Key Takeaways
- The transition happened when TTD exceeded 10,790,000 around 1:45 UTC.
- Goerli test net was the third and final test run before the Mainnent Merge schedule on Mid-September.
Ethereum’s final testnet ahead of the Merge went live on Goerli on August 11. Goerli testnet was the final test run before the Ethereum mainnet is expected to merge with the Beacon chain next mont.
The mainnet Merge, which completely transitions Ethereum from PoW-Proof of Work Blockchain to PoS-Proof of Stake Blockchain, is scheduled to happen in Mid-September, the tentative set date being September 19.
Earlier this summer, the Ropsten testnet successfully transitioned to PoS in June, following the Sepolia testnet switch in July. On July 27, Ethereum announced that for the last testnet proof-of-stake transition, Goerli would merge with Prater. The Goerli testnet merge happened in two phases, beginning with the pre-required Bellatrix upgrade on August 4. The second step, Paris, was triggered today after the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) on the Goerli chain reached 10,790,000.
Goerlich Merge stands out from previous testnets because in the early testnet integration, node operators were required to update their consensus layer as well as execution layer clients simultaneously rather than only one of the two. Despite the Goerli testnet going live without any major hiccups, many developers have pointed out some minor issues.
Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden stated that there was some “confusion on the network because two different terminal blocks and lots of non-updated nodes” that slowed the process down slightly but added that things were looking “quite good” anyway.
The highly anticipated ETH Merge upgrade is considered one of the biggest upgrades the crypto market will ever witness. The Merge will significantly reduce Ethereum’s energy consumption while achieving its scalability, security, and sustainability goals.
The Ethereum Merge is expected to have a deflationary impact on the cryptocurrency by significantly reducing the rate at which new ETH is created and distributed. The growing discount between the futures and spot prices has also resulted from the Merge. Since the Merge announcement, ETH rose above 50%, quickly recovering from the sharp market decline. The price of ETH more than doubled in value since bottoming out at around $885 in June 2022, gaining 72.2% over the past 30 days.
