The Ethereum (ETH) merge, a major step in the network’s long-awaited transition to Proof-Of-Stake (PoS) consensus, has once again been pushed back and should finally see the light of day in the third quarter of 2022.
The merge postponed after June
Ethereum (ETH) users will have to wait a few more months to finally witness the network merge . In a few words, this major step will connect the executive layer of Ethereum — the one on which decentralized applications (dApps) are deployed — with the consensus layer — namely the Beacon Chain, based on Proof-Of-Stake ( POS).
Several times postponed, this update was supposed to take place in June 2022 . Finally, one of the Ethereum Foundation developers, Tim Beiko, announced on Twitter that the merge will be pushed back again:
“It won’t be in June, but probably in the next few months. No date set yet, but we are definitely in the final chapter of Ethereum PoW. »
However, the announcement of this postponement does not seem to be unanimous . On a Reddit forum dedicated to Ethereum miners, a mining pool operator said that they have “reviewed code and run nodes on the merge testnets.” According to him, the merge cannot take place before 2023:
“We plan to actively dedicate our developers to testing the merge once it goes public and do our best to identify bugs to further delay the merge. This will make it safer. »
It would seem that Ethereum’s transition to a Proof-Of-Stake consensus is not just a technical issue, but a governance issue .
The Proof-Of-Stake and Ethereum Miners
Commonly dubbed Ethereum 2.0, although officially titled Consensus Layer , Ethereum’s transition from a Proof-Of-Work (PoW) consensus model to a Proof-Of-Stake model is one of the most important in the history of the network.
This update is presented as the fundamental change that will put an end to the debates on the energy consumption of the network and the decentralized applications implemented on it. In addition, this also marks the end of Ethereum mining as we know it today, a subject that obviously worries miners.
Moreover, Tim Beiko’s comment on Twitter comes in response to a user who asked him about the future of Ethereum miners , having supported the project for several years. While the transition to PoS no longer involves mining activity, will these miners “be left behind? “.
The head of the merge developers simply replied that he strongly advises against “not investing in mining equipment now”.
