Subject: [ANN][MNR] Emergency Difficulty Fix for Blockle Chain – Hard Fork @ Block 29000
Hello Blockle community,
We experienced an unexpected stall in block production at height 29000 due to a flaw in our original Bitcoin-style difficulty adjustment code. Here’s what happened and how we resolved it:
1. Issue Detected
• At block 29000, our 2016-block retarget algorithm encountered a division-by-zero error because the measured timespan dropped to zero.
• This prevented the creation of any further valid block templates, halting block production.
2. Immediate Action Taken
• We instructed all nodes to invalidate the bad block 29000 and roll back to 28999.
• Mining was briefly resumed, but the underlying algorithm remained broken.
3. Permanent Fix: Dark Gravity Wave v3
• We implemented Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) v3, a per-block retarget algorithm proven in fast-block networks, as a hard fork.
• DGW was activated at block 29000 to take over difficulty calculations and prevent future stalls.
4. Deployment & Update
• All full-node and mining-pool operators must upgrade to the new client before or at block 29000 to stay in consensus.
• New binaries and source code are available here:
https://github.com/Blocklechain/blockle (branch main)
• Instructions for upgrading and rebuilding nodes can be found in the repo’s README.
5. What This Means for Users
• Your funds are safe. No past transactions or balances were altered. The hard fork only changes how difficulty is calculated going forward.
• Block production has resumed immediately under DGW, and blocks should now appear every ~15 seconds as intended.
We apologize for the inconvenience and thank everyone who helped diagnose and test the fix. Please upgrade your node at your earliest convenience and report any issues in this thread or on our telegram.
— Alexander Lehman, Founder & Lead Developer of Blockle
