BitMEX Research Arm Discovers ‘Potential Bug’ While Syncing Ethereum Parity Full Node

BitMEX’ research division has recently revealed in a recent blog post that its  Ethereum Parity full node contains a “potential bug.” According to the research arm, the said bug was discovered from data analysed from Nodestats.org— BitMEX Research’s new website developed for the sole purpose of collecting key metric on the Ethereum nodes.

BitMEX Launches Nodestats

The exchange has also announced the launch of Nodestats, a project which is developed in partnership with TokenAnalyst.

The newly launch platform is designed to show key data for Ethereum Parity and Ethereum Geth clients — which the exchange declared as the two largest Ethereum node client implementations. The platform also compares requirements related to CPU usage, memory (RAM), bandwidth and storage space.

According to the blog post announcing the launch of the project, it was stated that collection of data from the Ethereum Parity full node started on March 1, and up until March 12, the node was still not completely synced with the Ethereum blockchain. It was reported that the client was around 450,000 blocks behind, and “based on its current trajectory, it should catch up with the main chain tip in a few days.”

Slow Sync Not A Major Cause For Concern

The researchers have however noted that the slow sync is presently not a cause for concern for the network: “While the slow initial sync is a potential problem, at least for this system setup, Ethereum has not yet reached a point where the node cannot catch up, as the sync is faster than the rate of blockchain growth.”

Unfortunately, the BitMEX Research discovered a “potential bug” in the client. This said bug causes the Parity node to “sometimes reports that it is in sync, despite being several hundred thousand blocks behind the chain tip.”

The research team also revealed that attackers could exploit the purported bug in some certain circumstances, however, the chances of this taken place is relatively low.