Ethereum Sepolia testnet Beacon Chain goes live for trial Merge
Stay up to date with the latest ETH 2.0 upgrade news as it happens
Contents
- 21 June: HBAR Foundation CEO ‘sceptical’ ETH 2.0 Merge will happen
- 16 June: Cardano founder: ETH 2.0 will not be ‘fully operational’ until 2023
- 14 June: ETH 2.0’s Merge will take place between August and November
- 13 June: Difficulty bomb part of Merge and ETH 2.0 upgrade is delayed
The Sepolia testnet Beacon Chain has gone live meaning Ethereum (ETH) is now getting ready for its Merge dress rehearsal.
Once it has merged with its dedicated Beacon Chain, the Sepolia testnet will begin reaching consensus using a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism rather than a Proof-of-Work (PoW) one.
This will provide data on what may happen when the Ethereum mainnet performs the Merge.
Ethereum developer Tim Beiko said in April that the Ropsten testnet would eventually be phased out over time and replaced by Sepolia.
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21 June: HBAR Foundation CEO ‘sceptical’ ETH 2.0 Merge will happen
Shayne Higdon, co-founder and CEO of the HBAR Foundation, which promotes the acceleration of the Hedera (HBAR) ecosystem, is “sceptical” that the ETH 2.0 Merge will happen.
“It’s been promised for years and continues to get delayed,” Higdon said.
However, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko has predicted that the Merge will take place between late August and November.
16 June: Cardano founder: ETH 2.0 will not be ‘fully operational’ until 2023
Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano (ADA) has predicted that ETH 2.0 will not be “fully operational” until 2023 or “maybe even 2024”.
Hoskinson made these remarks whilst talking to Simon Bogdanowicz, chief strategy officer at Web 3.0 venture studio, Gravity Ventures at DCENTRAL, the Web 3.0, non-fungible token (NFT) and metaverse event which was part of Consensus 2022.
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14 June: ETH 2.0’s Merge will take place between August and November
Ethereum developer Tim Beiko has predicted that the Merge will take place between late August and November.
Beiko said this during a Twitter conversation with Ben Edgington, who is also working on the ETH 2.0 upgrade.
This is just a “rough target”, though, and Beiko added that “speed of fixing bugs and number of new issues encountered is what makes it hard to predict.”
13 June: Difficulty bomb part of Merge and ETH 2.0 upgrade is delayed
The difficulty bomb part of the Merge, which is one of the three elements to the ETH 2.0 upgrade, has been delayed and pushed back by two and a half months.
The idea behind the difficulty bomb is that it reduces the profitability of proof-of-work (PoW) mining. This is an important aspect for the ETH 2.0 upgrade as it will result in the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency moving from the energy-hungry PoW consensus mechanism to the leaner, greener proof-of-stake (PoS) system.
The Merge was due to take place by August 2022 and will mark the end of PoW mining for Ethereum (ETH).
