Ethereum Foundation launches $2M security contest for Fusaka upgrade

The Ethereum Foundation has unveiled a $2 million security contest designed to strengthen its upcoming Fusaka upgrade.

Announced on Sept. 15, the initiative invites researchers worldwide to audit the upgrade’s codebase. Rewards will be distributed to participants who uncover vulnerabilities before the upgrade goes live.

EF explained that the competition is structured as a four-week event hosted on the Sherlock testnet, running from Sept. 15 to Oct. 13. To encourage early participation, findings reported in the first week will receive double points, while those in the second week will gain a 1.5x multiplier.

The foundation emphasized that this time-sensitive approach ensures maximum scrutiny at critical stages of the upgrade’s development.

EF disclosed that Gnosis and Lido co-sponsored the initiative, contributing $100,000 and $25,000, respectively.

According to the foundation, their participation shows the broader ecosystem’s stake in Ethereum’s upgrade process, where every layer of security benefits developers, validators, and end users alike.

However, not all observers are convinced the timing is ideal for the audit.

Christine Kim, former research vice president at Galaxy Digital, questioned whether it is prudent to launch an audit competition while developers are still identifying bugs on Fusaka’s devnets.

Fusaka upgrade

The Fusaka upgrade will deliver a range of technical improvements that aim to boost Ethereum’s scalability and transaction throughput without compromising network efficiency.

Central to the update are features such as Peer Data Availability Sampling (PeerDAS) to streamline data distribution, revised gas limits to optimize performance, and refined blob parameters designed to handle higher transaction volumes.

However, the imminent update has faced significant challenges, prompting fear of delays.

This pushed Ethereum developers to clarify the rollout schedule during the latest All Core Devs call.

They explained that while a mainnet activation date remains undecided, the upgrade’s timeline depends on the progress of testnet deployments.

According to the current plan, the upgrade would be deployed on Holesky on Sept. 29, followed by Sepolia on Oct. 13 and Hoodi on Oct. 27.

Following this, they emphasized that mainnet activation will only move forward once all testnets upgrade successfully and analysis from Devnet-5 confirms the network is operating as expected

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