The Merge date is coming sooner than expected according to ETH devs, who have already decided on a possible date for the switch to Proof-of-Stake.
After core devs announced a tentative Merge date of September 15, the Ethereum Merge, which will see the blockchain migrate to Proof-of-Stake, could happen sooner than expected.
The Merge Date Is Coming Sooner Than Expected, ETH Devs say
Tim Beiko and Terence Tsao, co-founder of Prysmatic Labs, and other core developers determined that the Ethereum mainnet Merge date will be when Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) exceeds 58750000000000000000000. This decision was made on a developer call on August 11.
This was verified in the “Tentative mainnet TTD” Github post that Beiko committed on August 11.
Even while the precise date and TTD may still vary, the performance of the various testnet merges may be a strong signal that the Ethereum mainnet will transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus without incident next month.
The new official timeframe is at least three days ahead of the previously projected date of September 19.
Tentative Mainnet TTD ????
58750000000000000000000
Note: nothing is final until it’s in client release, so do expect changes last minute due to unforeseen circumstances https://t.co/PQ0YOKpk1u
— terence.eth ???????? (@terencechain) August 11, 2022
When Proof-of-Work (PoW) will end and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) will begin, a big number called the Total Terminal Difficulty (TTD) is supplied. The final block must be mined before switching to PoS, as measured by the total required difficulty (TTD).
Before the Merge can be completed, the Bellatrix fork, which will provide the software needed for clients to operate the consensus layer, must be carried out. This is scheduled for September 6, which is around 10 days prior to the Merge.
The latest testnet to successfully complete its own migration to PoS was the Goerli testnet on August 12, following the Sepolia merging on July 7 and Ropsten on June 9.
It is estimated that the Ethereum network’s energy usage would drop by more than 99.99% after the Merge, and that it will be better equipped to withstand network assaults and scale.
PoW Miners To Hang On
According to speculations, Ether (ETH) miners, many of whom depend on the money from PoW block rewards, will continue to utilize the original PoW version of Ethereum in order to maintain their earning potential.
The campaign to convince miners to fork the Ethereum network and create an Ethereum PoW (ETHW) chain is being led by Chandler Guo, a well-known proponent of PoW networks and a Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum miner. The argument that there is enough room in the market for two types of Ethereum to exist has received support from a number of comments, which Guo has retweeted.
In order to implement an ETH PoW split that avoids the difficulty bomb, he has pledged to share the necessary code. The difficulty bomb is a method that drastically reduces the block reward for miners in an effort to deter them from trying to create any more blocks. The difficulty bomb will occur just before the mainnet merging.
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