Ethereum developer Tim Beiko said yesterday that the highly anticipated Merge would happen between August and November, and only a catastrophic event or failure will prevent it from happening this year.
He made the statement during a conversation with Ben Edgington, who called on developers to work faster so the merger could happen faster. Beiko claimed that due to the technical details involved, it is almost impossible to give an exact date when the merger will take place.
“I’m just not as convinced that targeting more than a rough target, date-wise, is possible,” he said. When asked what the rough target is, he mentioned a range between late August and November unless there’s a “catastrophic event/failure/series of normal bugs.”
If we found 0 more bugs, we’ll probably be able to merge in a few months. I don’t think that’s realistic. Don’t you think it’s likely we’ll find 10 or even 5 either? more serious problems. However, confidence decreases exponentially in this range.
However, Edgington does not seem pleased with the estimate, which he claimed is “way too rough” for any planning.
Indications have also emerged that the developers are delaying Ethereum’s difficulty bomb as they are currently fixing bugs they discovered during the Ropsten merge.
When will the merge happen?
This statement comes only a few weeks after Vitalik Buterin wrote that the Merge could happen between August and October. Buterin also pointed out that there are risks of delays.
The merger was originally scheduled for June, but the developers postponed it. Since then, there have been discussions about when the merger will finally take place. However, some developers claim that there is already too much pressure for this to happen.
While there have been postponements, the process leading to the Merge is going on as planned. One of the most important testnet on Ethereum, the Ropsten testnet, completed its Merge only a few days ago, on June 8.
This followed the launch of its beacon chain on May 30. With the successful merger of the Ropsten testnet, which shares many similarities with the Ethereum mainnet, the possibility of the merger is getting closer.
According to Beiko, the Goerli testnet merge is next, and it will be the dress rehearsal before the mainnet Merge.
While many are optimistic that the merger will be completed this year, some believe that all these delays are signs that it may not be.
