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Technology

The Ethereum Merge Has an Official Kick-Off Date

The Bellatrix upgrade, which begins the final countdown, is set to activate on Sept. 6. The Merge itself will be completed at some point Sept. 10-20.

By Margaux Nijkerk
AccessTimeIconAug 24, 2022 at 6:13 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 5:03 p.m. UTC
Launch campaign of the first Rocket 3.0 of Astra Space, representing Ethereum Merge launch date

The Ethereum Merge is ready to launch. (DARPA/Wikimedia)

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The Ethereum Foundation disclosed Wednesday the official parameters for the long-awaited Merge blockchain upgrade to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

Proof-of-stake is a method of maintaining integrity in a blockchain, ensuring users of a cryptocurrency can’t mint coins they didn’t earn. It is considered to be more energy efficient than Ethereum's current proof-of-work system.

Read more: Top Questions About Proof-of-Stake and Staking Answered

  • The Bellatrix upgrade will activate on the Beacon Chain on Sept. 6. This upgrade is responsible for setting the rest of the Merge process in motion.
  • The activation is scheduled for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain, which should occur at around 11:34:47 UTC.
  • After this, the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) value triggering the Merge will be 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000. That TTD expected to be reached somewhere between Sept. 10 and Sept. 20. The Ethereum developers have hinted in past calls they are aiming for Sept. 15-16.

Read more: Ethereum’s Merge Will Increase Its Use Cases and Drive Its Investment Narrative

  • During this period, the difficulty level will increase to the point where, eventually, proof-of-work crypto mining will no longer be possible.
  • When TTD reaches 58,750,000,000,000,000,000,000, the network will merge its Execution layer with the new Consensus layer and transition to the new proof-of-stake consensus protocol.
  • The Merge comes after a series of dress rehearsals that tested transitions from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake on multiple test network (testnet) environments, including Ropsten, Sepolia, Goerli.

Read more: What’s at Stake: Will the Merge Turn Ether Into a Security?

A visualization of the timeline of upgrades around the Merge. (ethereum.org)
A visualization of the timeline of upgrades around the Merge. (ethereum.org)


Update: August 24, 2022 19:07 UTC: Adds timeline graphic of updates around the Merge.

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Margaux Nijkerk
Margaux Nijkerk

Margaux Nijkerk reports on the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she has a masters in International Affairs & Economics. She holds a small amount of ETH and other altcoins.

Follow @cryptauxmargaux on Twitter

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