Nearly 73% of Ethereum nodes signal readiness for The Merge

72.6% of Ethereum nodes are ready for the merge ahead of the Bellatrix upgrade scheduled for September 6, according to Ethernodes.

The upgrade is being considered as the first phase of migrating the blockchain to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Bellatrix will serve as the Beacon Chain’s ‘signalling network’ for the merge.

One of the lead developers, Tim Beiko, urged node operators that have not updated their software to the latest version to do so before the upgrade.

Bellatrix is tomorrow 📆 Last chance to upgrade your node if you haven’t yet!

We’re mergiiiing 🐼 https://t.co/0VQ9zb6wjN

— Tim Beiko | timbeiko.eth 🐼 (@TimBeiko) September 5, 2022

“If you are using an Ethereum client that has not been updated to the latest version, after the upgrade it will be synchronizing with the blockchain up to the fork. You will be stuck in an incompatible chain under the old rules and you will not be able to send ether or operate on the network after the merge,” noted the Ethereum Foundation.

The merge is expected to happen around Sep 13-15. What’s happening today is the Bellatrix hard fork, which *prepares* the chain for the merge. Still important though — make sure to update your clients!

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 6, 2022

Bellatrix activation is expected to occur at 14:34:47 (Kyiv/Moscow) on epoch 144 896. The next phase of The Merge is named Paris.

A number of cryptocurrency platforms announced they would suspend Ethereum support during the scale of the upgrade (AntPool) or impose restrictions on certain operations (Coinbase, Binance).

ForkLog notes in educational cards how the Ethereum transition to PoS will unfold, and what changes and new upgrades the network will see.

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