Ethereum’s final proof-of-stake ‘test merge’ is live on Goerli

Ethereum developers have executed the third and final test merge on the Goerli test network.

The move is the final step before the mainnet merge, which will see Ethereum transition from proof-of-work (PoW) consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS). The merge has been eagerly anticipated by crypto developers, who hope that it will make the Ethereum network significantly more energy efficient and cheaper to use. 

At around 9:50 PM ET on Thursday, developers simulated the merge on Goerli and switched from PoW to PoS consensus. To do so, they had to “merge” Goerli’s code with its PoS-based fork called Prater. The task involved node operators from both chains updating their client software in tandem.

While the Goerli merge has been activated, the success of the event will be determined after a thorough evaluation of the upgraded network.

Over the past few months, the core team already performed the merge on two other testnets: Sepolia and Ropsten. These test merge events have served as practice sessions to check whether client software used to run Ethereum nodes — like Nethermind, Besu, Geth, and Erigon — ran normally and without bugs. 

With the Goerli test merge complete, the team has now finished all of their test merge dress rehearsals. According to the official schedule decided by the Ethereum’s developer team, the next step will be to perform the full merge on the Ethereum mainnet. This final upgrade is expected to happen in September.

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