From Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS), the Ethereum network will soon undergo a major modification to improve its speed and its possibilities to support more solid blockchain projects. The network will also be more efficient and cheaper to use.
“The Merge”, the biggest modification of the Web3 flagship blockchain, will transform Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0. After years of waiting, its various preparation phases have just culminated in a full-scale fusion test last night. The Merge was simulated on a “testnet”. With brio.
This general rehearsal, as many interested developers were able to follow around 2 am in France, is proof that the operation “The Merge” will not have any technical problem during the passage of the two operations (PoW and PoS). The “Goerli” testnet may perform the merger on a much smaller network scale, but it shows that the protocol is in place.
The final phase of Ethereum Merge testing took place tonight
The last testnet before joining ETH PoW and PoS chains https://t.co/5XFFqf52lK pic.twitter.com/wAyIe9HkKF
— OAK (@oak_fr) August 11, 2022
The date for Ethereum 2.0
It was therefore the third and last operation before the fateful date. For now, the arrival ofEthereum 2.0 is scheduled for September 19. In view of the importance of the Ethereum network to date, which hosts nearly all DeFi projects, the hard fork “The Merge” will stand as the most significant change in crypto history to date. .
Also in terms of benefits, those most familiar with The Merge operation agree that Ethereum could prove more interesting in the eyes of professionals wishing to launch projects on the Blockchain.
It is not for nothing that Ether has not suffered the collapse of cryptocurrency prices for a very long time. “Institutional investors may be more inclined to invest in the crypto space” following the move to Ethereum 2.0, commented Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures.
But the operation will not be without danger. Modifications to the functioning of blockchains call for advanced technical skills as the risks are numerous. It is in particular the case for “hard forks”compared to “soft forks”, where there are not simply additions of new consensus rules on the operation of the blockchain but a total change in operation, not backward compatible.
You may have understood it: a hard fork that goes wrong can cause a blockchain to split into two parts. The most popular example to date concerns the arrival of Bitcoin Cashin December 2017, when Bitcoin was to follow a hard fork to improve the speed of transaction processing.
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