The Ethereum foundation, on Wednesday, revealed the official parameters of the upcoming Merge upgrade which will transition the world’s largest platform blockchain transition from a Proof-of-work (PoW) to a Proof-of-stake (PoS) security model.
The “merge” is the official name for the update that will see the current Ethereum mainnet become a shard of the Beacon chain, and begin implementing Proof-of-stake. Currently, the Proof-of-stake Beacon chain runs in parallel to the existing Proof-of-work Ethereum mainnet and following the merge the two will combine.
The process of the Merge will begin with the Bellatrix upgrade on the Beacon Chain on September 6th. Following Bellatrix, when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) value is 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000 the full merge will be triggered. This TTD is expected to be reached somewhere between September 10th and 20th. Many Ethereum developers expect a trigger date around the 15th-16th of September.
Ethereum transitioning to Proof-of-Stake is set to make the network cheaper, faster, and more environmentally friendly. It will also boost the utility of Ether tokens. Post-merge they will need to be committed, or staked, to the network to indicate commitment. The merge will also slash the emission rate of Ether. Network wide validator rewards post-merge will be much less than current network wide block rewards for Ethereum miners. With less ETH being created daily, many expect the supply shock to push the price of the digital asset upwards.The Ethereum community is buzzing about the implications of the merge:
A major, Ethereum proof-of-work testnet has been fully upgraded to proof-of-stake. This is a coordinated effort of over a dozen teams and people around the world. We are getting rid of mining on #Ethereum very soon @prylabs https://t.co/pRr9qOzokN
— rauljordan.eth (@rauljordaneth) June 8, 2022
