Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin Expects ‘The Merge’ Upgrade By August 2022

25. May 2022 Posted by Akolkar B on News

One of the most-awaited events in the crypto space for 2022 is ‘The Merge’ between the Proof-of-Work (PoW) Ethereum mainnet and the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) Beacon Chain. This is one of the most important things towards the transition to Ethereum 2.0.

Last week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said that the much-awaited ‘The Merge’ upgrade shall happen by August 2022. Speaking at the (virtual) ETH Shanghai Web 3.0 Developer Summit, Vitalik said:

“We have been working on switching to proof-of-stake almost since the Ethereum project began. And we’ve been working on proof-of-stake for about sevenyears now, but finally, all of that work is coming together. If everything goes well, then the likely plan is for the The Merge to happen in the summer. I know Justin, a few days ago, suggested that August is a possible date for The Merge to happen. If there are no problems, then The Merge will happen in August”. 

Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon also said that there’s momentum behind finalising the move in the next three months. Loon said: "As far as we know, if everything goes to plan, August—it just makes sense. If we don't have to move [the difficulty bomb], let's do it as soon as we can.”

Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake who also shared the panel said there's a "strong desire to make this happen before [the] difficulty bomb in August”.

Earlier this month in May, Ethereum developers decided not to upgrade the network in order to delay the “difficulty bomb”, which will start soon to degrade the network. The difficult bomb is an algorithm encoded in the Ethereum blockchain which automatically slows down the network.

The intention of placing this was to encourage developers to push for the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) upgrade. Furthermore, it will also discourage the miners to stay on the PoW main net after the switch.

‘The Merge’ upgrade will help to transition to the Proof-of-Stake Ethereum 2.0 thereby increasing the network scalability massively and simultaneously reduce the transaction costs. Another important factor is that it will cut the ETH in circulation by 90%. Less supply and growing demand means that it will push the ETH price to new highs.