doing so with a consensus layer client, a report by CoinTelegraph said.
The developers are running extensive tests on the Ethereum revamp because DeFi apps reportedly worth over $100 billion (roughly Rs. 7,61,110 crore) are supported on the blockchain, and cannot be risked.
Once finalised, the Merge upgrade will slash Ethereum mining’s power requirement by 99.95 percent.