The many tests that the proposed Ethereum 2.0 is being subject to are such that there can be no hitches when the PoS consensus model is finally fully in play.
The long-awaited switch of the Ethereum blockchain network from its current Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus method to Ethereum 2.0, the Proof-of-Stake (POS) protocol is closer than ever with the next major upgrade slated for June.
According to the configuration code present in a pull request from Ethereum DevOps engineer Parathi Jayanathi in the eth-clients GitHub repository earlier this week, it was revealed that the Ropsten Public Testnet upgrade will go live next month. This upgrade will push the Ropsten Testnet to become a full PoS protocol.
The preparations for The Merge, that is, the Ethereum protocol switch to the new validation model has long been in the works as developers specifically working in this regard has been testing how the upgrade will work on a shadow fork as early as April. Despite the projected June upgrade of the Rospsten public testnet, the exact date for Merge is not yet defined.
Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation developer, has confirmed through a Twitter post that the merge has been pushed down till much later in the second half of the year.
“It won’t be June, but likely in the few months after,” he wrote in a tweet. “No firm date yet, but we’re definitely in the final chapter of [proof of work] on Ethereum.”
It won't be June, but likely in the few months after. No firm date yet, but we're definitely in the final chapter of PoW on Ethereum
— timbeiko.eth (@TimBeiko) April 12, 2022
The clamor for Ethereum 2.0 dates back to a few years, especially at the time when decentralized finance (DeFi) innovation was brewing on the protocol. The growth of DeFi showed the limitations of the Ethereum protocol in terms of scalability and throughput, and the Ethereum Foundation saw no better way to address this than to usher in an entirely new chain.
The energy consumption consideration of the current protocol has also been criticized times without a number, and the expectation is that the switch to Ethereum 2.0 will cut back on the network’s energy usage by a very wide factor.
Setting Ethereum 2.0 on a Path for Success
The many tests that the proposed Ethereum 2.0 is being subject to are such that there can be no hitches when the PoS consensus model is finally fully in play.
In a bid to bolster its efforts to usher in a flawless protocol, the Ethereum Foundation has increased its bug bounty to Whitehat hackers who can now earn from $250,000 to $500,000 depending on the vulnerabilities they are able to help uncover. The payment is tiered and is payable in either Ether or DAI.
“There are already multiple efforts being organized by client teams and the community to further increase knowledge and expertise across the two layers,” developer Fredrik Svantes wrote Monday in an Ethereum Foundation blog post. “Unifying the Bounty Program will further increase visibility and coordination efforts on identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities.”
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