Ethereum developers set timeline for transition to Proof-of-Stake

The planned Ethereum transition to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm will take place in August. This was announced by one of the leading developers Preston Van Loon at the Permissionless conference.

Ethereum core Dev @preston_vanloon just said the eth merge is ready,they are now only testing, and expects the merge to happen in August. Packed room @Permissionless are excited about it. Great question @TrustlessState. Also on panel @drakefjustin pic.twitter.com/vX4beNatJ5

— Benjamin Cohen (benjicohen.eth) (@benjicohen421) May 19, 2022

According to him, the team expects to finish the process, which they call “The Merge,” before the activation of the “difficulty bomb,” he said.

As far as we know, if everything goes according to plan, August simply makes sense. If we don’t want to push back the difficulty bomb, then let’s do it as soon as possible,

The automatic increase in the Ethereum blockchain’s block generation time откладывалось has been postponed several times. Now the “difficulty bomb” should be activated in August. The software solution is designed to encourage the move to PoS, making mining in the network on Proof-of-Work less profitable.

Colleague developer Justin Drake confirmed that the team’s priority is to carry out The Merge before increasing mining difficulty.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, during the virtual summit Eth Shanghai also said August was the most probable time for the transition. However, he allowed for moving the event to September-October in case of potential risks.

Buterin noted that in early June developers переведут на PoS тестнет Ropsten, and if successful, will make possible the merge on the mainnet.

In April, the Ethereum team реализовала a “shadow hard fork” of the mainnet to stress-test the transition to PoS.