- Ethereum blockchain implemented the final mainnet shadow fork 13.
- The company announced that the much-awaited Ethereum Merge will occur soon.
- The successful implementation of the mainnet shadow fork assured the safe upgrade.
The Ethereum blockchain announced that the last shadow fork 13 was successfully deployed and the long-anticipated merge will occur soon. It added that the massive upgrade, which is likely to happen between September 13- 15, will mark the end of Proof-of-Work and will be completely transitioned to Proof-of-Stake.
The official site of Ethereum was last updated with the notification of the merge’s recent status on September 9:
A shadow fork is an intentional forking of a blockchain’s mainnet to prepare it for an upgrade. It helps to test synchronization assumptions for ensuring network safety during the upgrade.
To ensure smooth functioning and safety after the upgrade, Ethereum had been revisiting various tests. As the key step towards the merge, Ethereum implemented the first mainnet shadow fork on April 11.
Ethereum Foundation developer Marius van der Wijden posted the news on his Twitter:
We’re very close to a historical event. We’re testing PoS on #Ethereum. Today will be the first mainnet shadow fork ever. We’re roughly 690 blocks (~2 h) away from TTD. Follow here: https://t.co/T20ZMgApYw or https://t.co/Uod8WBsqtw
Huge props to @parithosh_j! #TestingTheMerge pic.twitter.com/M8ZcHnKqaL— MariusVanDerWijden (@vdWijden) April 11, 2022
Almost after 6 months, the company’s research client Nethermind announced that the mainnet shadow fork 13 was successful in its implementation that suggested the sooner upgrade of the network by which the Proof-of-Work will be transitioned to the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
Nethermind tweeted that the shadow fork 13 transition was successful for all Nethermind nodes:
Transition in Mainnet-Shadowfork-13 (the last shadowfork before The Merge) was successful for all Nethermind nodes!🐼💪#TheMerge #Ethereum #Nethermind #MSF13 pic.twitter.com/sddPPwSR1u
— Nethermind (@nethermindeth) September 9, 2022
The mainnet shadow fork 13 went live today without any serious issues, focusing on the trial runs of the merge, foreshadowing the successful upgrade. Wijden told that “no issues surfaced”.
While the testnet permitted Ethereum developers to practice running nodes, deploying contracts, and testing the infrastructure, the mainnet allowed the developers to verify the implications of network upgrade. Regarding the upgrade, both the execution layer and the consensus layer will be merged.
After the upgrade, there will be a reduction in Ethereum’s energy consumption, and thus, will become more environment-friendly. The merge will lessen the security risks too. So, the implementation of the final shadow fork ensured a better, secured, environment-friendly blockchain network.
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