During the next call, Ethereum’s leading developers tentatively approved the blockchain’s transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm on September 19, 2022.

The final date will largely depend on the Goerli testnet transition to PoS, scheduled for August 11.

Two weeks before “merge”, mainnet (Join) activates Bellatrix upgrade.

The Ethereum team’s video conference took place after the implementation of the ninth shadow hard fork on the mainnet. The test is entirely dedicated to blocking the MEV feature, which allows PoW miners to generate additional revenue by reordering transactions.

The developers stated that the fork took place ahead of schedule due to an incorrect description. TTD — the cumulative complexity of the network. Some clients were also not synchronized during the update. These software issues are expected to be fixed within the next month.

In May, team representatives had predicted that The Merge would take place in August. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also described this month as the most likely time to switch. However, he allowed the event to be postponed to September-October in case of “potential risks”.

Then the developers noted that they considered it most acceptable to switch the mainnet to the PoS algorithm before activating the “complexity bomb”. This is a mechanism that exponentially increases the difficulty of mining in the PoW consensus. On June 30, as a result of the Gray Glacier hard fork, implementation of the code was delayed by 700,000 blocks, or approximately the beginning of October.

Against the backdrop of a shadow hard fork and new deadlines agreement for The Merge, the price of Ethereum rose 12.1% on the day (CoinGecko). At the time of writing, the asset is trading above the $1,200 level. During this period, the Bitcoin price increased by only 5.6%.

Recall that in early June the developers successfully migrated the Ropsten testnet to PoS. However, after the mainnet migration to the new algorithm, it will be shut down, as will the Bakery and Rinkeby testnets.

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