Dash Hard Fork Fiasco: Monero and ZCash Rival Suffers Major Setback as Blockchain Faces Lengthy Downtime, Reschedules New Date for June 14th

On Monday, May 22, the Dash blockchain faced a major downtime during the activation of its Dash Core v19 hard fork. Dash’s chief technical officer Samuel Westrich made the announcement as the blockchain stopped processing transactions and producing new blocks.

In his tweet, Westrich wrote:

There was a problem during v19 activation of Dash Core. The chain is stalled and currently not producing blocks. We have everyone investigating the issue. I will continue with updates on Twitter as we have more information.

While the Dash blockchain was down, developers noted that it was important to realize that the blocks and transactions taking place on the Dash network are not ChainLocked and neither InstantSend locked. These two are the top security features that are unique to the Dash ecosystem.

Several hours after the downtime, Dash core developer Pasta tweeted that developers have identified the issues and are working on the fix. He noted that there are two options that the team has been investigating to fix the matter. He wrote:

Just as the news of the Dash blockchain downtime came, crypto exchange Binance was quick to suspend the distribution of Dash mining rewards.

Dash Core v19 hard fork Delayed to June 14

Last month on April 10, Dash announced the hard fork update with the intention of improving security with BLS signatures. Besides, the hard fork also caters to implementing high-performance master nodes along with other wallet improvements. This was in preparation to release more updates on the Dash blockchain mainnet.

The Dash Core official website announces that a new version of Dash masternodes will be implemented after the v19 activation. This updated version will feature increased collateral requirements and enhanced authority on the blockchain. Masternodes play a crucial role in hosting complete blockchain copies and enabling advanced functions within Dash. They require collateral, earn rewards for network support, and have the ability to vote for new Dash projects.

As per the description of the v19.1.0 hard fork release, the upgrade will fix bugs. However, after yesterday’s event, the upgrade has been now delayed to next month on June 14. Dash Core developer Pasta noted:

This release should resolve the chain stall once a sufficient number of masternodes and miners have upgraded. Please be aware of the known issues listed in the release announcement. A reindex may be needed.