MetaMask Bug Shortens SSD Lifespan, Customers Warn on GitHub

Consensys, the blockchain agency behind MetaMask, has confirmed it is going to be “imminently” releasing a repair for its MetaMask browser extension after customers reported it has been writing a whole lot of gigabytes of information per day into their solid-state drives, probably shortening their lifespan. 

Talking to Cointelegraph, a Consensys spokesperson confirmed there was “often excessive disk exercise” affecting sure MetaMask customers.

One of many more moderen studies got here from a consumer below the deal with ripper31337, who mentioned in a GitHub bug report on June 24 that after a recent set up of the MetaMask extension on Chromium-based browsers, resembling Chrome, Edge and Opera, they found it was repeatedly writing information to the stable state drives (SSDs) within the background with out consumer interplay.

An SSD usually lasts 5 to 10 years below regular situations, however can deteriorate a lot sooner and fail with intense utilization. 

The “irregular disk writing” occurred at a price of 5 megabytes per second, totaling 500 gigabytes each day and 25 terabytes in three months, in keeping with ripper31337. 

Consensys says repair incoming 

In a press release to Cointelegraph, a Consensys spokesperson mentioned its groups are actively investigating the problem and a “repair is being launched imminently.” 

“Whereas browser extension wallets do commonly write state to disk, which is predicted habits, we’ve taken word of a latest remark shared by a small variety of MetaMask customers who reported unusually excessive disk exercise,” the spokesperson mentioned. 

“The problem predominantly impacts customers with unusually massive state. We’re exploring methods for decreasing state dimension,” they added. 

Consensys mentioned the corporate can also be within the strategy of exploring methods for decreasing the scale of every write operation and decreasing the frequency of information fetching when the info isn’t being actively used.

The issue may very well be months previous

Ripper31337 reported the problem on June 24; nonetheless, one other consumer, below the deal with “Quanquan,” flagged the identical downside in a evaluation on Might 9. 

“The Chrome of MacOS, with the metamask plug-in turned on, however not used, wrote 100G of information to my SSD in in the future. After disabling the metamask plug-in, it slowed down instantly,” the consumer mentioned within the put up, translated by Google. 

Associated: ConSensys says Web3Auth acquisition to ‘tremendously enhance’ MetaMask UX

The evaluation didn’t seem to obtain a response, however two customers flagged it as being helpful. 

Bug concern nonetheless ongoing 

One other consumer on GitHub, below the deal with PopCatMAGA, reported on July 17 that the bug continues to be energetic. 

“The worst half is that many customers don’t even know that is occurring. My browser with the extension runs 24/7, and it’s actually destroyed 50% of my SSD’s lifespan. Repair this mess already – severely, that is unacceptable,” they mentioned. 

A member of the MetaMask workforce responded within the thread on July 19 and reiterated that the workforce is presently engaged on an answer to repair the bug. 

Journal: Outrage as $1.8B ‘DGCX’ crypto rip-off ringleader mocks victims: Asia Specific