Save The Date! Ethereum’s Groundbreaking ‘Merge’ Now Scheduled For September

The main event Ethereum fans have been waiting for several years could just be around the corner. During a Thursday conference call, leading Ethereum developers offered a fresh tentative date for the Merge — the blockchain’s transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus model.

Ethereum On Track For Switch To Proof-of-Stake On September 19

According to Ethereum Foundation developers, the Merge could be roughly two months away.

Speaking at a conference call on Thursday, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko revealed that the network’s move to PoS was now tentatively scheduled for September 19. Other core developers did not object to the new estimate.

“This merge timeline isn’t final, but it’s extremely exciting to see it coming together,” Ethereum Beacon Chain community health consultant superphiz.eth later tweeted. “Please regard this as a planning timeline and look out for official announcements!”

The Ethereum Merge is a much-anticipated upgrade that will fuse the current consensus layer with the new proof-of-stake Beacon Chain, which went live in December 2020. The Merge is expected to shift Ethereum from the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake and decrease ETH issuance by around 90%. This will effectively make the network 99% more environmentally friendly.

Ethereum Executes Latest Shadow Fork Ahead Of Merge

The network has been undergoing a series of test forks in preparation for the Merge. Just last week, Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet completed its merge. Superphiz.eth penciled on August 11 for the final trial on the Goerli public testnet.

After the deployment of the ninth shadow fork yesterday with no significant glitches, the outlook for a September mainnet Merge now looks more likely.

It’s worth mentioning that moving the Ethereum network from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has suffered several delays over the years. With the pressure escalating, Ethereum’s developers will be keen to ensure the network’s most significant update to date is implemented flawlessly.

The price of ETH has risen by 13.38% over the past 24 hours.