After a couple of delays, the largely-anticipated Ethereum merge is likely to finally happen in August. This great news was confirmed by the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin during the recent ETH Shanghai Web 3.0 Developer Summit.
The whole crypto community is waiting for the merge, as it's going to be a history-making moment, the launch of Ethereum 2.0. The Ethereum merge will celebrate the new era of low-cost mining due to the transition to a more beneficial proof-of-stake (PoS) model.
First, let's find out what this merge means for crypto users. The Ethereum Mainnet chain we all use today is currently driven by the proof-of-work consensus, where "work" stands for mining or adding new blocks to the blockchain protocol. Thus, the more work is done, the longer the chain is, and the higher gas fees the miner has to pay. Transition to the PoS model eliminates the need for work, alongside significantly reducing the environmental impact.
Alongside, Ethereum's side chain Beacon has long been running separately from Mainnet using the proof-of-stake. Thus, as a result of the merge, these two systems finally come together, delivering more scalability, security, and sustainability to the end user.
But first, the Ethereum merge is set to go live on Ethereum’s testnet, Ropsten on June 8th. As Vitalik Buterin said: “This will be a major test, larger than any of the tests that we have done before. Taking a large existing test network with many applications with proof-of-work, moving into proof-of-stake.”
However, looking back on delays we all have observed more than once, Buterin added: “If there are no problems then the merge will happen in August. But of course, there’s always a risk of problems. There’s also a risk of delays. And so September is possible and October is possible as well.”
We are so excited to test Ethereum 2.0 on Ropsten. And how do you feel about the life-changing merge? Go to our socials for discussion.
