Ethereum Deployed The Tenth Shadow Fork Before Merge Event

Ethereum deployed the tenth shadow fork before the Merge event and the tests only keep the Merge on track to September 19 so let’s have a closer look at today’s latest Ethereum news.

Ethereum deployed the tenth shadow fork as a test towards the Merge which is the blockchain’s much-anticipated transition to proof of stake. The ethereum shadow fork went live a few days ago and these are basically tests or trial runs before the merge as they practice making one or two specific changes to the blockchain which will happen down the road. This is different from the bull testnet hard forks such as the Sepolia testnet that occurred earlier this month.

The testnets are full-on rehearsals of the merge which will move the entire Etheruem mainnet over to a test environmental netowrk. This week’s shadow fork practiced releases that will happen during the final testnet Goerli that is scheduled for August 11 and will be the third and final such test that is required before the merge gets executed.

The timeline for the merge shifted plenty of times over the past few years and earlier this month, the core developers announced an intention to deploy the merge on September 19. As only one major event, the testnet Goerli remained before that event and the developers are optimistic that this schedule will stick. The merge will see Etheruem as the second biggest cryptocurrency market cap after Bitcoin and the network responsible for 64% of the Defi activity transition from the PoW model to proof of stake.

Right now, Ethereum is created via an energy-intensive process where the miners direct huge amounts of computign power to solve difficult puzzles in the hopes of getting blocks of the new ETH. The merge will end the practice of mining and will be replaced with a process where holders of 32 ETH can pledge the existing ETH in order to create more. As per the Ethereum Foundation, the PoS model will take the Ethereum network 99% more environmentally friendly. Since shadow fork 10 deployed, there were no major glitches reported and Ethereum core developers will continue to deploy the shadow forks until the merge.

As we recently reported, Companies are doing everything in their power to stay solvent in the crypto winter and they started with firing employees, cutting spending, and filings for bankruptcy but these conditions were not able to prevent markets from warming over the past week. The anticipation for Ethereum’s upcoming network upgrade or the Merge seems to have driven the growth but Ethereum Classic also surged 80% in one week. Some buyers are looking to the future and others are feeling nostalgia.