During Ethereum’s developer summit in Shanghai, co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that he expects the second largest blockchain to switch to the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm in August. The launch could be pushed to October if developers stumble into some difficulties.
That said, it is worth noting that the official timeline is yet to be presented.
As reported by U.Today, Ropsten, one of Ethereum’s public testnets, will undergo the merge on June 8, which will be a crucial milestone before transitioning to proof-of-stake.
By simulating the actual merge, developers will be able to determine whether the existing mainnet chain is ready for merging with the Beacon Chain, which was launched separately in December 2020.
In April, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko confirmed that the merge was no longer expected to take place in June. However, he did confirm that Ethereum was “in the final chapter” of the transition.
Ethereum’s much-anticipated switch to proof-of-stake could be a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency industry since it will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of the second largest blockchain.
This will also put more pressure on Bitcoin developers to work on the same code change due to the growing energy consumption of the largest cryptocurrency. However, such a scenario is extremely unlikely to play out.
Earlier this month, the Ethereum Foundation merged its bug bounty program with the Ethereum mainnet. The maximum reward has been bumped up to $250,000. This is yet another sign that the merge will likely happen within the next few months after several delays.