Right now, Ethereum PoW/PoS merge is being stress tested in a unique “shadow fork,” developers unveiled
Ethereum (ETH), the second most popular cryptocurrency, is approaching The Merge, i.e. a seamless migration from Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus ).
First mainnet fork ever takes place on Ethereum (ETH): developer
Seasoned Ethereum (ETH) researcher and developer Marius van der Wijden has taken to Twitter to share that the unusual fork takes place today on April 11, 2022.
For the first time ever, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanisms are being stress tested on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet. As Ethereum (ETH) veteran Parithosh Jayanthi previously explained, the Ethereum Goerli testnet went through a similar procedure three times.
“Shadow fork” requires interaction with Beacon Chain infrastructure; its mechanisms will be relaunched several times. Its configurations will be of crucial importance for the next phase of Ethereum (ETH) progress, as:
[It] would dictate the optimizations needed in the run-up to the merger.
Technically, “shadow fork” is authorized in parallel with the “regular” Ethereum (ETH) mainnet and does not affect its operations in any meaningful manner.
Dress rehearsal before The Merge
Ethereum (ETH) developers have pointed out that this is a game-changing event: Ethere newbies are not recommended to join the process.
As covered by U.Today previously, Ethereum (ETH) network is getting through its latest pre-Merge testnet, dubbed Kiln. It is set to let EF experiment with all configurations required to move Ethereum (ETH) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
Recently, Ethereum (ETH) developers also released the Shanghai Agenda, the next hardfork for the premier smart contract platform. It is designed to optimize the performance and resource efficiency of Ethereum L2s.
