The last few years have seen several postponements of upgrades that would take the Ethereum blockchain to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The final upgrade, dubbed the Ethereum Merge, has been delayed yet again and will no longer take place in June this year.
The Final Chapter of PoW on Ethereum
According to lead Ethereum developer Tim Beiko, who confirmed this on Twitter, the Ethereum Merge will happen at a later time but the exact date has not yet been confirmed.
Despite the delay, Beiko noted that the network is in its final chapter of being a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain.
It won’t be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we’re definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum
— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth ???????? (@TimBeiko) April 12, 2022
Ethereum’s Switch from PoW to PoS
One major setback of the Ethereum blockchain is that the network consumes huge amounts of computing power, making it very expensive to use due to the exorbitant fees charged for transactions.
Although several layer-2 solutions such as the Arbitrum and the Polygon network have come up, developers of Ethereum are looking to provide an on-chain solution for the blockchain, hence the idea of a “merge.”
Ethereum Merge involves switching the network from the current PoW mechanism it uses to a PoS mechanism. This will allow users to validate transactions based on the amount of ether (ETH) stake on the network. The more coins a validator stakes, the higher the chances of being selected to validate transactions and earn rewards in return.
Read More: What Is Staking in Cryptocurrency?
According to Ethereum developers, this shift in how transactions are validated on the blockchain will decrease the amount of energy used by the blockchain, hence resulting in fewer transaction fees and at the same time, being eco-friendly.
In preparation for the switch to PoS, developers at Ethereum have been testing the upgrade with a fraction of the network with the aim of identifying issues and bugs.
In the last test, the developers attempted a “shadow fork,” a process which involved recreating what would happen during the Ethereum Merge by launching and running some nodes.
Another test is scheduled to take place in a few days to give the developers a better understanding of when the Merge may happen.
