Ethereum just ran a final dress rehearsal ahead of a years awaited upgrade

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14 Aug 2022

Ethereum testnet Goerli (named after a train station in Berlin btw) successfully moved from proof-of-authority to proof-of-stake on August 10 at ~9:45 pm ET. #ETH immediately surged by 14% following the transition.

It followed two other testnets - Ropsten and Sepolia - ditching PoW over the past two months.

🤔 Why testnets are needed
They allow developers to try out new things and make necessary tweaks before the updates roll out across the mainnet. Goerli simulated a process identical to what the mainnet will execute in September. Actually, it's the final opportunity for users to ensure that their PoS validators are configured correctly.

🔬 Main parameters tested
▫️ Participation rate (how many validators are online and doing their duties)
▫️ Transaction rate (if the blocks have actual transactions in them and aren’t empty)
▫️ Finalizing rate (meaning that more than 2/3 of validators are online and agree to the same view of the chain history)

🤷🏻‍♂️ Goerli was not without hiccup
Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden noted that there was some “confusion on the network because two different terminal blocks and lots of non-updated nodes” that slowed the process down slightly but stated that things were looking “quite good” anyway.

📅 Tentative dates for the Merge
The Merge is split into two upgrades: Bellatrix and Paris. Bellatrix would land on September 6. The date for Paris is September 15. The timing of the Merge on mainnet can’t be predicted exactly because it depends on the level of difficulty of mining a block, which varies depending on how much mining power is dedicated to the network.

📍 Besides improving energy efficiency, many other upgrades will be implemented with the Merge.