Ethereum Merge to be Estimated May-June 2022 – Developers
The Ethereum (ETH), network has received another update to its calendar. This is an important step towards a Proof-of-Stake (PoS), consensus algorithm. The Merge is now expected in May or June next.
According to the Ethereum Foundation community manger Tim Beiko and other developers, the necessary code could be complete by February. The Merge is the event that occurs on the Ethereum2.0 path, when the current Ethereum mainnet “merges with” the beacon chain PoS systems.
We believe that a timeframe of 4 months between the completion of the code and the merging on the mainnet is sufficient. There is a possibility that the code will be done by February, although there are still many unknowns. We decided to create the [difficulty] Bomb based on this,” Beiko stated.
He is referring here to the difficulty Bomb, also known as the ice age. It will render Ethereum unusable to mine and was originally supposed to be released in December (the Arrow Glacier upgrade). It was delayed last August in the London upgrade. Now it will be pushed back until June 2022.
Beiko stated, “To be clear, the merge could have been done before that.” Beiko suggested that the bomb could be moved back if developers aren’t ready. However, they want to only have one delay.
He stated that the balance was struck between maintaining momentum, not pushing the bomb twice, but having enough buffer room to allow for a longer rollout or large hashrate changes on network. All participants agreed that safety and well-tested merges are the most important.
The Amphora milestones
The team reviewed the points from Amphora during a conference call on September 15. This workshop was held a week before with the goal of getting the execution and consensus layer client groups to “iron out problems” in the specification and reach an set of milestones. Beiko’s report stated. The Amphora Milestones were designed to get clients to conform with the specification, and then add complexity as they interoperate more with other clients.
The event met all milestones and was a success. Beiko wrote that client teams now have a clear list with tasks they need to complete. “Enough progress has been made to reach out to a larger portion of the Ethereum community.”
Additionally, his tweet stated that Pithos was launched on October 14th. The network is active and the community can expect to hear from the public about “exploring how developer tools, other core Ethereum infrastructure, and best prepare” for the transition from proof-of-work (PoW), to PoS. Amphora assisted clients and researchers to identify issues they would like to fix, as well as responding to community feedback. Beiko stated that the spec should be completed within a few weeks and a stable testnet will be made available soon.
At 10:49 UTC, ETH traded at USD 3,792 and was down 3% per day. This reduced its weekly gains to less that 11%