The Bug of Solving Bugs

Once upon a time, when I was working at Accenture, I loved hands-on development work. After my kids were born, my energy naturally shifted toward them, and I limited myself to high-level supervisory work. I remained interested, but never quite found my way back to coding for years. I stayed a keen observer from a distance until a few days ago, when a bit of free mental space and my love for improving processes pulled me back into something I once enjoyed deeply.

Another reason for returning may be motherhood itself and my belief in leading by example.

My son, who will be heading to college soon, wants to pursue a tech career but is not convinced that exploring open-source contribution opportunities will give him a meaningful head start. He works part-time for a non-tech organisation and often tells me that Ethereum is complex, that he is too young, and that he is not ready yet.

I do not think he lacks skills or readiness. In fact, I believe kids of his generation are far more prepared than I ever was at his age.

Working with ECH and WiEP has placed me in a unique position. I am often approached by young contributors from diverse backgrounds who share their interests and explore ways to enter the Ethereum ecosystem. Some feel overwhelmed early on, but others show remarkable resilience and refuse to give up. I always tell them that there are many ways to contribute, but one of the most accessible paths is through development.

So I decided to practise what I preach.

Some of you may already know that since the day I joined Ethereum Cat Herders, I have been deeply invested in improving the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) process. There is an official site to learn about EIPs, eips.ethereum.org, and like any long-running project, it has had a few simple but persistent issues for years. These are listed in the Issues section so that anyone interested in open-source contributions can pick them up and attempt to resolve them.

That is the beauty of open source: anyone, anywhere in the world, can step forward and help the community in their spare time.

With recent organisational changes at the Ethereum Foundation, some of the traditional “cat herding” responsibilities are now handled by the Ethereum Protocol Support team. This freed up some of my time and gave me the opportunity to look beyond protocol support. It also brought me closer to the EIPs repository, where I could review open pull requests and issues and contribute beyond facilitating EIP-related meetings.

While reviewing the issues, I noticed one related to a “Citation” bug that I had mentioned during January’s EIPIP meeting. I decided to work on it and test my development skills. The issue had been open for years, possibly since 2015. It was not breaking any proposals, but it represented a small oversight in the world’s most widely used standards repository.

So I started digging. I explored not just the EIP folder, but also other files and directories in the EIPs repository.

The issue itself was not very complex. With a few targeted changes, I was able to fix the original problem and also add proper page status handling for Living and Final EIPs. The code was nearly ready for a pull request, with just a little more work left.

Context matters here. I am a mother of two, and when kids are hungry, everything else pauses. MOM (Make Our Meal) mode activates.

By the time I finished making the changes, my son was home and needed dinner, so I stepped away and headed to the kitchen. Still, like a child eager to finish homework and go out to play, I could not wait to test the changes and submit the pull request. Seeing the repository and appreciating the excellent documentation left by earlier contributors on how to set up the local testing environment for beginners was genuinely encouraging.

The instructions suggested steps such as installing Ruby 3.1.4 (later versions not supported) and walking through the setup process.

I paused and asked my son to help set up the testing environment while I cooked. I hoped that once dinner was done, I could test the changes and submit the PR the same day. I was genuinely excited.

He agreed, set everything up, we finished dinner quickly, and returned straight to the desk. I ran the tests.

It worked.

My first bug fix to Ethereum’s EIPs repository was successful. 🎉

I submitted the Pull Request and immediately went back to the Issues section. The bug-fixing itch had started. I wanted to solve more.

That same night, I picked up another straightforward issue: “withdrawal-reason not appearing in rendered output”. It may have been missing since the “Withdrawn” status was introduced, although it was reported less than six months ago. I added the fix and prepared to test it.

This time, I asked my son to stay nearby, observe my work, and help if needed. It worked again. I opened the second Pull Request, feeling incredibly accomplished.

My son looked at me and said, “Mom, you could be a developer.”

I smiled and replied, “Yes, that is what I used to do in my previous life.”

It was the perfect moment for a bit of wisdom. MOM mode activated again. I told him, “If I can solve these now, I am sure kids your age can do it even faster.” Perhaps very few people were aware of these issues, which is why they waited so long to be addressed.

What I did was just a drop in the ocean of code that makes up the Ethereum protocol. Still, I wanted to share this story to show that opportunities to contribute to open source are everywhere.

I hope this story motivates my son, and perhaps someone else out there who has a little time and is considering helping fix other bugs.

That is all for today. I hope these pull requests get merged soon.

If you have encountered similar bugs and feel ready to join the Web3 world, many open issues are waiting for help. Come, join me in the wonderful world of open source. Ethereum welcomes your contribution.

Ethereum is not an end product. It is a living process, and everyone has a role to play.

This story is part of a new series of short Ethereum stories. Until next time, cheers.

If you identify any issues in this article or notice missing information, please feel free to reach out at team@etherworld.co for clarifications or updates.

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