Key takeaways:
- Sepolia, an Ethereum public testnet that had previously operated using the Bellatrix enhancement to the Beacon Chain, can now be operated using the Merge.
- The PoS Beacon Chain, which is still under testing, will merge with the PoW execution in this event to produce a full PoS Ethereum blockchain, bringing Ethereum one step closer to a full merge.
- The community would gain practical knowledge of how it would operate and the testnet would operate just like the Ethereum merging.
One of Ethereum’s open testnets, Sepolia, underwent the merge on Wednesday. With this, Ethereum developers have moved one step closer to this year’s planned unification with the main network. To activate, 32 Ethereum tokens are required per validator. Ethereum was trading at $598.35 on December 1st, 2020. Since then, Ethereum has had a tremendous uptrend as the market became bullish, leading to new record highs of $4,812 earlier last year.
Sepolia would be the second of three open testnets to run via the Merge after it was implemented on the Ropsten Testnet. The Goerli/Prater testnet will be the last to run the Merge before it goes live on the mainnet.
Three open testnets will be used to test the merge, according to Ethereum developers. Ropsten and Sepolia are the latest examples of these. Currently, the Goerli testnet is the only one that needs to be integrated in the upcoming weeks.
Notably, in June 2022, at epoch 100, Sepolia passed through the Bellatrix upgrade. The Sepolia Beacon Chain was prepared for the Merge thanks to the successful Bellatrix upgrade. Additionally, Sepolia’s Terminal Whole Issue (TTD) value was changed from its initial excessive value of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 as a result of the Bellatrix improvement.
This test was done to see if the validator nodes from both of Sepolia’s chains could cooperate. The Ethereum mainnet merge event is scheduled to follow a similar course of action. It is anticipated to happen before the end of this year, though no specific date has been specified.
The validator’s value at the peak of Ethereum would be $153,984. Interest rates are currently fluctuating based on the number of validators. However, after the Ethereum Merge, interest rates will be based on the amount of staked ether and network activity.
Numerous exchanges provide standard Annual Percentage Yields (APY), independent of the amount staked, for investors who do not have 32 Ethereum. For instance, Coinbase COIN gives 5.75 percent APY whereas Gemini offers 7.4 percent, with a 25 percent commission added to staking profits. Staking across many platforms, however, comes with a variety of dangers for investors because there is a single point of failure and possible illiquidity in a bear market.
Sepolia Merge will also be a two-step process. The process will begin with a community improvement on the consensus layer at a specific epoch peak, depending on the group.
Following this, when the selected TTD is reached or exceeded, Sepolia’s execution layer, also known as Paris, will initiate the switch from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS).
A public testnet merge serves as a practice run for the main network. Additionally, the exercise will probably assist client companies in identifying and resolving software bugs prior to the installation of the mainnet. In order to carry out the mainnet Merge, it is also necessary for all three testnet installations to be verified as stable and lucrative. It is mentioned that an epoch shall be picked for the Bellatrix improvement on the mainnet Beacon Chain once it has been determined to be secure.
