During the Eth Shanghai Summit, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin said the long-awaited Ethereum merge (POW to POS) is likely to happen in the summer of August. At the event which was hosted by Ethereum Shanghai and Mask Network, Vitalik Buterin discussed the future of the network and revealed The Merge’s specifics.
Ethereum Merge expected in August
According to Buterin, the merging of the Ethereum network from POW to POS is likely to happen this summer in August. If some potential risks pop up, it might be delayed until September or October. Nevertheless, this merge is still highly anticipated by the community to take place this year.
During the virtual summit, Vitalik Buterin delivered a summary of the ETH protocol and the ETH Merge, as well as scaling issues and other upgrades. He explained the advantages of making the switch to PoS, including a stronger Ethereum ecosystem and more apps.
We have been working on proof-of-stake for about 7 years now. But finally, all of that work is coming together. If everything goes well, then the likely plan is for the merge to happen in the summer.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder
Preston Van Loon, an Ethereum core developer, gave a similar timeframe for the merge during his talk at EDCON. He said that if everything goes smoothly, we could see the merge happen as early as July or August. However, he also cautioned that there are still many unknowns and that it’s possible the merge could be delayed until September or October.
Buterin stated that the “The Merge” will occur on Ropsten’s testnet, which he claims will be “larger than any other testnet we’ve done before.” A large number of existing PoS consensus networks are scheduled to convert to PoW consensus as a result of this event.
It’s worth noting that both Vitalik and Preston are members of the Ethereum Foundation, which is responsible for the development of the Ethereum protocol. So while their timeframe should be taken with a grain of salt, it’s still the most concrete timeline we have for the ETH Merge.
Vitalik Buterin announced the new roadmap for the Ethereum protocol, which includes a beacon chain, PoS light client, and EIP 1559. The team is currently focusing on more long-term features, including single secret leader election, single-slot confirmations, and improved signature aggregation.
Christine Kim of investment firm Galaxy Digital tweeted on Friday that “The Merge” on Ropsten will offer developers helpful information about how their consumers act during an upgrade in a less controlled and public test network setting.
What Ethereum 2.0 is all about
The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, outlined the scaling efforts would introduce proof-of-stake and censorship resistance. Ethereum 2.0, also known as Eth2 or “Serenity,” is a major upgrade for Ethereum that will transition the network from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The objective of the upgrade is to improve the speed, efficiency, and scalability of the ETH network so that it can process more transactions and alleviate bottlenecks.
Vitalik Buterin also announced the progress of “The Surge”, which aims to increase scalability for rollups by sharding, as well as “The Verge,” which uses Verkle Trees and other features to provide statelessness. Users will be able to do a huge number of transactions and set up an Ethereum node even with a low-powered computer with less hard drive space if they complete these processes. Validators will be easier to find, resulting in a more decentralized protocol. The ETH network will be divided into a number of smaller pieces called “shards,” and each shard will have its own set of account balances and smart contracts.
Furthermore, “The Purge” and “The Splurge” were mentioned, which will help Ethereum simplify by eliminating historical data and technical debt.
However, he claims that the end of the Merge and Surge events will be enough for Ethereum. The group will continue to make ETH simpler, safer, and more secure.
