Ethereum Runs 10th Shadow Fork On Testnet Ahead Of Final Merger To PoS In September

Ethereum is ‘slowly buy surely’ moving towards Proof Of Stake (PoS).

Ethereum developers have executed a shadow fork in preparation for the last testnet fork before the network transitions to a proof-of-stake system.

ETH 2.0 has been awaited for a year, with developers shifting the deadline every now and then. Now, it seems that the final home run to the next system is near. Apparently, Ethereum developers have already run a shadow fork that’s expected to test for variables to be involved in the final testnet fork in August before the network undergoes a transition to a PoS system in September this year.

Shadow Fork Executed Earlier Than Expected

According to sources, including Ethereum’s DevOps engineer Parithosh Jayanthi, the shadow fork was executed 26 hours ahead of its expected time. This is because of the apparent change in computing difficulty, the network’s hash rate increase, and the developer team’s optimal preparedness. No glitches were reported during the shadow fork.

The shadow fork will not be the last test before the merger. The next testnet fork, dubbed Goerli, will be executed on August 10, after which the system will be ready for the final merge and change from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

PoS Merger Expected To Happen In September

Following successful testnet net runs and shadow forks, the PoS merger on the Ethereum network will take place in September this year. Experts working on the system have expressed optimism that, if all goes well, the merger could happen on September 19.

Ethereum’s transition to PoS has been a contentious issue, with the deadline having been shifted multiple times in the past two years. This was to allow for complete development and thorough testing of the system before the final change.

Why Ethereum Wants To Move To Proof-of-Stake

For some time now, experts have been critical of Proof-of-Work systems due to their intensive energy usage, something that people like Elon Musk see as an environmental hazard. On the other hand, Proof-of-Stake systems are energy efficient, only relying on investors’ stakes to secure the system.

With the transition to PoS, Ethereum validators won’t have to deploy massive computing systems to solve complex mathematical equations to secure the system and earn ETH. Instead, they’ll commit their ETH, which must be more than 32 ETH per entity. The PoS system is expected to make Ethereum 99% more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than it is right now. 

As Reported By The Crypto Basic, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin said that once ETH 2.0 goes live, Ethereum will be more than halfway complete, and by the end of it all, the network will handle over 100k TPS (Transactions Per Second).

– Advertisement –