After Ropsten and Sepolia, it is the Goerli testnet that has finally passed to the proof-of-stake (PoS). The last big step before The Merge update on Ethereum (ETH), developers will still have to observe the behaviour of the network for a few days. If all goes well, The Merge should arrive on the mainnet by mid-September.
The Goerli testnet now in proof of stake (PoS)
The Ethereum (ETH) development team has successfully completed the third and final test before the long-awaited update to the mainnet.
Last night, at around 3:45am ET, the Goerli testnet officially transitioned from Proof of Authority (PoA) to Proof of Stake (PoS) when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD), the unit of measurement for blocks that is supposed to determine the start of the fork, exceeded 10,790,000. The transition is considered successful when the next block has been produced by a validator in the Beacon Chain.
pandas on the screen! pic.twitter.com/0nYll6gImH
– Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) August 11, 2022
On the developer side, developers were required to merge Goerli’s code with Prater’s, the equivalent of the Beacon Chain for Ethereum, following the July 27 Bellatrix update on the testnet. In order for the transition to be successful, the validators of the 2 networks had to perform the update of their respective clients in tandem.
According to one of the developers, the Goerli update can be considered really successful by this evening or tomorrow, while they check that no major problems have arisen. If all goes well, The Merge should be released on Ethereum during September, according to the latest schedule.
An Ethereum update expected
The Goerli network is the latest testnet to perform the Merge update, following in the footsteps of Ropsten and Sepolia, which successfully transitioned in June and July respectively.
The Merge is considered the most important update in Ethereum’s history since its inception in 2015, and brings a real paradigm shift as Ether mining will no longer be possible – at least on the official network – and will be replaced by a system of validators, which should reduce the ecological footprint of the second largest blockchain by around 99% and increase its scalability.
Since the announcement of the timetable in mid-July, Ether has been on an upward trend, and this has been further accentuated by the Goerli update. The ETH price has risen from around $1,700 to over $1,900 in less than 24 hours.
Ether price
The next major update to Ethereum, expected in 2023, is about sharding and is expected to significantly reduce the network’s transaction fees and make it easier to become a validator.
Either way, the likely success of the Merge update could well restore some oxygen to the cryptocurrency market as a whole.
