Coinbase, Ledger, and other crypto services impacted by client sync issue following Ethereum's Berlin hard fork

Ethereum • April 15, 2021, 9:28AM EDT
UPDATED: June 4, 2021, 12:57PM EDT
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UPDATE: The OpenEthereum team said it has identified and applied a fix to the issue, according to a statement on Twitter.

Etherscan said that it is testing the patch, though as of the time of update the service's website is still showing the sync error message.

Ethereum's latest network upgrade, Berlin, went live on Thursday morning. But a syncing issue appears to have snarled a number of companies and services that rely on a particular Ethereum software client, including exchange service Coinbase.

The client in question is OpenEthereum, formerly the software client maintained by Parity. Developers for both OpenEthereum as well as the network's core developer team are working on a fix, according to a statement from data service provider Etherscan.

"The OpenEthereum team and core developers are aware of the syncing issues facing the OE [OpenEthereum] client and are working to diagnose and fix," Etherscan said in a message posted to its website.

The syncing problem cropped up at block 12,244,294, shortly after Berlin went live at block number 12,244,000, according to Etherscan.

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Meanwhile, major services that appear to be impacted by the syncing problem issued statements about potential disruptions in light of the issue. 

"We have disabled ETH & ERC-20 withdrawals while we investigate a potential issue with the recent network upgrade. Receives will also be delayed," Coinbase's status page reads as of press time.

Ledger said its users' ETH balance in the Ledger Live app might not update due to the Berlin upgrade issue, and new transactions won't be shown.

Services of other firms, including BitGo and Coin Metrics, have also been impacted. 

In a tweet, the Gnosis team said that "[t]he Gnosis Safe mainnet app may experience some issues related to today's Ethereum hardfork." Gnosis has maintained the OpenEthereum client since Parity ceased work on the client in 2019.

Berlin is the fifth network upgrade in Ethereum's history, after December 2019's Istanbul. As The Block Research reported recently, Berlin is mainly focused on reducing gas fees and allowing new transaction types.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.

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