First trial for Ethereum’s highly anticipated The Merge was successfully completed on Wednesday.
Testnet dubbed Ropsten test network’s proof-of-work execution layer and the Beacoin Chain proof-of-stake consensus chain were merged successfully. The process is similar to the one that the second leading crypto asset by market cap Ethereum is going to experience in just a few months.
The Ropsten network just merged!
One of the last testnets until we merge on the #Ethereum mainnet
— Bitfly (@etherchain_org) June 8, 2022
For the uninitiated, The Merge is a much-awaited upgrade that is anticipated to be the largest milestone of the Ethereum network. The Merge means that Ethereum will transition to a new proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from the traditional proof-of-work mechanism. The proof-of-work mechanism has more energy consumption than proof-of-stake. Ethereum as of now runs on proof-of-work (PoW). In PoW, miners utilize energy for finding out new blocks and integrate them to the blockchain, receiving latest issued Ether(ETH) and a fraction of the transaction tips and fees.
Once the transition from PoS to PoW is done in Ethereum, validators with their staked 32 ETH will assume the role of adding new blocks to the blockchain.
As of now, the current PoW chain and the Beacon chain run in parallel. Meanwhile, the Beacon Chain which is the PoS coordination chain already has validators that generate and validate new blocks in tandem with the PoW execution chaim.
The two chains will be merged after the PoS chain has been properly tested and secured and Ethereum will adopt the PoS or Proof-of-Stake as its consensus mechanism.
Several tests on different testnets are essential for the complex change that Ethereum’s code will go through because of The Merge. Ropsten’s merge is the first test of its kind, and its result will assist developers in going forward as they prepare for the original Merge on mainnet.
Goerli and Seoplia are among other merges that are scheduled to happen in the upcoming months.
The Terra collapse earlier this may have led to the downturn in the prices of other crypto assets, leading to a crypto market crash. The effect of which was also experienced by flagship currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as they went through major price drops.
At the time of writing, Ethereum(ETH) was trading at $1,584.67, down 10.57% in the last 24 hours.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/06/11/first-trial-of-long-awaited-ethereum-merge-done-ethereums-ropsten-testnet-merged-successfully/