To prepare for the Ethereum merge set to take place later this year, developers have initiated the merge on the Ropsten test network. The merge was performed after the announcement of the move on June 3.
Ropsten’s proof-of-work chain and its proof-of-stake beacon chain were integrated into one. The merge is essential if it helps client software based on Ethereum nodes operate smoothly. Client software teams joined the merge, including Lighthouse, Prysm, Lodestar, Teku, Besu, Erigon, go-Ethereum and Nethermind.
This year is also expected to see the same process for the Ethereum mainnet merge, though there’s been no fixed release date. The current merge event serves as a critical practice session for the mainnet merge when Ethereum moves from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, recently said: “I mean of course, the merge working well for 6 hours isn’t evidence of complete success.” “There are all of these kinds of long term issues around MEV and staking centralisation and protection against DOS attacks and things that could potentially bite us 3 weeks after the merge instead of 2 minutes during the process.”
Previous tests in April involved ten shadow forks on the main network and another merge on another testnet, Kiln.
An essential piece of #Ethereum’s Serenity upgrade, the Beacon Chain’s deposit contract, is live. This begins a transition to #Eth2.@EthDotOrg Guide: https://t.co/PkKwLnXKS4
Launchpad: https://t.co/CFgFwAs46f
Deposit Contract Address: 0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa— Ethereum (@ethereum) November 4, 2020
The testnet merge is measured by total terminal difficulty, which considers the merge activated when this block difficulty level is achieved on the PoW version. The PoW Ropsten version hit a pre-set 50 quadrillion measure to save the merge from malicious activity by obtaining the hash rate.
Before the merge was activated, node operators had to manually configure their clients to override the Ropsten Terminal Total Difficulty for both the PoW and PoS clients.