-Ethereum developers officially confirm the date for the merge. -The new date for the merger is roughly in line with a late-August timeline proposed by founder Vitalik Buterin earlier this year. -Ethereum prices have surged 12% in the last 24 hours.
Ethereum‘s move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake may take years, as it began with the debut of Beacon Chain in December 2020. The transition has experienced several delays on its road to adoption. The Ethereum network is getting close to the conclusion of its critical shift from PoW mining consensus to PoS.
On Thursday, Ethereum development team members announced a perpetual merger deadline during a conference call. The conference call saw core Ethereum developer Tim Beiko, who runs protocol meetings, propose September 19 as a potential date for the merger. The proposed target date met no resistance from the core developers. These specialists are working tirelessly to guarantee that the combination is a success.
The Goerli team plans to release the merge on the Goerli testnet in the second week of August. The blockchain will then deploy the Bellatrix update in early September, followed by a two-week rollout for the merge. The merge completion is conditioned on the Goerli merge running smoothly. While previous testnets have successfully been carried out the merger, they haven’t been without problems.
Ethereum prices plummeted in May after the Beacon chain underwent a 7-block deep reorganization. Ethereum developer superphiz.eth discussed the roadmap to the merger and emphasized that the proposed goal date should be regarded as a road map rather than a hard deadline.
The switch to Proof of Stake (PoS) technology is expected to result in a 99% drop in energy use. The implementation of sharding (targeted for the first quarter of 2023) will make the network highly scalable. The PoS vs. PoW debate has been going on for a long time, with PoS supporters claiming that it is more environmentally friendly and equally secure. In contrast, PoW advocates like Jack Dorsey have slammed it as insecure and centralized.
Given that it will make investing in the cryptocurrency much easier, the merger is anticipated to benefit Ethereum prices. Staking rewards might allow ETH to operate like a debt instrument, increasing its appeal to institutions. While the bear market has continued, investors have placed great faith in the Merge event, with the second-largest cryptocurrency rising by more than 10 percent this morning.
However, the success of the merge depends on how well it is carried out. The shift to PoS will undoubtedly be the blockchain’s most significant upgrade since Ethereum’s 2016 hard fork and the creation of Ethereum Classic. Inflation and interest rates have increased recently, which has caused the token’s value to plummet by almost 70%.
Activity on Ethereum-based applications is also increasing following the successful trial of a new test fork. According to data from DeFi Llama, the combined value locked (TVL) in different DeFi applications has risen 3.44 percent, reaching $76.74 billion.
The price of Bitcoin has increased by more than 5% in the past 24 hours, trading at around $20,916. Other top cryptocurrencies also made significant gains, led by Solana (13.08%), XRP (8.81%), BNB (4.95%), and Dogecoin (6.69%).