Ethereum’s oldest proof of work testnet is now transitioning to proofof-stake. Two more will follow “before the focus shifts towards mainet.”
Ropsten, Ethereum’s first public testing network, will transition from proof of work (PoW), to a proof–of-stake consensus mechanism (PoS), as part the blockchain’s “Merge” event. It is expected to take place in August this year.
Tim Beiko, Ethereum core developer, shared the following news on Twitter last evening: “Ethereum’s longest-lived PoW testingnet is moving towards Proof of Stake!” Today, a new beacon chain was launched. The Merge is expected to be available on the network around June 8.
Beiko described the news as a “first dress rehearsal for miners.”
Beiko created a nine-tweet thread that covered the technical details of Merge for miners. Developers were informed by him that practically nothing should be changed after the Merge.
Ropsten’s newly launched beacon chain will be upgraded to “Bellatrix”, in order to make it Merge-compatible at June 2. To trigger the transition, miners will choose a value called the Terminal Total Difficulty. This value will be required by miners to set up their nodes.
A blog article by Ethereum states that “after the Ropsten Transition, two additional testnets (Goerli & Sepolia), will be transitioned into proof-of-stake prior to focus shifting to the mainnet.”
To facilitate a smooth transition, the Ethereum Foundation increased its bug bounty payments.
Ethereum, Testnets and the Merge
Ropsten, which was launched in 2016, is Ethereum’s longest-running PoW testing network (testnet). Developers use testnets to verify smart contracts and other decentralized applications (dApps).
Ropsten uses an inert form of Ethereum to perform transactions and test the coding environment. The mainnet is not affected by changes made to the testnet. This environment is free from any consequences and gives developers valuable insight into potential problems that may arise from their code.
Formerly known as 2.0, Ethereum’s long-awaited mega upgrade will transform the network from a consumptive PoW consensus algorithm like Bitcoin, where transactions are validated only by miners with lots of computing power, to PoS, in that miners with the highest collateral validate the majority transactions.
Ethereum claims that this will reduce the blockchain’s energy use by up to 99.5.
” The merge” is the moment when Ethereum’s mainnet and the PoS-based Beacon Chain will merge. The “Consensus Layer” will then be replaced by Ethereum 2.0.
