The Ethereum Merge May Finally Take Place This September

Chain Debrief
July 15, 2022
10 mins read

Following Ethereum’s Sepolia testnet’s successful shift to proof-of-stake, there is only one step left to the merge.

Goerli, the last public testnet to run through the merge transition, should do so around August 11th.

If everything goes well with Goerli, we could see a mainnet merge around the week of September 19th.

The Merge is coming 🐼
— sassal.eth 🦇🔊🐼 (@sassal0x) July 15, 2022

Three of its testnets, namely Ropsten, Sepolia, and Goerli are pivotal to the Ethereum merge. To date, the first two have moved across to Proof-Of-Stake, with only Goerli left.

The Ethereum foundation will also shut down its Klin, Rinkeyby, and Ropster testnets eventually.

While a hard date has not been set, lead Ethereum developers are eyeing September 19th as a possible date. This will follow Goerli’s planned merge on the 11th of August.

Also Read: Will Ethereum Dethrone Bitcoin? Everything You Need To Know About The Merge

Foundation Delays Difficulty Bomb

The difficulty bomb, part of the process to upgrade Ethereum from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake, is an incentive of sorts to make sure the merge happens on time.

Hardcoded to execute at a specific block height, it acts as a deadline for developers to complete the merge.

The Ethereum Gray Glacier Update has been successfully implemented.

All operations on our platform have been resumed. Thank you for your patience.
— Nexo (@Nexo) June 30, 2022

Last month, it was delayed by 100 days in the Gray Glacier network update. Should the merge not be completed by then, mining will become exponentially difficult.

This would mean an increase in block time from the current 15 seconds, with the Ethereum mainnet probably becoming unusable.

Will We Finally Get Eth 2.0?

Users have been excited over Eth 2.0 ever since the beacon chain launched in 2020. However, the novelty of this transition has led to multiple delays over the years.

🤑 #Ethereum's average fees are at an extreme low, costing traders just $2.54 per transaction currently. This is the lowest $ETH cost level since July. Historically (but by no means automatically), $ETH prices rise after average transactions dip below $5. https://t.co/JS3paxdfwz pic.twitter.com/hsc9BoGwPx
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) May 24, 2022

However, the bear market has dropped Ethereum gas fees to usable levels. Despite this, wider narratives of low throughput and high energy usage still reign overhead.