Ethereum Merge Weeks Away
The initial launch date for the most anticipated crypto event of the year has been set.
During a Consensus Layer Call, developers expected “the Merge” to debut on the mainnet between September 15 and 16. Tim Beiko of the Ethereum Foundation later verified the upgrade through Twitter, confirming a Total Terminal Difficulty goal of 58750000000000000000000.
58750000000000000000000
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) August 11, 2022
Total Terminal Difficulty refers to the level of difficulty necessary to mine the final Ethereum block. The network will then transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. The Bellatrix upgrade is scheduled to go online on September 6, and the Paris portion of the Merge is expected to arrive when the TTD reaches 5875000000000000000. This is anticipated between September 15 and 16.
Though the date might conceivably change if problems develop, this is the strongest indication that Ethereum is poised to make its long-awaited transition to Proof-of-Stake.
The leading smart contract blockchain conducted its last Merge test run on the Goerli testnet earlier today, putting the network one step closer to the actual event. Beiko has previously offered a tentative launch date of September 19, but it was never set in stone.
Between September 15 and 16, Ethereum will “merge” its Proof-of-Work mainnet and Proof-of-Stake Beacon Chain, transitioning the network to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. The update is anticipated to provide various advantages, including a 99.9% reduction in energy usage and a 90% drop in ETH issuance. The protocol no longer needs to pay miners to add new blocks to the chain (validators staking their ETH will do so instead).
Proof-of-Stake Ethereum Debate
Proof-of-Stake Ethereum has been discussed since 2014, but its development has notoriously been delayed for years. Several major crypto projects and the Ethereum community have mostly accepted the upgrade. However, in recent weeks, several crypto proponents have devised a strategy to fork a Proof-of-Work version of Ethereum to protect miners’ environment.
Justin Sun of TRON and Chandler Gou, a notable miner, are among the most vocal proponents of the fork concept, although their plans have not yet been formalised. Circle and Tether, the issuers of USDC and USDT, have said they will support the Merge rather than a Proof-of-Work fork.
As the Merge approaches, it has become the main story in the crypto industry for the past few weeks. Vitalik Buterin, the developer of Ethereum, stated last month that he believed the Merge story was not priced in, alluding to the psychological impact of the event rather than the cryptocurrency market.
However, ETH has led market rallies over the past few weeks. Currently, it is trading around 100% above its June low, when it dropped below $900 in fear of Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s collapse. Today, with the introduction of Goerli’s testnet, it surpassed $1,900.
Ether rallies before Ethereum’s merge. Image: CoinMarketCap
The current price of ETH is a little under $1,900, giving Ethereum a market capitalisation of $227.3 billion. It dominates the worldwide cryptocurrency market capitalisation by around 18.8%.