The long-awaited Ethereum Merge is much closer than anticipated. The Ropsten testnet will implement its unique Merge to offer app developers a taste of what the future looks like with the Layer 2 Ethereum implementation.
The Ethereum Foundation has progressed one step further in implementing the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. By the partial deployment of the Ropsten ETH testnet for its first attempt or ‘first dress rehearsal,’ we can see that the integration of the L1 and L2 isn’t as far as we expected.
Ethereum initially commenced with the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism in the Layer 1 phase for validating transactions in the network. This was, however, not the best option as the network couldn’t validate many transactions, and transaction charges were extremely high.
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Ethereum, being the leading decentralized blockchain, had to transit to a faster, more effective, and more affordable consensus mechanism known as the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm.
Tim Beiko Announced Release Of New Beacon Chain
Tim Beiko, one of Ethereum’s core developers, took to Twitter on Tuesday morning with news about the deployment of Ropsten’s Beacon Chain. He explained that the long-anticipated ETH testnet had been launched, and the inter-layer Merge should occur on the 8th of June on the Ethereum ecosystem.
The Ethereum Core developer stated that there would be two crucial steps on the tesnet before the Merge happens, with the first being the activation of the Bellatrix upgrade.
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Beiko explained that this would occur on the 2nd of June, while the second is that the TTD will be selected to turn on the transition into Layer 2. Noteworthy, the TTD is a proof of work overall difficulty value, also called Terminal Total Difficulty.
The Ropsten Ethereum Testnet
The Ropsten Tesnet is Ethereum’s oldest testnet, launched in 2016 and titled after one of Stockholm’s metro stations.
It’s also known as one of ETH mainnet’s most effective replicas. Because of its highly close resemblance with the ETH mainnet, developers can run real-time experiments on it before adding the updates to the mainnet. It’s also worth noting that over 10 million ERC-20 testnet tokens have been launched.
In addition, Ropsten is known as Ethereum’s only PoW tesnet; it closely replicates all transaction cost changes that both users and developers can encounter on the mainnet.
Therefore, by successfully implementing the Merge between the PoW tesnet and the PoS Beacon Chain, the developers can easily progress into porting from one Layer to the other.
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Ethereum Core developer, Van Loon, has explained that the ETH Mainnet Merge was scheduled to commence by August. Though Vitalik Buterin was more reserved with the implementation, stating the Merge could occur during the late months of the Year.
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