- Ethereum bug hunters will be able to earn up to $1 million in the lead up to The Merge
- Bug bounties have been quadrupled for merge-related bugs
- The merge itself is now slated for September 10th-20th
Ethereum bug hunters could be in line for bounties of up to $1 million as the network nears ‘The Merge’. The Ethereum Foundation revealed the bug bounty reward scale on Wednesday, alongside a new timeframe for the merge, with the most critical bugs squashed receiving the highest bounties. The foundation has put the new timeframe as September 10th-20th as the protocol nears the big switch to proof-of-stake.
The Merge September Set for 10th-20th
The foundation announcement started by celebrating the fact that, “Following years of hard work, Ethereum’s proof-of-stake upgrade is finally here!” Indeed, Vitalik Buterin began thinking about a proof-of-stake switch as far back as 2014, and eight years later his dream is about to become reality.
The transition itself will be triggered by a specific Total Difficulty threshold called the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD). It is not known when this will be reached, hence the 10-day timeline, with the level depending on the Ethereum hash rate at the time, and some miners may have already left the scene by then.
Bug Bounties Given 4x Multiplier
Of course, any mission-critical bugs will have to be stamped out to avoid disaster, which is why the Ethereum foundation has increased all merge-related bounties for vulnerabilities by a 4x multiplier, which will take effect between now and the 8th of September. Critical bugs are now worth up to $1 million to the finder, which shows the importance of them at this delicate time.
