Ethereum Developers Successfully Launch The Merge On Final Testnet

Developers finalize Merge on Goerli.

In a tweet earlier today, Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden revealed that developers had finalized the Merge on Goerli, Ethereum’s final test network (testnet). According to van der Wijden, the update appears to run smoothly despite some earlier hiccups due to some validators failing to upgrade their nodes or properly configure their setup.

“And we finalized on goerli. There was some confusion on the network because of two different terminal blocks and lots of non-updated nodes, so we didn’t finalize earlier. We’re still looking into whats happening, but so far it looks quite good,” the developer tweeted.

And we finalized on goerli ???
There was some confusion on the network because of two different terminal blocks and lots of non-updated nodes, so we didn’t finalize earlier. We’re still looking into whats happening, but so far it looks quite good

— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) August 11, 2022

Notably, addressing some concerns in the comments, van der Wijden notes that the most significant issues faced on all three testnets so far have not been from the code itself but validators failing to update correctly. This is a positive as the developer notes that developers do not have to intervene in these instances, aside from contacting erring validators to configure their systems properly. 

It is worth noting that lead developer Tim Beiko had first disclosed the timeline for the Goerli Merge at the end of July. The Goerli testnet, aside from being the final testnet in the Ethereum ecosystem, bears the most similarities with the existing Ethereum main network (mainnet). Consequently, the results of the Goerli Merge will provide key indicators of what to expect when the Merge finally goes live on the mainnet.

??? Goerli/Prater Merge Announcement ? ??

Prater will run through the Bellatrix upgrade on August 4th, and merge with Goerli between August 6-12th: if you run a node or validator, this is your last chance to go through the process before mainnet ?https://t.co/JAz5AJe12B

— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth ? (@TimBeiko) July 27, 2022

For the uninitiated, the Ethereum Merge is a long-anticipated Ethereum upgrade that will see the network migrate from the energy-intensive Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism to the less intensive Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism. The transition will happen when developers successfully fuse the Ethereum mainnet to the PoS Beacon chain. Expected benefits include cheaper and faster transactions on the network.

The Merge is expected to take place on the mainnet in September, should all go according to plan. Ethereum is currently trading at the $1,884 price point, up 12% in the last 24 hours and 13% over the previous seven days.

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